HeyJaredDoomsday Machines
Post-apocalyptic Road Trips, End of the World-building, and Interesting Times.
- Indexed issues, last 90 days
- 12
- Latest publication
- Sep 27, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Aug 21, 2026
Latest issues
Wasteland wrap-up #96 (opens the original)
Read excerpt
The excitement of last week in Paris was the visit from Pope Leo XIV, known here (of course) as Léon XIV, who arrived to do whatever it is that Popes do when they visit Catholic countries. Which includes driving around in the Popemobile and giving a public mass. I am not a Catholic, but it was fun to see all of the preparations for that. By sheer coincidence, I happen to live next to one of the major boulevards that he would be driving down, so it was fun, on Friday, to see how they prepared it
The Way Nukes Work (*Sort of) (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Often when I am interviewed, I am asked variations on the question: “when and why did you start getting interested in nuclear weapons?” My sense is always that the interviewer is hoping for a good “personal connection” to the topic, which many people working in the field have, but I do not. I came to the subject through a roundabout way that might make for a good scholar (I am not personally invested in one kind of narrative about it) but not for a good story. “I just found it very interesting a
Wasteland wrap-up #95 (opens the original)
Read excerpt
Last week an old family friend was in town, so I went with them up to Sacre Coeur. I had been there many years ago, over a decade, while visiting Paris, but my memory of it was marred by people trying to scam me out in front of it. It was one of those, “let me give you something for free and then bully you into paying for it” sorts of things. This kind of scam, which is not uncommon around the major Paris tourist sites (nor in Central Park, etc.) is so frustrating, because even though the actual
Une apocalypse française (opens the original)
Read excerpt
The idea of post-apocalypse does not seem universal or disconnected from history. Different cultures, at different times, have embraced the idea, particularly as a literary genre, and the different apocalypses contemplated all feel very of their time and place. Post-apocalyptic stories tend to be about how people react once civilized society has collapsed, and are usually commentaries of one form or another on the nature of human societies, human beings, and the concerns of their writers. So it
The secret to avoiding dirty bombs (opens the original)
Read excerpt
The concept of a “dirty bomb” has two distinct and different technical meanings in the nuclear literature: a weapon that uses conventional explosive (like TNT) to distribute a radioactive contaminant, or a nuclear weapon that derives a significant proportion of its energy from nuclear fission (as opposed to nuclear fusion, which is “cleaner”). Both use the metaphor of “dirt” for radioactive contamination. <a class="image-link image2 is-viewable-img" href="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!
Publishing over time
Last 90 days. Choose a month to open its work.
Recurring subjects
Named in the text we hold. One piece can cover several.
Audience
No verified audience measurement yet.
About this data
Counts cover the work we have indexed. Tone needs enough text and a confident classification. Excerpts and episode notes are not full articles or transcripts.
Identity or attribution wrong? Suggest a correction.