{"podcast":{"title":"History As It Happens","slug":"history-as-it-happens-3075146","podcast_index_feed_id":3075146,"rss_url":"https://historyasithappens.libsyn.com/rss","website_url":"https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/","image_url":"https://static.libsyn.com/p/assets/4/4/d/1/44d17a1c5092053027a2322813b393ee/Martin_Square_241008.png","author":"Martin Di Caro","episode_count":589,"summary":"Discover how the past shapes the present with the best historians in the world. Everything happening today comes from something, somewhere. History As It Happens features interviews with today's top scholars and thinkers, interwoven with audio from history's archive. Subscribe for ad-free episodes, early access, and bonus content. https://historyasithappens.supercast.com/","last_synced_at":"2026-06-04T08:17:22.303405+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/history-as-it-happens-3075146"},"episode":{"title":"Chernobyl, 40 Years On","slug":"chernobyl-40-years-on","published_at":"2026-04-28T11:25:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/history-as-it-happens-3075146/chernobyl-40-years-on","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/history-as-it-happens-3075146","url":"https://historyasithappens.libsyn.com/chernobyl-40-years-on","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/pscrb.fm/rss/p/traffic.libsyn.com/secure/historyasithappens/HH-FREE-543-260428.mp3?dest-id=2566565","summary":"Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! In late April 1986, what should have been a routine test at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northeastern Ukraine turned into an epic disaster, the largest ever accidental release of deadly radiation. It contaminated the earth, exposed the rot in the Soviet system, and changed the course of history. To this day, Chernobyl is not only a place on a map. It's a symbol of death, destruction, and the terrible legacy of the USSR. Mariana Budjeryn is our guest. Mariana Budjeryn is a senior researcher with the Center for Nuclear Security Policy at MIT's Security Studies Program. She is the author of Inheriting the Bomb: The Collapse of the USSR and the Nuclear Disarmament of Ukraine . Further listening: When Ukraine Had Nukes w/ Mariana Budjeryn","meta_description":"Subscribe now for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! In late April 1986, what should have been a routine test at the Chernobyl nuclear po…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2599,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/history-as-it-happens-3075146/episodes/chernobyl-40-years-on/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/history-as-it-happens-3075146/chernobyl-40-years-on.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}