Radioactive RoadTrippin’

Radioactive RoadTrippin’

The Rockport Film Festival: A Short Film

A few years ago, Natasha embarked on the roadtrip of a lifetime–it was epic and had an explosive twist. She bought a Ford F-350 Super Duty dually truck and a Host truck camper and left her home to travel around the country with my dogs and visit nuclear weapons-related sites, capturing the experience on video for my YouTube channel. Her journey really began in 2021 in Texas as she found so many different sites in my home state. Natasha visited various sites as practice for her planned year on the road

In January 2022, Natasha departed on what she thought would be a one-year trip around the United States. After only 21 days on the road, she reached Fort Myers, Florida and had to make the hard decision to return home to Texas to turn her new RV into my dealer for repairs. By this time, many items, including her AC unit, had broken and threatened to end her adventure.

Due to supply chain issues from the global pandemic, it took more than three months before Natasha could get back on the road. During that break, she produced a short film based on her visits to sites in Texas and submitted it to several film festivals. Natasha was honored to have it selected for screening at the Rockport Film Festival in November 2022.

The idea for Radioactive RoadTrippin’ blossomed during Natasha’s visit in early 2020 to a fully-restored Nike Hercules missile site situated in the midst of rolling green hills along the stunning coastline of the Pacific ocean. The former site is just a short drive from San Francisco, a few miles over the Golden Gate bridge.

During the Cold War, Nike Hercules surface-to-air missiles were positioned around San Francisco and the greater Bay area to defend against a Soviet bomber attack. Each missile carried a nuclear warhead of up to twenty kilotons—the same size used to level two Japanese cities during WWII. This was one of three hundred sites operated by the U.S. Army across thirty states. Knowledge of these sites and their purpose has faded into the annals of history.

The power of storytelling to change thinking has been well-recognized. But what form should stories about nuclear weapons take to raise awareness and catalyze positive change? How do we balance fear with hope? To have a transformative effect, the stories should be proximate, personal, and take place in the present—a rather tall order given the characteristics of nuclear weapons, which tend to be abstract, impersonal, and deeply buried in the consciousness of a passing generation. The show will be designed around these three critical aspects:

PROXIMATE. Nuclear weapons seem abstract to most Americans—something far away, somewhere out there, and separate from their daily lives. What if we could make nuclear weapons proximate for regular Americans through active geolocation? Could we show them their geographic nuclear realities in a way that would transform their thinking, stimulate a conversation, and empower people to take action to reduce the risk of nuclear war?
PERSONAL. Stories are transformative when an audience can step into the shoes of dynamic and relatable characters to experience the story for themselves. This provides the audience with an opportunity to change their mindsets. What if we could make nuclear weapons personal through stories about the mid-life crisis of a nuclear weapons expert? On one hand, an epic, life-changing, cross-country journey, living in a camper with two dogs surrounded by the beauty of great outdoors illustrates what is truly at stake should nuclear war ever occur. This approach also provides an entry point to regular Americans across a broad political spectrum to learn about nuclear weapons and their risks.
PRESENT. The growing gap in the historical knowledge of nuclear weapons has led to complacency about the risks of nuclear war amongst younger generations of Americans. Many compelling stories have been lost in history books and real life stories buried in the consciousness of a passing generation. What if we could bring these stories back into the present by retelling them and explaining their implications for today’s context?

To learn more about the lead-up to Natasha’s 2022, check out some of the posts she wrote while preparing to depart: