In January 2026 the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight, the closest it has ever been in nearly 80 years. This episode traces the symbol from its 1947 origin among Manhattan Project scientists in Chicago, through the artist who set the first cover at seven minutes for purely aesthetic reasons, to the 1949 Soviet bomb test, the 1953 hydrogen bomb drop to two minutes, and the 1991 high point of 17 minutes after the START treaty and the Soviet collapse.

We then follow the clock into the era of seconds: the 2007 addition of climate change, the 2020 shift to 100 seconds, the Ukraine invasion, the militarization of AI, the expiration of New START in February 2026, and the crises the board cited this year. Finally we explore the growing critique from Steven Pinker, Anders Sandberg, journalist James  ...