The guest
Oliver Stone: Academy Award-winning filmmaker (Platoon, JFK) and director of the pro-nuclear documentary Nuclear Now
What this episode covers
Oliver Stone joins Joe Rogan to promote his documentary Nuclear Now, arguing that nuclear energy is a safe, clean, scalable solution to climate change that has been wrongly demonized. They walk through Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, claiming the actual death tolls were far lower than public perception and that Hollywood, comic books, and the anti-nuclear movement created lasting misconceptions. Stone praises China, Russia, France, and Korea for building reactors consistently while criticizing Germany for shutting plants and reverting to coal and gas. The conversation widens into radiation science (bananas, tritium watches, radioactive springs), small modular reactors, nuclear-waste batteries, and regenerative farming. It closes on wide-ranging tangents about aliens, octopuses, diet, exercise, and the dangers of clinging to ideological narratives.
Recommended on this episode
BookRecommended
Bright Future
Joshua Goldstein and Staffan Qvist
“it's very practical it's simple and it goes into the truth”
“it was called bright future I bought the book read it it's very practical it's simple and it goes into the truth”— Oliver Stone
MediaRecommended
Chimp Empire
“it's this amazing documentary series; it's fantastic it's really fantastic”
“chimp Empire it's this amazing documentary series that's on Netflix right now and it's about these embedded uh journalists who document chimpanzee life”— Joe Rogan
ProductRecommended
Marathon watch
Marathon
“it's really cool”
“I have a marathon watch and it's uh like even if it's like pitch blackout all of the uh our indicators are all lit up permanently it's really cool”— Joe Rogan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
MediaReferenced
The China Syndrome
“China Syndrome and with Jane Fonda was a good film I enjoyed it we all enjoyed it but it really was hysterical and alarmist”— Oliver Stone
MediaReferenced
Silkwood
“silkwood was another one and then if you remember uh not too long ago there was the HBO thing Chernobyl”— Oliver Stone
MediaReferenced
An Inconvenient Truth
Al Gore
“the green Renewables are great there's great idea it made great sense when you saw Al Gore's film but the truth is that CO2 keeps going up”— Oliver Stone
MediaReferenced
The Game Changers
“I saw that Netflix documentary years ago Game Changer you ever seen that yes I have yeah it's just turned me off”— Oliver Stone
MediaReferenced
Apex Predator
Remy Warren
“my friend Remy Warren he used to have a show called apex predator and it was a what he would do is like study all of the different methods”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Old
M. Night Shyamalan
“it's an M Night Shyamalan that's just moving out yeah yeah I just watched it pretty good it's one of them movies”— Joe Rogan
MediaReferenced
Don't Look Up
Adam McKay
“don't look up is what it's called don't look up oh I didn't I didn't watch that it wasn't I heard it was good though”— Oliver Stone
MediaReferenced
The Big Short
Adam McKay
“the guy who made a big short he was very talented Adam McKay and he did that film with the star cast”— Oliver Stone
ProductReferenced
Tesla
Tesla
“I use my phone to get in my car too but it's not dangerous right my phone uh operates my Tesla I don't even have to have my key”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Ball watches
Ball
“there's a company called ball and all of their watches use tritium so and they've been doing it forever like they've been making these watches for a long time”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Nano Diamond Battery
NDB
“unveils battery made from nuclear waste that could last up to 28 000 years the Nano Diamond batteries power comes from radioactive isotopes”— Joe Rogan
ProductReferenced
Natrium reactor
TerraPower
“they all have different uh different uh methods of working including natrium including Bill Gates is there with a with a new company”— Oliver Stone
Big reveals from this episode
- Stone claims nobody died from radiation at Fukushima; the ~15-20k deaths came from the tsunami and earthquake, not the reactor.
- All US nuclear waste since 1958 amounts to roughly the size of a single Walmart because the energy is so compact.
- Germany shut down its working reactors under Green Party pressure and replaced them with coal, gas, solar, and wind.
- Stone made Nuclear Now after reading a NYT review of Joshua Goldstein and Staffan Qvist's book Bright Future.
- A company unveiled a 'Nano Diamond' battery made from nuclear waste claimed to last up to 28,000 years.
- Stone reveals Netflix refused to take Nuclear Now, forcing a digital release on iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play.
- Germany built a 500-acre solar park with 495,000 panels that produces about one-hundredth the power of the reactor it replaced.
Worth remembering
- China has roughly 74 reactors and is investing hundreds of billions to build ~150 more by the late 2030s.
- France has been ~70% nuclear since 1975, building 56 reactors in 15 years.
- A single small reactor can power a nuclear submarine for 50-60 years; two can run an aircraft carrier for decades.
- New York banned natural gas hookups in new building construction.
- Stone notes electric-car batteries rely on lithium and cobalt often sourced through unethical means.
- Joe argues brake dust contributes ~20% of fine particulate pollution versus ~7% from exhaust, so no car is truly zero-emission.
- Ramsar, Iran has some of the highest natural background radiation on Earth, yet residents show no extra health complications.
- A banana delivers about 0.01 mrem of radiation; you'd need ~100 bananas to equal one chest X-ray.
- Chimp Empire scientists studied the same chimpanzee group for 30 years until the chimps ignored their presence.
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