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Atomic Hobo review
Rating – 
Just a word of warning, this is going to be quite an extensive preamble this week, so feel free to skip to the next section if you like. There are a few things that really affected me when I was a child. I feel that “traumatized” may be too strong a word, but there are certain things that would be suitable for the Scarred For Life podcast should I ever become a celebrity and get interviewed.
One of these things was the prospect of nuclear war. I was slightly too young to remember Protect And Survive, although as an adult it certainly sparked some memories. I clearly remember seeing a documentary on TV one night about it though, there was footage of bombers flying, and a voice over (from the PAS clips) about how to dispose of bodies if they died in the house. All of this was accompanied by either “Hey Jude” by The Beatles, or “Whiter Shade Of Pale” by Procul Harem. I can’t remember which, but for decades I would get real chills when I heard either of those songs. Also, I have died in my dreams three times, one of which was of radiation sickness, so make of that what you will.
The prospect of global annihilation is something that seeps into my consciousness every now and then, and I will invariably spend lots of time watching old episodes of Panorama and QED from the early 80s, along with test footage from the various destruction of small, remote atolls in the Pacific.
So what’s it about?
This podcast has set me on one such YouTube binge. I heard about it on the latest episode of the aforementioned show Scarred For Life, when they interviewed Julie McDowell of this particular podcast. I immediately subscribed, cancelled all plans to listen to anything else (sorry Strange Familiars, what can I say? I’m nothing if not fickle).
Atomic Hobo describes the reality of nuclear war through old film clips, adverts and pamphlets from civil defence and subsequent government bodies. Despite Julie’s light-hearted presentation style, there is no escaping the absolute horror of the situation, and as such, this is a path that you need to be absolutely sure you want to take.
Obviously, as anyone who has watched Threads, or even anyone with a jot of common sense will know, there is no good outcome here. This is a show that describes just how naive people were, how under prepared those in power were, and how screwed peasants like us were (and still are).
Is it any good?
As someone who watched the Protect And Survive public information films, and the other, numerous documentaries from my childhood, I wasn’t sure how much information could be gleaned to make a podcast, despite it currently being about seven years old now nd still going strong. Julie has access to a ridiculous amount of information though, and from all over Europe too. The differences in approach between countries is almost as horrific as the prospect of nuclear winter itself (particularly the plans for the UK).
Julie’s presentation style is engaging and witty, but it comes across almost as gallows humour, but her voice often betrays the hopelessness of the situation. The humour, however hollow, gives some respite though, and to be honest, any ray of sunshine is welcome. Her knowledge of the subject is apparent, and as is usually the case in such a situation, she is able to cover the subject in an in-depth way that sidesteps the usual clickbait style nonsense of channels such as Youtube.
Final thoughts
This isn’t a nice podcast by any means. I mean, you can’t make a show about nuclear war “nice” can you? It is very grisly in places. As it should be. There is a lot of talk about death, and a whole episode that inadvertently ended up being about suicide, so if that is something you want to avoid, then consider this a trigger warning.
You may (if you notice such things), spot that this post is rather later than the usual Sunday breakfast time release. I had started working to keep up the schedule, but I got sidetracked into watching Threads again. Then I had to cook food, but rest assured, there were no prawn cocktail crisps or dead sheep on the menu.
You can get Atomic Hobo here:
https://shows.acast.com/atomichobo
The link is different this week. For some reason the podcast doesn’t show up on the podlink website, and Julie’s page links to acast, so that is what I have done too.
For more great reviews, I recommend GreatPods