Jenna Fischer, Angela Kinsey, and the Lost Nuke

Jenna Fischer and Angela Kinsey really miss shooting The Office. So, Ed tells them the story of a lost nuke off the coast of Japan, which ends up eerily reminiscent of a workplace comedy. Except we're trading cubicles for a thousand foot warship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and paper jams for hydrogen bombs. Subscribe to the SNAFU YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@SNAFUPod Buy the SNAFU book: www.snafu-book.com See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 2:00Speaker 05

  Hey guys, Ed Helms here. I'm so glad to be back for season four of Snafu. Real quick, before we start this season, we're tackling even more Snafus than ever before. How are we doing that? Well, it's one new Snafu per episode, to be precise, and we're doing it along with some of the funniest and/or most interesting people I know in a new weekly format. And you can also watch it on YouTube. You are not gonna want to miss what we've got in store, so stay tuned. Here's episode one.

• 2:36Speaker 06

  Now I know why they call it Broken Arrows, because when you say, you know what? We have 32 broken arrows. You're like, oh. If you say, we have 32 lost nuclear weapons, you're like, wait, stop? What? Say again?

• 2:49Speaker 05

  Euphemisms make hard things a lot easier.

• 2:57Speaker 05

  Hey, I'm Ed Helms, host of Snafu, a show about history's greatest screw-ups. Today, I am joined by two of my all-time favorite humans on the planet, Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer. Of course, you know them as Angela Martin and Pam Beasley from The Office, where we spent many years making each other chuckle, both on and off camera. These days, they co-host the wildly beloved Office Ladies podcast, where they deep dive into every episode, every single episode of The Office, with their very own distinct brand of insight, warmth, heart, and hilarity. Angela and Jenna, I am so psyched you're here.

• 3:41Speaker 06

  Hi, Ed. Hi, Ed.

• 3:42Speaker 05

  Yeah, it's so good to see you.

• 3:44Speaker 06

  I'm giving jazz hands right now because we've got video going. Just want to jazz it up a little.

• 3:49Speaker 05

  Jazz it up, alright. Let me ask a very, I think, very pressing question that all of our listeners and viewers are probably wondering right now, which is how much do you miss working with me on a daily basis?

• 4:08Speaker 06

  Oh my gosh. I, I miss The Office a lot.

• 4:12Speaker 05

  I know.

• 4:12Speaker 06

  I mean, we spend our days, our, our job now is watching the show and it always just brings up so many memories of working together and you know how many bloopers there are.

• 4:25Speaker 05

  Oh yeah.

• 4:25Speaker 06

  There's so many because we would just laugh all day together. That's what we did.

• 4:30Speaker 07

  Ed, I just miss, I miss being silly with you. Like, we would get so silly. Like, I would walk past you and we would just make up a new noise, like

• 4:41Speaker 05

  Oh my God. It's like all the stuff off camera, the, the life experience of that whole time period, which was just, had this kind of larger umbrella feeling of like, wow, we're all part of something really great and that's like super special. But then we're also having these really mundane, lovely moments on the set, just talking about each other's lives and families and like, I don't know, just the little, those little quiet moments. Or sitting at our trailers, like waiting for a camera setup or it's like, that, that's, I think, something that like, fans don't always understand is that like, our experience of making the show is actually this whole tapestry of mundane,

• 5:24Speaker 05

  small moments of just experiencing each other.

• 5:27Speaker 06

  I mean, it's an intimacy.

• 5:29Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 5:29Speaker 06

  You know, of togetherness, of constant togetherness.

• 5:33Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 5:33Speaker 06

  And um, I think if I could go back and relive a moment, like if, you know, I got a genie in a bottle and I could use a wish, it would be to go back and shoot a conference room scene all day. Cause when we would see those on the script or on the call sheet and we would be like, oh God, we gotta be in the conference room.

• 5:54Speaker 05

  It's gonna be a slog.

• 5:55Speaker 06

  Day. All day. But those were the days that created the moments you're talking about, Ed.

• 6:01Speaker 05

  Totally.

• 6:02Speaker 06

  Those little laughs, the shares, the sweatiness together, all of it.

• 6:07Speaker 07

  And because we weren't on a huge lot, you know, there was no distraction. You know, people didn't walk off to a commissary. We were just all in this little

• 6:17Speaker 06

  Bubble, this tiny space where we got to be creative together. It kind of reminded me a little bit of that energy you have in your early days with your improv group or your one act play because there was no one else, there was no shiny object to go off and look at. It was just us.

• 6:32Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 6:33Speaker 06

  I loved it when you would play your banjo and Creed would bring in his guitar and we'd hang out in the parking lot, you know?

• 6:38Speaker 05

  Yeah, and it's funny you bring up those conference room scenes because those were particularly special because most of the time, we're not all together, right? Most of the time, we're just doing little scenes with like one or two other characters and that's, that's the bulk of our work. But then the table read was always a special moment. Every Tuesday morning was a table read of next week's script and, or two weeks, I forget the timing, but then-

• 7:08Speaker 06

  Oh, it was one week.

• 7:09Speaker 05

  It was one week.

• 7:10Speaker 06

  One week. It was less than a week's notice, yeah.

• 7:14Speaker 05

  But those are the moments, those and some of those conference room scenes were, were like, that's where everybody's together, like everybody's, and those had a really special energy, like, like a, just a little buzz to them. And when, and like you said, when they, when they were all day long, that's, and they get a little dull and they start to slow down, everybody's trying to just hang in there. That's like some of the just most human hangout.

• 7:41Speaker 06

  Ed, you had a really unique experience joining the show because you actually joined in Stanford. So you didn't start off in the Dunder Mifflin bullpen of the Scranton Dunder Mifflin bullpen. And then you came over. What was that like for you to kind of like soft launch into the show? Like you worked with John, you worked with Rashida, you worked with Chip.

• 8:03Speaker 05

  Yeah. Well, sorry, Jenna, I'll be asking the questions today.

• 8:10Speaker 06

  I forgot whose podcast we were doing.

• 8:13Speaker 05

  No, I love the question. I always tell people like that was such a gentle entry for us because of exactly what you're saying. Like, you know, Rashida and I started at a time when the show was hot. It was season three and, and you guys had already just kind of like created this incredible thing. And so we were intimidated, but also felt kind of so warmly welcomed, both by the writers and, and all of you. Everyone's energy was so lovely.

• 8:48Speaker 06

  That's so sweet.

• 8:49Speaker 05

  It really could have gone the other way. I'm sure a lot of other shows, there's like more, it's more cutthroat, or it feels more like, ah, the new people, like, let's not, let's let them, they have to prove themselves. But I just felt so, like, all of my butterflies and anxiety just washed out so quickly because everyone, all of you were so lovely right out of the gate. And, which is a testament to, to all of you and the vibe that got created.

• 9:15Speaker 06

  It was collaborative. It was not competitive.

• 9:18Speaker 05

  Totally.

• 9:19Speaker 06

  There was not like a weird like ego competitiveness going on on that set, which was so great.

• 9:25Speaker 05

  Absolutely.

• 9:26Speaker 07

  Yeah, it was always, you know, we always say it was a real creative collaboration from the writers room to the crew, to the cast. We were all working together to create a product that we were proud of. And I think, I mean, I think you feel that when you watch it. And I think that's why people keep enjoying it, is you're seeing a group of people having a great time.

• 9:46Speaker 05

  There's a warmth there that's real. And I think that comes through the camera. All right. Well, first, this is something I ask all of my guests. Is there a moment in your own life, a mishap, a misunderstanding, a full-blown meltdown that, that, that would qualify as a snafu?

• 10:05Speaker 07

  I mean, I have one that immediately comes to mind.

• 10:07Speaker 06

  What is it, lady?

• 10:09Speaker 07

  I had just moved from Indonesia to Dallas, Texas in the eighties. Okay, 1984. I had lived in Jakarta for 12 years. I didn't know what the heck an American high school vibe was. And I was, I was also a grade ahead in half my subjects. So I would go to the junior high for the first four classes. Then my mom would pick me up. I'd eat lunch in the car, driving to the high school. And I was, I was like this tiny little thing in this big high school. I was such an outsider and I really wanted to fit in.

• 10:50Speaker 07

  And I'm a freshman who's moved from Indonesia, who doesn't know, like I'm supposed to get a perm and wear a bunch of eyeliner. I don't know that yet.

• 11:00Speaker 05

  Yeah, Texas has a real, real specific high school vibe, especially in the eighties.

• 11:05Speaker 07

  Yeah. Eighties Dallas, that's a vibe. Okay, first class of the day, English class, super hot dude behind me, like athletic dude. And I'm at my desk and my pencil on the desk rolls off to the right on the ground. I lean over to get it. I don't calibrate my weight versus the wraparound desk weight.

• 11:29Speaker 05

  Oh, no.

• 11:30Speaker 07

  The whole thing flipped over on me, pinned me to the ground with my feet akimbo. And the hottie dude behind me is like, oh my God, like goes to pick me up. And they were like, your arm. And I'm like, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. And my arm, I thought I broke my arm.

• 11:50Speaker 06

  Does this story end with the hottie asking you out? Because you've also just described like every meet cute in a teen movie from the eighties.

• 11:59Speaker 07

  I'm going to tell you right now, those meet cutes are a lie.

• 12:03Speaker 05

  All right. You got a quick one, Jenna?

• 12:05Speaker 06

  I do. So it's, it's not a school snafu, but it's a teenage snafu. I had a big crush on one of the guys who lived in my neighborhood. And I kind of wanted to like, just impress him, you know, like in that way where you want to peacock a little, maybe catch their eye. So I had gotten this like new Esprit top. Do you remember?

• 12:30Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah, of course.

• 12:31Speaker 06

  Okay.

• 12:31Speaker 05

  Very, very cool brand.

• 12:32Speaker 06

  I loved Esprit. Very proud of it. And I had like this special like matching ribbon for my hair. So I put this on and my, my idea was that I'd go out and get the mail. So it'd be a reason for me to like walk out. So I timed it out. I like sat and like watched him arrive home and I proudly walked out in my Esprit top and I went, I looked in the mailbox and looked, oh, there's nothing there. But you know, I'm really looking as if, you know, it's okay. And he is, he is watching me, right? Like it's, he, I caught his eye. I get inside. My mom says, what are you doing? And I said, oh, nothing. I was just, I was just going to get the mail. And she said, sweetie, you're not wearing any pants.

• 13:16Speaker 05

  Shut up.

• 13:17Speaker 06

  No, that's right.

• 13:19Speaker 05

  What?

• 13:20Speaker 06

  That's right. I forgot. I was so into my Esprit top that I forgot to put on the bottoms of the outfit, y'all.

• 13:29Speaker 05

  Like any bottoms?

• 13:31Speaker 06

  I mean, I had on like undies, but I didn't have on pants.

• 13:36Speaker 05

  This is weird.

• 13:36Speaker 06

  I had on this like long, it was kind of like an Oxford shirt.

• 13:40Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 13:41Speaker 06

  You know, so it hung down even past my underwear.

• 13:44Speaker 05

  Oh, this is very eighties.

• 13:46Speaker 06

  No, I was like, I was like Tom Cruise in Risky Business, just walking out in my big Oxford with no pants on. And then I hid in my house for the next four years and never spoke to him again.

• 13:58Speaker 05

  Oh, boy.

• 13:58Speaker 06

  I was so embarrassed.

• 13:59Speaker 05

  Those are some major snafus, you guys. That's, uh, that's, that's, yeah, that's big stuff.

• 14:06Speaker 05

  This one might be bigger.

• 14:09Speaker 06

  I hope so.

• 14:10Speaker 05

  Angela and Jenna, are you ready to dive into today's snafu?

• 14:16Speaker 07

  I'm so excited.

• 14:18Speaker 06

  So excited.

• 14:18Speaker 07

  I'm having a sip of my iced tea.

• 14:20Speaker 05

  All right.

• 14:20Speaker 07

  Settling in.

• 14:21Speaker 05

  Get ready, get your popcorn.

• 14:23Speaker 06

  I love a snafu. I love you. I love this pod. So three of my favorite things are about to happen all at once.

• 14:29Speaker 05

  Awesome.

• 14:30Speaker 06

  And I love Angela, my BFF.

• 14:31Speaker 05

  There you go.

• 14:32Speaker 06

  So four things.

• 14:32Speaker 07

  This is just an abundance of riches right here.

• 14:34Speaker 06

  It is.

• 14:39Speaker 05

  Today's snafu takes us aboard the USS Taikon Duroga, a massive aircraft carrier stationed off the coast of Japan in 1965. This thing was built like it was auditioning for a Cold War action movie. Tough exterior, fighter jets everywhere, total mid-century badass. Picture if Don Draper and Maverick from Top Gun had a baby and the baby was a boat. And it like chain smoked all the time. Like that's what this, that's what this aircraft carrier was like. Pure American military swagger. Unfortunately, that swagger was about to trip into a colossal face plant. So what happened was what is, what is known in military

• 15:24Speaker 05

  circles as a broken arrow incident. Do either of you know what that term means?

• 15:29Speaker 07

  There was a movie called Broken Arrow?

• 15:32Speaker 05

  Yes, there was.

• 15:33Speaker 07

  I don't.

• 15:34Speaker 05

  Do you know what the movie was about? It might get, it might help.

• 15:40Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 15:40Speaker 07

  I feel like a guy jumped off a train.

• 15:42Speaker 05

  Maybe that happened in that movie, but a broken arrow incident is that's when we lose a nuclear device.

• 15:52Speaker 07

  Oh, my goodness.

• 15:53Speaker 06

  I think the nuclear device was on the train.

• 15:55Speaker 05

  Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

• 15:57Speaker 07

  Okay, whatever. Let go, let it go, Angela.

• 15:59Speaker 05

  I feel like John Travolta was in that movie. I can't remember anything else about it. But anyway, the term broken arrow, that refers to anytime we lose a nuclear missile or a bomb or device of some sort. And it happens, it has happened throughout history, numerous, like way more than you want to know.

• 16:19Speaker 07

  I mean, enough times they had to have a code name for it.

• 16:22Speaker 05

  Well, losing a nuclear weapon sounds completely insane, and it is. But part of why I wanted to bring this story to you guys in particular is that it has kind of a familiar flavor. Clashing personalities, baffling miscommunication, questionable leadership choices. Basically, this is a classic workplace comedy, except.

• 16:43Speaker 07

  This was if Michael Scott was in charge.

• 16:45Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah. And instead of cubicles, we're on a thousand-foot warship in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Instead of paper jams, we're dealing with hydrogen bombs.

• 16:54Speaker 08

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• 17:54Speaker 10

  Hi, I'm Jenna Oshkowitz. You might know me from Glee. This is At the Table, the food allergy podcast, a show about food, connection, and what it really looks like to live with food allergies. Each episode, we hear stories from real people like Daniel.

• 18:08Speaker 11

  People would always think I was lactose intolerant, so I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic in a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.

• 18:19Speaker 10

  And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you you're not alone.

• 18:24Speaker 12

  One of the best guys that I dated, he made a point to memorize all my food allergies.

• 18:30Speaker 10

  So join us and hear their stories and more because living with food allergies isn't just about what you can't eat. It's about still having your seat at the table. Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At The Table, the food allergy podcast on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At The Table and start listening on the free iHeart radio app today.

• 18:51Speaker 05

  On December 5th, 1965, just off the coast of Japan's Ryukyu Islands, US naval officers were running through a routine training exercise called the crew cut on the USS Ticonderoga. An A4E Skyhawk, an attack fighter jet, was being wheeled into the elevator to be taken up to the flight deck. So, quick pause. Are you guys nervous flyers? I am not, but I will say that for some reason, the idea of landing or taking off on an aircraft carrier scares the bejesus out of me. It's like, I don't know if it's the tiny runway or just the fact that it's surrounded by water, or that it's constantly moving, or that there's like 30 people on deck just casually waving around glow sticks like it's a rave for fighter

• 19:36Speaker 05

  jets. This is very unchill vibes for me.

• 19:41Speaker 06

  Also, like with the short runway, don't they have like a cable that catches the plane and jerks it back? I mean, if you need a cable to catch your plane on a landing, I don't know.

• 19:52Speaker 05

  What if you miss the cable?

• 19:54Speaker 06

  I got invited to do something like that. There was like, they invited me to be like in a cockpit for like a special flying mission thing. And I was like, I don't need to read anymore. Like, this is not going to go well for anyone. You're just going to have a lady throwing up on everyone.

• 20:17Speaker 05

  For this crew cut exercise, the pilot Lieutenant Douglas Webster was simply supposed to take off, fly around for a bit, and then land again, a routine drill to practice loading and unloading cargo. But almost immediately, things went off the rails. As the Skyhawk was being positioned on the elevator, it suddenly began rolling backward. The crew on the deck started waving frantically, shouting for Webster to hit the brakes. A few even ran behind the aircraft, trying to stop it from rolling. Heroic, but not exactly realistic. The Skyhawk was one of the Navy's lighter planes, but it still had a takeoff weight of 24,500 pounds. So this was not a rogue shopping cart. This is like a tank with wings,

• 21:01Speaker 05

  basically. Somehow Webster didn't catch on to all the chaos going on around him. And in a split second, the Skyhawk rolled off the side of the carrier, tore through the safety netting, and vanished into the ocean. What would you do if you're a crew member on this flight deck and you're just like standing there watching this?

• 21:25Speaker 06

  Expletives, some cursing. Who's getting fired? Someone's getting fired?

• 21:29Speaker 05

  Yeah, for sure. I would be like, ah, we gotta tell somebody.

• 21:33Speaker 06

  Have you ever like, gone to sit down on the toilet and your phone's in your pocket and then it falls in the toilet?

• 21:40Speaker 05

  Oh, my God, no.

• 21:41Speaker 06

  This is like the ultimate version of that.

• 21:43Speaker 05

  That's, that's never happened to me, thank God.

• 21:45Speaker 06

  That's never, you've never dropped your phone in the toilet?

• 21:48Speaker 05

  No, I never have.

• 21:49Speaker 06

  Oh, my gosh. I've done this before. Or dropped your phone in a swimming pool or something, in a pool of water. That's what this is reminding me of.

• 21:56Speaker 05

  Okay. But I, every time I go into an airport bath, like the urinals in an airport, I'm just like, I have pocket my phone for that exact reason. I'm so terrified. Because if like, my phone goes into like, a public urinal, it's staying there. Like, no, I ain't getting it out. It is done. Goodbye, phone. I wonder if, if it was, because like, when it dipped, when it falls into the ocean, like, it's gone. Like, it ain't, you can't see anything. And I just wonder if it went through anyone's head to just pull one of those, like, like, the, the, the crew on the deck is like, where, where's the plane? Somebody's like, what plane? What are you talking about? What? Hmm? Plane? There was no plane.

• 22:36Speaker 06

  What? Don't know.

• 22:36Speaker 05

  There was no plane?

• 22:37Speaker 06

  I'm not sure.

• 22:37Speaker 05

  There's other planes.

• 22:39Speaker 06

  You know what?

• 22:39Speaker 05

  But there was no plane here.

• 22:40Speaker 06

  Here, here's the, here's the other play. How dare you?

• 22:45Speaker 05

  The confident.

• 22:46Speaker 07

  How dare you ask me that?

• 22:47Speaker 05

  You just gotta come in with like full, the confident rebuttal. What? How dare you? There was a plane here two minutes ago. No, there, what?

• 22:56Speaker 07

  I would know.

• 22:57Speaker 05

  I was standing here.

• 22:59Speaker 07

  Stop it from rolling.

• 23:01Speaker 05

  So the crew sprang into action, calling nearby ships to launch a full search and rescue operation, but it wasn't just about finding the beloved Lieutenant Douglas Webster, who was still inside the plane as it sank.

• 23:14Speaker 07

  Oh, my God. I didn't realize that.

• 23:16Speaker 05

  Yeah, yeah. There's a guy in the plane.

• 23:17Speaker 07

  We didn't know he was still in the plane.

• 23:20Speaker 06

  I thought he was. Oh, oh, no.

• 23:24Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 23:25Speaker 07

  Oh, no.

• 23:25Speaker 05

  I know. Spoiler alert. He did not make it.

• 23:29Speaker 07

  Oh.

• 23:30Speaker 05

  He was not recovered.

• 23:31Speaker 06

  That's terrible.

• 23:32Speaker 05

  I know.

• 23:32Speaker 06

  Is he the only, was he the only crew member and person in the plane?

• 23:36Speaker 05

  Yes, he's the only one who, who perished. There was also something else on board. A one megaton nuclear bomb. Yeah. For reference, that's 70 times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, which to put it in Dunder Mifflin terms is like someone misplacing a really important Post-it note, if that Post-it note could also vaporize a city.

• 23:59Speaker 07

  So this whole enormous plane with the super duper nuke and this poor man just go over the edge.

• 24:09Speaker 05

  Yes. They go, they just go right over the edge. And I love the term you just said, super duper nuke. It feels like a.

• 24:21Speaker 06

  I think that, I believe that's the technical term.

• 24:23Speaker 05

  Yeah. Do you guys load the super duper nuke? Oh, yeah. It's ready to go. So a frantic search followed, but tragically neither the pilot nor the aircraft was ever recovered. The only thing they found was his helmet bobbing alone on the surface of the ocean, which really sends chills down your spine. So here's the thing, this was not just a casual cruise that the Ticonderoga was on. It had just wrapped up combat duty in Vietnam and was en route to Japan for some much needed rest and. refueling and that's when the inevitable cover up begins so let's break down the optics for a second the US aircraft carrier fresh from war accidentally drops a nuclear bomb

• 25:07Speaker 05

  just off the coast of Japan a country with let's say a very specific set of feelings about nuclear bombs this is again it's 1965 so not too much time has passed oh and just for some added detail we had signed a treaty promising we wouldn't bring nukes anywhere near Japanese shores so yeah this was not gonna go over well

• 25:31Speaker 07

  was the ship more than 200 nautical miles off the coastline of Japan

• 25:36Speaker 05

  oh my god who are you what kind of

• 25:37Speaker 06

  this is a very specific question

• 25:40Speaker 07

  well I had just read that I had just read that every country is responsible and has ownership of the first 200 nautical miles off their shoreline so if this was within Japan's 200 nautical miles that is a very big breach because you're not in open ocean

• 25:59Speaker 05

  yeah I believe it was well within Japanese jurisdiction it was a very bad look and so of course to avoid the bad look the Navy tried to cover it up they zipped it up tight lipped but as we all know military secrets have a way of slinking into the public zeitgeist eventually you guys are you guys good secret keepers are you trustworthy

• 26:27Speaker 07

  lock it up lock it up

• 26:29Speaker 06

  yeah but not I this is not a secret I could keep

• 26:33Speaker 05

  yeah

• 26:33Speaker 06

  I would be a whistleblower I'm good at keeping your secrets or Angela's secrets or friends and family secrets my own secrets but um I'm not gonna keep your we lost a nuclear weapon in the ocean secret for you if you're the military like I'm gonna be the lady who Writing a report on that.

• 26:56Speaker 13

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• 27:26Speaker 14

  Hello, hello. I'm Malcolm Gladwell, host of Smart Talks with IBM. I spoke with IBM's Ana Paula Assis about what digital sovereignty actually means in the age of AI.

• 27:37Speaker 15

  AI now moves from somebody operating a system to the technology actually making decisions. So you have to have a much better visibility of what AI is touching, data it is accessing, and where.

• 27:53Speaker 14

  Hear the full conversation wherever you get your podcasts.

• 27:57Speaker 10

  Hi, I'm Jenna Oshkowitz. You might know me from Glee. This is At the Table, the food allergy podcast, a show about food, connection, and what it really looks like to live with food allergies. Each episode, we hear stories from real people like Daniel.

• 28:11Speaker 11

  People would always think I was lactose intolerant, so I just kind of shortened my explanation to I'm deathly allergic, in a big way that defined a lot of my childhood.

• 28:22Speaker 10

  And while there are challenges, there are moments that remind you you're not alone.

• 28:27Speaker 12

  One of the best guys that I dated, he made a point to memorize all my food allergies.

• 28:33Speaker 10

  So join us and hear their stories and more, because living with food allergies isn't just about what you can't eat, it's about still having your seat at the table. Brought to you by Genentech and Novartis. Listen to At the Table, the food allergy podcast, on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Follow At the Table and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app today.

• 28:58Speaker 05

  The Navy was spectacularly, or perhaps frighteningly, able to conceal this incident for over 15 years. It wasn't until 1981 that the Pentagon disclosed the incident. The Washington Post reported about it in a mere three sentences buried in a nuclear accidents report. However, the folks at the Pentagon also did not bother explaining the details of where exactly the bomb was. They first stated that the bomb was more than 500 miles from land. Vague much? They also assured everyone that the bomb posed no danger since it was 16,000 feet underwater.

• 29:36Speaker 05

  But in 1989, the environmental group Greenpeace alongside naval expert William Arkin exposed more naval documents revealing that the bomb was dropped only 70 miles off the coast of the Ryukyu Islands as opposed to the 500 they had said before. They also pointed out that this incident violated Japan's strict anti-nuclear policies and exposed some serious Navy secrets about nuclear weapons in Vietnam. With no other choice, the Pentagon finally admitted the whole truth about this gigantic snafu in a statement that same year in 1989.

• 30:17Speaker 06

  Did this create a diplomatic issue for the United States and the Japanese government?

• 30:23Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 30:24Speaker 06

  In 1989?

• 30:25Speaker 05

  Yeah, for sure. It feels like these international incidents are, there's always some measure of just sort of posturing of like, we have to respond this way because protocol demands it of us and so we must make these statements and we must say these things, we must say that we're outraged and then the US must respond with their like diplomatic explanation and acceptance of responsibility. It's like, it's so choreographed, all these things, it's very wild how it all works out. And then I always wonder like, does anyone actually take this personally? If like Japan is expressing outrage, like, how dare they? Is there any like Japanese official who's like genuinely pissed like at a personal level or is it just sort of like grand institutional emotion?

• 31:10Speaker 06

  I'm also curious, what, what happens to a nuclear, a super dupe nuke?

• 31:16Speaker 05

  Super duper nuke?

• 31:18Speaker 07

  A super duper nuke. Does it get pressurized? How deep was the water 70 miles off?

• 31:22Speaker 05

  This is a great question, and Greenpeace had a lot to say about this.

• 31:26Speaker 07

  Okay.

• 31:26Speaker 05

  So when the Pentagon admitted this in 1989, they were actually responding to an article in Newsweek, and then Japanese papers picked up the story, which of course caused quite a stir throughout Japan itself, rightfully so. Though the Pentagon confirmed that the bomb would not be harmful, it hadn't been armed, and you have to go through a whole bevy of procedural elements to actually arm it. It was still 16,000 feet underwater, decaying, which meant it might eventually break down and start to emit serious pollutants. Yet, US spokespersons claimed this wouldn't cause any harm to the natural world. Either way, it was safe to say they were in the hot seat,

• 32:07Speaker 05

  at least as hot as the nuclear material inside that bomb, shall we say.

• 32:12Speaker 07

  Hmm.

• 32:13Speaker 05

  So while many were rightfully mad about the big kerplunk, more were outraged because, in fact, the ship shouldn't have had the bomb on it in the first place. Yes, at the time of the incident, Japan had a ban on nuclear weapons, and there was apparently an unspoken agreement between the two world powers. Japanese officials would intentionally not ask the US ships what they were carrying, and the US wouldn't volunteer any info either. It was one of those sort of like, don't ask, don't tell kinds of situations. So what happened exactly? The incident fueled further questions about the use of nuclear weaponry in US combat via diplomatic inquiry from Japan. It also called into question how we adhere to certain protocols and standards for safety,

• 32:57Speaker 05

  especially when it involves high-powered weapons and moving planes around aircraft carriers. Plus, you know, it solidified the longstanding tradition of lying to the American public. Since 1950, there have somehow been a whopping 32 broken arrow incidents. This includes theft.

• 33:16Speaker 07

  Wait, wait.

• 33:16Speaker 05

  Yeah, raising hands.

• 33:17Speaker 07

  What? 32 super duper nukes?

• 33:20Speaker 05

  Super duper nukers.

• 33:21Speaker 07

  32.

• 33:23Speaker 06

  Lost nuclear weapons.

• 33:26Speaker 07

  Oy, oy, oy.

• 33:28Speaker 06

  Now I know why they call it broken arrows. Cause when you say, you know what? We have 32 broken arrows. You're like, oh, if you say, we have 32 lost nuclear weapons. You're like, wait, stop. What? Say again.

• 33:41Speaker 05

  Euphemisms make hard things a lot easier. Oh, man.

• 33:45Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 33:45Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 33:46Speaker 05

  Yeah, 32.

• 33:47Speaker 07

  That's why Greg called all of our talking heads candy bags, you know?

• 33:51Speaker 05

  I forgot that.

• 33:52Speaker 07

  He said that he always felt bad giving us pages and pages of extra monologues. So he was like, I'll name them something fun. So he named them candy bags.

• 34:00Speaker 05

  I loved those. I loved doing those talking heads and like coming up with like new riffs and like the candy bag alts, like all the different versions of our talking heads. Like just, it was like getting a window into the writers' brains. I just remember loving the math of those jokes and like always trying to think about how to heighten them. And they'd have to kick me out of those talking heads.

• 34:22Speaker 06

  But to your point, naming all the extra work a candy bag.

• 34:26Speaker 05

  It's a trick.

• 34:27Speaker 06

  Definitely made it go down easier. And also calling all our screw ups bloopers makes them sound fun too. Like, oh, that was a blooper. Like, that's just a broken arrow.

• 34:39Speaker 07

  I mean, even the word snafu is kind of fun. It's snafu.

• 34:42Speaker 05

  Guys, it's just a snafu.

• 34:44Speaker 06

  Whoopsie.

• 34:45Speaker 05

  Whoopsie doozy.

• 34:46Speaker 07

  Yeah.

• 34:47Speaker 05

  So these 32 broken arrow incidents include theft, accidental detonation, and just straight up loss. Like the one that rolled off the back of the Ticonderoga. Yeah.

• 35:01Speaker 06

  I don't know like which one bothers me the most. I don't know if it's that we lost some, that they were stolen or accidentally detonated. Like they're all three of those. I don't know which one's worse.

• 35:13Speaker 05

  I feel like theft is the scariest.

• 35:15Speaker 06

  Theft, yeah.

• 35:17Speaker 07

  I do too.

• 35:18Speaker 05

  But the next time you're feeling clumsy for dropping something, just remember that the US Navy dropped an entire hydrogen bomb into the ocean and then kicked sand over it for 15 years and they got away with it. So the, the lesson here, guys, is lie. If you mess up, lie about it.

• 35:38Speaker 05

  Because then 15 years will go by.

• 35:40Speaker 06

  That's the lesson. That's the takeaway.

• 35:42Speaker 05

  Because then 15 years will go by and then it's like, nobody really gets in trouble. There's a little bit of saber rattling and like people get like the like governments get mad and exchange sort of diplomatic, you know, zingers at each other, but it's not really like a thing. So yeah, I guess that's the lesson. Do you think there are any other valuable lessons here, guys?

• 36:02Speaker 07

  I think there's a second part to that. It would be lie plus time. Give it time.

• 36:08Speaker 05

  Lie for a long time.

• 36:10Speaker 07

  Be patient with your lies.

• 36:10Speaker 05

  I think what you're saying is hold your lies.

• 36:12Speaker 07

  Lie for a long time.

• 36:13Speaker 05

  Deep inside of you for, for a really long time.

• 36:18Speaker 05

  Hold those secrets. Not other people's secrets, your secrets. Hold them deep. Let them devour you from the inside.

• 36:26Speaker 06

  Such a positive message.

• 36:27Speaker 05

  I know.

• 36:28Speaker 07

  Snap, boo.

• 36:31Speaker 05

  But in all seriousness, is there any like positive takeaway here? Like, is there, is there a way to frame this or look at this that like gives us a, a good lesson?

• 36:41Speaker 06

  Yeah. Thank you, Greenpeace.

• 36:43Speaker 05

  Amen.

• 36:44Speaker 06

  Thank you.

• 36:44Speaker 05

  I love it.

• 36:45Speaker 06

  A way to stand for something and, uh, hold people accountable. Like, thank goodness you're around, cause maybe we would have never known, right? Cause they seem like they were really sounding the alarm on this.

• 37:00Speaker 05

  Yep. They were pissed.

• 37:02Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 37:03Speaker 05

  About all this stuff.

• 37:04Speaker 06

  Yeah.

• 37:04Speaker 07

  They were pissed.

• 37:06Speaker 06

  They were not gonna let this just be swept under the rug.

• 37:09Speaker 05

  It is hard to believe, like, despite what the Pentagon said, it's, it's like, it's hard to believe that a nuclear missile just decaying on the bottom of the ocean is like completely harmless. It's kinda hard to believe.

• 37:21Speaker 06

  It doesn't make any logical sense.

• 37:22Speaker 07

  I mean, what is that gonna do to the ocean and the ecosystem around it?

• 37:27Speaker 05

  It's probably gonna kill a couple of starfish.

• 37:29Speaker 07

  It's going to take out a few coral reefs. I would also say that what is leaking there, I'm not saying it's this one nuke, but there are all these studies about what's in our fish.

• 37:42Speaker 05

  There's like, all, like all kinds of scary heavy metals in the fish?

• 37:46Speaker 06

  Mm-hmm. I mean, would you take a dirty penny and put it in a glass of water and let it sit overnight and then drink that glass of water the next day? You wouldn't. You wouldn't. I mean, come on. It's doing something down there.

• 38:04Speaker 07

  For sure. Can I just bring us back?

• 38:06Speaker 05

  Bring us back.

• 38:07Speaker 07

  For a little callback here. I think instead of Broke, instead of Broken Arrow, they should be called A Dirty Penny.

• 38:15Speaker 06

  Thank you, Angela. I like that.

• 38:17Speaker 05

  Got some dirty pennies to account for, you guys.

• 38:20Speaker 06

  Yeah, that's right.

• 38:22Speaker 05

  Now, tell me what you guys are up to and what we need to look out for you. What's next on Office Ladies? How many episodes have you done and how many are left, by the way?

• 38:31Speaker 06

  Well, we have watched every episode of The Office, and we have given you all the behind the scenes details and trivia that we have collected from cast and crew members for every single episode, and we still have new episodes coming out every Wednesday.

• 38:47Speaker 05

  Amazing.

• 38:48Speaker 07

  We have our whole Office re-watch library that is playing on Mondays, and on Wednesdays, we have all new material, all new fun stuff, diving deeper into the world of The Office and our best friendship. It's super fun. Come hang out with us.

• 39:03Speaker 05

  Yeah, I'd love to. Are you kidding me?

• 39:05Speaker 07

  Jenna, tell them about your play.

• 39:07Speaker 05

  Tell me about your play.

• 39:08Speaker 06

  I am doing a play at the Goodman Theater in Chicago called Ashland Avenue. It's a world premiere written by Lee Kirk. You might have heard of him.

• 39:15Speaker 05

  Oh, yeah.

• 39:16Speaker 06

  My husband, married to the writer, no big whoop.

• 39:21Speaker 05

  That's so cool.

• 39:22Speaker 06

  And starts previews on September 6th, and it opens on September 15th, and you can get tickets at goodmitheater.org. I'm really excited. This will be my first time back on stage in about eight years. And you know, theater is my first love, so I'm really excited.

• 39:37Speaker 05

  That is so cool, Jenna. I'm so excited for you and Lee. That is just awesome.

• 39:42Speaker 06

  Thank you. And this is the Goodman Theater's 100th year. So this is their centennial season, and we'll be kicking it off with Ashland Avenue.

• 39:50Speaker 05

  No big deal.

• 39:51Speaker 06

  No big deal, though. And Angela, Angela's got some fun news as well.

• 39:56Speaker 07

  I do. So you know Ed. My husband's a chef and a baker, and he's self-taught, and he's really big about getting the family in the kitchen and cooking together and baking together. That the kitchen is the heart of our home and he's been making recipes and we've been cooking together for years now and he's finally put all of our favorite family recipes into a cookbook. It's called You Can Make This because that's what he says to me and the kids all the time. He's like, you guys can make this and you really can. And so we have that coming out in October of this year and it's really great. It's a great, great cookbook.

• 40:35Speaker 05

  Congratulations. That's so, so cool.

• 40:38Speaker 07

  Thank you.

• 40:40Speaker 05

  Um, I'm excited to tell you about my book coming out in a, in another year called Super Duper Nuke. Not true.

• 40:47Speaker 07

  (laughing)

• 40:49Speaker 05

  Hey, you guys are the best and I am just so, so happy to see you and hang out with you a little bit. Every, every time I get a chance to see you, it's just the best. Thanks for coming on.

• 41:00Speaker 07

  Aw, thanks for having us, Ed. You're awesome. We love you.

• 41:05Speaker 05

  Snafu is a production of iHeart Podcasts and Snafu Media, a partnership between Film Nation Entertainment and Pacific Electric Picture Company. Our post-production studio is Gilded Audio. Our executive producers are me, Ed Helms, Mike Falbo, Glenn Basner, Andy Kim, Whitney Donaldson, and Dylan Fagan. This episode was produced by Alyssa Martino and Tori Smith. Our video editor is Jared Smith. Technical direction and engineering from Nick Dooley. Our creative executive is Brett Harris. Logo and branding by The Collected Works. Legal review from Dan Welsh, Megan Halson, and Caroline Johnson. Special thanks to Isaac Dunham, Adam Horn, Lane Klein, and everyone at iHeart Podcasts, but especially

• 41:49Speaker 05

  Will Pearson, Carrie Lieberman, Nikki Etor, Nathan Otowski, and Alex Corral. While I have you, don't forget to pick up a copy of my book, Snafu, The Definitive Guide to History's Greatest Screwups. It's available now from any book retailer. Just go to snafu-book.com. Thanks for listening and see you next week.

• 42:21Speaker 04

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• 42:49Speaker 02

  She's been thinking about this sleepover all week, but I think about her food allergies all the time. Fortunately, her doctor prescribed Zolair, omalizumab. It's proven to significantly reduce allergic reactions if a food allergy accident happens.

• 43:02Speaker 03

  Zolair 150mg is a prescription medication used to treat food allergy in people one year of age and older to reduce allergic reactions due to accidental exposure to one or more foods. While taking Zolair, you should continue to avoid all foods to which you are allergic. Don't use if you are allergic to Zolair. Zolair may cause a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. Tell your doctor if you ever had anaphylaxis. Get help right away if you have trouble breathing or if you have swelling of your throat or tongue. Zolair should not be used for the emergency treatment of allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis. Zolair is for maintenance use to reduce allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, while avoiding food allergens. Serious side effects such as cancer, fever, muscle aches and rash, parasitic infection, or heart and circulation problems have been reported. Please see zolair.com for full prescribing information. Ask an allergist about Zolair. This is an advertisement for Zolair,

• 43:46Speaker 03

  paid for by Genentech and Novartis.

• 43:48Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.