Project Pluto: The Missile That Wouldn’t Die

In 1964, deep in the Nevada desert, America tried to make a nuclear reactor fly.At a place called Jackass Flats — a name too perfect to be a coincidence — engineers tested an engine that could have changed the course of history or ended it entirely. They called it Project Pluto, a nuclear-powered cruise missile with unlimited range and a heart of uranium.

Imagine a weapon that could fly forever — roaring just above treetops, armed with multiple hydrogen bombs, spewing radiation as it went. It wasn’t fiction. It was tested. It worked. And yet, the project died quietly, buried under its own brilliance and madness.

This episode dives into the minds of the men who built it — pioneers, not monsters — who genuinely believed they were creating the next leap in defense technology. They didn’t fully understand what radiation could do, but they understood fear, progress, and pride. And for a few surreal years, that was enough to keep the engines running.

Project Pluto: The Missile That Wouldn’t Die is the story of how Cold War genius danced with insanity — and how America’s obsession with being first almost built a flying apocalypse.

Don’t miss this one. Then visit www.paulgnewton.com to grab some Things I Want to Know: Voices swag, support future episodes, and remind the world — don’t irradiate any cows.