Isabelle Boemeke on what everyone gets wrong about nuclear energy

You’d need 200 Chernobyls a year to kill as many people as fossil fuels. And yet most of us are far more scared of nuclear than of any other energy source, despite the overwhelming data telling a different story. Where does this fear come from?

We find out with Isabelle Boemeke, the world’s first nuclear energy influencer, and author of Rad Future, a book that makes the case for nuclear in language anyone can follow.

We cover:

• How nuclear's reputation was built not on its safety record but on its origins: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Cold War drills, and a near-meltdown movie
• What the actual death toll data looks like across energy source, from nuclear to renewable sources to fossil fuels, including the deadliest energy accident in history almost no one knows about
• Why nuclear waste may be the most responsibly managed industrial waste humans produce
• What growing up without reliable energy in rural southern Brazil taught Isabelle about energy abundance, and why she thinks "degrowth" is not a credible answer to the climate problem
• How Isabelle went from over a decade as a model to becoming one of nuclear energy's most visible advocates, and why she decided the communication gap was the problem worth solving

This special episode was recorded at the 2025 Progress Conference. Enormous thanks to Roots of Progress for organizing the event, and to Lighthaven for providing the podcast studio.

On the Existential Hope Podcast hosts Allison Duettmann and Beatrice Erkers from the Foresight Institute invite scientists, founders, and philosophers for in-depth conversations on positive, high-tech futures.

Full transcript, listed resources, and more: https://www.existentialhope.com/podcasts

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