Some people use podcasts to help them fall asleep. Some people are kept awake by existential dread. How about a podcast that can combine the two?!

Are We Doomed? is an excellent narrative documentary series that looks at genuine, or potential, threats to the planet or humanity. Think nuclear war, the next pandemic, or killer robots.

Host Ben Bradford joins us on POP-The Podcast to tell all about the show, published by National Public Radio (NPR).

Find out:

• why nuclear armageddon is perfectly possible, but would be "embarrassing"
• is there really a "supervolcano" waiting to blow up the entire United States?
• why Ben hates one futurist's idea that one day we will all have tiny pet hippos

Yes, it's a fun, but not flippant, podcast that is rooted in science and expertise.

Links:

Are We Doomed on the Pick of the Pods newsletter: https://pickofthepods.substack.com/p/armageddon-it-are-you

Are We Doomed

• homepage: https://www.npr.org/2026/04/21/g-s1-118208/a-new-npr-network-podcast-asks-the-big-question-are-we-doomed
• on any podcast app: https://pod.link/1893359212
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AreWeDoomedPod

Episodes of Are We Doomed featured on this episode of POP-The Podcast:

• Our Vision of the Post-Apocalypse Is Wrong: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QS9UVSgcjjk&list=PLqyfCS9DAyG9nboJAohk-5KWPN6zntVvr&index=1&t=10s
• The Yellowstone Supervolcano Panic! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbOka0S6N-o
• How To Survive a Nuclear War https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1CFpIp7Xck

Ben's Pod Picks:

• This American Life, Swim Towards the Shark: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/837/swim-towards-the-shark
• Oh, Hello: the P'dcast:
  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/oh-hello-the-pdcast/id1505873854
• Search Engine: https://www.searchengine.show/

Ben's fantasy interview:

Sam Altman or Jeff Bezos, locked in a room and forced to say honestly what is their vision of the future.

Subscribe to Pick of the Pods - the newsletter - on Substack: https://substack.com/@robinpomeroy

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Watch POP-The Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLQu6D1uClH0i-nR9YppCSgzhElMbfPcv7

Or follow on any podcast app - new episodes drop monthly: https://pod.link/1891273310

Music by fAR

Pick of the Pods: copyright Spinney Hill Media 2026.