During the Cold War, millions of American children were taught to hide under their desks as a means of surviving a nuclear war. Today, we dismiss that practice as heavy-handed propaganda. But in our new world of nuclear threats, these civil defense measures might make a significant difference in the way Americans think about nuclear weapons — and potentially their own survival. Alex Wellerstein received a PhD from the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University in 2010, and a BA in History from the UC Berkeley, in 2002, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Managing the Atom Project and International Security Program at the Harvard Kennedy School in 2010-2011. Dr. Alex is currently completing his book on the history of nuclear secrecy in the United States, from the Manhattan Project through the War on Terror, under contract with the University of Chicago Press. He is the author of Restricted Data: The Nuclear Secrecy Blog, the creator of the online NUKEMAP nuclear weapons effects simulator, and contributor to The New Yorker's Elements Blog, and has been published in the Washington Post, Harper's Magazine, Science and Nature. His work has also been featured on a variety of media outlets, including The Daily Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live. He is co-PI on the Reinventing Civil Defense Project, sponsored by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx