Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin

Daniel James Brown discusses his book 'The Boys in the Boat' about the American rowing team that beat Germany in the 1936 Olympics. Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin talk about 'American Prometheus,' a biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer and his involvement with the Manhattan Project during the anti-communist era.

Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, authors of a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, discuss J. Robert Oppenheimer's early career in quantum physics, his associations with left-wing politics and the Communist Party, his leadership of the Manhattan Project, and his confrontations with the moral and political consequences of scientific progress during the Cold War. They also explore the significance of Oppenheimer's downfall during the McCarthy era and his efforts to promote international controls on atomic weapons.