Lesley Blume

Los Angeles, New York

Journalist • Historian • New York Times bestselling author: EVERYBODY BEHAVES BADLY and FALLOUT • Coming in 2026: A DEVIL’S BARGAIN

Articles

Gene Hackman Was Scoundrel Perfection

1 month ago | townandcountrymag.com | Lesley Blume

Like all card-carrying Gen Xers, I grew up on a well-rounded Gene Hackman diet: Superman’s louche Lex Luther; the Poseidon Adventure’s priest who had a one-sided shouting match with God on a doomed cruise ship (“How many more sacrifices? How many more lives?? You want another life??? Then take me!”). These were foxy roles, for sure.
Jeffrey Deitch on Fifty Years in the Art World

1 month ago | sothebys.com | Lesley Blume

Anyone entering the front gate to Jeffrey Deitch’s Los Angeles home in the Los Feliz hills is essentially greeted by nearly a dozen Jeffrey Deitches. Ten bronze heads—each donning an approximation of Deitch’s trademark round spectacles—are clustered on a garden table nearby. The flesh-and-blood Deitch, dressed in an immaculate suit and tie, emerges from the front door of the house and explains: the heads comprise a sculpture titled “Jeffreys,” created for Deitch by Urs Fischer around 10 years ago.
Charlize Theron on Philanthropy and her Africa Outreach Program

Nov 2, 2023 | townandcountrymag.com | Lesley Blume

“It’s not that I’m biased because I’m from there,” Charlize Theron says of South Africa. Although for more than two decades the Oscar winner has been one of Hollywood’s most successful actresses and producers, her heart remains in her home country. “It is one of those places that’s truly, truly special,” she says. “You can ask anybody who has ever been.
Japan Releases Nuclear Wastewater into the Pacific. How Worried Should We Be?

Aug 27, 2023 | transcend.org | Lesley Blume

Lesley M.M. Blume | National Geographic - TRANSCEND Media Service The plan to gradually discharge more than a million tons of treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant has started–deeply dividing nations and scientists. 24 Aug 2023 – Japan has started releasing wastewater into the ocean. But this isn’t the kind of wastewater that flows from city streets into stormwater drains.
Essai Trinity en 1945 | Des retombées radioactives jusqu’au Canada

Aug 4, 2023 | lapresse.ca | Lesley Blume

En juillet 1945, avant le premier test de la bombe atomique dans le désert du Nouveau-Mexique, Robert Oppenheimer et les autres chercheurs du projet Manhattan en savaient assez peu sur les effets de cette explosion. Le 16 juillet, lorsque l’arme à fission au plutonium a été activée au sommet d’une tour métallique de 30 mètres dans le cadre d’un essai appelé « Trinity », l’explosion a été beaucoup plus forte que prévu.
Trinity nuclear test’s fallout reached 46 states, Canada and Mexico, study finds

Jul 21, 2023 | japantimes.co.jp | Lesley Blume

In July 1945, as J. Robert Oppenheimer and the other researchers of the Manhattan Project prepared to test their brand-new atomic bomb in a New Mexico desert, they knew relatively little about how that mega-weapon would behave. On July 16, when the plutonium-implosion device was set off atop a 100-foot metal tower in a test code-named “Trinity,” the resultant blast was much stronger than anticipated.
Trinity Nuclear Test’s Fallout Reached 46 States, Canada and Mexico, Study Finds

Jul 21, 2023 | news.yahoo.com | Lesley Blume

An undated photo provided by the National Archives and Records Administration of contaminated film scans that were sent from Rochester, N.Y. to Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, the leader of the Manhattan Project, an early indicator that the fallout from the Trinity nuclear test was spreading nationwide. (National Archives and Records Administration via The New York Times)In July 1945, as J.
Collateral damage: American civilian survivors of the 1945 Trinity test

Jul 16, 2023 | thebulletin.org | Lesley Blume

On Sunday, July 15, 1945, at around 11 pm Mountain War Time, New York Times reporter and in-house Manhattan Project historian (or propagandist, some would say) William L. Laurence joined the project’s scientists on a caravan of buses, trucks, and cars heading out of Albuquerque. Their destination: the New Mexico desert, about 125 miles to the southeast, to witness the first atomic bomb detonation in history. None of the bomb’s creators knew whether the test—codenamed “Trinity”—would be successful.
Japan releases Fukushima water into the Pacific-is it dangerous?

May 24, 2023 | nationalgeographic.com | Lesley Blume

Japan has started releasing wastewater into the ocean. But this isn't the kind of wastewater that flows from city streets into stormwater drains. It's treated nuclear wastewater used to cool damaged reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, stricken by an earthquake over a decade ago. Japan claims that the wastewater, containing a radioactive isotope called tritium and possibly other radioactive traces, will be safe.