The Fifth Horseman

"Four horsemen rode across the land, and their names were War, Pestilence, Famine and Death, and to these now is added a fifth horseman - the threat of the Atom!"

This fascinating series was part of a post-WW2 public service campaign to convince the public to ask the United States government to avoid a worldwide crisis, by placing the sciences of nuclear technology under the control of the United Nations. 

It was becoming apparent that unless the countries of the world reached an agreement about the atomic bomb, an armaments race and atomic war could (and likely would!) happen.

It was a very fearful time during this particular period of history, especially in the wake of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, especially when society began to associate nuclear warfare with the Biblical Apocalypse, hence the show's title, "The Fifth Horseman".

People believed that the "fifth" horseman was the threat of nuclear annihilation, which, according to popular belief, would be "the end of the world".

Even though the Cold War is now over, the Fifth Horseman, along with his other four brethren (War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death), still threaten to gallop over all the Earth, doubtlessly wreaking total existential cataclysm, so this riveting old time radio series is still every bit as relevant today as it was nearly three quarters of a century ago.

What you hear in the series is not designed to scare you - but it might! It's a story that is fiction, something that has not yet happened, but which could happen sometime in the future... Please be warned, however, that the program does feature very graphic descriptions of death and destruction.

Happy listening my friends,