From Fashion Model to Fission Mission: Isabelle Boemeke’s Nuclear-Powered Future

When you hear the word nuclear, does your mind flash to mushroom clouds, Chernobyl, or maybe the glowing three-eyed fish from The Simpsons? Well, what if nuclear electricity — far from being an environmental villain — is actually one of the safest, cleanest, and most land-efficient energy sources we have?

It turns out that former fashion model Isabelle Boemeke is on a mission to change how we think about nuclear energy. When she and I met a few years ago, in Italy of all places, she was known by many simply as Isodope, her online persona that blends fashion, futurism, and fission to make nuclear cool again. And now, in her new book Rad Future, Isabelle argues that nuclear power isn’t just misunderstood — it’s essential to solving climate change, land preservation, and numerous other important concerns.

In our conversation, Isabelle details:

• Why fear of nuclear power stems more from cultural trauma than from science,

• Why nuclear electricity is safer and environmentally-friendlier than not just fossil fuels, but also solar and wind,

• What’s fact vs. fiction when it comes to the world’s biggest energy disasters,

• And why, despite all the excitement about fusion and modular reactors, maybe the smartest thing we can do right now is simply pick a proven fission design — and start building them fast.

I always love when it turns out that the thing we thought was the villain is actually a hero, or at least better than what we thought. If you do too, this is the episode for you, as this episode may challenge your assumptions about what’s truly “green” and is actually safe.

Discussed in this episode

• The 2019 Amazon Rainforest fires and Australian fires that decimated massive amounts of wildlife habitat helped inspire Isabelle to focus on environmental concerns such as climate change.

• The 1975 Baquiao dam collapse killed hundreds of thousands of people.

• Isabelle recommends checking out www.whatisnuclear.com and the Decouple Podcast.

• Commonwealth Fusion recently raised $863 million.

• The US military is investing in small, mobile nuclear reactors.

• Paul recently read a sci-fi book about nuclear-powered wildlife called The Kaiju Preservation Society.

Get to Know Isabelle Boemeke

With her signature mix of humor, sharp research, and optimistic vision, her debut book, Rad Future, makes the case for nuclear electricity as one of the best tools to solve the climate crisis. Boemeke is also known as Isodope, the irreverent digital persona on a mission to make nuclear cool. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Save Clean Energy and board member of Nature is Nonpartisan and Nuclear Scaling Initiative, where she works at the intersection of policy, culture, and technology to accelerate pragmatic solutions. She delivered a TED Talk that has been viewed nearly 2 million times, led a grassroots campaign that helped delay the closure of California’s Diablo Canyon Power Plant, and is a TIME Magazine “Next Generation Leader.”