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Episode 121 – “From Hiroshima to Hope: Seth Shelden’s Fight to Ban the Bomb”

How does a Brooklyn-born improv performer become the United Nations liaison for a Nobel-Prize-winning campaign to abolish nuclear weapons? In this powerful installment of Ordinary Heroes, host Bernie Furshpan sits down with Seth Shelden—law professor, activist, and General Counsel for the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

In this episode you’ll hear:

• The high-school reading assignment (John Hersey’s Hiroshima) that rewired Seth’s worldview.
• A firsthand look at ICAN’s 2017 Nobel Peace Prize and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons—now backed by half of the world’s nations.
• Why international law often works through stigma and storytelling, not soldiers and sanctions—and how that strategy is succeeding.
• Seth’s blend of creativity and policy: how theater, music, and humor fuel his legal advocacy.
• A candid exchange on generational trauma, zero-sum thinking, and the moral imperative to choose cooperation over catastrophe.

Entrepreneurial optimism meets hard-nosed disarmament strategy in a conversation that proves ordinary people really can tackle humanity’s biggest threats. Tune in for an inspiring reminder that eliminating nuclear weapons might be the easiest existential crisis we face—if we decide to act together.