In the 55th episode of Rabbit Hole of Research, Joe, Nick, Georgia, and new co-host Mary are joined by guest Bruce Landay, former US Air Force officer and author of the upcoming near-future military techno-thriller Electromagnetic Assault (out April 7th-pre order now), for a deep dive into directed energy weapons, the science, the fiction, and everything in between.
And this isn’t just science fiction Handwavium anymore. Days after recording the episode it was reported that, a military anti-drone laser system deployed by Customs and Border Protection in El Paso, Texas forced the FAA to temporarily shut down airspace over the city, a real-world reminder that directed energy weapons have quietly moved from fiction to reality.
The crew explores the real science behind directed energy weapons across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, from sound and microwave to shipboard lasers and how susceptible the infrastructure we all depend on are to these weapons.
They dig into the real weapons that exist today, the ones that are almost real, and the ones that are pure handwavium. How close is the Active Denial System to a Star Trek phaser on stun? What would an EMP actually do to modern society, and is it as catastrophic as One Second After suggests? And what happens when the clean electromagnetic war fantasy meets ethics and the very messy reality of physics?
Plus they go down the rabbit hole of plasma bugs, the brown note myth, Havana Syndrome theories, wetware vulnerabilities, the ethics of laser blinding conventions, and why the Death Star’s power requirements are thermodynamically absurd (and you know they couldn’t resist talking about the Handwavium of green lasers and cinematic noises in space).
Where to find Bruce Landay:
Substack column – Future Trends and Science Fiction:
Electromagnetic Assault goes on sale April 7th. Pre-Order Electromagnetic Assault on Amazon
Check out what the RHR crew is creating:
Joe:
Red Line: Chicago Horror Stories Anthology featuring a new story by Joe!
Joe’s Sci-fi physiological thriller Novel: Will You Still Love Me If I Become Someone Else?
Essay by Joe: From Beyond Press: Specific Knowledge: Jotham Austin, II, PhD on Transformations in Fiction
Joe explores how many calories it would take to transform into monsters across sci-fi and horror—think 222 Big Macs and tubs of Cherry Garcia.
Future Events to Hang with the Crew:
Podcast Cross-Appearances
Joe on GoIndieNow: 21grams with Joe Compton
Events & Conventions:
Author Palooza sponsored by New Book Joy Booktique: Imperial Oak Brewing in Brookfield, IL on March 21st, 2026
Creative Arts Summit: DIY Podcast Workshop at Lake County Public Library on May 23rd, 2026
ConCarolinas - Charlotte, NC (May 29 – May 31, 2026 ) - Joe attending as Guest
Dragon Con - Atlanta, GA (September 3-7, 2026) - Joe attending as Professional
It’s Science for Weirdos
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We want to Hear From You (leave a comment):
A military laser just shut down airspace over a US city. Does that surprise you, or did you see this coming?
If you could design a real-world version of a Star Trek phaser, what extra Handwavium thing would it actually do?
What’s your favorite fictional energy weapon and how badly does it violate the laws of physics? Let us know your ideas and we'll try to make it work on the mini-recap episode!
Drop your thoughts in the comments. We read them all, and your ideas often shape future episodes.
Future Episodes & Events
Episode 56 – Medicine of the Future: From Fantasy to Patient Care
Guest: Davis Ashura
Exploring how science fiction inspires real medical innovation and what the future of patient care might look like.
Episode 57 – The Science of Chatbots & Human Connection
Guests: Lily & Generoso
Diving into AI communication, computational science, and how chatbots are reshaping human interaction with MIT scientist-turned-writer Lily and illustrator/filmmaker Generoso.
For more stuff (Images, Episode Highlights, events, etc), subscribe to our Substack newsletter!
Show Notes & Fun facts
Books and comics:
One Second After by William Forstchen (also mentioned: One Year After and The Final Day — the complete trilogy)
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
The Coming Race by Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1871)
The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (1898)
The Eternaut (El Eternauta) on Netflix ,a 2025 six-episode Argentine sci-fi series directed by Bruno Stagnaro
El Eternauta is an Argentine science fiction comic created by Héctor Germán Oesterheld with artwork by Francisco Solano López
Movies & TV Shows:
Star Trek (phasers, photon torpedoes, disintegration effects)
Star Wars (Death Star, lightsabers, blasters)
Starship Troopers (1997 film) — plasma bugs
The Matrix (EMP scene)
Revolution (TV show about loss of electricity)
Leave the World Behind (Netflix movie, produced by the Obamas)
Zero Day (Netflix miniseries starring Robert De Niro — cyber attack)
Space Cowboys (Clint Eastwood film)
Black Mirror (subscription tech episode)
Watchmen (graphic novel)
Real-World Technology & Systems:
Active Denial System (ADS) — “pain ray” for crowd control
Navy’s HELIOS (High Energy Laser with Integrated Optical-dazzler and Surveillance)
Israel’s Iron Beam/Laser Dome
Layered Laser Defense (LLD)
Navy’s LaWS (Laser Weapon System)
Army’s DE M-SHORAD (Directed Energy Maneuver-Short Range Air Defense)
Air Force’s SHiELD (Self-protect High Energy Laser Demonstrator)
MARAUDER project (Magnetically Accelerated Ring to Achieve Ultra-high Directed Energy and Radiation)
Reagan’s “Star Wars” SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative)
Project Excalibur (nuclear-pumped X-ray lasers)
BEAR (Beam Experiment Aboard Rocket) — 1989
Fun Facts:
The Electromagnetic Spectrum as a Weapon — From radio waves to gamma rays, it’s all the same phenomenon (photons) at different frequencies. The only difference between a microwave oven and an X-ray machine is how fast the waves oscillate. Shorter wavelength = more energy per photon = more damage potential.
Lasers Are Invisible (Usually) — Most military lasers operate in the infrared spectrum, which means they’re completely invisible to the human eye. You won’t see a colorful beam like in the movies, real laser strikes just look like things spontaneously catching fire.
The Brown Note Is a Myth — Despite urban legends about a specific sound frequency that causes instant bowel movements, there’s zero scientific evidence it exists. MythBusters even tested it. You’re safe.
H.G. Wells Invented the Heat Ray Before We Understood Photons — In 1898’s The War of the Worlds, Wells described a Martian heat ray using a parabolic mirror to focus energy into a beam. He wrote this 60 years before the laser was invented and before quantum mechanics explained how light actually works.
Space Makes Directed Energy Weapons Way Better — In the vacuum of space, lasers and particle beams don’t scatter, don’t lose energy to atmosphere, and don’t suffer from thermal blooming (when the beam heats the air and defocuses itself). That’s why so much directed energy weapons research focuses on space-based platforms.
Episode Highlights
00:00 — “Hey, welcome back to the Rabbit Hole of Research down here in the basement studio.” — Basement Studio Roll Call: Joe, Nick, Georgia, new co-host Mary, and guest Bruce Landay introduce themselves.
01:06 — “Light is the fastest thing in the universe. And for centuries... we’ve been trying to turn that speed into a weapon.” — Joe kicks off the directed energy weapons discussion with the core question: why light?
01:37 — “Point. Click. Hit. No muzzle flash. No noise... Just an effective way to transfer energy from one place to another. The perfect weapon. Perfect, except for physics.” — Opening monologue: The “perfect weapon” versus the messy reality of physics.
03:16 — “I thought, maybe this is just what we need, just wipe it out. Start over... Bruce, please tell me why that’s a bad idea.” — Mary asks about EMP apocalypse scenarios; Bruce references William Forstchen’s One Second After trilogy and why total societal collapse is terrifying.
05:50 — “That’s probably as close you get to a stun setting on a phaser... this kind of technology here, would could actually work.” — Discussion of the Active Denial System (ADS) and whether “phaser on stun” is actually plausible.
07:05 — “The Navy has what’s called a Helio shipboard laser weapon... the one thing about it is that it’s got they need this massive electric generator to power this thing.” — Bruce explains real-world shipboard lasers and the global arms race (US, China, Russia, Israel).
08:10 — “These missile intercept systems, they’re a million bucks. They’re a million bucks a throw every time you punch the button.” — Missile defense economics and why Reagan’s “Star Wars” SDI was strategic genius (or con).
10:51 — “Hypersonic missiles... go a lot faster... like, I think, two or three times the speed of sound... super fast.” — Hypersonic missiles explained: speed (Mach 5+), size, and why they’re nearly impossible to intercept.
12:53 — “We’re talking about weapons that are along the electromagnetic spectrum... microwaves would be on that spectrum. You also have radio waves... x-rays, visible light, UV light, infrared, gamma.” — Joe’s electromagnetic spectrum crash course: from radio waves to gamma rays, and how wavelength determines energy.
20:42 — “A radar dish is very bad for the human body... If I wanted to be a father, I would probably have a difficult time being a father.” — Bruce shares a personal story about avoiding radar exposure; discussion of Havana Syndrome, microwaves, and human body damage.
23:18 — “The phaser in Star Trek was just this kind of all purpose handwaving... we don’t wanna deal with the consequences of killing whoever. Let’s disintegrate ‘em.” — Sci-fi vs reality: phaser modes, disintegration physics, and an unexpected tangent about Star Trek transporters.
25:30 — “War is nasty, is very nasty business. And this whole idea that, oh, we’ll just be very pinpoint... society breaks down.” — The “clean war” fallacy: EMPs, grid fragility, and why society would collapse faster than people think.
30:29 — “That’s a huge problem with all of the sort of automated weapons now... where there’s so much noise in the electromagnetic spectrum.” — Bruce on EMP blowback: when your own tech gets crippled by your weapons.
31:20 — “Think of like drone warfare. There is so much noise in the electromagnetic spectrum right now... you jam it with all kinds of junk signals.” — Drone warfare and electromagnetic jamming in real-world conflicts.
31:48 — “The thing that, that I think Elon Musk... that was one of the impetus for me to even write this story is I started reading about what we were doing with Neurotech.” — Bruce on wetware and brain implants as the new cyber vulnerability (and plot point in Electromagnetic Assault).
34:27 — “We have that today on Tesla cars... if you pay extra money, you’ll get more battery you’ll get more distance from your batteries.” — From Black Mirror to Tesla: subscription tech you can’t escape.
35:17 — “Nonfiction for me is, doesn’t have a lot of interest... I’ve just always had a wild imagination and love stories.”— Why Bruce writes fiction instead of nonfiction, and his journey to becoming an author.
37:47 — “I tend to... the period of time period, I write the second half of the 21st century... I like to at least create things that are reasonably plausible.” — Bruce on balancing hard sci-fi with handwavium and keeping tech plausible.
39:41 — “Think of things like you can do a fingerprint scan on your phone... I won’t do either one of those things. Heck, I... write stories about how that’s abused.” — Surveillance state, corporatized: smart devices watching back, and why Bruce avoids biometric tech.
41:15 — “In 1898, a book is written called The War of the Worlds by HG Wells... the heat ray... written 60 years before... the invention of the laser.” — Joe traces directed energy weapons in literature: Zeus, Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Coming Race (1871), and H.G. Wells predating the laser.
44:40 — “For technical thrillers, Daniel Suarez is absolutely a favorite... Growing up it was the classics Heinlein Asimov... obviously, the Tom Clancy books.” — Bruce shares his sci-fi influences and favorite authors, plus a deep dive into the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) and Oshkosh AirVenture.
48:58 — “The plasma bugs... plasma system wouldn’t work, but it was a cool kind of thing.” — Starship Troopers plasma bugs and why physics ruins the fun (atmospheric dissipation, targeting problems, etc.).
52:46 — “A lot of these systems need massive cooling... they’re not continuous their pulse so that they can have time to cool.” — Cooling, power requirements, and why space changes the directed-energy warfare equation.
53:44 — “When you say a discombobulator, I mean, what did it interrupt?... My guess would be some sort of, like a sonic weapon.” — “Discombobulator” theories: sonic weapons, microwaves, and Havana Syndrome speculation.
58:06 — “There’s conventions around using lasers to blind people in warfare... there’s this, you don’t wanna stare at lasers.” — Ethics of non-lethal weapons: laser blinding conventions (Protocol IV) and real-world limits.
01:00:51 — “What’s scary is just they’re becoming much more of the reality today... there will come a time when that will become much more a reality.” — Sci-fi weapons becoming reality, DARPA speculation, and wrapping up the conversation.
01:02:27 — “Electromagnetic assault... Navy pilot Jasmine Hassani was the sole survivor of a SEAL team rescue mission at a Chinese base. Her aircraft was shot down by a mystery energy weapon.” — Bruce gives his book pitch for Electromagnetic Assault and shares his upcoming events (Lakefly, Chicago Writers Conference).
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