Ovrture, the digital content studio of 44 Blue Productions, has produced new unscripted digital series Getting Bombed, which launches on YouTube on February 8, 2020.

Getting Bombed features casual conversations over drinks with nuclear, cyber and national security experts about the existential threats that keep them up at night. Think Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee meets Drunk History.

The show, taped in Los Angeles, is a joint production between Hollywood, Health & Society, a program of the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center, and Ovrture.

The Getting Bombed episodes, each around 10 minutes long, will stream each week on the YouTube channel of actor, comedian and filmmaker Chris Reinacher, who has more than 480,000 subscribers. Reinacher has performed on NBC’s Superstore and Adult Swim, and co-stars on Hulu’s Teenage Mountain Lion (which he co-created). He also produced content for the BuzzFeed Video channel (20 million subscribers).

Fun and informative, Getting Bombed aims to demystify topics dealing with history, policy-making and science. Joining Reinacher and his guest each week in the “doomsday bunker” is the mysterious and silent figure “Jeff,” who serves drinks while dressed in a yellow hazmat suit. Reinacher’s first guest will be Laicie Heeley, editor of the foreign policy magazine Inkstick, and host/executive producer of the podcast “Things That Go Boom.”

Ovrture is a digital content studio based in Los Angeles, with credits including IMDB’s Celebrity Watchlist and branded content for clients including Bumble and Google Pixel. Ovrture is part of 44 Blue Productions, producers of shows including A&E’s Wahlburgers, Animal Planet’s Pit Bulls & Parolees and Netflix’s Jailbirds.

Getting Bombed – Why now?

In 2020, there’s no shortage of things to fear. The Doomsday Clock is at 100 seconds to midnight, the closest it’s been since the clock was created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1947. We are now measuring how close the world is to global catastrophe in seconds. The man-made crisis of climate change threatens to not only upend how and where humans can live but could destabilize security worldwide. A single cyber virus can shut down an energy grid—or infiltrate the world’s most deadly weapons. Automation, algorithms, and mass surveillance can lead to “deep fakes” and the spread of dangerous misinformation. North Korea continues to develop its nuclear program, while the U.S. and Russia are engaged in a new arms race.

Most people see issues like nuclear weapons as beyond their understanding, let alone their control. One advisor to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists called the U.S. a “thermonuclear monarchy,” in which the government decides what information American citizens are allowed to have on nuclear policy and the use of weapons.

As long as there are wars, state secrecy, and technological innovations—not to mention stories of resistance and activism for peace—there will be plenty of material for conversation on Getting Bombed. The real question is… will the booze last?