Latest news with #IsabelleBoemeke
Wall Street Journal
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Wall Street Journal
Nuclear Power Is Having a Pop Culture Moment
When fashion model Isabelle Boemeke started posting TikToks about nuclear power in 2020, her friends were baffled. One of her booking agents said she would wreck her career by touting something so controversial. 'This is how it all goes down,' Boemeke says as she takes on the alienesque persona 'Isodope' and explains how a reactor works in an early video.
New York Times
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Nuclear Power Needs Influencers?
'You have to go see the waste — did you see the waste?' Isabelle Boemeke shouted into the wind, which whipped her long, dark braid behind her as she stood on the California shoreline in San Luis Obispo. The waste in question was the leftover uranium rods from producing nuclear energy, which are stored in thick casks of steel and concrete to keep them, at least theoretically, safely away from human beings. (Those who oppose the plant have their doubts.) Ms. Boemeke once kissed one of these casks. In the distance behind her, occasionally visible behind the thick sea fog, was Diablo Canyon Power Plant, a nuclear power facility situated on a cartoonishly beautiful stretch of coastline. Dressed in a blazer with sharp pointed shoulders and asymmetrical silver earrings, Ms. Boemeke looked like the heroine of a dystopian novel set sometime in the future. (A future where Prada is still making loafers — more than slightly impractical for the rocky terrain.) Several of the plant's employees looked on, alert. In 2020, Ms. Boemeke, a Brazilian model who has posed for brands including Cult Gaia, began posting on social media as Isodope, a persona she created for her nuclear advocacy work. On Isodope's Instagram and TikTok pages, Ms. Boemeke uses familiar influencer tropes like 'get ready with me' videos, fitness regimens and beauty routines. The point is to make nuclear energy appear cool while rendering high-level concepts digestible for a mainstream, very online audience. Ms. Boemeke has explained fusion and fission using Legos, and compared uranium pellets (which she also calls 'magic spicy rocks') to gummy bears, for scale. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
