Imagine the Russians were plotting to cause a tsunami by detonating a nuclear bomb, underwater, off America’s eastern coastline. Then imagine the Russians had studies showing the explosion would flood the east coast from Charleston, South Carolina to Boston, drowning Washington, DC in the process.

It sounds like an absurd, yet wildly entertaining plot to some Hollywood blockbuster or page-turning thriller — made up out of thin air, of course. But all of it is true.

As it turns out, in the 1960s, the Soviet Union seriously thought about attacking the American homeland in this exact manner.

This Soviet plot was one of the inspirations for my new novel, Shakedown, which I wrote with Pete Earley. The book, which was released this week, focuses on Mayberry and Garrett — one a former FBI agent, the other an ex-Navy SEAL —who are caught in the middle of a deadly crisis and must race to thwart a cataclysmic nuclear attack on American soil.

On this week’s episode of my podcast Newt’s World, I discuss Shakedown and the geopolitical situation — both historical and current — on which the book is based.