Nader was raised in the Eastern Orthodox Church. His siblings are Laura (a professor of social and cultural anthropology at U.C. Berkeley), Claire, and brother Shafeek.
He has lived in Washington, DC since the 1960s, but is domiciled in Connecticut, where he is registered to vote.
In addition to English, Nader also speaks Arabic, Russian, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Nader suffers from Bell's Palsy.
The song "Fast Cars" from the Buzzcocks' 1978 album Another Music in a Different Kitchen includes the line "sooner or later, you're gonna listen to Ralph Nader", referring to his efforts to raise awareness of lackluster vehicular safety standards.
Ralph Nader is mentioned in season 2, episode 23, "Semi-Friendly Persuasion" of the TV series, The A-Team, aired in 1983. In the episode, Templeton Peck impersonates a government agent from the Bureau of Weights and Measures who is investigating a crooked hardware store owner. During his conversation with the store owner, Peck begins, "We love guys like you. Ralph eats them for breakfast." The store owner replies, "Ralph?" to which Peck responds, "Nader! You're his kinda guy! Crooked, and proud of it!"
The October 14, 2000 episode of Saturday Night Live features an animated portrayal of Nader in a TV Funhouse episode. In the episode, Nader has teamed-up with Pat Buchanan to steal the 2000 U.S. presidential election, only to be stopped by the "X-Presidents" (a superhero group composed of Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, and Gerald Ford).
Californian punk rock band NOFX's 2003 song Franco Un-American includes the line "the President's laughing 'cause we voted for Nader", referring to Nader's possible role in inadvertently changing the result of the 2000 U.S. presidential election
The October 25, 2008 episode of Saturday Night Live features Bill Hader portraying Ralph Nader during a "Weekend Update" sketch. In the sketch, Seth Meyers asks Hader (as Nader) where he has been recently, to which Hader replies "food co-ops, armed compounds - I was at Burning Man for a couple of days, that was kinda cool".
In April 1940, Popular Science showed an example of a radar unit using the Watson-Watt patent in an article on air defence. Also, in late 1941 Popular Mechanics had an article in which a U.S. scientist speculated about the British early warning system on the English east coast and came close to what it was and how it worked. Watson-Watt was sent to the U.S. in 1941 to advise on air defense after Japans attack on Pearl Harbor. Alfred Lee Loomis organized the Radiation Laboratory at Cambridge, Massachusetts which developed the technology in the years 194145. Later, in 1943, Page greatly improved radar with the monopulse technique that was used for many years in most radar applications.
The war precipitated research to find better resolution, more portability, and more features for radar, including complementary navigation systems like Oboe used by the RAF's Pathfinder.
