84. Black Swan Events
From Speculative Sandbox by Vickie Lan
February 2, 2026 · 43 min · Season 1 · Episode 84
About this episode
The episode explores how fiction represents mass emergencies with guest Helen Hynson Vettori.
How well does fiction capture devastating levels of mass emergencies? Guest author Helen Hynson Vettori, a former EMT/paramedic and retired senior medical intelligence analyst at the Department of Homeland Security and author of the Black Swan scifi disaster thriller series, joins Vickie Lan to answer this question. The video version of this episode can be found on Spotify and YouTube. Speculative Sandbox is for entertainment purposes only. This is a volunteer-run program. Opinions expressed by individuals on the podcast are their own.
People in this episode
Host: Vickie Lan
Guest: Helen Hynson Vettori
Topics covered
- mass emergencies
- fiction
- disaster
- scifi
- interview
- medical intelligence
Keywords
- mass emergencies
- fiction
- disaster thriller
- scifi
- interview
- EMT
- medical intelligence
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Department of Homeland Security
Books & works: Black Swan, Black Swan scifi disaster thriller series
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