About this episode

Annie Jacobsen discusses her book on biological warfare and the frightening implications of engineered pathogens.

This may be my scariest episode ever!   We’ve covered non-fiction before, but rarely is the truth more frightening than the stories we tell. This week it just might be… cos Annie Jacobsen is here with Biological War: A Scenario.   It unveils a narrative of speculative reality, in which an engineered pathogen escapes a lab, and runs rampant through our civilisation. Cities fall, millions die, the lights go out.   I dared myself to read it. I dare you to listen to Annie tell us about her research, and the stuff she found that scares the hell out of her.   Enjoy (sort of!)   Other books mentioned: Nuclear War: A Scenario (2024), by Annie Jacobsen “A Modest Proposal” (1729), by Jonathan Swift World War Z (2006), by Max Brooks The Deluge (2023), by Stephen Markley A Brief History of the Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters (2021), by Andrew H. Knoll   Support Talking Scared on Patreon   Check out the Talking Scared Merch line – at VoidMerch   Come talk books on Threads, Bluesky, and Instagram, or email direct to talkingscaredpod@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Neil McRobert

Guest: Annie Jacobsen

Topics covered

• biological warfare
• speculative reality
• pandemic scenarios
• non-fiction
• research
• fear

Keywords

• biological war
• Annie Jacobsen
• pandemic
• speculative fiction
• non-fiction
• fear
• research

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Biological War: A Scenario, Nuclear War: A Scenario, A Modest Proposal, World War Z, The Deluge, A Brief History of the Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters

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