Weapons of mass infection

大规模感染武器

Today, Explained

2026-08-04

25 分钟
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单集简介 ...

A new book imagines the chaos that could unfold if a biological weapon were released — either accidentally or on purpose. This episode was produced in partnership with Vox's Future Perfect. It was produced by Avishay Artsy, edited by Miranda Kennedy with help from Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Gabriel Dunatov, engineered by Patrick Boyd and David Tatasciore, and hosted by Noel King. A person wearing an orange protective suit and a gas mask is seen at an event to promote the German government's new initiative to strengthen civil defence nationwide. Photo by Maryam Majd/Getty Images. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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  • The investigative journalist Annie Jacobson made a name for herself writing deeply reported books about things

  • you kind of think are conspiracies, Area 51, ESP, and finding they are not entirely conspiracies.

  • In 2024, Jacobson tried something different.

  • She has lots of high-level sources in government,

  • and she conducted years of interviews asking what would happen in the event of a nuclear war.

  • How would it play out?

  • Her book, Nuclear War, A Scenario, was a work of imagination.

  • It was fiction.

  • But she'd done so much research and she'd talked to so many people

  • that what emerged was a terrifying and realistic look at how things might actually play out.

  • And those people in the know on nukes gave her a piece of advice.

  • Nuclear, you have to look at bio.

  • Bio, bio warfare.

  • And so Annie is back to terrorize us with a new book coming up on today.

  • Explained from Box in the event of a biological war.

  • Support for this show today comes from Anthropic, the team behind Claude.

  • Claude is the AI for minds that don't stop at good enough.

  • It's the collaborator that actually understands your entire workflow and thinks with you.

  • Whether you're debugging code at midnight or strategizing your next business move,

  • Claude extends your thinking to tackle the problems that matter.