The year is 1947. A man named Eugene Lebar has come to New York City and died of smallpox. The health commissioner, the amazingly named Israel Weinstein, has to figure out how to stop the disease before it wipes out the whole city. Oh, and a lot of people are about to gather in one place for a big parade. Let me just say, this is an amazing gripping story. Like you think the Last of Us is good? You haven't seen anything yet. Roll tape.
Malcolm talks with his old friend, the brilliant science writer Michael Specter, about the future of life on Earth. Michael's response to the Covid-19 pandemic was to create a new audiobook on how the mRNA vaccines have sparked a biotechnology revolution: Higher Animals: Vaccines, Synthetic Biology, and the Future of Life. He and Malcolm talk about how this scientific revolution is bigger than many that came before it, about the promise of heritable vaccines for endangered species, and about how a smallpox infection could genuinely have wiped out New York in 1947. Also, we share a portion of Higher Animals' first, thrilling chapter. To purchase your own, complete copy of Michael Specter's Higher Animals, visit Pushkin.fm.
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