In this nearly 4-hour SPECIAL EPISODE, Rob Reid delivers a 100-minute monologue (broken up into 4 segments, and interleaved with discussions with Sam) about the looming danger of a man-made pandemic, caused by an artificially-modified pathogen. The risk of this occurring is far higher and nearer-term than almost anyone realizes. Rob explains the science and motivations that could produce such a catastrophe and explores the steps that society must start taking today to prevent it. These measures are concrete, affordable, and scientifically fascinating—and almost all of them are applicable to future, natural pandemics as well. So if we take most of them, the odds of a future Covid-like outbreak would plummet—a priceless collateral benefit. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.

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Special Episode: Engineering the Apocalypse

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Sam Harris Episodes Around April 24, 2021

#233 — The Groves of Misinformation

#234 — The Divided Mind

#235 — A Call from Ricky Gervais

#236 — Rebooting New York City

#237 — Another Call from Ricky Gervais

#238 — How to Build a Universe

#239 — Yet Another Call from Ricky Gervais

#240 — The Boundaries of Self

#241 — Final Thoughts on Free Will

#242 — Psychedelics and the Self

#243 — A Few Points of Confusion

#244 — Food, Climate, and Pandemic Risk

#245 — Can We Talk About Scary Ideas?

#246 — Police Training & Police Misconduct

#247 — Constructing Minds

Special Episode: Engineering the Apocalypse

#248 — Order & Freedom

#249 — Distance & Arrival

#250 — Broken Conversations

#251 — Corporate Cowardice

#252 — Are We Alone in the Universe?

#253 — Corporate Courage

#254 — The Mating Strategies of Earthlings

#255 — The Future of Intelligence

#256 — A Contagion of Bad Ideas

Ask Me Anything #17

#257 — The State of the World

#258 — The Fall of Afghanistan

#259 — The Reckoning to Come

#260 — The Second Plane

Ask Me Anything #18

Summary