Into the Impossible With Brian Keating
Into the Impossible With Brian Keating
Big Bang Productions Inc.
Annie Jacobsen: How One Lab Leak Ends the World in 6 Days
1 hour 49 minutes Posted Jul 28, 2026 at 9:04 pm.
Covid was 1%. Pneumonic plague is 100%.
Why this conversation matters (please subscribe)
Don't judge a book by its cover — Biological War
"You can only mitigate extermination"
Reporting a classified world without a clearance
Gain-of-function: cure or weapon?
BSL-4, Vektor & the Siberia lab leak
Katalin Karikó & the two sides of the lab bench
Paul Berg & when biology turned dangerous
Paranoia as doctrine: why the Soviets cheated
Tailored bioweapons & genetic privacy
Could it happen again? What Covid taught us
The WHO "not airborne" mistake & the collapse of trust
Both sides failed: the vaccine politics
The "euphoria" enhancement — dark-hearted evil
Why "airborne" changes everything
Climate vs. AI: the next scenario?
Biological twilight & "devolution"
Fritz Haber and the hubris of genius
AI + bio: the real threat
Mirror life: the extinction-level horror
Trinity Day, Iran & "the atomic weapon"
The Fermi Paradox & the Great Filter
A gift for Annie (a meteorite + a piece of the Moon)
Igor Domaradsky's secret notes
Daschle, anthrax & "inhuman things just to survive"
If you were President: shutting down the internet
Who dies first — first responders and mothers
Sam Altman, ChatGPT & the change OpenAI made
"You want me on that wall"
A hopeful ending
0:00
1:49:08
Download MP3
Show notes
Annie Jacobsen on BIOLOGICAL WAR: how a single lab leak could take us from outbreak to anarchy in six days — and why bio may be scarier than nuclear.
WIN a signed copy of BIOLOGICAL WAR or NUCLEAR WAR, a meteorite & more — enter free: https://briankeating.com/annie
(Join there for the free Biological War Scenario Simulation and Source Dossier + early access to my next Nobel-laureate interview.)
Covid killed ~1% of the people it infected. Pneumonic plague, untreated, kills nearly 100% within 24 hours. In her new book Biological War: A Scenario, bestselling journalist Annie Jacobsen war-games what happens when an engineered pathogen escapes — drawing on interviews with presidential advisors, secretaries of defense, STRATCOM commanders, epidemiologists, and directors of Operation Warp Speed.
We get into gain-of-function, the Soviet bioweapons program, mirror life, AI and bioweapons (including her conversation with Sam Altman), the Fermi Paradox and the Great Filter — and why the first 24 hours decide everything.
ENTER THE GIVEAWAY + GET THE FREE SOURCE DOSSIER: https://briankeating.com/annie
GET THE BOOK (Annie narrates the audiobook): https://www.amazon.es/Biological-War-non-fiction-thriller-bestselling/dp/1911742035
https://play.google.com/store/audiobooks/details?id=AQAAAEBqvjj-QM
ABOUT ANNIE JACOBSEN
Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Nuclear War: A Scenario, Operation Paperclip, Area 51, and Surprise, Kill, Vanish.
GO DEEPER
• Katalin Karikó — the mRNA breakthrough: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3oPZMPMlzsEFEyvVHA5dAE
• Jay Bhattacharya — Follow Science, Not Scientists: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTnJNXYFg9M
• Freeman Dyson — Into the Impossible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egpsFbbpkHQ
A FEW SOURCES FROM THE BOOK (full dossier at https://briankeating.com/annie)
• "Confronting risks of mirror life," Science (2024): https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ads9158
• Ken Alibek, Biohazard (the Soviet program from the man who ran it)
• Biological Weapons Convention (1972): https://disarmament.unoda.org/en/our-work/weapons-mass-destruction/biological-weapons/biological-weapons-convention
SUBSCRIBE so guests like Annie keep saying yes: https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1
Newsletter + meteorite offer: https://BrianKeating.com/edu: https://briankeating.com/annie
Get the transcript, fascinating bonus content, and my Monday M.A.G.I.C. Message: https://briankeating.com/yt
Support Into the Impossible on Patreon, get my weekly M.A.G.I.C. Message, unfiltered bonus content, and live monthly Office Hours with me: https://www.patreon.com/drbriankeating
Join this channel for perks, monthly Office Hours, and your name in the Member Roster at the end of every episode: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmXH_moPhfkqCk6S3b9RWuw/join
What scares you more — nuclear war or biological war? Tell me in the comments.
#AnnieJacobsen #BiologicalWar #Bioweapons #Pandemic #BrianKeating #IntoTheImpossible #NuclearWar #MirrorLife #AI #Biosecurity
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices