We Try and Kill the Internet

We Try and Kill the Internet

The internet is how you get your news, your paycheck, your groceries, your banking, and    sometimes your drinking water. Humanity has quietly handed over the keys to civilization to a network most of us don't understand and couldn't rebuild. So what happens if it goes down — and not for a day or two?  Ben Bradford tries to kill the internet, hunting for weak points in undersea cables, cyberattacks, cloud computing, overlooked open-source plumbing, and fragile politics. It’s harder than it looks, but maybe not impossible. Should we be worried? Guests: Bruce Schneier, cryptographer, cybersecurity lecturer, and author of Click Here to Kill Everybody. Doug Madory, director of internet analysis for Kentik. Support Are We Doomed?, get bonus episodes, and more: https://doompod.com/support/ [https://doompod.com/support/%20] Watch earlier episodes on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@arewedoomedpod [https://www.youtube.com/@arewedoomedpod] To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below: See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

Past Dooms That Didn't Arrive

People have been predicting the end of the world forever. They’ve always been wrong. Maybe we’re wrong today, too. So, we’re looking back at three past dooms predicted in the 20th century, none of which arrived as advertised. Why not? What can we learn? Does it mean that the current biggest end-of-the-world fears may be overblown, misunderstood, or — with effort — preventable? Along the way: failed utopias, dystopias, and the animal Ben fears most: the mini-hippo. Guest: Matt Novak, journalist at Gizmodo and long-time author of the Paleofuture blog. Support Are We Doomed?, get bonus episodes, and more: https://doompod.com/support/  Watch earlier episodes on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@arewedoomedpod To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below: See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

How To Survive a Nuclear War

The air raid sirens scream (actually, they don’t work anymore). An emergency alert goes out, because … nuclear missiles are in-bound. It’s happening! How do we survive (non-Hollywood edition)? From diving into crumbling fallout shelters to emerging into a world where nuclear winter is descending, Ben explores what armageddon would actually look like, what the movies get wrong, and why — for most of us — it’s not a flash of light, but a cramped slog. Support Are We Doomed?, get bonus episodes, and more: https://doompod.com/support/  [https://doompod.com/support/%20] Listen to our episode "How to Start a Nuclear War [https://pod.link/1893359212/episode/cHJ4XzE2ODU3X2Q5MGUyZjc0LWYxYmUtNDViYy1iYzk2LTI2MWY3MzdkZDc1Yw?view=apps&sort=popularity]." Watch earlier episodes on Youtube! https://www.youtube.com/@arewedoomedpod [https://www.youtube.com/@arewedoomedpod] To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below: See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

How Do You Kill a Mosquito?

Mosquitoes are little jerks. They suck your blood to make more mosquitoes, spread deadly diseases like malaria and dengue, and have killed more humans than any other creature in the history of Earth. But now, we can fight back. Gene-editing technology (CRISPR, gene drives) could temporarily wipe out disease-carrying mosquitoes in whole regions — potentially saving millions of lives. A miracle, but with an unsettling question of its own: Who gets to decide when humanity rewrites nature? Also: radiation-blasted flies, Australian rabbit smoothies, and … Mosquito Jurassic Park. Support Are We Doomed?, get bonus episodes, and more: https://doompod.com/support/ [https://doompod.com/support/] To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below: See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]

Supervolcano!

A supervolcano burbles under Yellowstone National Park. Enormous. Real. According to the internet’s most excitable corners, just itching to turn America into charcoal any minute now.  Ben Bradford investigates what supervolcanoes can actually do, why Yellowstone is almost certainly not about to blow its top, and how scientists tell when a volcano is really waking up. Panic over a national park may be distracting us from another, sneakier, more critical volcanic threat. Support Are We Doomed?, get bonus episodes, and more: https://doompod.com/support/  To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below: See pcm.adswizz.com [https://pcm.adswizz.com] for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy [https://www.npr.org/about-npr/179878450/privacy-policy]