1 00:00:15,396 --> 00:00:22,836 Speaker 1: Pushkin, there's a place in our world where the known 2 00:00:22,916 --> 00:00:28,036 Speaker 1: things go. A corridor of the mind, lined with shelves 3 00:00:28,036 --> 00:00:34,996 Speaker 1: cluttered with proof. Huh, rock, this could be a meteorite. Okay, 4 00:00:34,996 --> 00:00:40,116 Speaker 1: it's got some strange green goo on the inside. I'll 5 00:00:40,156 --> 00:00:46,876 Speaker 1: just leave that there, moldy old birthday cake, and right 6 00:00:46,916 --> 00:00:51,876 Speaker 1: beside it an old poster authorized personnel only, US Government 7 00:00:52,156 --> 00:00:59,156 Speaker 1: quarantine station yesh a photo of the President rolling up 8 00:00:59,156 --> 00:01:05,036 Speaker 1: a sleeve getting a shot. This place, this evidence room, 9 00:01:05,076 --> 00:01:08,396 Speaker 1: stores the facts that matter and matters of fact. It 10 00:01:08,556 --> 00:01:11,316 Speaker 1: lies in a time between now and then, in the 11 00:01:11,396 --> 00:01:16,756 Speaker 1: long shadow of doubt. The sign on the door reads 12 00:01:16,796 --> 00:01:23,756 Speaker 1: the last archive step across the threshold to the Apollo 13 00:01:23,796 --> 00:01:27,756 Speaker 1: eleven command module, hurtling at ten thousand, one hundred and 14 00:01:27,796 --> 00:01:35,836 Speaker 1: ninety five ft per second towards the surface of the Earth. Okay, 15 00:01:35,836 --> 00:01:39,516 Speaker 1: a follow eleven remains the prime story, with the world 16 00:01:39,556 --> 00:01:43,956 Speaker 1: awaiting your landing today at about the eleven forty nine 17 00:01:43,996 --> 00:01:49,916 Speaker 1: am Houston time, July twenty fourth, nineteen sixty nine, four 18 00:01:49,996 --> 00:01:53,236 Speaker 1: days after six hundred and fifty million people on Earth Watch, 19 00:01:53,356 --> 00:01:57,516 Speaker 1: Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon. Now that looked like 20 00:01:57,596 --> 00:02:00,516 Speaker 1: the easy part. The hard part would be getting the 21 00:02:00,556 --> 00:02:04,676 Speaker 1: three astronauts home. Mission Control in Houston was updating the 22 00:02:04,716 --> 00:02:08,236 Speaker 1: astronauts with the latest news from Earth and cracking a 23 00:02:08,276 --> 00:02:13,556 Speaker 1: few jokes. Air Canada says it has accepted twenty three 24 00:02:13,596 --> 00:02:16,676 Speaker 1: hundred reservations for flights to the Moon in the past 25 00:02:16,756 --> 00:02:20,356 Speaker 1: five days. It might be noted that more than one 26 00:02:20,436 --> 00:02:24,196 Speaker 1: hundred have been made by men for their mothers in law. 27 00:02:25,476 --> 00:02:28,236 Speaker 1: I guess that's Houston trying to keep things late, because 28 00:02:28,276 --> 00:02:31,236 Speaker 1: after all, the Apollo eleven astronauts were about to pierce 29 00:02:31,276 --> 00:02:35,196 Speaker 1: the atmosphere at about a thousand degrees fahrenheit and splash 30 00:02:35,276 --> 00:02:40,556 Speaker 1: down into the ocean. Nashville, Tennessee now reports it is 31 00:02:40,596 --> 00:02:43,276 Speaker 1: being flooded by Moon's songs. A song at the top 32 00:02:43,316 --> 00:02:46,956 Speaker 1: of the bestseller's list this week is in the year 33 00:02:47,836 --> 00:02:51,756 Speaker 1: twenty five twenty five. I like to imagine to hear 34 00:02:51,836 --> 00:02:54,756 Speaker 1: in my head NASA Command in Houston playing that song 35 00:02:55,116 --> 00:02:59,076 Speaker 1: while guiding the astronaut's reentry, preparing them for what's to 36 00:02:59,116 --> 00:03:10,956 Speaker 1: come in twenty five twenty five. If man is still alive, 37 00:03:13,556 --> 00:03:22,756 Speaker 1: if woman can servive, they may find eleven and at 38 00:03:24,476 --> 00:03:29,236 Speaker 1: eleven Horn at Quadri Flag Dot are over our better 39 00:03:32,276 --> 00:04:01,236 Speaker 1: train there WI the water r right right. The Apollo 40 00:04:01,276 --> 00:04:04,356 Speaker 1: eleven modules splashed down into the Pacific Ocean, not too 41 00:04:04,396 --> 00:04:07,716 Speaker 1: far from Hawaii, where the astronauts were to be retrieved 42 00:04:07,876 --> 00:04:12,516 Speaker 1: by waiting swimmers. This is where the story often ends. 43 00:04:12,756 --> 00:04:16,916 Speaker 1: The astronauts safely returned to Earth. Our world knit closer together. 44 00:04:17,596 --> 00:04:19,956 Speaker 1: We went to the Moon. They went to the Moon, 45 00:04:20,356 --> 00:04:24,036 Speaker 1: and they came back. But let that mission control tape 46 00:04:24,116 --> 00:04:27,556 Speaker 1: roll just a few seconds longer after splash down, and 47 00:04:27,716 --> 00:04:32,156 Speaker 1: things start to get a little strange, And the first 48 00:04:32,196 --> 00:04:35,676 Speaker 1: astronaut has been scrubbed down, and now the astronauts are 49 00:04:35,676 --> 00:04:41,116 Speaker 1: scrubbing down the swimmer. Immediately after contact, the astronauts were 50 00:04:41,156 --> 00:04:44,236 Speaker 1: scrubbed down by a swimmer, washed from head to toe 51 00:04:44,836 --> 00:04:47,756 Speaker 1: while floating in the middle of the ocean, because NASA 52 00:04:47,916 --> 00:04:52,036 Speaker 1: was worried about a moon plague. Nobody had ever been 53 00:04:52,116 --> 00:04:54,836 Speaker 1: to the Moon before, and NASA had to wonder what 54 00:04:54,996 --> 00:04:58,036 Speaker 1: if there was life there? Not aliens with big eyes 55 00:04:58,076 --> 00:05:03,236 Speaker 1: and weird shaped skulls, but bacteria viruses. No one knew 56 00:05:03,276 --> 00:05:05,916 Speaker 1: what the astronauts might bring back with them, So after 57 00:05:06,036 --> 00:05:08,716 Speaker 1: the astronauts came back to Earth, they did something we 58 00:05:09,236 --> 00:05:12,796 Speaker 1: day in the age of masks and COVID tests know 59 00:05:12,956 --> 00:05:18,156 Speaker 1: all too well they quarantined. Most extraordinary part of the 60 00:05:18,196 --> 00:05:21,276 Speaker 1: Apollo eleven flight to the Moon will start after they 61 00:05:21,356 --> 00:05:24,636 Speaker 1: get back, the beginning of the most rigorous three weeks 62 00:05:24,716 --> 00:05:30,996 Speaker 1: quarantine any human beings have ever had to endure. Welcome 63 00:05:31,076 --> 00:05:33,236 Speaker 1: to the Last Archive, the show about how we know 64 00:05:33,356 --> 00:05:35,476 Speaker 1: what we know, how we used to know things, and 65 00:05:35,596 --> 00:05:37,716 Speaker 1: why it seems lately as if we don't know anything 66 00:05:37,756 --> 00:05:41,276 Speaker 1: at all. I'm Jill Lapour. This episode picks up where 67 00:05:41,276 --> 00:05:44,036 Speaker 1: our last one left off, the end of the Moon mission. 68 00:05:44,836 --> 00:05:47,156 Speaker 1: I think the Apollo mission is a rift in history, 69 00:05:47,516 --> 00:05:51,356 Speaker 1: a hinge where everything changed, a fracture in time and space. 70 00:05:52,476 --> 00:05:56,396 Speaker 1: We used to look at the stars and wonder. After Apollo, 71 00:05:56,556 --> 00:06:00,516 Speaker 1: we'd seen space as something else, cold, lifeless, a vacuum, 72 00:06:01,276 --> 00:06:05,156 Speaker 1: or if there was life out there was dangerous. That 73 00:06:05,316 --> 00:06:09,396 Speaker 1: splashdown led to waves of doubt, doubt about science, a 74 00:06:09,556 --> 00:06:14,876 Speaker 1: wave we're still riding today, a tidal wave still crashing. 75 00:06:18,676 --> 00:06:21,356 Speaker 1: When the astronauts landed safely on Earth, or at least 76 00:06:21,356 --> 00:06:26,236 Speaker 1: in the ocean, President Richard Nixon celebrated, this is the 77 00:06:26,356 --> 00:06:30,036 Speaker 1: greatest week, and the history of the world has the creation, 78 00:06:30,956 --> 00:06:34,316 Speaker 1: but the danger hadn't entirely passed. Even before the astronauts 79 00:06:34,356 --> 00:06:36,516 Speaker 1: went to the Moon, scientists had begun to plan for 80 00:06:36,596 --> 00:06:41,116 Speaker 1: the risk, however small, that the astronauts might bring something back. 81 00:06:41,836 --> 00:06:44,036 Speaker 1: Do you think there really is any chance of bringing 82 00:06:44,076 --> 00:06:49,156 Speaker 1: back banks from the Moon. It's an exceedingly unlikely event. Indeed, 83 00:06:49,516 --> 00:06:52,276 Speaker 1: sure it was exceedingly unlikely. But what if it did happen, 84 00:06:52,756 --> 00:06:55,636 Speaker 1: And what if normal disinfectants couldn't kill it, what if 85 00:06:55,716 --> 00:06:59,956 Speaker 1: medicine couldn't cure it? Scientists painted a picture frightening enough 86 00:07:00,396 --> 00:07:03,876 Speaker 1: that NASA built the Lunar Receiving Laboratory in Houston, where 87 00:07:03,876 --> 00:07:07,916 Speaker 1: the returning astronauts were whisked after splashdown to quarantine for 88 00:07:07,996 --> 00:07:11,116 Speaker 1: twenty one days. NASA kind of made a big show 89 00:07:11,156 --> 00:07:14,116 Speaker 1: of it all, rather than Nixon waving to the astronauts, 90 00:07:14,156 --> 00:07:17,516 Speaker 1: the curtains have been drawn. There they are in the 91 00:07:17,916 --> 00:07:23,596 Speaker 1: rear window. The curtains have been drawn. I love that. 92 00:07:23,796 --> 00:07:27,076 Speaker 1: It's as if the window is a little theater. Today 93 00:07:27,156 --> 00:07:30,156 Speaker 1: people use the term hygiene theater to talk about the 94 00:07:30,236 --> 00:07:33,396 Speaker 1: things we do to protect against coronavirus, when a lot 95 00:07:33,436 --> 00:07:36,036 Speaker 1: of those things probably don't make any difference, Like a 96 00:07:36,116 --> 00:07:38,516 Speaker 1: rental car agency that vacuums the car in front of you, 97 00:07:39,156 --> 00:07:41,996 Speaker 1: or a hotel with elevator operators who pressed the buttons 98 00:07:42,156 --> 00:07:44,316 Speaker 1: with gloves on and then wipe down the buttons after 99 00:07:44,396 --> 00:07:47,596 Speaker 1: each press. Anyway, did these things really do anything to 100 00:07:47,636 --> 00:07:51,796 Speaker 1: protect against COVID nineteen? Probably not, but it makes some 101 00:07:51,876 --> 00:07:54,996 Speaker 1: people more comfortable with the risks they've already decided to take. 102 00:07:56,916 --> 00:07:59,956 Speaker 1: Neil Armstrong celebrated his birthday in the quarantine tank. They 103 00:07:59,996 --> 00:08:02,916 Speaker 1: had a cake and everything. The astronauts waved at their 104 00:08:02,956 --> 00:08:07,236 Speaker 1: wives from behind plate glass. Everyone took the quarantine seriously, 105 00:08:07,876 --> 00:08:10,836 Speaker 1: but it really was hygie theater. I mean, after the 106 00:08:10,916 --> 00:08:14,236 Speaker 1: splashdown as the module bobbed in the water, the astronauts 107 00:08:14,276 --> 00:08:16,956 Speaker 1: inside had opened the hatch and let all the air out, 108 00:08:17,596 --> 00:08:20,356 Speaker 1: and after the swimmer wiped the astronauts down, he threw 109 00:08:20,396 --> 00:08:22,836 Speaker 1: the rag in the ocean. If there really had been 110 00:08:22,876 --> 00:08:26,636 Speaker 1: a moon plague, we'd all be dead by now. Later, 111 00:08:26,836 --> 00:08:29,116 Speaker 1: when people started claiming the whole mission had been a hoax, 112 00:08:29,716 --> 00:08:32,516 Speaker 1: the quarantine was one of those fishy details that they 113 00:08:32,636 --> 00:08:37,276 Speaker 1: fixated on. Why were the first astronauts held in quarantine 114 00:08:37,716 --> 00:08:40,756 Speaker 1: so long after their first trip when most scientists agree 115 00:08:40,796 --> 00:08:43,676 Speaker 1: that the Moon is sterile and there's no chance of 116 00:08:43,876 --> 00:08:48,636 Speaker 1: disease transmission. That's the Queen of conspiracy, May Brussel on 117 00:08:48,756 --> 00:08:52,636 Speaker 1: our community radio show in nineteen seventy seven. Was it 118 00:08:52,756 --> 00:08:56,156 Speaker 1: because they needed a period of reconditioning after the spurious trip? 119 00:08:56,756 --> 00:08:59,236 Speaker 1: Or could they not bear to face hordes of cheering 120 00:08:59,356 --> 00:09:03,556 Speaker 1: people so soon after playing their role in this show 121 00:09:03,676 --> 00:09:08,876 Speaker 1: on Earth? Seriously? Anyway back to nineteen sixty nine, cover 122 00:09:09,396 --> 00:09:12,956 Speaker 1: protective garments. These voyagers to and from the Moon went 123 00:09:13,036 --> 00:09:17,236 Speaker 1: into isolation. They were remained in this mobile quarantine facility. 124 00:09:17,916 --> 00:09:21,316 Speaker 1: One person watching all this, the reentry the quarantine was 125 00:09:21,356 --> 00:09:25,076 Speaker 1: a twenty six year old recent medical school graduate, Michael Crechton. 126 00:09:26,196 --> 00:09:28,556 Speaker 1: This guy, he was hard to miss. He was six 127 00:09:28,636 --> 00:09:31,076 Speaker 1: foot nine. Crichton would go on to write some of 128 00:09:31,076 --> 00:09:34,276 Speaker 1: the biggest bestsellers of the twentieth century, books and films 129 00:09:34,356 --> 00:09:38,396 Speaker 1: like Jurassic Park. He created the TV show Er. One 130 00:09:38,436 --> 00:09:41,956 Speaker 1: of his less successful projects was Westworld, released as a 131 00:09:41,996 --> 00:09:45,716 Speaker 1: film in nineteen seventy three, the decades later became an 132 00:09:45,836 --> 00:09:49,956 Speaker 1: HBO series. Pretty early in his prolific career, Crechton got 133 00:09:50,036 --> 00:09:53,836 Speaker 1: invited onto late night TV the Dick Cavett Show. My 134 00:09:53,956 --> 00:09:56,716 Speaker 1: next guest is Michael Crichton, he's an unusual young man. 135 00:09:56,836 --> 00:09:59,716 Speaker 1: During the four years that he spent at tim Medical School, 136 00:09:59,796 --> 00:10:02,716 Speaker 1: he suddenly got the writing bug, wrote seven novels, a 137 00:10:02,796 --> 00:10:08,196 Speaker 1: couple of movies, and became a doctor the writing bug. Yes, 138 00:10:08,236 --> 00:10:11,436 Speaker 1: they haven't cured that. Crichton got the writing bug at Harvard, 139 00:10:11,476 --> 00:10:14,076 Speaker 1: where he was an English major. One time he turned 140 00:10:14,116 --> 00:10:16,636 Speaker 1: in an essay that had actually been written by George Orwell. 141 00:10:16,916 --> 00:10:19,476 Speaker 1: When the professor gave him a B minus, Crechton quit 142 00:10:19,596 --> 00:10:23,396 Speaker 1: English and moved to anthropology. After graduation, he taught at 143 00:10:23,436 --> 00:10:26,956 Speaker 1: Cambridge University, doing research on skulls from the British Museum. 144 00:10:27,676 --> 00:10:30,036 Speaker 1: He went back to Harvard for medical school, but then 145 00:10:30,076 --> 00:10:32,836 Speaker 1: he started thinking about writing seriously as a way to 146 00:10:32,916 --> 00:10:35,356 Speaker 1: make some money. And my purpose was really to see 147 00:10:35,396 --> 00:10:38,356 Speaker 1: if I could write something that the average reader could 148 00:10:38,396 --> 00:10:41,116 Speaker 1: come away with a little information. Normally books didn't take 149 00:10:41,196 --> 00:10:43,516 Speaker 1: him long, but there was one story he wanted to 150 00:10:43,556 --> 00:10:46,956 Speaker 1: write and couldn't quite crack. It was a story about 151 00:10:46,996 --> 00:10:50,436 Speaker 1: a disease that came from space. He'd been poking at 152 00:10:50,476 --> 00:10:54,356 Speaker 1: it for years, but it just felt implausible to him. Then, 153 00:10:54,396 --> 00:10:57,116 Speaker 1: a while before the Apollo astronauts came crashing back down 154 00:10:57,156 --> 00:11:00,676 Speaker 1: to Earth. Word spread about Nassa's plan for the quarantine. 155 00:11:01,396 --> 00:11:04,996 Speaker 1: Crechton heard about it, and that's when everything clicked. He 156 00:11:05,076 --> 00:11:08,156 Speaker 1: haven't read The Andromedistrain. It's a science fiction book about 157 00:11:08,156 --> 00:11:13,756 Speaker 1: a giant, hearnie it. The Andromedist Strain is not about 158 00:11:13,876 --> 00:11:16,396 Speaker 1: a giant Hernia. But it is the book that truly 159 00:11:16,476 --> 00:11:19,396 Speaker 1: launched Crechton as a bestselling author, and it did that 160 00:11:19,596 --> 00:11:22,916 Speaker 1: by crystallizing all kinds of fears about science run a muck. 161 00:11:24,476 --> 00:11:27,916 Speaker 1: The Andromedist Strain opens with a government satellite called Scoop 162 00:11:27,996 --> 00:11:31,476 Speaker 1: seven crash landing in a town in Arizona. So far 163 00:11:31,676 --> 00:11:35,236 Speaker 1: so plausible satellites do fall to Earth. Crechton had done 164 00:11:35,276 --> 00:11:38,996 Speaker 1: his research anyway. Some scientists go to recover the satellite, 165 00:11:39,396 --> 00:11:42,356 Speaker 1: only to find that nearly everyone in the town is dead. 166 00:11:42,996 --> 00:11:46,116 Speaker 1: The scientists die to it. Turns out the satellite was 167 00:11:46,196 --> 00:11:52,476 Speaker 1: carrying a highly contagious pathogen from space Andromeda. Michael Creton 168 00:11:52,556 --> 00:11:55,236 Speaker 1: is always at great timing. The novel came out two 169 00:11:55,316 --> 00:11:57,996 Speaker 1: months before the Apollo eleve, an astronaut, splashed down in 170 00:11:58,036 --> 00:12:02,116 Speaker 1: the ocean. It was a blockbuster even while Neil Armstrong 171 00:12:02,156 --> 00:12:05,756 Speaker 1: and those guys were in quarantine eating Armstrong's birthday cake. 172 00:12:06,236 --> 00:12:10,636 Speaker 1: Americans were devouring the Andromedist Strain. Two years later, Universal 173 00:12:10,716 --> 00:12:14,996 Speaker 1: released it as a movie. This is a recording. State 174 00:12:15,076 --> 00:12:18,476 Speaker 1: your name and your message, and hang up Major zor 175 00:12:18,556 --> 00:12:22,436 Speaker 1: Manchik Scoop Mission Control A twelve. We have evidence here 176 00:12:22,476 --> 00:12:24,836 Speaker 1: on film of a natural death caused by Scoop seven 177 00:12:24,916 --> 00:12:28,516 Speaker 1: Returning to Earth. Crichton wrote The Andromeda Strain like a 178 00:12:28,556 --> 00:12:31,596 Speaker 1: piece of very learned science journalism. He filled the book 179 00:12:31,716 --> 00:12:34,796 Speaker 1: with real facts. He even included a fake appendix and 180 00:12:34,876 --> 00:12:38,516 Speaker 1: a fake bibliography. The makers of the movie took the queue. 181 00:12:39,036 --> 00:12:42,556 Speaker 1: They set the film in an elaborate, scientifically plausible disease 182 00:12:42,636 --> 00:12:48,476 Speaker 1: laboratory called Wildfire. An actual journal Clinical Infectious Diseases published 183 00:12:48,516 --> 00:12:53,236 Speaker 1: an actual article calling Andromeda Strain the most significant, scientifically 184 00:12:53,276 --> 00:12:58,116 Speaker 1: accurate and prototypic film of its kind. Until now, Wildfire 185 00:12:58,116 --> 00:13:01,476 Speaker 1: has been like a game, never believe this could really happen. 186 00:13:02,556 --> 00:13:05,076 Speaker 1: The point of the novel is that this really could happen. 187 00:13:05,836 --> 00:13:08,676 Speaker 1: After the satellite crash lands on Earth, the government calls 188 00:13:08,716 --> 00:13:12,516 Speaker 1: in five top scientists. They're moved to that secret lab 189 00:13:12,836 --> 00:13:17,276 Speaker 1: Wildfire burrowed deep underground. They're meant to study Andromeda, to 190 00:13:17,436 --> 00:13:21,116 Speaker 1: learn its secrets and how to stop it. What they discover, though, 191 00:13:21,196 --> 00:13:24,236 Speaker 1: is that Andromeda isn't like a normal Earth organism. It's 192 00:13:24,276 --> 00:13:27,156 Speaker 1: not a virus, it's not some kind of bacteria. It 193 00:13:27,316 --> 00:13:29,756 Speaker 1: was exactly what Carl Sagan and other scientists had been 194 00:13:29,796 --> 00:13:34,916 Speaker 1: so worried about, an entirely unknown alien organism potentially infecting 195 00:13:35,316 --> 00:13:40,036 Speaker 1: all of us, dividing and mutating at the same time, 196 00:13:40,316 --> 00:13:44,436 Speaker 1: and nothing to stop it. Normal checks and balances don't 197 00:13:44,476 --> 00:13:48,436 Speaker 1: exist for it. In the Andromeda strain, scientists find themselves 198 00:13:48,476 --> 00:13:51,436 Speaker 1: in a scenario where the laws of nature, centuries of 199 00:13:51,516 --> 00:13:56,396 Speaker 1: scientific inquiry are moot. That fear just radiates out of 200 00:13:56,436 --> 00:13:59,796 Speaker 1: America in the late nineteen sixties, the Adam Bomb pollution 201 00:13:59,996 --> 00:14:03,636 Speaker 1: Computer's gone rogue. Crechton is a key to understanding this 202 00:14:03,876 --> 00:14:06,476 Speaker 1: fear of the future. So I decided to call a 203 00:14:06,596 --> 00:14:10,836 Speaker 1: Michael Crechton expert. So, just backing up, can you tell 204 00:14:10,956 --> 00:14:13,156 Speaker 1: us how you got interested in Michael Gryton? Did you 205 00:14:13,236 --> 00:14:15,276 Speaker 1: read you know? Did you see Jurassic Park as a kid? 206 00:14:15,676 --> 00:14:18,396 Speaker 1: Jurassic Park was, in fact the first movie that I 207 00:14:18,516 --> 00:14:22,876 Speaker 1: saw in the theater without parental supervision, and I remember 208 00:14:23,676 --> 00:14:25,436 Speaker 1: going to the theater and being like, I guess I'm 209 00:14:25,436 --> 00:14:28,396 Speaker 1: not going to be a paleontologist because that career will 210 00:14:28,436 --> 00:14:32,316 Speaker 1: be obsolete. Joanna Rayden is an amazing historian of science 211 00:14:32,396 --> 00:14:35,676 Speaker 1: at Yale. She's writing a book about Michael Creighton. In 212 00:14:35,756 --> 00:14:38,516 Speaker 1: the course of studying post war ideas about science, she 213 00:14:38,596 --> 00:14:42,596 Speaker 1: started seeing Creton everywhere, not just in science fiction, but 214 00:14:42,916 --> 00:14:48,756 Speaker 1: interacting with and criticizing actual science and scientists. He goes 215 00:14:48,836 --> 00:14:53,116 Speaker 1: to medical school and it becomes disgruntled with what he 216 00:14:53,236 --> 00:14:56,876 Speaker 1: observes as a culture that has embraced new technology but 217 00:14:56,996 --> 00:15:00,676 Speaker 1: hasn't updated its morality, that they're not willing to or 218 00:15:00,756 --> 00:15:03,516 Speaker 1: able to take seriously the consequences of what it's going 219 00:15:03,556 --> 00:15:08,556 Speaker 1: to mean to manipulate life. Creighton was only a toddler 220 00:15:08,556 --> 00:15:11,676 Speaker 1: when the at M bombs fell on Hiroshima in Nagasaki. 221 00:15:12,476 --> 00:15:14,836 Speaker 1: He grew up watching science change in the shadow of 222 00:15:14,876 --> 00:15:18,116 Speaker 1: the bomb. Science it seemed had won the war, so 223 00:15:18,276 --> 00:15:21,916 Speaker 1: the government began investing massively in research, and scientists had 224 00:15:21,956 --> 00:15:24,276 Speaker 1: a lot of say and where the money went. They 225 00:15:24,356 --> 00:15:29,596 Speaker 1: became close government advisors and popular heroes. In nineteen sixty, 226 00:15:29,676 --> 00:15:34,316 Speaker 1: Time magazine named scientists just scientists in general, the men 227 00:15:34,436 --> 00:15:37,876 Speaker 1: of the year. Six years later, Time released an issue 228 00:15:37,916 --> 00:15:42,196 Speaker 1: with the cover story is God Dead? The answer yeah, 229 00:15:42,236 --> 00:15:46,276 Speaker 1: because now we have scientists. The US government had spent 230 00:15:46,396 --> 00:15:49,676 Speaker 1: fifty million dollars on scientific research in nineteen thirty nine. 231 00:15:50,316 --> 00:15:54,356 Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy it spent almost fifteen billion dollars. Most 232 00:15:54,396 --> 00:15:58,076 Speaker 1: of that was for the Department of Defense. M I 233 00:15:58,196 --> 00:16:00,556 Speaker 1: seen is more than one hundred million dollars a year 234 00:16:00,636 --> 00:16:03,516 Speaker 1: from the federal government to a conductor a search. Most 235 00:16:03,556 --> 00:16:07,436 Speaker 1: of it relates to the raging of rule. Scientists had 236 00:16:07,476 --> 00:16:09,636 Speaker 1: the power of gods, and like God, the things they 237 00:16:09,676 --> 00:16:13,716 Speaker 1: did were often mysterious, secret and a little menacing. The 238 00:16:13,876 --> 00:16:16,876 Speaker 1: nineteen forty six Atomic Energy Act had been introduced by 239 00:16:16,916 --> 00:16:20,036 Speaker 1: a senator who called the bombing of Hiroshima the greatest 240 00:16:20,076 --> 00:16:22,716 Speaker 1: event in world history since the birth of Jesus Christ, 241 00:16:23,156 --> 00:16:25,796 Speaker 1: and treated atomic science as a kind of religious secret. 242 00:16:26,276 --> 00:16:28,836 Speaker 1: You couldn't really be sure what scientists were doing, but 243 00:16:28,996 --> 00:16:31,396 Speaker 1: chances were it had to do with war, and by 244 00:16:31,476 --> 00:16:34,556 Speaker 1: Crechton's adulthood, the Vietnam War had called the worship of 245 00:16:34,596 --> 00:16:40,396 Speaker 1: science into question, knocked the scientists off their plints. All 246 00:16:40,436 --> 00:16:43,036 Speaker 1: of this finds a place in the paranoid plot of 247 00:16:43,116 --> 00:16:48,196 Speaker 1: the Andromeda strain. Crechton was very upset about that kind 248 00:16:48,236 --> 00:16:50,836 Speaker 1: of secrecy. This is Hallmark. What he's so effective at 249 00:16:50,916 --> 00:16:55,396 Speaker 1: doing is taking the kind of incoate emotions about emerging 250 00:16:55,436 --> 00:16:58,516 Speaker 1: science and technology and telling readers what they should be 251 00:16:58,596 --> 00:17:02,276 Speaker 1: afraid of what specifically. During the years Crechton was in 252 00:17:02,356 --> 00:17:05,236 Speaker 1: college and medical school, his fellow students were afraid of 253 00:17:05,276 --> 00:17:08,236 Speaker 1: the secrets being kept from them, the things their professors 254 00:17:08,316 --> 00:17:11,836 Speaker 1: did in the name of national security. Students protested at 255 00:17:11,916 --> 00:17:15,076 Speaker 1: universities across the country. They tried to hold their universities 256 00:17:15,116 --> 00:17:18,876 Speaker 1: to account. The year Crechton finished Harvard Medical School nineteen 257 00:17:18,956 --> 00:17:23,236 Speaker 1: sixty nine, Harvard undergraduates occupied university Hall and kicked out 258 00:17:23,276 --> 00:17:27,196 Speaker 1: the president and the deans. They clashed with police officers violently. 259 00:17:27,716 --> 00:17:31,356 Speaker 1: On the day Crechton graduated, the mood was tense. This 260 00:17:31,556 --> 00:17:35,436 Speaker 1: commencement isn't a property, it is an obstanity. Our interested 261 00:17:35,556 --> 00:17:38,636 Speaker 1: students do not lie in the key party with these criminals, 262 00:17:38,956 --> 00:17:42,396 Speaker 1: these fewty benets and rocket fallers. It lies in fighting them, 263 00:17:42,396 --> 00:17:44,276 Speaker 1: in alliance with the people, and we should get out 264 00:17:44,316 --> 00:17:47,756 Speaker 1: of here. NBC News reported that for the first time 265 00:17:47,796 --> 00:17:51,516 Speaker 1: in Harvard's history, students walked out of their own graduation ceremony. 266 00:17:52,116 --> 00:17:55,316 Speaker 1: Some threatened to burn their diplomas. I don't know if 267 00:17:55,356 --> 00:17:57,996 Speaker 1: Michael Crechton walked out or not, but that tension, that 268 00:17:58,196 --> 00:18:01,836 Speaker 1: skepticism of the establishment and especially of the secrecy of 269 00:18:01,916 --> 00:18:05,836 Speaker 1: government science, it's all over his work. In the Andromeda Strain, 270 00:18:05,996 --> 00:18:08,316 Speaker 1: most of the scientists don't even know the original purpose 271 00:18:08,356 --> 00:18:11,436 Speaker 1: of that Scoops satellite. They came crashing back down to Earth. 272 00:18:12,316 --> 00:18:14,076 Speaker 1: We don't know much more than when we got here. 273 00:18:14,636 --> 00:18:17,876 Speaker 1: We know about Scoop now, it's possible, but Scoop found 274 00:18:17,996 --> 00:18:21,236 Speaker 1: was no accident. I suspect they were looking for the 275 00:18:21,356 --> 00:18:26,236 Speaker 1: ultimate biological weapon. The Andromedis Strain is about a world 276 00:18:26,276 --> 00:18:30,196 Speaker 1: where the government pays scientists to develop weapons that could 277 00:18:30,236 --> 00:18:33,476 Speaker 1: wipe out life on Earth, and it's all done in secret. 278 00:18:34,436 --> 00:18:37,636 Speaker 1: At Harvard an mit. In nineteen sixty nine, when students 279 00:18:37,676 --> 00:18:39,716 Speaker 1: found out the kind of work their professors were doing 280 00:18:39,796 --> 00:18:44,236 Speaker 1: for the war in Vietnam, napalm, psychological warfare, they held 281 00:18:44,316 --> 00:18:48,796 Speaker 1: protests and even staged mock trials. In the Andromedis Strain, 282 00:18:49,076 --> 00:18:51,876 Speaker 1: the scientists themselves come to realize what their work is 283 00:18:51,916 --> 00:18:56,956 Speaker 1: really for. Wildfire was built for jerm warfare, wildfire and 284 00:18:57,156 --> 00:19:00,716 Speaker 1: Scoop's not true, Ruth, I learned about Scoop the same 285 00:19:00,796 --> 00:19:02,796 Speaker 1: time you did. The purpose of Scoop was to find 286 00:19:02,876 --> 00:19:05,756 Speaker 1: new biological weapons in outer space and then used wildfire 287 00:19:05,796 --> 00:19:08,556 Speaker 1: to develop them. It's stink Stall, you're clawing your tops. 288 00:19:08,596 --> 00:19:13,556 Speaker 1: We have no another giant leap from any kind. I 289 00:19:13,716 --> 00:19:17,476 Speaker 1: wish I could believe you. The SCOOP satellite hadn't just 290 00:19:17,596 --> 00:19:21,356 Speaker 1: accidentally brought home this terrible pathogen. It had been sent 291 00:19:21,476 --> 00:19:27,316 Speaker 1: to search for possible biological weapons. Crichton was raising an alarm, 292 00:19:27,836 --> 00:19:30,636 Speaker 1: and a lot of people shared his fears, not least 293 00:19:30,676 --> 00:19:33,396 Speaker 1: because of all the revelations about chemical warfare in Vietnam. 294 00:19:34,716 --> 00:19:37,836 Speaker 1: Hear the androministran came out in theaters. Crechton published an 295 00:19:37,876 --> 00:19:41,116 Speaker 1: op ed in The New York Times decrying scientific secrecy. 296 00:19:42,836 --> 00:19:47,356 Speaker 1: He believes that there are lessons from physics that life science. 297 00:19:47,676 --> 00:19:51,516 Speaker 1: Life scientists should be learning, that they should be integrating 298 00:19:52,236 --> 00:19:57,276 Speaker 1: an effort to deal with accountability and social responsibility into 299 00:19:57,356 --> 00:20:01,476 Speaker 1: the mainstream of science. And he's upset because he sees 300 00:20:01,556 --> 00:20:05,636 Speaker 1: that possibility slipping away. Do you want to cultivate a 301 00:20:05,716 --> 00:20:11,756 Speaker 1: humility and self reflection? Absolutely? In some ways, Crichton's critique 302 00:20:11,836 --> 00:20:15,236 Speaker 1: caught on, or at least public support for government funded 303 00:20:15,236 --> 00:20:20,756 Speaker 1: scientific research seemed to fall, which wasn't really a good thing. Gradually, 304 00:20:20,876 --> 00:20:24,596 Speaker 1: the Apollo Missians lost the public support. In nineteen seventy two, 305 00:20:25,116 --> 00:20:28,876 Speaker 1: NASA terminated the program. We went to the Moon, we 306 00:20:29,036 --> 00:20:34,676 Speaker 1: came back, and then we stayed home and confronted a 307 00:20:34,796 --> 00:20:45,436 Speaker 1: different plague. Seventy you've got to come and be automating. Five. 308 00:20:46,916 --> 00:20:51,876 Speaker 1: Maybe you around it, so Fa Shafe gives time, or 309 00:20:51,956 --> 00:21:04,916 Speaker 1: the judgments, day's gonna shake his money? Where has been? 310 00:21:05,916 --> 00:21:22,236 Speaker 1: Or Carrots down and Strong. Michael Crichton's novel The Andromeda 311 00:21:22,276 --> 00:21:27,476 Speaker 1: Strain came out in nineteen sixty nine. In nineteen seventy six, 312 00:21:28,196 --> 00:21:31,436 Speaker 1: another disease appeared to be in the air. It didn't 313 00:21:31,476 --> 00:21:36,956 Speaker 1: come from space. It came, it seemed from pigs. Joe 314 00:21:37,036 --> 00:21:39,476 Speaker 1: brought it home from the office. He gave it to 315 00:21:39,596 --> 00:21:43,396 Speaker 1: Betty and one of these kids, and to Betty's mother, 316 00:21:44,276 --> 00:21:46,956 Speaker 1: But Betty's mother went back to California the next day. 317 00:21:47,716 --> 00:21:49,876 Speaker 1: On her way to the airport, she gave it to 318 00:21:49,956 --> 00:21:53,796 Speaker 1: a cab driver, a ticket engine and one of the 319 00:21:53,956 --> 00:21:58,116 Speaker 1: charming stewards at Scoop Joe's kid gave it to some 320 00:21:58,236 --> 00:22:01,556 Speaker 1: other kids, and missus Merrill got it and gave it 321 00:22:01,636 --> 00:22:05,916 Speaker 1: to her husband In California. Betty's mother gave it to 322 00:22:05,996 --> 00:22:08,956 Speaker 1: her best friend Dotty, but Dotty had a heart condition 323 00:22:09,116 --> 00:22:13,076 Speaker 1: and she died before she died. This uncanny and really 324 00:22:13,156 --> 00:22:15,876 Speaker 1: hard to listen to public service announcement is part of 325 00:22:15,916 --> 00:22:19,636 Speaker 1: a much forgotten moment in public health history, the nineteen 326 00:22:19,716 --> 00:22:23,996 Speaker 1: seventy six swine flu scare. If a swine flu epidemic comes, 327 00:22:24,556 --> 00:22:27,196 Speaker 1: this is how it could spread. You will want to 328 00:22:27,236 --> 00:22:31,196 Speaker 1: be protected, especially if you're elderly or chronically ill. Get 329 00:22:31,236 --> 00:22:38,036 Speaker 1: a shot of protection, a swine flu shot. The story 330 00:22:38,116 --> 00:22:42,076 Speaker 1: begins just after New Year's Day nineteen seventy six. Fort Dix, 331 00:22:42,116 --> 00:22:44,916 Speaker 1: an army base in New Jersey. The barracks filled up 332 00:22:44,956 --> 00:22:48,356 Speaker 1: with new recruits. A couple of weeks later, some of 333 00:22:48,436 --> 00:22:51,876 Speaker 1: them started to get sick. It looked like the flu, 334 00:22:52,076 --> 00:22:55,516 Speaker 1: a bad flu. People went to the hospital. One man died. 335 00:22:56,196 --> 00:22:59,076 Speaker 1: Doctors from the Centers for Disease Control were sent samples 336 00:22:59,116 --> 00:23:02,516 Speaker 1: of the virus. By mid February, they'd run their tests, 337 00:23:03,076 --> 00:23:08,036 Speaker 1: four came back positive for swine flu. Today, there is 338 00:23:08,076 --> 00:23:12,076 Speaker 1: news of a new potentially very dangerous influenza strain. Health 339 00:23:12,116 --> 00:23:14,316 Speaker 1: officials say it may be related to the strain that 340 00:23:14,476 --> 00:23:18,356 Speaker 1: killed so many people in nineteen eighteen. In nineteen eighteen, 341 00:23:18,796 --> 00:23:22,556 Speaker 1: an influenza pandemic took the lives of fifty million people worldwide. 342 00:23:23,156 --> 00:23:26,316 Speaker 1: That was a flu strain that jumped species and infected humans. 343 00:23:26,756 --> 00:23:29,836 Speaker 1: So in nineteen seventy six, swine flu wasn't a completely 344 00:23:30,076 --> 00:23:33,276 Speaker 1: novel virus, But scientists believe if you hadn't been alive 345 00:23:33,316 --> 00:23:37,756 Speaker 1: in nineteen eighteen, you wouldn't have immunity. There's no vaccine 346 00:23:37,796 --> 00:23:40,956 Speaker 1: for the new swine virus, but one could be developed 347 00:23:41,196 --> 00:23:45,796 Speaker 1: if there's an epidemic. Antibody tests seemed to indicate that 348 00:23:45,876 --> 00:23:48,196 Speaker 1: as many as five hundred recruits at Fort Dix had 349 00:23:48,236 --> 00:23:52,036 Speaker 1: been infected by swine flu. It hadn't been detected outside 350 00:23:52,036 --> 00:23:56,676 Speaker 1: the base yet, but it could be silently spreading. The 351 00:23:56,756 --> 00:24:00,756 Speaker 1: head of the CDC, doctor David Sensor, wanted a vaccine made, 352 00:24:00,916 --> 00:24:03,436 Speaker 1: and he wanted as many Americans as possible to get it. 353 00:24:03,836 --> 00:24:06,516 Speaker 1: He said it was unacceptable to plan for less than 354 00:24:06,596 --> 00:24:10,876 Speaker 1: one hundred percent coverage. He made his urgently to President 355 00:24:10,956 --> 00:24:16,076 Speaker 1: Gerald Ford. Implementing this vaccination program would cost one hundred 356 00:24:16,076 --> 00:24:19,996 Speaker 1: and thirty four million dollars, but without it, Ford's advisers 357 00:24:20,076 --> 00:24:22,516 Speaker 1: projected that as many as a million Americans could die 358 00:24:22,596 --> 00:24:26,316 Speaker 1: from the flu in nineteen seventy six alone. Ford faced 359 00:24:26,436 --> 00:24:28,956 Speaker 1: two bad options. He would look terrible if he spent 360 00:24:29,036 --> 00:24:31,596 Speaker 1: the money and no pandemic came. If he didn't pull 361 00:24:31,636 --> 00:24:34,356 Speaker 1: the trigger and the pandemic did come, he would look 362 00:24:34,396 --> 00:24:37,876 Speaker 1: even worse. In in nineteen seventy six, he was facing 363 00:24:37,916 --> 00:24:42,156 Speaker 1: an election. I am asking each and every American to 364 00:24:42,316 --> 00:24:46,756 Speaker 1: make certain he or she receives an inoculation this fall. 365 00:24:47,516 --> 00:24:49,556 Speaker 1: The facts that have been presented to me in the 366 00:24:49,636 --> 00:24:52,556 Speaker 1: last few days have come from many of the best 367 00:24:52,756 --> 00:24:57,876 Speaker 1: medical minds in this country. Ford approved the massive inoculation budget. 368 00:24:58,476 --> 00:25:00,996 Speaker 1: The vaccine was to be grown in chicken eggs. The 369 00:25:01,116 --> 00:25:05,076 Speaker 1: Secretary of Agriculture got involved, telling everyone the roosters of 370 00:25:05,156 --> 00:25:11,036 Speaker 1: America are ready to do their duty. Pretty much immediately though, 371 00:25:11,356 --> 00:25:14,476 Speaker 1: a lot of Americans were suspicious of the national vaccine plan. 372 00:25:15,676 --> 00:25:17,316 Speaker 1: As you know if you listen to the first season 373 00:25:17,396 --> 00:25:21,116 Speaker 1: of The Last Archive, Americans have historically always been suspicious 374 00:25:21,156 --> 00:25:25,516 Speaker 1: of national vaccine plans. Also, think about for his awkward position, 375 00:25:25,916 --> 00:25:29,116 Speaker 1: he'd become president in nineteen seventy four, when Nixon resigned, 376 00:25:29,636 --> 00:25:33,396 Speaker 1: and then, despite all the criminality the Watergate hearings had exposed, 377 00:25:33,756 --> 00:25:37,876 Speaker 1: Ford had pardoned Nixon. Some people thought this vaccine program 378 00:25:38,116 --> 00:25:41,676 Speaker 1: looked more political than scientific, as if either Ford were 379 00:25:41,716 --> 00:25:44,956 Speaker 1: getting pressured by the scientists, or else he was pressuring 380 00:25:44,996 --> 00:25:49,876 Speaker 1: the scientists to make him look good. The administration's plan 381 00:25:50,036 --> 00:25:54,196 Speaker 1: to inoculate nearly everybody against swine flu is in trouble. 382 00:25:55,036 --> 00:25:58,876 Speaker 1: Quickly things got harry. Legal battles very nearly held up 383 00:25:58,916 --> 00:26:02,636 Speaker 1: the whole vaccination project. Then when the vaccines were finally 384 00:26:02,756 --> 00:26:06,636 Speaker 1: rolled out, it all went to hell. Now four thousand 385 00:26:06,676 --> 00:26:09,756 Speaker 1: Americans acclaiming damages from Uncle Sam think to three and 386 00:26:09,876 --> 00:26:13,076 Speaker 1: a half billion dollars because of what happened when they 387 00:26:13,116 --> 00:26:16,476 Speaker 1: took that shot. That's from a sixteen minutes investigation that 388 00:26:16,596 --> 00:26:19,356 Speaker 1: came out a few years later. In nineteen seventy six. 389 00:26:19,596 --> 00:26:22,676 Speaker 1: The government had mobilized the country with ads urging Americans 390 00:26:22,756 --> 00:26:26,956 Speaker 1: to roll up your sleeves. Millions had obliged, But then 391 00:26:27,036 --> 00:26:29,476 Speaker 1: came reports that a small number of people who were 392 00:26:29,556 --> 00:26:34,196 Speaker 1: vaccinated had developed something called killone Baret syndrome, a sort 393 00:26:34,196 --> 00:26:38,956 Speaker 1: of paralysis in that sixteen minutes documentary Mike Wallace quirrelled 394 00:26:39,196 --> 00:26:43,276 Speaker 1: now XCDC head David Sensor about how much the public 395 00:26:43,396 --> 00:26:46,956 Speaker 1: knew about the risks. You didn't feel it was necessary 396 00:26:46,996 --> 00:26:51,556 Speaker 1: to tell the con people that information. I think that 397 00:26:52,156 --> 00:26:55,116 Speaker 1: over the years we have tried to inform the American 398 00:26:55,196 --> 00:26:59,076 Speaker 1: people as fully as possible. It really did look as 399 00:26:59,116 --> 00:27:02,116 Speaker 1: though the government had been lying, even though it hadn't. 400 00:27:02,956 --> 00:27:06,516 Speaker 1: But the government had another problem. It turned out that 401 00:27:06,596 --> 00:27:10,116 Speaker 1: the virus never spread past the army base. There was 402 00:27:10,276 --> 00:27:16,636 Speaker 1: no swine flu pandemic. This, of course, wasn't really a problem. 403 00:27:16,716 --> 00:27:18,596 Speaker 1: It was a good thing, it was a great thing, 404 00:27:19,356 --> 00:27:22,716 Speaker 1: but it did make the government look terrible. The vaccine 405 00:27:22,756 --> 00:27:26,916 Speaker 1: program was suspended. It was a public relations disaster, and 406 00:27:27,036 --> 00:27:30,636 Speaker 1: it was a time bomb for public health. The scientists 407 00:27:30,676 --> 00:27:33,516 Speaker 1: had thought universal vaccination would be at worst a chance 408 00:27:33,556 --> 00:27:36,676 Speaker 1: to educate the public about the wonders of preventative medicine, 409 00:27:36,836 --> 00:27:40,156 Speaker 1: the power of scientific forethought, and at best it would 410 00:27:40,196 --> 00:27:44,436 Speaker 1: stave off a pandemic, save millions of lives. But the 411 00:27:44,516 --> 00:27:48,076 Speaker 1: public did not seem educated. The public seemed angry and scared. 412 00:27:49,076 --> 00:27:51,956 Speaker 1: Sixty minutes interviewed the husband of a woman who had 413 00:27:51,996 --> 00:27:57,196 Speaker 1: become terribly sick a man with my government because they 414 00:27:57,316 --> 00:28:00,196 Speaker 1: knew the facts, but they didn't release those facts because 415 00:28:00,436 --> 00:28:03,396 Speaker 1: if they had releasing the people wouldn't have taken. And 416 00:28:03,556 --> 00:28:06,556 Speaker 1: they can come out tomorrow and tell me there's going 417 00:28:06,596 --> 00:28:09,236 Speaker 1: to be an epidemic, and they can drop off like 418 00:28:09,396 --> 00:28:11,716 Speaker 1: lives makes me. I will not take another shot of 419 00:28:11,836 --> 00:28:16,836 Speaker 1: my government tells me to take. This old sixty minutes 420 00:28:16,876 --> 00:28:20,876 Speaker 1: documentary is now on the internet. Anti vaxers share it 421 00:28:20,916 --> 00:28:24,756 Speaker 1: all the time, again and again. That's the surviving legacy 422 00:28:25,076 --> 00:28:30,796 Speaker 1: of the swine flu campaign of nineteen seventy six. A 423 00:28:30,916 --> 00:28:34,036 Speaker 1: couple of years after the fiasco, the US Department of Health, Education, 424 00:28:34,116 --> 00:28:37,036 Speaker 1: and Welfare publish a report trying to figure out what 425 00:28:37,276 --> 00:28:41,636 Speaker 1: exactly had gone wrong. Toward the end, the author shared 426 00:28:41,676 --> 00:28:46,236 Speaker 1: something they'd heard from a science reporter. The CDC was 427 00:28:46,276 --> 00:28:49,876 Speaker 1: almost the last federal agency widely regarded by reporters and 428 00:28:49,996 --> 00:28:55,556 Speaker 1: producers as a good thing, responsible, respectable, scientific, above suspicion. 429 00:28:56,156 --> 00:29:02,996 Speaker 1: Now the CDC's lost its innocence. Innocence lost, and what 430 00:29:03,156 --> 00:29:17,156 Speaker 1: would replace it? Disillusion and doubt. This episode started with 431 00:29:17,236 --> 00:29:21,636 Speaker 1: a moon plague that never came. Instead came the Andromeda strain. 432 00:29:21,916 --> 00:29:24,556 Speaker 1: The book and the film, a story about why you 433 00:29:24,676 --> 00:29:27,636 Speaker 1: can't trust government scientists who do their work in secret. 434 00:29:28,356 --> 00:29:31,156 Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy six, that fear broke out into the 435 00:29:31,236 --> 00:29:35,436 Speaker 1: real world with the swine flew pandemic that wasn't but 436 00:29:35,596 --> 00:29:38,516 Speaker 1: hold onto your face mask because this virus is mutating 437 00:29:38,676 --> 00:29:44,796 Speaker 1: one more time into the worst strain of all. In 438 00:29:44,956 --> 00:29:48,596 Speaker 1: nineteen ninety, Michael Crichton, nearly fifty years old, was still 439 00:29:48,636 --> 00:29:51,116 Speaker 1: on top of the world. That year, his newest book, 440 00:29:51,316 --> 00:29:56,236 Speaker 1: Jurassic Park, electrified readers with yet another tale of scientific hubris, 441 00:29:56,396 --> 00:30:00,156 Speaker 1: reeking havoc, not by way of an alien biological weapon, 442 00:30:00,636 --> 00:30:04,676 Speaker 1: but by way of dinosaur DNA. People hadn't forgotten Crechton's 443 00:30:04,716 --> 00:30:07,636 Speaker 1: first book, though he said he'd begun to get phone calls. 444 00:30:08,316 --> 00:30:10,836 Speaker 1: People wanted him to speak at medical conventions about a 445 00:30:10,956 --> 00:30:14,756 Speaker 1: new disease from a pathogen that they claimed the US 446 00:30:14,876 --> 00:30:18,196 Speaker 1: government had had a hand in creating, just like the 447 00:30:18,356 --> 00:30:25,316 Speaker 1: fictional Andromeda strain. In late nineteen eighty and early nineteen 448 00:30:25,356 --> 00:30:28,476 Speaker 1: eighty one, five gay men in Los Angeles developed a 449 00:30:28,556 --> 00:30:33,356 Speaker 1: series of strange, rare infections. Their immune systems weren't working. 450 00:30:34,236 --> 00:30:37,596 Speaker 1: People began to die in September of nineteen eighty two, 451 00:30:38,116 --> 00:30:42,676 Speaker 1: the CDC gave the sickness a name, Acquired Immune deficiency 452 00:30:42,756 --> 00:30:49,476 Speaker 1: Syndrome AIDS. AIDS is caused by HIV, the human immuno 453 00:30:49,556 --> 00:30:53,836 Speaker 1: deficiency virus. Most people catch HIV through sex, though it 454 00:30:53,876 --> 00:30:57,836 Speaker 1: can be transmitted through blood too. It originated in primates, 455 00:30:57,956 --> 00:31:01,196 Speaker 1: then jumped to humans in West Central Africa in the 456 00:31:01,316 --> 00:31:05,556 Speaker 1: nineteen seventies. While Americans worried about moon plagues, andromeda strains, 457 00:31:05,876 --> 00:31:10,156 Speaker 1: and swine flus, HIV was already spreading, though it didn't 458 00:31:10,236 --> 00:31:13,756 Speaker 1: yet have a name. Scientist f the National Centers for 459 00:31:13,876 --> 00:31:16,716 Speaker 1: Disease Control and at LATA. They released the results of 460 00:31:16,796 --> 00:31:20,316 Speaker 1: a study which shows that the lifestyle of some male 461 00:31:20,436 --> 00:31:24,556 Speaker 1: homosexuals has triggered an epidemic of a rare form of cancer. 462 00:31:26,436 --> 00:31:29,236 Speaker 1: That's NBC News. In one of the earliest broadcast reports 463 00:31:29,276 --> 00:31:33,156 Speaker 1: about AIDS in the United States, a lot remained unknown. 464 00:31:33,876 --> 00:31:37,556 Speaker 1: There was confusion and discord. Then in July of nineteen 465 00:31:37,636 --> 00:31:40,516 Speaker 1: eighty three, a newspaper in India ran on its front 466 00:31:40,556 --> 00:31:45,796 Speaker 1: page an anonymous letter to the editor. AIDS, a deadly, 467 00:31:45,876 --> 00:31:48,956 Speaker 1: mysterious disease which has caused HAVOC in the US, is 468 00:31:48,996 --> 00:31:51,916 Speaker 1: believed to be the result of the Pentagon's experiments to 469 00:31:52,036 --> 00:31:57,076 Speaker 1: develop new and dangerous biological weapons. The letter writer claimed 470 00:31:57,116 --> 00:31:59,756 Speaker 1: that the US government had created AIDS in a lab 471 00:32:00,196 --> 00:32:04,756 Speaker 1: on a US base called Fort Petrich. This story is 472 00:32:04,876 --> 00:32:10,396 Speaker 1: not true. It's Soviet disinformation. It came the KGB. We 473 00:32:10,556 --> 00:32:14,316 Speaker 1: know this because a former top ranking intelligence official admitted 474 00:32:14,356 --> 00:32:18,516 Speaker 1: as much. Years later, the Stasi called it Operation Denver. 475 00:32:19,356 --> 00:32:23,796 Speaker 1: Americans came to call it Operation Infection. In nineteen eighty five, 476 00:32:24,116 --> 00:32:28,276 Speaker 1: the Soviets published another article promoting the myth. That same year, 477 00:32:28,396 --> 00:32:32,076 Speaker 1: an East German scientist published a report supposedly proving that 478 00:32:32,316 --> 00:32:36,036 Speaker 1: HIV was a man made virus. And then a KGB 479 00:32:36,316 --> 00:32:40,116 Speaker 1: really got going, telegramming instructions about the project to their 480 00:32:40,156 --> 00:32:45,916 Speaker 1: colleagues and places like Bulgaria. The goal of these measures 481 00:32:46,196 --> 00:32:49,676 Speaker 1: is to create an opinion that this disease is the 482 00:32:49,836 --> 00:32:54,316 Speaker 1: result of secret experiments with a new type of biological 483 00:32:54,436 --> 00:32:58,516 Speaker 1: weapon by the secret services of the USA and the 484 00:32:58,676 --> 00:33:06,396 Speaker 1: Pentagon that spun out of control. The disinformation had been planted, cultivated, 485 00:33:06,796 --> 00:33:10,476 Speaker 1: and now it was ready to harvest. Good Evening. This 486 00:33:10,836 --> 00:33:14,556 Speaker 1: is the CBS Evening News Day and rather reporting. Nineteen 487 00:33:14,596 --> 00:33:18,676 Speaker 1: eighty seven millions of Americans watched CBS News every night. 488 00:33:19,596 --> 00:33:23,676 Speaker 1: A Soviet military publication claims the virus that causes AIDS 489 00:33:23,916 --> 00:33:28,196 Speaker 1: leaked from a US Army laboratory conducting experiments in biological warfare. 490 00:33:28,436 --> 00:33:31,156 Speaker 1: The article offers no hard evidence, but claims to be 491 00:33:31,236 --> 00:33:35,356 Speaker 1: reporting the conclusions of unnamed scientists in the United States, Britain, 492 00:33:35,396 --> 00:33:39,156 Speaker 1: and East Germany last October of Soviet newspaper relays to 493 00:33:39,276 --> 00:33:41,676 Speaker 1: this day, a not small number of people believed that 494 00:33:41,756 --> 00:33:45,756 Speaker 1: AIDS is a man made disease. The US government made disease? 495 00:33:47,716 --> 00:33:51,636 Speaker 1: What made so many Americans susceptible to a Soviet disinformation campaign? 496 00:33:52,276 --> 00:33:57,556 Speaker 1: What had so far weakened their immunity? In the nineteen seventies, 497 00:33:57,716 --> 00:34:00,636 Speaker 1: Americans learned that the government had continued to do secret 498 00:34:00,676 --> 00:34:04,396 Speaker 1: research long after the US withdrawal from Vietnam. In nineteen 499 00:34:04,436 --> 00:34:08,796 Speaker 1: seventy five, journalists broke stories about MK Ultra, the CIA 500 00:34:08,836 --> 00:34:13,796 Speaker 1: prom that tested psychedelics on unsuspecting military personnel, prisoners, and 501 00:34:13,916 --> 00:34:18,676 Speaker 1: just ordinary citizens. These insanely unethical experiments were in the 502 00:34:18,716 --> 00:34:21,836 Speaker 1: service of something even worse, drugs as a form of 503 00:34:21,916 --> 00:34:27,676 Speaker 1: mind control. Then came another revelation of horrible malfeasance, for 504 00:34:27,876 --> 00:34:31,356 Speaker 1: forty years, government scientists had studied the effects of syphilis 505 00:34:31,476 --> 00:34:34,916 Speaker 1: on black patients at Tuskegee. By failing to treat them, 506 00:34:35,636 --> 00:34:40,276 Speaker 1: watching them suffer and die, the US government had committed 507 00:34:40,316 --> 00:34:44,996 Speaker 1: horrible wrongs. Russian disinformation works weirdly a lot like a 508 00:34:45,076 --> 00:34:48,836 Speaker 1: Michael Crichton's story. Use real facts, real places, some fake 509 00:34:48,876 --> 00:34:51,556 Speaker 1: studies that look real, and then spin them out into 510 00:34:51,636 --> 00:34:55,516 Speaker 1: something unreal, but, depending on your point of view, just believable. 511 00:34:56,676 --> 00:35:00,916 Speaker 1: Fort Dietrich, the lab that conspiracy theorists said manufactured aids, Well, 512 00:35:00,956 --> 00:35:02,796 Speaker 1: it really was a Fort Dietrich, and it really did 513 00:35:02,876 --> 00:35:06,516 Speaker 1: work on biological weapons. It also played a central role 514 00:35:06,556 --> 00:35:09,956 Speaker 1: in MK Ultra. That lad continues to be in the 515 00:35:10,036 --> 00:35:13,996 Speaker 1: headlines today, at least in the headlines of conspiracy theorists. 516 00:35:18,116 --> 00:35:21,476 Speaker 1: We have watched the news in horror as story after 517 00:35:21,716 --> 00:35:25,836 Speaker 1: story unfolded revealing that the Army and the Central Intelligence 518 00:35:25,876 --> 00:35:29,796 Speaker 1: Agency had released germs and viruses into the population to 519 00:35:29,996 --> 00:35:34,716 Speaker 1: test their biological warfare capability. That's real. Audio from Milton 520 00:35:34,836 --> 00:35:38,636 Speaker 1: William Cooper, one of history's most influential conspiracy theorists. He 521 00:35:38,716 --> 00:35:41,196 Speaker 1: had a radio show called The Hour of the Time, 522 00:35:41,836 --> 00:35:44,276 Speaker 1: broadcast out of his house on a hill in Arizona. 523 00:35:45,276 --> 00:35:47,476 Speaker 1: He sounds like a computer. This is his version of 524 00:35:47,596 --> 00:35:51,956 Speaker 1: masculine scientific authority. But this is really his voice. Cover 525 00:35:52,156 --> 00:35:56,596 Speaker 1: up has become standard operating procedure at all levels and 526 00:35:56,796 --> 00:36:01,476 Speaker 1: in all departments of government. Do we dream reality or 527 00:36:01,676 --> 00:36:05,916 Speaker 1: is reality a dream? Cooper worked from the same playbook 528 00:36:05,956 --> 00:36:09,876 Speaker 1: as Russian disinformation and the Andromedist train. A seed of 529 00:36:09,916 --> 00:36:13,236 Speaker 1: truth than a great big tree of doubt. He claimed 530 00:36:13,276 --> 00:36:15,756 Speaker 1: the CDC had spread AIDS during vaccine trials in the 531 00:36:15,836 --> 00:36:18,836 Speaker 1: late nineteen seventies, just after the swine flu vaccine debacle. 532 00:36:19,436 --> 00:36:22,276 Speaker 1: He claimed the CDC had looked for gay volunteers as 533 00:36:22,316 --> 00:36:25,436 Speaker 1: part of a plan to target undesirable elements of society. 534 00:36:26,156 --> 00:36:29,276 Speaker 1: And that's crazy, sure, But then listen to this notorious 535 00:36:29,356 --> 00:36:32,636 Speaker 1: recording from nineteen eighty two, the first time AIDS came 536 00:36:32,756 --> 00:36:36,356 Speaker 1: up in a White House press briefing. Because the President 537 00:36:36,516 --> 00:36:40,196 Speaker 1: have any reactions to the announced from the Center for 538 00:36:40,356 --> 00:36:45,036 Speaker 1: Disease Control of Atlanta that AIDS is now an epidemic 539 00:36:45,156 --> 00:36:52,596 Speaker 1: in six hund six hundred cases. It's known as gay play. 540 00:36:55,316 --> 00:36:56,996 Speaker 1: Oh yes, I mean it's a pretty serious thing that 541 00:36:57,516 --> 00:36:59,796 Speaker 1: one and every three people. Again, this shod died, and 542 00:36:59,876 --> 00:37:01,716 Speaker 1: I wondered if the president are going to wear anything? 543 00:37:02,396 --> 00:37:05,236 Speaker 1: I don't have it? Are you do you? You don't 544 00:37:05,356 --> 00:37:10,916 Speaker 1: have it? Well, I'm relieved that you didn't answer my question. 545 00:37:11,436 --> 00:37:14,556 Speaker 1: How do you know the White House looks on this 546 00:37:14,716 --> 00:37:16,596 Speaker 1: is a great job now? I don't know a thing 547 00:37:16,636 --> 00:37:19,996 Speaker 1: about it last year. Does anybody in the White House 548 00:37:20,076 --> 00:37:22,836 Speaker 1: know about this epidemic? Laurie, I don't think so. I 549 00:37:22,876 --> 00:37:28,196 Speaker 1: don't think there's been no personal experience here Leicester. So yeah, 550 00:37:28,236 --> 00:37:31,356 Speaker 1: there's no shortage of evidence. Homophobia played a real role 551 00:37:31,396 --> 00:37:35,476 Speaker 1: in the government's negligent response. Reagan didn't say the word 552 00:37:35,516 --> 00:37:39,396 Speaker 1: AIDS in public until nineteen eighty five. The federal government 553 00:37:39,476 --> 00:37:42,516 Speaker 1: did virtually nothing to study it, nothing to halt it spread, 554 00:37:42,636 --> 00:37:46,676 Speaker 1: nothing even to warn people about it. Activists made posters 555 00:37:46,756 --> 00:37:51,156 Speaker 1: that said silence equals death. There was no cabal of 556 00:37:51,236 --> 00:37:56,156 Speaker 1: secret scientists, no biological warfare, just a conspiracy of disregard 557 00:37:56,276 --> 00:37:59,076 Speaker 1: for human life. And if you were gay or black 558 00:37:59,236 --> 00:38:02,556 Speaker 1: or both in the nineteen seventies and nineteen eighties, you 559 00:38:02,596 --> 00:38:06,516 Speaker 1: would know this. The government didn't seem to care if 560 00:38:06,556 --> 00:38:13,316 Speaker 1: you died. This episode this season so far has been 561 00:38:13,356 --> 00:38:16,356 Speaker 1: filled with a lot of bullshit. It's important to look 562 00:38:16,356 --> 00:38:18,916 Speaker 1: at how bullshitters gained so much power in the twentieth 563 00:38:18,956 --> 00:38:21,916 Speaker 1: century down to our own day. But I just want 564 00:38:21,956 --> 00:38:24,436 Speaker 1: to make space for a moment for the truth about AIDS. 565 00:38:25,516 --> 00:38:27,756 Speaker 1: Since the start of the AIDS pandemic, over thirty three 566 00:38:27,796 --> 00:38:31,276 Speaker 1: million people have died from the disease. At the end 567 00:38:31,316 --> 00:38:34,556 Speaker 1: of twenty nineteen, thirty eight million people were still living 568 00:38:34,596 --> 00:38:38,996 Speaker 1: with it. Meanwhile, all of us, all of us have 569 00:38:39,196 --> 00:38:41,476 Speaker 1: been infected with this other disease that I've been trying 570 00:38:41,476 --> 00:38:44,476 Speaker 1: to tell you about, the pathogen we're trying to isolate 571 00:38:44,596 --> 00:38:48,356 Speaker 1: here in the last archive, the disease of being unable 572 00:38:48,476 --> 00:38:55,796 Speaker 1: any longer to know anything for sure. Operation infection never ended. 573 00:38:56,636 --> 00:38:59,356 Speaker 1: It makes all the real diseases we face worse, and 574 00:38:59,516 --> 00:39:02,596 Speaker 1: Lord knows there are real diseases. We want to begin 575 00:39:02,636 --> 00:39:04,716 Speaker 1: with the latest coronavirus case numbers, as we often do, 576 00:39:05,196 --> 00:39:07,876 Speaker 1: from Johns Hopkins University. Now more than one hundred and 577 00:39:07,956 --> 00:39:12,036 Speaker 1: fifty point five coronavirus infections confirmed worldwide, deaths in the 578 00:39:12,156 --> 00:39:17,756 Speaker 1: US now exceeding five hundred and seventy five thousand. Real 579 00:39:17,876 --> 00:39:22,836 Speaker 1: diseases tangled up with imaginary ones, A slew of COVID 580 00:39:22,956 --> 00:39:26,676 Speaker 1: nineteen misinformation has been going viral on social media. One 581 00:39:26,836 --> 00:39:31,196 Speaker 1: video making the rounds is called Plandemic. The documentary film 582 00:39:31,236 --> 00:39:35,116 Speaker 1: Plandemic came out early in the coronavirus pandemic in twenty twenty. 583 00:39:35,916 --> 00:39:37,876 Speaker 1: It was one of the most popular things on social 584 00:39:37,956 --> 00:39:41,356 Speaker 1: media for a while, spreading faster than the virus. It 585 00:39:41,516 --> 00:39:46,396 Speaker 1: features a scientist named Judy Mikeovitz. Mikeovitz worked at the 586 00:39:46,476 --> 00:39:49,236 Speaker 1: National Cancer Institute and made her name with a paper 587 00:39:49,276 --> 00:39:52,236 Speaker 1: in the journal Science that advanced suspect claims about the 588 00:39:52,316 --> 00:39:56,356 Speaker 1: root cause of the mysterious chronic fatigue syndrome. Science had 589 00:39:56,356 --> 00:40:00,396 Speaker 1: to retract. The paper was a huge scandal. Then Mikeowitz 590 00:40:00,436 --> 00:40:03,676 Speaker 1: was arrested and charged with allegedly stealing information from a 591 00:40:03,756 --> 00:40:07,076 Speaker 1: former employer. The charges were dropped, but for a few 592 00:40:07,156 --> 00:40:11,396 Speaker 1: years she pretty much vanished. In April twenty twenty, just 593 00:40:11,556 --> 00:40:14,396 Speaker 1: a few months into the COVID nineteen pandemic, mike E. 594 00:40:14,436 --> 00:40:18,636 Speaker 1: Fitz reappeared with a book called Plague of Corruption. Then 595 00:40:18,796 --> 00:40:22,036 Speaker 1: she appeared in Plandemic. She seemed to take on the 596 00:40:22,076 --> 00:40:25,276 Speaker 1: scientific establishment like a character out of a Michael Crichton novel. 597 00:40:25,756 --> 00:40:29,556 Speaker 1: Her popularity exploded. I think that's because this video, it's 598 00:40:29,596 --> 00:40:32,156 Speaker 1: as if all the Apollo and Andromeda and AIDS are 599 00:40:32,276 --> 00:40:36,236 Speaker 1: conspiracies and stories had all been edited together into one 600 00:40:36,356 --> 00:40:40,676 Speaker 1: giant ball of craziness. Think of how many people the 601 00:40:41,036 --> 00:40:47,116 Speaker 1: entire continent of Africa you lost a generation as that 602 00:40:47,476 --> 00:40:51,476 Speaker 1: virus was spread through because of the arrogance of a 603 00:40:51,596 --> 00:40:54,756 Speaker 1: group of people, And it includes Robert Redfield, who's now 604 00:40:54,836 --> 00:40:58,636 Speaker 1: the head of the CDC right along with Tony Fauci. 605 00:40:58,716 --> 00:41:02,476 Speaker 1: They were working together to take credit and make money, 606 00:41:02,636 --> 00:41:05,756 Speaker 1: and they had the patents on it, and had that 607 00:41:05,996 --> 00:41:11,596 Speaker 1: not happened, millions wouldn't have died from HIV. Lie after 608 00:41:11,716 --> 00:41:15,756 Speaker 1: lie after lie. This next stuff about Ebola more lies. 609 00:41:16,356 --> 00:41:19,876 Speaker 1: In nineteen ninety nine, I was working in Fort Dietrich 610 00:41:19,956 --> 00:41:22,796 Speaker 1: in you Sam read there, and my job was to 611 00:41:23,796 --> 00:41:27,716 Speaker 1: teach Ebola how to infect human cells without killing them. 612 00:41:27,996 --> 00:41:32,636 Speaker 1: Ebola couldn't infect human cells until we took it in 613 00:41:32,756 --> 00:41:36,596 Speaker 1: the laboratories and talking. This comes straight out of the 614 00:41:36,676 --> 00:41:41,036 Speaker 1: soviets earlier disinformation campaign Fort Dietrich. That's the same lab 615 00:41:41,116 --> 00:41:43,596 Speaker 1: where the Russians said the US cooked up the AIDS virus, 616 00:41:44,476 --> 00:41:46,836 Speaker 1: and even at the start of the pandemic Michamitz didn't 617 00:41:46,876 --> 00:41:50,436 Speaker 1: hesitate to stoke fears about a potential vaccine. If we 618 00:41:50,796 --> 00:41:55,396 Speaker 1: activate mandatory vaccines globally, I imagine these people stand to 619 00:41:55,436 --> 00:41:57,636 Speaker 1: make hundreds of billions of dollars that own the vaccines, 620 00:41:57,996 --> 00:42:01,876 Speaker 1: and they'll kill millions, as they already have with their vaccines. 621 00:42:02,196 --> 00:42:07,116 Speaker 1: There is no vaccine currently on the schedule for any 622 00:42:07,436 --> 00:42:13,436 Speaker 1: RNA virus that works. Millions of people watched Plandemic. Even 623 00:42:13,516 --> 00:42:16,316 Speaker 1: when the big social media platforms took it down. People 624 00:42:16,396 --> 00:42:19,276 Speaker 1: kept reposting it as if they alone could stand up 625 00:42:19,316 --> 00:42:23,836 Speaker 1: to some vast conspiracy of secrecy. In the video, Mikerovitz 626 00:42:23,916 --> 00:42:27,556 Speaker 1: encourages people not to wear masks. These are the kinds 627 00:42:27,556 --> 00:42:30,316 Speaker 1: of ideas that spread like viruses and could kill like 628 00:42:30,436 --> 00:42:34,636 Speaker 1: them too. In Plandemic, it's as if time stopped in 629 00:42:34,796 --> 00:42:39,036 Speaker 1: some stagnant pool of the nineteen seventies. The nineteen seventies 630 00:42:39,036 --> 00:42:44,156 Speaker 1: are over. Kip past it. Michael Crechton he never really 631 00:42:44,196 --> 00:42:46,676 Speaker 1: got past it. In the year two thousand and four, 632 00:42:46,796 --> 00:42:50,436 Speaker 1: he published State of Fear, another hit, another story about 633 00:42:50,476 --> 00:42:54,516 Speaker 1: science randomok, only this time it wasn't about Vietnam or 634 00:42:54,596 --> 00:42:58,796 Speaker 1: German warfare or the perils of DNA research. It was 635 00:42:58,796 --> 00:43:01,996 Speaker 1: about the science behind global warming and how Crechton didn't 636 00:43:02,036 --> 00:43:05,756 Speaker 1: trust it, how he doubted it. President George W. Bush 637 00:43:05,836 --> 00:43:08,516 Speaker 1: devoured the book. Crechton met him at the White House, 638 00:43:08,836 --> 00:43:12,596 Speaker 1: and he testified before the Senate. What is an issue? 639 00:43:12,796 --> 00:43:15,796 Speaker 1: It's further the methodology of climate science. It is sufficiently 640 00:43:15,916 --> 00:43:21,796 Speaker 1: rigorous to yield a reliable result. It seems to me 641 00:43:22,116 --> 00:43:24,956 Speaker 1: that all his life Michael Crichton was just looking for something, 642 00:43:25,356 --> 00:43:29,916 Speaker 1: anything to believe in, and not finding it. I asked 643 00:43:29,956 --> 00:43:33,036 Speaker 1: the Crichton expert, Joanna Raidin, about that. She said, he'd 644 00:43:33,076 --> 00:43:36,116 Speaker 1: been raised Presbyterian, but he is, as far as I know, 645 00:43:36,436 --> 00:43:43,676 Speaker 1: was not practicing. Was not a churchgoing person, but rather 646 00:43:43,876 --> 00:43:47,116 Speaker 1: he really embraced the kind of new age, the sort 647 00:43:47,116 --> 00:43:50,876 Speaker 1: of religious new age that is dawning when he's in college. 648 00:43:50,996 --> 00:43:53,796 Speaker 1: But he goes on a number of like kind of 649 00:43:53,996 --> 00:43:57,076 Speaker 1: vision quests. He learns how to read auras. But the 650 00:43:57,156 --> 00:43:59,676 Speaker 1: whole time that he's doing this, he's you can sense 651 00:43:59,796 --> 00:44:04,396 Speaker 1: that he feels the emptiness, the failures of the secular 652 00:44:04,596 --> 00:44:08,316 Speaker 1: to give meaning to the ways that life is being 653 00:44:08,396 --> 00:44:12,556 Speaker 1: transformed in the time that he's living. You feel almost 654 00:44:12,596 --> 00:44:18,076 Speaker 1: a desperateness in the way that he's seeking. Michael Crichton 655 00:44:18,156 --> 00:44:21,796 Speaker 1: went on vision quests, he consulted with a parapsychologist. Like 656 00:44:21,956 --> 00:44:24,476 Speaker 1: a lot of people, he was groping for the answer 657 00:44:24,596 --> 00:44:28,596 Speaker 1: to what happens when God dies. All the people who 658 00:44:28,716 --> 00:44:31,436 Speaker 1: deny science, who think AIDS was made in a lab, 659 00:44:31,916 --> 00:44:35,196 Speaker 1: who say masks or a conspiracy, who watch wildfires burn 660 00:44:35,276 --> 00:44:37,796 Speaker 1: in the West and doubt that there's something changing about 661 00:44:37,836 --> 00:44:41,916 Speaker 1: the climate. All those people descend from that moment that 662 00:44:42,116 --> 00:44:47,436 Speaker 1: Michael Crichton never got past nineteen sixty nine, that moment 663 00:44:47,756 --> 00:44:51,196 Speaker 1: when we raised science to the heavens and then watched 664 00:44:51,236 --> 00:44:55,036 Speaker 1: it all come hurtling back down to Earth, not God's 665 00:44:55,836 --> 00:45:00,876 Speaker 1: but humans. After all, Now it's been ten thousand years, 666 00:45:01,716 --> 00:45:06,876 Speaker 1: Man has right a billion tears or what he never knew. 667 00:45:07,836 --> 00:45:13,316 Speaker 1: Now Man's reign is true, but thrue eternal night, the 668 00:45:13,476 --> 00:45:20,076 Speaker 1: twinkling of starlight so very far away. Maybe it's only 669 00:45:20,556 --> 00:45:33,796 Speaker 1: est game in the twenty five twenty five If Man Survive. 670 00:45:41,356 --> 00:45:44,236 Speaker 1: This episode was written by me Jillapour with Ben Natt 671 00:45:44,236 --> 00:45:47,916 Speaker 1: of Haffrey. It's produced by Sophie Crane mckibbon and Ben 672 00:45:48,036 --> 00:45:51,076 Speaker 1: Natt of Haffrey. Our editor is Julia Barton and our 673 00:45:51,116 --> 00:45:56,156 Speaker 1: executive producer is milo'bell. Martin Gonzalez is our engineer. Fact 674 00:45:56,276 --> 00:45:59,316 Speaker 1: checking by Emy Gain's original music by Matthias Bossie and 675 00:45:59,396 --> 00:46:03,836 Speaker 1: John Evans, Stillwagon Symfinette. Our research assistants are Kimanie Panthier 676 00:46:03,996 --> 00:46:07,756 Speaker 1: and Lily Richmond. Our full proof players are Yoshia Mao, 677 00:46:08,116 --> 00:46:12,796 Speaker 1: Raymond Blankenhorn, Matthias Bossi, Dan Epstein, Ethan Herschenfeld, Becka A. Lewis, 678 00:46:12,916 --> 00:46:17,156 Speaker 1: Andrew Parella, Robert Ricotta, and Nick Saxton. The Last Archive 679 00:46:17,236 --> 00:46:20,116 Speaker 1: is a production of Pushkin Industries. At Pushkin thanks to 680 00:46:20,236 --> 00:46:24,556 Speaker 1: Jacob Weisberg, Heather Fame, John Schnars, Carli Migliori, Christina Sullivan, 681 00:46:24,756 --> 00:46:28,596 Speaker 1: Eric Sandler, Emily Rostek, Maggie Taylor, Maya Kanig, and dan 682 00:46:28,676 --> 00:46:31,916 Speaker 1: Yella Lacan. Many of our sound effects are from Harry 683 00:46:31,956 --> 00:46:35,276 Speaker 1: Jenette Junior in the Star Jenette Foundation Special thanks to 684 00:46:35,396 --> 00:46:38,956 Speaker 1: Simon Leak. If you like the show, please remember to rate, share, 685 00:46:39,036 --> 00:46:42,676 Speaker 1: and review. To find more Pushkin podcasts, listen on the 686 00:46:42,756 --> 00:46:46,796 Speaker 1: iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. 687 00:46:47,116 --> 00:46:47,916 Speaker 1: I'm Jill Lapoor