Bioterror

04/05/23 • 47 min

The last 20 years of history have been bookended by two events. 9/11 and Covid-19. Many security experts believe that as cheap and easy-to-use gene editing tech proliferates, the occurrence of intentional release of publicly available viruses like smallpox or engineered variants of bird flu will be released for ideological reasons. Is there a plan to keep us safe? We start with special agent Edward You, formerly the director for the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, who is leading the U.S. government’s defense. In this episode we also talk with Richard Carmona, the former United States Surgeon General who was also tasked with this in his tenure, Harvard’s Sam Weiss Evans, and Michael Hopmeier who is a biosecurity expert.

Episode Guests

Richard Carmona is an American physician, nurse, police officer, public health administrator, and politician.

Sam Weiss Evans focuses on the governance of security concerns in emerging research technology, especially biology.

Edward You is currently on a Joint Duty Assignment at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) serving as the National Counterintelligence Officer for Emerging and Disruptive Technologies.

Michael Hopmeier is the president of Unconventional Concepts, and consult of matters of homeland security.

Reference links for this episode

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/news-blog/is-a-bioterrorism-attack-in-the-us-2008-12-02/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIscOy7o6v_QIVUjmtBh3szw9hEAMYASAAEgIRQvD_BwE

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/nightmare-bioterrorism?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=gap_ds&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIp6LZ9I6v_QIVoxnnCh3LfATKEAMYASAAEgIek_D_BwE

Support the show

This podcast is brought to you by the RandomGood Foundation and was produced by Rhumbline Media, LLC. Add a video of your thoughts on our Filmstacker Project.
Learn more about the podcast at our website.

Leave us a comment on social media:
Instagram
Facebook
Youtube
Twitter
LinkedIn
Credits
Written and Edited by Cody Sheehy
Produced by Samira Kiani
Music By Tyler Strickland
Impact production by Megan Friend
Recorded by Cody Sheehy and Samira Kiani
Additional Recording By Galen McCaw
Sound design and mixing by Kim Christensen
Supporting materials by Cody Sheehy
Social media and marketing by Megan Friend, Amna Vegha, and Marci Fiamengo
Website by Craig Boesewetter
Legal by W. Wilder Knight II
Executive production by Randall Gebhardt and Christopher Gebhardt

Episode Guests

Richard Carmona is an American physician, nurse, police officer, public health administrator, and politician.

Sam Weiss Evans focuses on the governance of security concerns in emerging research technology, especially biology.

Michael Hopmeier is the president of Unconventional Concepts, and consult of matters of homeland security.

Reference links for this episode

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/news-blog/is-a-bioterrorism-attack-in-the-us-2008-12-02/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIscOy7o6v_QIVUjmtBh3szw9hEAMYASAAEgIRQvD_BwE

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/nightmare-bioterrorism?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=gap_ds&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIp6LZ9I6v_QIVoxnnCh3LfATKEAMYASAAEgIek_D_BwE

Support the show

Previous Episode

Code of the Wild

Mosquitoes, which have evolved on Earth for more than a hundred million years, could be extinguished by new genetic engineering tools in a matter of years in modern efforts to prevent malaria. The first of these immensely powerful technologies are called “gene drives.” In this episode, we sit down for a mind mending interview with Dr Kevin Esvelt of MIT’s Sculpting Evolution Lab, who is one of the key inventors of gene drives and has been a chief advocate for its current deployments to sterilize invasive rodents and drive disease laden mosquitoes to extinction. We also get a sobering perspective from James Collins, an evolutionary ecologist at Arizona State University. At the end of the day, humans have never been able to modify nature without huge unforeseen consequences, but we usually proceed anyway.
Episode Guests

Kevin Esvelt is director of the Sculpting Evolution group, which invents new ways to study and influence the evolution of ecosystems.

James P. Collins is an evolutionary ecologist whose research group studies the role of host-pathogen interactions in species decline and extinction.

Reference links for this episode
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02087-5
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/first-us-open-air-test-of-genetically-modified-mosquitoes-deemed-a-success-180979960/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41576-021-00386-0
https://www.netflix.com/title/80208910

Support the show

Next Episode

Valley of Shadow

The technology companies driving the genomic revolution are modeling themselves after their predecessors in Silicon Valley. Many bioethicists take note that the same value system, often a mix of new age spiritualism mixed with a tech ethic of “go fast and break things,” is being used as a justification to move the technologies of life far past government regulations and what the rest of society is prepared for spiritually. But even as the new genomic revolution is getting started, Silicon Valley is entering into a period of self-reflection. Our guides for this discussion are Gaymon Bennet, a philosopher at Arizona State university and Barry Brown, the founder of Human (ethos) and an advisor to Singularity University.

Episode Guests

Barry Brown has been involved in the field of individual and team transformation for the past 30 years.

Gaymon Bennet works on the problem of modernity in contemporary religion and biotechnology: its shifting moral economies, contested power relations, and uncertain modes of subjectivity.

Reference links for this episode

https://www.google.com/search?q=gaymon+bennet&rlz=1C9BKJA_enUS999US999&oq=gaymon+bennet&aqs=chrome..69i57.2233j0j4&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8#ip=1
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/19/dark-side-of-tech-silicon-valley-guardian
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11464826/
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/23/opinion/google-big-tech-work-culture.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

Support the show