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We live in a world that has become extraordinarily good at forgetting. Not the forgetting of trauma—though we do that too—but the forgetting of lessons, the systematic erasure of hard-won knowledge the moment the immediate crisis passes. We're like Penelope at her loom, weaving understanding by day only to unravel it by night, except we're not doing it strategically. We're doing it because we simply can't bear to remember.

The fictional scenario of "The Big One"—a SARS-CoV-3 outbreak beginning in East Africa and spreading globally within weeks—isn't meant to terrify us into paralysis. It's meant to wake us up to a reality we're already living in but refuse to see: we've built a world that is, quite literally, a biological mixing bowl with a side of viral mutation factory. And the recipe? Population density four and a half times what it was in 1918, air travel that connects continents faster than many viruses can incubate, and our relentless push into natural habitats where these pathogens originate.

We didn't just invite the viruses in. We built them a highway system.

The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics

Available for Broadcast on PRX

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Independent, moderated, timely, deep, gentle, clinical, global, and community conversations about things that matter.  Breathe Easy, we go deep and lightly surface the big ideas.

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