Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen is a radio show co-produced by Public Radio International and WNYC. The show for the week of 8 March 2013 is called ‘Going Viral‘ and includes seven segments entitled ‘Viruses at the movies’, ‘Does your zombie have rabies’, and ‘Playing against the virus’. They did speak with one virologist for a segment called ‘Reconstructing viruses‘.
To record this segment of Studio 360 I traveled down to the WNYC studios on Varick Street in New York. I sat in a glass-walled, silent room with headphones and before a large microphone. I spoke with the show’s host, Kurt Andersen, who was in a studio somewhere in Los Angeles. The sound quality was excellent and our conversation was wide-ranging, including a discussion on synthetic viruses, avian influenza H5N1, dual-use research, bioterrorism, and zombies. We spoke for 30 minutes but only a bit of that ended up being released. I think that a five minute discussion of science is far less than optimal – I favor long-form science discussions which can truly inform the listener.
You can listen to my segment below or over at the Studio 360 website.