Story: One of my favorite phenomena in demographic data...the harvesting effect. What I learned from a heat wave in Chicago in 1995, and how it applies to the current coronavirus outbreak. Mortality data can simultaneously be accurate and misleading.

Guest: Mike Pearl (@MikeLeePearl), author of the Vice column "How scared should I be?" and of the new book The Day it Finally Happens. We talk about existential threats to life on Earth like antibiotic resistance as well as more prosaic phenomena like crosswalks and whether Jurassic Park is scientifically accurate. Where Mike is involved, life finds a way.

Cocktail of the month: The Four Horsemen. Truly a drink for the apocalypse, as you stare down the planet-killer comet heading for Earth.

Question Cathy returns with the mailbag.

 

Please support Mass for Shut-ins, an independent and ad-free podcast, via Patreon. Contact me via Facebook, Twitter (@gin_and_tacos), or the venerable website Gin and Tacos. 

Thanks: Mike Pearl, all the bands that contribute music (Waxeater, IfIHadAHiFi, The Sump Pumps, Oscar Bait), Zachary Sielaff, Question Cathy, and all Patreon supporters, subscribers, and listeners.