On the Spoiler Special podcast, Slate critics discuss movies, the occasional TV show, and, once in a blue moon, another podcast, in full spoiler-filled detail. This week, Slate Senior Editor Sam Adams is joined by Slate Staff Writer Rebecca Onion to spoil Contagion, Steven Soderbergh’s 2011 pandemic movie. Not dissimilar to the coronavirus, the fictional virus, MEV-1, started off transferring from infected animals to humans. MEV-1 infected Gwyneth Paltrow’s character on a work trip. Then she traveled back to the Midwest, spreading the virus. Can the institutions in charge find a vaccine before the virus decimates society? 

You can read Rebecca Onion’s piece about the lessons to take from Contagion here.

You can read Sam Adams’ interview with the screenwriter here. 

Note: As the title indicates, this podcast contains spoilers galore.

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Podcast production by Rosemary Belson. 

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