Jason and Peter are huge fans of the HBO series The Last of Us, featuring Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey in the adaptation of the award-winning Sony video game. In the show, the world is suffering from a fictional brain infection that hijacks humanity, turning most of the world into ravenous zombies. Scientists have noted that the show’s pathogen is inspired by a very real set of fungi that assumes control of an ant’s motor system making it a “zombie”. Today, with global warming, there is speculation that this fictional infection could be closer to reality than we may realize! Really, no really?

To tackle this infectious situation, we asked The Last of Us co-creator, co-writer, director, and executive producer Craig Mazin to help us understand the science behind the fiction. Craig is best known for HBO’s Chernobyl and a long list of hit comedies including The Hangover Part II and III, Scary Movie 3 and 4 and many more.

In this episode:

• Could fungi-zombification happen in real life?
• Your lingering zombie questions finally answered.
• The difficulties of adapting a beloved video game franchise.
• Filming a postapocalyptic pandemic show during a pandemic.
• Was season 1 really more expensive than the first 5 seasons of Game of Thrones?
• How Game of Thrones should have ended (according to Craig Mazin.)
• The Hollywood strike’s effect on Season 2 and the changing realities in Hollywood.
• Our fascination with horror movies and the zombie apocalypse.
• Vampire genealogy.
• THE BIG QUESTION: Why Nick Offerman and not Jason Alexander?

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