StarTalk Radio

Lori, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of the book The Coming Plague.

She's an expert on infectious contagious diseases....My boss does call me Debbie Downer.

As I see your book sounds very hopeful.The Coming Plague.

Lori, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of the book The Coming Plague.

I actually have a book, it's called Safe Food, The Politics of Food Safe Food, Practicing Safe Food.

Oh, I actually have a book. It's called Safe Food, The Politics of Food Safety.

oh, I actually have a book it's called Safe Food The Politics of Food Safe Food Practicing Safe Food

Lewis Carroll was... He's a mathematician and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland have been studied by mathematicians and just the phrasings, the bending of time that's within it, it's all in there.

And in fact there is a... The late Martin Gardner wrote a book called The Annotated Alice where every passage within Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has an explanatory note about how it relates to math and science.

Lewis Carroll was... He's a mathematician and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland have been studied by mathematicians and just the phrasings, the bending of time that's within it, it's all in there.

And in fact there is a... The late Martin Gardner wrote a book called The Annotated Alice where every passage within Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has an explanatory note about how it relates to math and science.

One of the trilogies that I read this year was, or last year, was The Three-Body Problem.

So everybody, The Three-Body Problem is complicated where you have the sun and the earth and then you're a spacecraft. How do you keep track of the gravity of all three objects or the moon?

which was using all of the earth's nuclear missiles to explode behind a solar sail, or not a solar sail, but a sail to propel a very small package at near light speed.

I read a lot of speculative science fiction and one of the trilogies that I read this year was, or last year, was The Three-Body Problem.

So everybody, The Three-Body Problem is complicated where you have the sun and the earth and then you're a spacecraft.

which was using all of the earth's nuclear missiles to explode behind a solar sail, or not a solar sail, but a sail to propel a very small package at near light speed.

So what we're doing is using the probability of looking at a whole load of genes that we think are important or not important and seeing what animals have which genes and looking at the balance they've got and seeing how that works in probability wise just like it would in money ball.

So we're looking at 35 to 40% heritability of racing ability and we look at all these different factors and we put them in a statistical model and when we're looking at horses to breed or horses to buy, we'll use that system to assess a kind of money ball type system.

So tell me how you feel about when you talk about that kind of data, Moneyball per se. The book and the movie.

It was a team that did not have a lot of money to spend on players, so had to find a new way or a new player that could give them a chance of success that no one else was really factoring in.

The on-base percentage, something that's been around forever, had never been looked at as a real plus on a ball club until Billy Bean kind of take the GM of the Oakland A's and took a look at that.

And your book 'Revolution', which we will wave here, has just been nominated for the Philip K. Dick Awards for 2016.

Well, this is a near-term techno-thriller, so it's science fiction in the sense that I use real science to see what's happening with the future of brain-computer interfaces and other kinds of brain technologies.

Well, this is a near term techno thriller so it's science fiction in the sense that I use real science to see what's happening with the future of brain computer interfaces And other kinds of brain technologies.

As you know Philip K. Dick was all about reality And I play a lot in my book with if we start messing around with different ways of perception If we start connecting ourselves directly to the internet if we start altering our minds so that we Can think smarter faster quote-unquote better.

What if we don't forget? What will that do to us so because I deal a lot in the trippiness of The protagonist experiencing these things I think that's kind of why the Phil K. Dick people were interested in the book because no one was trippier than mr. Dick.

So Stephen, so Freakonomics, you have a podcast yourself I do. It's called Freakonomics Radio

It did, yeah I liked writing books a great deal But, you know, interviewing people, which is, I mean, I'm a writer

So Freakonomics Radio is kind of a blend To put in all the stuff that is not choice Yeah, exactly That's what he just said Exactly

Bestselling book Internationally bestselling book Congratulations on that

Steven and I are having lunch You were worried, I'm not gonna say what you said But you were worried You didn't know how the book would do it And you were scared And I said, I was lying, I was just being nice

Freakonomics is a bestselling book Internationally bestselling book

So Freakonomics, you have a podcast yourself I do. It's called Freakonomics Radio

It did, yeah I liked writing books a great deal But, you know, interviewing people, which is, I mean, I'm a writer

But you were wrong Wait, wait, that's a story That's a story

Snape character was reportedly based on J.K. Rowling, the authors of the series, on her chemistry teacher.

And the potions teacher? Of all the magicians and the wizards there he's the most scientific of them all.

So when you did Harry Potter did you do research on magic at all? Not really. So much of that magic is computer graphics and that is magic.

We started out going on locations. By the end we were just on a pile of grass at the back of the sound studio.

And they have another relative named Bellatrix. Bellatrix, let me guess. Dog Anus. No? No, no, no. Generally stars in constellations don't identify the anus.

Snape character was reportedly based on J.K. Rowling, the authors of the series, on her chemistry teacher.

Of all the magicians and the wizards there he's the most scientific of them all.

And for those who didn't know, the Lord of the Rings series was mostly filmed in New Zealand. By Peter Jackson. And Peter Jackson was inspired to, one of the key inspirations for him in making Lord of the Rings was Excalibur.

Big he's a big fan of Lord of the Rings.

One of your most talked about books was titled Blink.

I read about this in Blink.

You talk about in your book and Blink, someone who claimed they could tell you within a few minutes tell a married couple whether they would be divorced within 15 years.

So Malcolm, one of your most talked about books was titled Blink.

I read about this in Blink.

You talk about in your book and Blink, someone who claimed they could tell you within a few minutes tell a married couple whether they would be divorced within 15 years.

The Bomber Mafia, a dream, a temptation, and the longest night in the Second World War.

It's a story about this weird little bit of history in the Second World War, which was a group of pilots down in Alabama who thought they had solved one of the most difficult physics problem problems in modern war, which is how to drop a plane, a bomb from a plane with a high degree of accuracy.

And most people don't know. I'd say correct me if I'm wrong about Malcolm, because surely you researched this. Was it something like 80 percent of bombs dropped in the Second World War missed their target?

It's a different book than any I've ever written. It's not a it's not a it doesn't go in a million directions. It's a it's a it's a it's a not a pure history book, but very close to it.

And my book is about that journey from the hatching of the dream in Montgomery in the mid-'30s to its kind of cataclysmic failure over Japan in the summer of 1945.

The Bomber Mafia, a dream, a temptation, and the longest night in the Second World War.

It's a story about this weird little bit of history in the Second World War, which was a group of pilots down in Alabama who thought they had solved one of the most difficult physics problems in modern war, which is how to drop a plane, a bomb from a plane with a high degree of accuracy.

It's never in a hurry, right?

Good luck on that book.

I think the world needs it and anyone thinking of the future of war needs it.