Written&W The Andromeda Strain with Laughing Briar
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Written&W The Andromeda Strain with Laughing Briar
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About this listen
In this episode of Written & Watched, we crack open Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda Strain and map where it sits on the spectrum from hard science fiction to speculative thriller. We unpack the Wildfire complex and its “odd-man” nuclear failsafe; nitpick biology (pH myths, the limits of personality indices, extremophiles); and explore the bigger questions the book tees up—What counts as life? When does sentience start? Why might climate realism and “solarpunk” solutions beat a Mars escape plan?
Laughing Briar has books here: https://laughingbriarbooks.com/
We also dive into AI’s “Chinese Room,” the film Her, the microbiome (yes, fecal transplants), endosymbiosis (mitochondria!), and why fungi (hello, cordyceps) might be the real doomsday villain. Plus: a character spotlight on the book’s most memorable survivor, a boozy storyteller named Peter Jackson, and a frank look at the novel’s self-solving ending.
Next up: the 1971 Andromeda Strain film—watch along and join us.