Is some knowledge too dangerous to possess? Covid-19 has put cutting-edge research on pandemic germs under the spotlight.

We Meet:

Rowan Jacobsen, journalist

Gigi Gronvall, senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security and associate professor

Kevin Esvelt, professor and head of Sculpting Evolution Group, MIT Media Lab

Links:

Senator Paul and Dr. Fauci Clash Over Research Funding of Wuhan Lab, C-SPAN

Inside the risky bat-virus engineering that links America to Wuhan, MIT Technology Review

“We never created a supervirus.” Ralph Baric explains gain-of-function research, MIT Technology Review

Manipulating viruses and risking pandemics is too dangerous. It’s time to stop, Washington Post

Credits:

Curious Coincidence was produced as part of MIT Technology Review's Pandemic Technology Project, which is supported in part by a grant from The Rockefeller Foundation. The series was created by Antonio Regalado and Jennifer Strong and produced by Anthony Green, Luke Robert Mason and Lindsay Muscato, with help from Emma Cillekens. The executive producer is Golda Arthur. Theme music was composed and recorded by Jacob Gorski, with Ben Tolliday on cello and Ben Haeuser on woodwinds. The episodes contain original scoring and sound design by Garret Lang. Art direction by Eric Mongeon with illustration by Selman Design. The series was edited by Michael Reilly, David Rotman and Jennifer Strong, with fact checking by Matt Mahoney.