Everything Everywhere Daily – “Zombies (Encore)”

Host: Gary Arndt
Date: October 29, 2025

Main Theme

This episode delves into the origins of zombies: tracing their roots from African and Haitian religious traditions through their evolution into popular culture, films, and video games. Gary Arndt unpacks how a concept once tied to trauma, slavery, and social control in Haitian voodoo became a modern plot device for horror, satire, and survival stories.

Key Discussion Points

1. What Are Zombies? (02:31)

• Modern fiction usually shows zombies as “reanimated corpses or infected humans devoid of consciousness…driven by an insatiable urge to consume human flesh or brains.”
• The zombie mythos is flexible, varying by story.

2. Cultural and Historical Origins (03:40–10:20)

• Gravestones & Death Beliefs:
  • Some speculate gravestones originated as a measure to “keep the undead from rising.” (03:58)
• African Roots:
  • Many slaves in Saint Domingue (now Haiti) “brought with them their traditions and beliefs”—including “spirit possession and reanimation of the dead.” (05:00)
  • In these belief systems, “the boundary between life and death is viewed as permeable.”
• Language Origins:
  • “The word zombie is believed to have originated from Africa…from the Congo word zumbi (fetish), djumbi (ghost), or Kimbundu nzombi (deity).” (05:45)
• Syncretism & Voodoo:
  • With the arrival in Haiti, “enslaved Africans were typically baptized into the Roman Catholic Church,” resulting in syncretic religions (voodoo).
  • Voodoo “blended their traditional African religions with elements of Christianity…a process known as religious syncretism.” (07:00)
  • Example: “Papa Legba” is associated with St. Peter.
• Afterlife & Social Control:
  • “The afterlife in Haitian voodoo is often envisioned as a return to the ancestral homeland…[but] if you committed suicide, you could not enter guinea.” (08:15)
  • Suicides’ souls risked being “captured by a sorcerer, known as a bokar, before [traveling] to Guinea.”
  • The bokor could “reanimate the corpse and enslave the individual who becomes a zombie.”
  • This formed a means of social control, deterring suicide with the threat of “a fate worse than death.” (09:20)

3. Zombies in Haitian Folk Practice (10:30–11:45)

• Voodoo practitioners were (and are) experts in “herbalisms and toxins,” sometimes creating “zombie powders.”
• Zombie powders often included tetrodotoxin—a neurotoxin from pufferfish that “can induce paralysis and even the appearance of death.” (11:25)
• Medical evidence: The Lancet documented “three such cases in a 1997 article.” (11:45)

4. Zombies Go Global: Western Fascination and Pop Culture (12:00–15:20)

• The transition from Haitian lore to Western fiction began with sensationalized travel narratives.
• William Seabrook’s The Magic Island (1929) helped introduce zombies to American audiences.
  • “This book describes zombies as living beings under the control of a sorcerer, which captured the imagination in the United States.” (12:45)
• Hollywood’s Entry:
  • 1932’s White Zombie (starring Bela Lugosi) used the theme of mystical mind-control.
  • “It began the association of zombies with horror rather than their original cultural context.” (13:03)
• Major Shift: George Romero (1968):
  • Night of the Living Dead “redefined the zombie as an undead flesh-eater, a departure from mind-controlled slaves of Haitian voodoo.”
  • “Romero’s zombies were mindless and driven purely by the instinct to feed…they could transmit their condition via bites, adding a contagion element to the myth.” (13:50)
  • The spiritual/mystical context was dropped for scientific or plague origins in fiction.
  • “Pretty much every modern interpretation of zombies can trace its roots back to George Romero.”

5. Zombie Evolution in Modern Media (15:21–18:20)

• ’80s Evolution:
  • The Return of the Living Dead (1985): Zombies that “could run and speak.”
• Video Games:
  • Resident Evil (starting in the ’90s) brought zombies into interactive media, mixing horror, action, and bioterrorism.
• 2000s Onwards:
  • 28 Days Later (2002): Introduced fast-moving zombies.
  • Shaun of the Dead (2004): Zombies used satirically.
  • World War Z (book by Max Brooks, 2006): “Written as a future historical account of a zombie apocalypse…The movie [with Brad Pitt] has absolutely nothing to do with the book other than the title and the use of zombies.” (17:30)
  • The Walking Dead (2010): “Became a cultural phenomenon focusing on long-term survival.”
  • The Last of Us (game in 2013, HBO series later): Zombies caused by a mind-controlling fungus, inspired by actual fungi that control ants.
• Common Thread:
  • Gary notes: “Almost all of these zombie stories have one thing in common, they’re really just plot devices to tell the story of the survivors.” (18:50)
  • Zombie apocalypse stories are a tool to explore human survival, much like nuclear apocalypse stories during the Cold War.

6. Zombies in Real Life: Government and Science (19:15)

• The CDC (Centers for Disease Control) published a blog in 2011: “Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse.”
  • It was so popular “it actually crashed their website.”

7. Host’s Rant: The Physics Problem of Zombies (19:40–21:20)

• Gary’s personal issue:
  • Most fictional zombies “violate the laws of thermodynamics.”
  • “Except for human flesh, zombies don’t seem to eat, they don’t grow food. Most zombies violate the laws of thermodynamics. Whether you consider zombies dead or alive, they are animate. They move, which requires energy…they have to get energy from somewhere and can only expend energy from their human host for so long before they would eventually starve.”
  • Only 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later “take this seriously,” by showing zombies eventually starving.

8. Conclusion: Remember the Origins (21:40)

• Gary’s closing reflection:
  • “So the next time you watch a movie or TV show that has a zombie apocalypse, or you dress up as a zombie for Halloween, just remember that even though it’s changed quite a bit, it has its origins in early Haitian religious beliefs.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Concept’s Origin:
  “The word zombie is believed to have originated from Africa. It could come from the Congo word zumbi, which means fetish, or djumbi, which means ghost, and it also may have come from the Kimbundu language in Angola, where the word nzombi means deity.” (05:45)

• On Syncretism:
  “The blending of traditional African beliefs with Christianity in Haiti became known as voodoo.” (07:15)

• On Social Control:
  “The threat of becoming a zombie, a fate worse than death, was used to scare people into not killing themselves.” (09:20)

• On Zombie Powders:
  “Tetrodotoxin…is known to block sodium channels on the neural membrane, preventing the conduction of nerve impulses and leading to paralysis and even the appearance of death.” (11:25)

• On Romero:
  “Romero’s zombies were mindless and driven purely by the instinct to feed…More importantly, they could transmit their condition via bites, adding a contagion element to the myth.” (13:50)

• Gary’s Skeptical Take:
  “Most zombies violate the laws of thermodynamics…They have to get energy from somewhere, and they can only expend energy from their human host for so long before they would eventually starve. The only movie I’ve seen that takes this seriously is 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later.” (20:10)

• Final Thought:
  “Just remember that even though it’s changed quite a bit, it [zombie mythology] has its origins in early Haitian religious beliefs.” (21:40)

Key Timestamps

• 02:31: Zombie definition and depiction in modern fiction
• 05:45: Linguistic origins of the word “zombie”
• 07:10–08:30: Syncretism: Haitian Voodoo and afterlife beliefs
• 09:15: Zombies as social control against suicide
• 11:25: Tetrodotoxin and “zombie powders”
• 12:45–13:50: Introduction of zombies into Western fiction
• 13:50: George Romero’s transformation of the zombie myth
• 15:30–18:20: Zombies in films, video games, and modern pop culture
• 19:15: CDC’s “Zombie Preparedness” blog phenomenon
• 20:05–21:15: Gary’s critique of zombie physics
• 21:40: Reminder of original Haitian roots

Summary Takeaway

Gary Arndt offers an educational and engaging journey through the historical, cultural, scientific, and pop-culture evolution of zombies—from spiritual beliefs used as tools of survival under slavery in Haiti to their worldwide phenomenon as cinematic, literary, and even governmental preparedness icons. He concludes by encouraging listeners to remember the complex, often tragic roots of this now ubiquitous symbol.