Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense Takes on Hollywood
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Steve Aaron
SRA Communications
(717) 554-8614
steve@SRACommunications.com
Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense Takes on Hollywood
The BiollywoodTM Podcast Talks About Biological Threats and Popular Culture
WASHINGTON, D.C. (July 19, 2024) – Podcasts evolve. So do viruses and other biological threats. In response, the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense has taken its examination of scenarios involving biological weapons, accidents, and naturally occurring pandemics to the next level and created The BiollywoodTM Podcast.
“Hollywood has done a great job exploring the fears and concerns we all have about disease and what it can do to us,” said Dr. Asha M. George, Executive Director of the Commission and podcast co-host. “In The BiollywoodTM Podcast, we talk about the movies, television shows, video games, and audiobooks that are so much a part of popular culture and discuss their realism, ability to reveal vulnerabilities in national and global biodefense, where they hit the mark, and when they trade realism for the preposterous in the name of entertainment.”
Since its establishment in 2014, the Commission has drawn inspiration for the scenarios in many of its reports from historical facts, current assessments, and imagined fiction. With The BiollywoodTM Podcast, the Commission recognizes the contributions made by the entertainment industry to raising public awareness and pushing audiences to consider scenarios far beyond worst-case.
“We were already consuming these works of fiction and discussing how they address biological threats,” said John “J.T.” O’Brien, Research Principle at the Commission and podcast co-host. “This is just another way the Commission does its work. We are about more than just words on the pages of our reports and holding meetings. With The BiollywoodTM Podcast, we strive to educate the public about the biological threats they frequently see in media entertainment, to examine how these threats might be managed in a real-world context, and inspire the next generation of biodefense professionals.”
You can find episodes of The BiollywoodTM Podcast on iTunes, Amazon, and Spotify.
Dedicated to recommending and promoting changes to U.S. policy and law that strengthen national biodefense while optimizing resources since 2014, the Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense is a credible voice. In addition to its 2024 National Blueprint for Biodefense and 14 other reports which contain recommendations for consideration by the Administration and Congress, the Commission has also explored the use of other forms of communication to get its points across. Examples include its 2019 graphic novel and audiobook, Germ Warfare: a Very Graphic History, by Max Brooks (author of one of the best books about catastrophic biological risk, World War Z), 2021 public service announcement about its forward thinking initiative, The Apollo Program for Biodefense, and 2024 tongue-in-cheek trailer, Biodefense. The first Bipartisan Commission on Biodefense podcast launched in 2021, providing audio of its day-long insightful meetings. Former Secretary of Homeland Security Governor Tom Ridge and former Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala co-chair the Commission. Hudson Institute is the Commission’s current fiscal sponsor.
For interview requests with the podcast hosts, please reach out to:
Contact: Steve Aaron
SRA Communications
(717) 554-8614
steve@SRACommunications.com
To send recommendations for movies, tv shows, audiobooks, video games, etc. for the Commission to review, send a message to: biollywood@biodefensecommission.org.