Hello and welcome to the political orphanage, a home for plucky misfits and problem solvers. Today we're going to discuss the

apocalypse. Now normally when a journalist such as myself gets into doomsday

scenarios it's customary to bring a couple of

colorful preppers on the show to come talk about why they're stocking up on

can goods or iodine tablets so we can all gawk at their twangy

historionics. I thought about doing that, but instead

I'm going to go clear in the opposite direction, actually about as far from a folksy doomsday

preppers I can get. Today I'm going to interview Lord Martin Reese,

the Astronomer Royal of the United Kingdom. Lord Martin is the co-founder of the

Center for the Study of Exist existential risk at Cambridge University.

If you want to hear two guys from Middle America discuss the contents of their bug out bags,

that's this week's bonus episode on Patreon, available exclusively to supporters of the show at

Patreon.com slash Andrew Hee.

You can join those elite orphans who make the show possible and find out what I've got hidden in my personal

bug out bag by going to Patreon.com.

slash Andrew Heaton.

This week's bonus episode features my old producer Jennings and I swapping tips on survival gear we've jammed into our

backpacks for if and when the grid goes down. But that's the bonus episode.

Today on the flagship episode that you're currently now listening to, I am excited to talk to a British

lord about the apocalypse.

I'm specifically interested in how we can rank threats empirically and rationally and

how scientists like him go about calculating the probability of things like nuclear warfare

...