Hello, my name's David Rumsman and this is Talking Politics.

Today's extra episode is with Rachel Bronson.

She is in charge of the organisation that sets the doomsday clock

that tells us how close we are to midnight

and we are now closer than we've ever been.

She tells us why.

Talking politics is brought to you in partnership with the London Review of Books,

the only magazine willing to ask the questions that keep you awake at night and answer them to, even if it takes 10,000 words.

Is it okay to have a child in the age of climate crisis?

Where next for the coronavirus?

Was it a hermit crab that ate Amelia Earhart?

You know where to go.

Talking politics listeners get to subscribe for a world beating rate

using the URL, lrb.me.me slash talk.

They'll even send you a free copy of Sinomania writing about China from the London Review of

books. Just go to lrb.mee.mee slash talk.

We recorded this conversation about ten days ago the coronavirus was already a huge story as you'll hear they're not as big as it is now we recorded it in the offices of the

centre for the study of existential risk in cambridge a very appropriate place to talk about the end of the world.

We were in their library, which is on the street. You may hear some cars passing in the background.

Rachel Bronson is the president and the CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists,

who have been setting the doomsday clock since 1947. I started by asking

her to give us a bit of history and a bit of background. Maybe we could start with some historical

...