Episode 191: 'The Big One' with Mark Olshaker, Ann Hennigan Grace, & Dr. Sydney Redepenning

Osterholm Update

CIDRAP

Science

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 3 September 2025

⏱️ 71 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this week's special episode, Chris Dall interviews Dr. Osterholm and his coauthor Mark Olshaker on their new book The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics. They are also joined by Ann Hennigan Grace and CIDRAP's Dr. Sydney Redepenning who both conducted research and fact-checking for the book. The Big One is available for purchase <a href="https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/michael-t-osterholm-phd-mph/the-big-one/9780316258340/?lens=little-brown-spark">online</a> and at your local bookseller! <a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/covid-19/osterholm-update-covid-19">MORE EPISODES</a>       <a href="https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/support-cidrap">SUPPORT THIS PODCAST</a>

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to the Osterholm Update, a podcast on COVID-19 and other infectious diseases with Dr. Michael Osterholm.
0:15.4	Dr. Ostrome is an internationally recognized medical detective and director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, or CIDRAP, at the University of Minnesota. In this podcast, Dr. O. Strom
0:27.0	draws on nearly 50 years of experience investigating infectious disease outbreaks to provide
0:31.8	straight talk on the latest infectious disease and public health threats. I'm Chris Dahl,
0:37.2	reporter for CidWap News, and I'm your host for these conversations.
0:44.2	Welcome back, everyone, to another episode of the Osterholm Update podcast.
0:48.2	At an unspecified date sometime in the future, a farmer in the southern tip of Somalia near
0:54.0	the border with Kenya has
0:55.4	come down with a nasty virus that's given him a cough and chills, made his head and muscles ache,
1:00.3	and left him gasping for air. One of his sons appears to have caught the same bug. Not far away,
1:06.3	the one-year-old daughter of a Somali family traveling to a refugee camp in Kenya starts experiencing similar symptoms.
1:12.6	Within a few days, all three will be dead, filled by a mystery illness that appears to be spreading.
1:18.6	A community health worker in the region and the doctor overseeing the camp's hospital
1:23.6	soon start seeing more patients with eerily similar symptoms and relay what they're seeing to regional health officials.
1:30.7	Meanwhile, a young French aid worker who's recently been at the camp,
1:34.9	an Indonesian importer exporter who's been conducting business in the region,
1:38.8	and an American college student volunteering in Kenya with members of his church over the break,
1:43.3	are all on flights back
1:44.8	to their home countries, and some are starting to feel unwell. These are the opening
1:50.4	moments of a chillingly familiar but hypothetical pandemic scenario presented in the new book,
1:56.0	The Big One, by Dr. Michael Osterholm and his longtime collaborator, Mark Olshaker.
2:01.7	The book walks the reader through the challenges faced by a fictional cast of U.S. and world leaders
	...

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