From KCRW Santa Monica and KCRW.com, it's The Treatment.

Welcome to the treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell. How's it a line go? It comes in many names,

the plague, the crisis, the what was it? I think I called it the walking plague.

Yes. The opening lines from the terrific novel, World War Z, my guest, who I think is uniquely qualified to write about institutions in denial of crisis, Max Brooks. Of course, we know him from zombie guy to the apocalypse. His new book sitting right in front of me is The Evolution. And, of course,

World War Z, but the book we're going to talk about today. And a book that sends chills from me

every time I pick it up is the graphic novel, German warfare, a very graphic history, Max, books. Thanks to something's coming back.

It's good to be here. Thank you.

But before we get into all these things, let's talk about your writing for a second,

because almost nobody ever does.

Sure.

And you do have this affinity for, even in Harlem Health Arts, identifying institutions

that are incapable of seeing what's in front of them. What does that come from for you?

I write about adaptation and adaptation trying to survive because that was my life. I think on a very personal level growing up with dyslexia, what was hard for me was easy for everyone else. So I had to

adapt. You know, back in the 80s, the system was set up for kids who were good on standardized tests that were timed.

That was it. I wasn't. So I had to develop coping mechanisms. I had a family that had to cope.

You know, my parents, Mel Brooks and Anne Bancroft, when you're in show business, you're living

project to project. So you're always having to adapt. You're always having to strategize. You can't just lock into a job and do it for 20 years and get a

retirement package at the end of it. So adaptation was always part of my life. But too, I mean, when you're talking about being dyslectic, and especially in the 80s, there was an entire institutional lack of recognition of that. Oh, yeah. And an ability to deal with it and lack

of empathy towards it. I might have gotten kind of a one-two punch because I think when you're the

child of celebrities, there's also a sense that you're lazy. And I don't think that was the case

in all my teachers. I think in all honesty, most of my teachers probably just didn't know about

dyslexia and just didn't

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