Hello and welcome to the Anthropocene Reviewed, a podcast where we review different facets

of the Human-centered planet on a five-star scale.

I'm John Green and we're back with a four-episode mini-season to celebrate the release of the

Anthropocene Reviewed Book, which comes out on May 18th.

The book contains many revised and expanded essays from this podcast and several all-new

reviews. Also, I signed all 250,000 copies of the US and Canadian First Printing of the

book. So if you live in the US or Canada and you want an unsigned copy of the book, too

bad. But if you want an autographed one, they are available wherever books are sold outside

the US and Canada. The book is also available for preorder, although alas, I cannot guarantee

you will get a signed copy. At any rate, today we'll be reviewing two things much on my mind

completely, the opening scene of the movie Penguins of Madagascar and the smallpox vaccine.

Let's begin with Penguins of Madagascar. Unless you've lived an exceptionally fortunate

life, you've probably known someone who enjoys having provocative opinions. I'm referring

to people who say things to you like, you know, Ringo is the best beetle. In response,

you'll take a long breath. Maybe you're out to lunch with this person because lunch

is a time limited experience and you can only bear this person's presence in minute quantities.

So you'll take a bite of your food and then you'll sigh again before saying, why is Ringo

the best beetle? Well, the provocative opinion person is very glad you asked. Ringo is the

best beetle because, and then you stop listening, which is the only way to get through lunch.

And the person has finished at last, you say, all right, but Ringo also wrote Octopus's

Garden. And then the provocative opinion person will regale you with a 14-minute lecture

that begins, well, actually, Octopus's Garden is a considerable work of genius because

...