Episode · Behind the Bastards · 2025-10-02
Books mentioned on How The FBI Botched the 2001 Anthrax Scare (Part 1)
Robert goes through the colorful life and backstory of future Trump administration official Steven Hatfill, who went from Rhodesian military volunteer to biological weapons expert to (innocent) suspect of a major terrorist attack. See omnystudio.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Demon in the Freezer
The Demon in the Freezer by Richard Preston is a chilling non-fiction book detailing the history of smallpox, the eradication efforts, and the lurking threats of biological weapons like anthrax.
Discussed“in his book the demon in the pre the freezer Richard Preston gives a useful description and by useful I mean terrifying description of usam headquarters that is just kind of chilling the main building of USM is a duncoled two-story monolith that looks like a warehouse”
Where to get it
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The Stand
The Stand by Stephen King is an epic post-apocalyptic horror novel that chronicles the devastation of human civilization by a weaponized influenza strain and the subsequent battle between survivors aligned with forces of good and evil.
Discussed“Stephen King's the stand for like focuses on I I think it's basically a base that's meant to stand in for Fort Dietrich. I forget exactly what it's called in that, but that's that's how the virus that kills the whole world gets out”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (2) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Ad read On Tyranny
“Listen to on tyranny or something. Yeah, listen to tyranny or something.”
Own book Girl gone wild
“Uh, you guys, I wrote a book. It's a coming of age memoir. It's called Girl Gone Wild. I alternate between thinking it's uh totally embarrassing that I did it and that it's awesome. And so, you decide. You order it and decide.”