Zombified: Real-World Lessons from Fictional Apocalypses

By: Athena Aktipis, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Athena Aktipis

You watch a horror movie or TV series and think, “Zombies don’t really exist.” But when you consider the broader definition of zombification—the control of one entity by another—then zombies are definitely among us. And, it turns out, they have much to teach us about the world.

Athena Aktipis of Arizona State University is a self-professed apocalypse enthusiast, and as the host of the podcast Zombified, she knows the undead inside and out. With Zombified: Real-World Lessons from Fictional Apocalypses, she’s compiled her research and insights into a fascinating Audible Original that will have you thinking deeper about all those shambling, brain-hungry corpses in pop culture—not to mention our everyday lives.

Drawing on years of research on zombies and zombification, these six lessons offer a fun way to explore and understand the many forces that influence us. You’ll discover how organisms in the natural world, like the jewel wasp, hijack one another for their own ends. You’ll examine cases of social and psychological zombification involving family members and romantic partners. And, of course, you’ll spend plenty of time with fictional zombies—why they fascinate us, how they map onto topics like infectious diseases and disaster preparedness, and what they reveal about our hopes and fears for the future of humanity.

©2023 Audible Originals LLC (P)2023 Audible Originals LLC

Academia can be fun!

This is my kind of fun. I absolutely love learning new scientific information and it’s even better when mixed with silly topics.

Scientific and Entertaining.

I thought it was just written for enjoyment, but the science behind it was thought provoking and clearly shows cooperation far out weighs going it alone in survival situations.

It’s a good simil, but it’s soon out of perspective and overused

By the second chapter any relationship you have is a zombie relationship.
I think she misses the point soon in the development of being overpowered by some external force and being moved by acceptable desires to live and harmonize with other.
Love and friendship, the definition of the book, is a zombification. When exactly are the things they make us feel and look alive.

A smart approach to understanding why we like zombie stories so much!

This is a recollection of thoughts and reflexions on the zombie stories. You will not find a “survival guide” of any kind here, but you will understand better why we like so much the zombie stories and how some of the things we can learn from them actually help us in real scenarios.

Fun and interesting

Interesting perspective definitely gives you something to think about an enjoyable read two thumbs up

Interesting

The series of lectures were short but interesting with a lot of material discussed drawn from pop culture. The prof had a very enjoyable voice!

So-so

Definitely a research based, classroom lecture type of recording. I would have enjoyed more entertainment worked into the presentations.

Good info

Good info, I just want it to get stars but the system won’t let you just do stars. They will then just use an AI bot to smoosh all the reviews that are alike together at the top. Why write something at all when only the robots entries will read?

Great listen

while seeming lighthearted, the book is filled with a multitude of facts with a bit of opinion throughout. Enjoyed thoroughly and definitely recommend

Very insightful

I really never knew about zombification and how it is integral in our normal day to day life very interesting indeed. I love the Great Courses I feel like I always learn something new :D