A Field Guide to the Apocalypse: A Mostly Serious Guide to Surviving Our Wild Times

A common sense field guide to understanding, surviving, and thriving in our time of complex chaos and crises.

Is this finally it? The end times?Because from COVID-19 to climate catastrophe to the looming AI revolution--not to mention the ever-growing background hum of rage, fear, and anxiety--it’s starting to feel like the party we call civilization is just about over. The good news? It’s always felt that way.

Drawing on evolutionary psychology, history, brain science, game theory, and more, cooperation theorist (and, coincidentally, zombie expert) Athena Aktipis reassuringly explains how we, as a species, are hardwired to survive big existential crises. And how we can do so again by leveraging our innate abilities to communicate and cooperate.

Pack a ukulele in your prep kit. Practice your risk-management skills. Enlist your crew into a survival team. And embrace the apocalypse. You might just enjoy it. Plus, it will help us build a better and more resilient future for all humankind.

Athena Aktipis is an evolutionary psychologist and professor at Arizona State. She is the co-Director of the Human Generosity Project, hosts a podcast called Zombified, and is the chair of the Zombie Apocalypse Meeting. Her most recent book is The Cheating Cell: How Evolution Helps Understand and Treat Cancer.