Should we worry about the end of the world?

Ben Bradford, host of the new NPR Network podcast Are We Doomed?, started keeping a notepad tally of ways the world could end. The list includes nuclear war, climate change, pandemics, AI, and less immediate threats like supervolcanoes, aliens, and something called Grey Goo. His goal was to sort the real, pressing dangers from the ones that just feel real because of pop culture and breathless media coverage. What he found, after talking to experts across multiple fields, is that the most urgent existential risks are all human-made, and that the best defense against them is not a bunker full of supplies, but something far more mundane: community, communication, and good project management.

The Four Real Threats Are All Human-Made

Bradford’s research, guided by organizations that track existential and global catastrophic risk, consistently points to four main threats: nuclear war, climate change, pandemics, and AI. The common thread is that all four are created by humans. This is a crucial distinction from natural disasters, because it means the danger is something we have the power to cause—and, in theory, to prevent. The most surprising entry on the list for many listeners is AI, which Bradford admits he initially dismissed as science fiction. But after talking to experts and the people building the technology, he changed his mind.