Bill Wasik

Some of our culture’s most enduring monsters transmit their contagion through biting — werewolves, zombies, and vampires. Could these myths actually be about rabies?

Computer viruses and memes were born at the same time. But, for journalist Bill Wasik, it’s time to retire the metaphor of things “going viral” online.

Some of our culture’s most enduring monsters transmit their contagion through biting — werewolves, zombies, and vampires. Are these myths really about rabies?

Computer viruses and memes were born at the same time. But, for journalist Bill Wasik, it’s time to retire the metaphor of things “going viral” online.

What do you do in the face of a monstrous disease with a 100% fatality rate? In this short, a Milwaukee doctor tries to knock death incarnate off its throne.

In the fall of 2004, Jeanna Giese checked into the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin with a set of puzzling symptoms ... 

Rabies is a virus most often transmitted through the bite of an infected animal, and it has been around as long as humans have. Veterinarian Monica Murphy and  journalist Bill Wasik, authors of Rabid: A Cultural History of the World’s Most Diabolical Virus, explain the history, science, and cultural mythology surrounding rabies—and how it has spawned stories of pandemic, werewolves, and zombies.

Long before science explained rabies, the virus showed up in folklore and literature. "The vampire myth, the werewolf myth, and the zombie myth," Bill Wasik tells Kurt Andersen, "are ...

Bill Wasik, senior editor at Harper's magazine, argues that digital technology is leading to entirely new ways of thinking, organizing, and communicating. In And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture, he explains that as the Internet expands its reach, a new kind of viral ...

2009 marks the twenty-fifth year of the Harper's Index, which first appeared in the March 1984 issue. To celebrate, Harper’s magazine has published a 3-page Index in the January issue. Excerpts include:

Date on which Bush said of Osama bin Laden, "I ...