Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus

by Bill Wasik, Monica Murphy, Johnny Heller (Narrator)

An engrossing, lively history of a fearsome and misunderstood virus that binds man and dog. The most fatal virus known to science, rabies — a disease that spreads avidly from animals to humans — kills nearly one hundred percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. In this critically acclaimed exploration, journalist Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy chart four thousand years of the history, science, and cultural mythology of rabies. From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, Rabid is a fresh and often wildly entertaining look at one of humankind’s oldest and most fearsome foes.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science, History, Audiobook, Medicine, Medical, Health

Audible Audio

First published July 1, 2012

About the author

Bill Wasik is the editorial director of the New York Times Magazine. With his wife, the veterinarian Monica Murphy, he has co-written two books: "Our Kindred Creatures: How Americans Came to Feel the Way They Do About Animals" (Knopf, 2024) and "Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus" (Viking, 2012).

Wasik is also the author of "And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture" (Viking, 2009) and the editor of "Submersion Journalism: Reporting in the Radical First Person from Harper's Magazine" (New Press, 2008).