Thursday, January 8, 2026
Peculiar Book Club
You’ve seen the movies. But did you know that zombies are in fact all around us? Insect zombies, that is. In Rise of the Zombie Bugs, Mindy Weisberger explores the eerie yet fascinating phenomenon of real-life zombification. The truth is stranger than fiction: these parasites reproduce by rewriting their victims’ neurochemistry, transforming them into the “walking dead”: armies of cicadas, spiders, and other hosts that helplessly follow a zombifier’s commands, living only to serve the parasite’s needs until death’s sweet release (and often beyond).
We’ll chat live with the author about the evolutionary intricacies behind zombie ants, mind-controlled beetles, and the fungi and viruses that reprogram behavior from Brazilian rainforests to European meadows. It’s weird. It’s macabre. It’s right up our peculiar little alley. Come ask the hard questions, like why is a bug’s world full of zombies, why are arthropods so susceptible to this zombification, and could the creators of zombie bugs ever evolve to do the same to people? It’s a must-read for anyone curious about the true terrors lurking in nature’s undergrowth and the unnerving beauty of evolution’s darker side.
PAST EVENTS
Wednesday, November 5, 2025
New York Public Library
Event host Paula Croxson is a neuroscientist, award-winning science communicator and storyteller. She is President at Stellate Communications and a Senior Producer for The Story Collider. She has a Ph.D. from the University of Oxford and is an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She has appeared on numerous podcasts, science events and storytelling shows. She plays the flute in two rock bands and has swum around Manhattan.
Watch a recording of the NYPL event here!
Friday October 24, 2025
WORD Bookstore, Jersey City
Event host Nick Ciavatta is an award-winning voice-over artist, interviewer, emcee and audio producer who has done work for Discovery Channel, Amazon Prime Video, Bloomberg Media, Dell Computers, NBC, Universal Music and more. Nick was a writer, producer, interviewer and announcer for “Muse”, a syndicated arts and entertainment show through the mid 2000’s.