i'm lisa fletcher and you are in "the stream". zombie and disas a disas atr response. what does one have to do with another? well connect the z's. ♪ our dic digital producer is here. we are going to get this out of the way right off the top. being transparent with you all u this is the most self indulgent show ever. >> you are a huge zombie fin fin

frofanatic. and we spent a long time making ourselves into a zombie. this is lisa fletcher and i look like an eyeless pirate and here is sarah and she looks like she belongs in a zombie sor sororit. >> trevor says i think the zombie stuff started off as a scary idea but it's become a metaphor for the monitors if society broke down. all of these zombie shows at show us how we as humans treat each other. i want to ask max brooks why did you return from making a zombie guide. did he do it to appeal to a wider audience? >> we'll be barraging that.

beyond the zombie buzz could the disasse disaster fiction prs for the real thing. and it's resonating with a lot of people. the cdc has applied the zombie narrative for it's own comic book for emergency preparedness. max brooks joins us on the set to look at the bigger picture. thanks for being o on "the stream". thanks for being here. we have questions for max on google a little later in the show. >> max who is your audience. >> >> think i think it's a broad spectrum. you have people into zombies and survivalist culture and people that are into big picture disaster preparedness. i have spoken at the naval war college and i have worked with

the cdc. and that is like cutting strategic air command o often oe of the commissionaire crisis. we have to have stories. what do people say to you when they approach you on the street and realize who you are. >> when they approach me on the street they say i loved you in" protesttprotesttypretty in pink. >> it depends on where i am. if it's comic conit's like dude what happened to the movie. >> if it's a college environment it's dude you are awesome but i am more awesome. >> there was one time i was at a disaster preparedness drill for

fema and the national guard and the best compliment i ever got and a gentlemen came up to me after i spoke and sweating bullets speaking to a room full of generals what i do is i teach american people what you do. >> he came up to me and said i was in a think-tank of air force 2030. and he said for the first time in a long time you got me excited about thinking again. for me that is no great other comelcompliment. well our community takes our zombies search and rescuzombie . the zombie literature and movies are why we fantasize about the zombie apocalypse. >> i think every generation thinks they are least prepared for an apocalypse and are certain parts of the world more mentally prepared.

those that are already hit by financial crisis they have a lot less to lose. hey max it's mark from new york city. i wanted to ask you what themes for your new book is going to be? i feel there is a lot of rich material out there for science picfiction at the moment. we have climate change and rap i harapidgrowth up to 9 billion ie next century. i wonder how you portray these changes as being mundane and the new normal. >> going off the marks' video comment do you think mention are emotionally prepared for not only disaster ored or -- adver. >> no, no. that is why i have written this new comic book. it's about being mentally prepared and are we mentally

prepared or not. thamentit's about vampires duria zombie plague. when everybody i everything is , you are not allowed to fail. if you have never failed and never struggled and you don't know what it's like to pick yourself back up, you will not be ready for that adversity. >> so the son of mel brooks and an ba bancroft raised a priviled life for you. what was that moment like for you. it was a strange dichotomy. i had everything i never had to work and i was kurs rs kurs curd with dyslexia. my night was stooding to get a c plus and it made me comfortable

with hard work. knowing i had to dig in and bjork threworkthree tiles timesy next to me. my brain was not built for this world. that was my childhood. we have our community coming in talking about zombies. it's a hoar a herd mentality. those that follow talking media and don't follow their own brains need something to survive. it's a consequence of our own making that use us ir uses ourss against us there is a shift in how they are being used in 1968. we were talking about this before the show. we saw the rise in the 0' 70s ad now we have the last 13 years. 28 days later and the walking dead. what do they signify now.

>> i think they are a different congress and different writers are using them for a different means. i use them for something specific i use them for big diversity. some people like to talk about them like warm bodies. a zombie love story. for me it's like falling in love with a herpe virus. i wouldn't write about that. but that doesn't mean that somebody wouldn't get something out of a warm body. and so what if it is. there should be room for a zombie soap opera. i think there should be room for different people to tell different stories using zombies. we have mentioned the zombie survival training. what does that look like and iss it applicable to real life? we'll find out of a the break when max takes questions from our google hangout.

i'm scott hunt and i'm owner of practical preppers and i'm in "the stream". america tonight weeknights - 9 eastern on al jazeera america this

this this lo >> its the most exciting thing to happen to american journalism in decades. >> we believe in digging deep. >> its unbiased, fact-based,

in-depth journalism. >> you give them the facts, dispense with the fluff and get straight to the point. >> i'm on the ground every day finding stories that matter to you. >> in new orleans... >> seattle bureau... >> washington... >> detroit... >> chicago... >> nashville... >> los angeles... >> san francisco... >> al jazeera america, take a new look at news. weekeep low, keep quiet and keep alert. escape and ey evade and life to fight another day. no place is safe. security is important. the zombie may be gone but the let lives on. learn from the past and prepare for the future. zombie pic fiction and lesss on survival we have max brooks on set. breaking down his work and we

spoke how you spoktalked about t the war college and what do they find applicable to the zombie survival guide that you wrote? >> i think that what is interesting about zombie survival is there is nothing zombie specific about it. people ask me if i have a is zoe survival kit and i say yeah, i have had one my whole life. it's my earthquake kit. it's basic disaster preparedness. bottled water and radio and first aid. if there was a zombie plague most people would die from starvation and disease and the same problems of any natural disaster. that is what you need to prepare for. >> why is the military into this

with you. >> military is really big on big thinking what i tried to do in world war z is present the big picture. most zombie pictures are a small group. that is why i didn't write a small group because everybody else is doing it better than i was. >> i was trying to whyt write tg picture question. >> speaking of the big picture question we got a lot of war z. world war an z is the most spreo israel book ever made. i like the book it's way off of israel. is max brooks wil willing to tae responsiblity for americans relating palestinians to zombies. and they portrayed palestinians as zombie.

i know nina here the google plus hangout wants to talk about how this has reworld implications. nina go for it. >> hi thanks for giving me time and it's good to meet you, max. my question is the zombie metaphor engenders the human generic response. and to what in essence is a 21 st. isn'try proble given this i. does the zombie apoc apock apoce provide guidance. >> zombies do not respect borders and neither should we when it comes to the response. i specifically made world war z a international book 'cause i believe every international problem requires a international

solution. i don't believe there is a local problem anymore. one aeffects on affects one coug to sooner or later affect us all. that has to change and that wass -- was the underlying message. i base everything often history. isle i'i'm a history nerd. i have to be able to defend everything in my book. for instance the israeli and the palestinians. >> and some people say never, never, never will happen. so, greater threats always bring changes and alliances and that is human nature and history that is not my personal opinion. we have another tweeter here. another poetic tweet. these zombies are a metaphor or

our inner darkness all consuming with a black heart. zombie literature also shows max a lot of resiliency and optimism and we have zucky who wants to ask you a question about that. take it away. high, max, it's good to talk to you. >> hi, zuck. >> despite the fact it's a who are vying situation that you depict in world war z it's the aftermath of that situation. it's a positive notion that human beings can work tocchet antogether and over come proble. >> since you wrote the book has your view of humanity changed in a positive or negative direction. >> pie viemy view is always pos. we have in us the ability to to over come. let's be hon of the. -- honest. we don't deserve to be at the

top of the food chain. we deserve to be in the middle running for our lives from everything else. we have over come that. weave ovewe have over come natue have over come our own stupidity. yes we can resonate all over the world. i don't believe it's easy. i don't believe it's guaranteedeguaranteedbut i do be to triumph. i want to get a little down and dirty information. let's talk about conflict and judgement and competition between zombie brighter writersd producers. do you judge other people that write zombie. do they judge you? is there a certain bar you have to meet. >> basically what happens is every month you have to go before george romero and you have to give him a cut and then

you chop off your little finger. it's all of the guys. >> i have been okay i have always paid up. let me tell you the guys that didid zombie land, gone. >> e >> there is a zombie head in the bed. >> there really is. >> what about walking dead? what do you think of the show. >> i beloved the first season and i thought it was amazing. and throw they went and fired -d war ii stalin crushed hitler. and that is what they did to frank and i stopped watching. >> speaking of walking dead we have vern that says please ask mr. brooks if he feels the walking dead approaches their

version of the zombie outbreak properly? >> i doesn'i don't think there a properly. it's what are you trying to get across? for me i would never make the zombie virus airborne. my whole thing i pace pace basen aids. my book and all of my books are based on aids. i want to make them very easy to defeat. if they do win. it's not because of their inherent strength, it's our weaknesses. >> if the virus is airborne you are doomed. i iin the case of the extinction parade, they are sa vampires and they have never had to struggle or work for anything. what was your impression of the movie "world war z"? i was so excited about the tied title. you know i thought they had a

very different agenda than i did. >> did you know that going into it though. >> no. i think you have to always expect the risk which is why i would never slam the movie. if you make a deal with hollywood you have to be open to that risk. iit may not happen. sometimes hollywood makes faithful movies. and if they didn't make who whai like say, damn them. that is the risk you take. if you join the mill there is a chance you might get shot. that is the same thing. >> we don't have to slam the movie but can we slam fast zombies. >> the bottom line is fast bomb zombies are more popular. i'm not. >> i'm not naive to think i'm in the majority.

i know i'm in the minority it's like an airborne virus. it's too easy to get killed. there for it's not exciting for me. for me it's about making good choices and exposing our strength and weaknesses. you just said airborne zombie and we have some tweets here. i think most of these stores are out landish and alone thin theyy be taboo. straight news can report on disasters but pic fiction can re play. this is the cdc that has that's own zombie preparedness kit. i'm not making it up it's right there on my page. why is it pic fiction that makes care about fo potential disaste? >> i think it's human nature not to want to deal with important

issues. >> when i was on saturday night live i can tell you personally there was a lot of political stuff that didn't make it in. we were told it's a downer. and ironically the most successful character to comb ou- come out of that is debbie downer. if you couch it in a metaphor oh, no it's zombies. >> if the cdc came out with a plan and said hey everybody let's talk to our children about hey kids do you have a zombie kit? and it allows people to prepare themselves in a psyc psych logiy prepared way. >> zombie and hell fighters what is next for max brooks.

we have dug deep in the real life pai parallels of zombies. but your next project is in complete contrast. talk about it a little bit. it's the harlem hell fighters and it's based on a true story.

in the first world war there was a unit of soldiers that were set up to fail by their own government because of the color of their skin they were african-american and the last thing the americans want to have the guys come go into combat and come home as heros an inspire other african americans to demand the freedom and democracy that they have been making the world safe for. the american soldiers were sabotaged and humiliated and degraded and given to the french. they began fighting with the french army and became the most decdecorated units in the u.s. army. we also have our twitter community talking about disasters. distears and movies and pop culture have a hero that over comes it all. that doesn't happen in real life. the books cannot prepare us. we should learn things from

world war z outside of zombie killing practical application keeping non-perishables and duct tape and not going out alone. i lost world war z and my favorite part was the subtle come mecommentary on internatiol relations and politics has anything changed in the world that would have changed the way world still t zombie world woule gone. would the nsa have been able to stop it? >> i would say one major factor has changed. i don't know if it would affect the outcome. in world war z i had an inept ineffect usual president. that is why we ended up in world war z. if i was going to write it now i would have a very driven passionate president that no one

is listening to. we talked in the show about a generation has not been allowed to fail. is there an anecdote in to allow that to fail. >> when you are at the top of the food chain you never have to struggle. i believe that strength compensates for weaknesses and failures. we as humans we are dominate because we have clawed our way up. we have compensated for our weaknesses and we have a survival mechanism. but for a species like vampires you are robbed of that. you know the nickname for them, tea cups. >> fragile. >> you have young people going on job interviews with their parents. you have parents calling universities saying my kid demands a better grade or you hurt pi my kid's feelings in yor class. >> do you think they are getting

the subtles of this lesson. >> when i was in my 20s i was arrogant i was compensating for my weakness and fear and i was terrified. i didn't learn these lessons until i got older. maybe some of them are delayed action bombs that will go off years later. i hope. you put it out there and do the best you can and hope someone connects with it. what is your favorite anti-zombie weapon of your own? and speaking of extensio extincr laid. parade. vampires and ex-continuation exe are similar to the millenials. when you are not allowed to fail. when you have kids soccer teams and both teams get a trophy how

does that prepare anybody for life? when you are not allowed to sneaspeak harshly and you have e politically correct and we are coddling them to the point where they never get their feelings hurt. what if their country need them some day. what if we say we are in a crisis and we need you to step up like the great over the generation go. how are they prepared for that. that is what i'm talking about. as far as zombie weapon? it's right here. your brain. >> use it. max brooks thanks for being on the show tonight. next timuntil next time we'll su on-line. ♪ ...

good evening, everyone. welcome to al jazeera america. i am john sigenthaler in new york. truth in numbers. enrollment for president obama's healthcare plan is far blow expectation. we are life with the figures and the fallout. one week after the flanks tsunami t relief is barely reaching survivors. the new questions about the response. plus: deal or no deal, boeing's you wouldn't mattum to the union, approve a new contract or put 20,000 jobs at risk. keeping the faith without a prayer. welcome to the mega church for