APOCALYPSE: A Conversation at the End of the World
Saturday, May 17, 2o25 7pm
Join us for a conversation about the new book APOCALYPSE: How Catastrophe Transformed Our World and Can Forge New Futures, with Apocalypse author Lizzie Wade and host Don Wildman.
This event is free. RSVP here is strongly encouraged, as seating is limited.
A drought lasts for decades, a disease rips through a city, a civilization collapses. When we finally uncover the ruins, we ask: What happened to them? And what does it mean for us? The new book APOCALYPSE: How Catastrophe Transformed Our World and Can Forge New Futures by Lizzie Wade draws on cutting-edge archaeological research to find stories of survival, transformation, and even progress hidden within those histories of collapse and destruction. Perhaps, we begin to see, apocalypses do not destroy worlds, but create them anew.
Author Lizzie Wade will be in conversation with Don Wildman, host of the Travel Channel’s Mysteries at the Museum and the podcast American History Hit. They will discuss traveling to mysterious ruins, the secrets archaeologists have uncovered about the past, and how to survive the end of the world.
If you aren't able to join us at Automata, a livestream will begin at 7 PM on Saturday May 17.
APOCALYPSE: How Catastrophe Transformed Our World and Can Forge New Futures is published by Harper and will be in stores on May 6, 2025. Preorder it here or from your local bookstore. A limited number of signed copies of APOCALYPSE will be on sale at the event. (If you've already purchased APOCALYPSE, Lizzie will be happy to sign your book.)
About the Artists
LIZZIE WADE is an award-winning journalist and correspondent for Science, where she covers archaeology, anthropology, and Latin America. Her work has also appeared in Wired, The Atlantic, Slate, the New York Times, Aeon, Smithsonian, and Archaeology, among other publications. She lives in Mexico City.
DON WILDMAN has spent decades on television addressing the vexing mysteries of our global past. From scaling rock cliffs to grasp the strange origins of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church to questioning witchcraft practices in Eastern Europe to diving icebergs in Newfoundland for the sinking of the Titanic, Don has always sought out fabled history in hard locations, embracing new ideas about very old places. The presenter of Travel Channel’s long-running Mysteries at the Museum, Wildman currently hosts the UK/US podcast series, American History Hit.