85. From Homeland Security to Sci-Fi Storytelling with Helen Hynson Vettori
Black Swan Impact
What happens when a former Homeland Security medical intelligence analyst turns a global pandemic into science fiction?
Former Department of Homeland Security Medical Intelligence Analyst Helen Hynson Vettori joins me as we explore the real-world experiences that inspired her *Black Swan* trilogy — a near-future political sci-fi series shaped by emergency management, biological preparedness, cyber warfare, and the fragile relationship between governments and public trust. From her time as a paramedic to Homeland Security analyst preparing for pandemics and biological incidents, Helen brings a unique insider perspective to the topics.
We discuss COVID-era decision making, the dangers of communication breakdown during crises, cyber warfare as a modern form of world conflict, and how societies respond when fear overtakes trust. We also dive into the worldbuilding behind *Black Swan Impact*: post–World War III geopolitics, future AI systems, lunar infrastructure, and the challenge of writing speculative fiction that feels uncomfortably plausible.
In This Episode:
Working in Homeland Security medical intelligence
Black swan events and societal disruption
Political systems, public response, and institutional failure
Writing fiction inspired by real emergency scenarios
Disaster response planning and why systems fail
Personal disaster preparedness
Books of hers we discuss: Black Swan Impact, Black Swan Shock, Black Swan Terror
Questions over our governments’ management of the COVID-19 pandemic linger even now, years after the official end of the pandemic. Like many of us, I’m guilty of speculating about what should and shouldn’t have been done. While my own scientific background may have given me more insight into the biological aspects of the pandemic than many, I was no different than most in my lack of knowledge of what goes on in the halls of power during such events. That’s why I was so happy to have the opportunity to chat with Helen Hynson Vettori, formerly a medical analyst for the US Department of Homeland Security under the Bush, Obama, and Trump governments.
While the pandemic spawned many a science fiction writing career as people struggled with what do to with all their time, or revisited old dreams or abandoned projects, it was Helen’s disbelief and the government response that inspired her to begin her trilogy.
Well, you know, I need to start journaling, because I was just absolutely beside myself, and I thought it would be cathartic. But it wasn’t coming out as a journal. It was coming out as a story, like my sister had said. And so I started sending snippets and sometimes chapters to my siblings. And lo and behold, they were appalled or maybe even, maybe excited to see that what my prose were, outlining happened days, weeks, or even months in reality. And they just said, “How in the world?” My brother said, “How in the world can you have forecast this?”
Helen’s Black Swan trilogy features books that each deal with a different Black Swan event. For clarification, a Black Swan event, named for its rarity, “is a disaster that no one could have foreseen or expected due to its catastrophic impact.” In addition to the pandemic, we also discuss Hurricane Katrina and its devastation of New Orleans, which also could be termed a Black Swan event.
While certain government departments work to develop contingencies for managing such disasters if they should occur, part of the impetus for Helen beginning her series was discovering that the government seemed to have completely ignored the preparatory work she’d been involved in.
And we came up with a plan that when I walked out the door was about this thick, and I’m, I’m gonna say that I’m not exaggerating when it was three or four inches thick, of what to do and how to do it.
So it was an operational plan. It was a concept of operations and so forth and so on. And let’s just talk about messaging to begin with. Not that we would know exactly what the pathogen was, of course, but you could have general messaging that could be tailored or indeed just sent out as it was in the can. So it appeared that none of that was used, whether sent out as it was in the can or tailored to the certain situation. And then — veracity unknown — I was told this by my former boss, … that she saw on the news a reporter who said that the plans were literally thrown in the trash, and they were going to build the airplane as it was flying.
Helen’s trilogy not only walks the reader through emergency decisions in the backrooms of power, but also explores the response of average people caught up in the event. She also offers excellent general advice for how be prepared so you can weather the intial chaos of a Black Swan event and increase your chances of survival in those crucial first 72 hours.
Helen Hynson Vettori
Helen grew up in the shadows of the Washington National Cathedral, surrounded by the federal government and its political practices. ~But she first served the national... Ugh, my, my mouth isn’t working today. ~But she first served the National Capital Region as an EMT paramedic by becoming a volunteer at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Rescue Squad.
Post 9/11, she joined the US Department of Homeland Security workforce as the senior medical intelligence analyst before specializing in planning and preparing for biological incidents, including pandemics. Because of her contributions to those efforts, she was awarded Employee of the Year for Emergency Management, particularly demonstrated by her role as National Security Professional Program Emergency Management fellow.
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