Dinner party conversation turns morbid: Chat about the apocalypse is becoming more mainstream [Video]

Fears surrounding artificial intelligence, wars, the climate crisis and disease are driving more frequent conversations about the “apocalypse”.

The “end times” is now a common, yet morbid, dinner party conversation, according to analysis by professors Erik Bleich and Christopher Star at Middlebury College, Vermont.

Mr Bleich and Mr Star analyzed trends in media over the reporting of four prominent “apocalyptic” topics- nuclear war, disease, climate change and AI, in a recent article for StudyFinds.

They suggest that discussions of the apocalypse in the media can be used as a “barometer for prevailing public concerns”.

Articles mentioning the words “apocalypse” or “apocalyptic” from three US publications –The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post –between 1980 and 2023 …