The obsession with Zombies and other undead extends beyond this particular Hallowe'en. The U.S. Zombie Research Society claims the membership of 60-thousand academics and zombie enthusiasts, a level of interest that some believe speaks to the wider social and political concerns confronting our society . Today .. we're asking what Zombie love really tells us.

---

Part One of The Current

Satire

It's Monday, October 31st - Hallowe'en.

And in preparation for the worst, I've been reading the Centers for Disease Control's new emergency manual on how to survive a zombie apocalypse.

Currently, don't get overconfident. Telling them to "Bite Me" is apparently a big mistake.

This is The Current.

Zombie Culture - Matt Mogk

Chances are, you already know how to kill a zombie: Aim for the head and be as quiet as possible so as not to attract the horde. The films, the novels, the tv shows and songs about zombies permeate our culture so much that we not only know what a zombie apocalypse is -- many are planning for it.

But our zombie obsession isn't just with killing them. It's with becoming them .... we heard from Thea Faulds, of Toronto. And she founded Toronto's annual zombie walk 8 years ago, she got married at it this year ... dressed, of course, as a zombie bride. She was carried in a coffin down the aisle to the altar, where she swapped vows with Adam Pearson ... her zombie groom.

And this weekend, in preparation for Hallowe'en, the pair held a public workshop in Toronto to share their secrets on how to make a convincing zombie. We played a clip of Thea Faulds and husband Adam Pearson teaching a class on how to be a better zombie this weekend in Toronto.

And let's just say they've got a receptive audience. When Thea began the Toronto Zombie Walk in 2003, a mere six of the undead shambled through the city's streets. This month, an estimated 7-thousand zombies joined in to march and munch. And that's just Toronto. There were zombie marches in cities across the continent.

So if we're not already zombie crazed as a society - it appears we're well on our way. In fact, according to Google Trends, searches for "all things zombie" spiked at the end of 2010 and continue to climb steadily.

Matt Mogk is probably responsible for a few of those searches. He is the founder of the Zombie Research Society and author of Everything You've Always Wanted to Know about Zombies. Mike Mogk joined us from Chicago today.

Zombie Culture - Brendan Riley

We've got zombie books, zombie walks, zombie video games and the zombie movies just keep coming. Lionsgate is presently trying to cast the film version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. Brad Pitt is in on the zombie action, too, starring in next year's World War Z. And on TV, there's the wildly popular The Walking Dead - now in its second season. We aired a clip from AMC's The Walking Dead - another prophecy of what happens when the recently dead rise with a taste for living flesh. Preposterous for sure, but something has bitten the culture -- and it's infectious.

Brendan Riley has been studying the zombie zeitgeist. He is an Associate Professor of English at Columbia College Chicago, where he teaches a class called Zombies in Popular Media. Yes, such a course exists! Brendan Riley's most recent essay on the subject appears in the anthology, The Triumph of the Walking Dead. He was in Chicago.

Related Links:

• Zombie Novella - Centres For Disease Control and Prevention
• CDC zombie tales get U.S. ready for disaster By: Elizabeth Weise - USA Today

A special reminder to our CBC audience this Hallowe'en. We are advising you to be especially cautious today as you are in possession of the main staple of the zombie diet... BRAINS!!!

Other segments from today's show:

• Thailand Flood
• Just My Type: A Book about Fonts