Watch: Lawrence Wright knew the U.S. wasn't ready for a pandemic. He talks to Evan Smith about why he tried to warn us anyway.

The Texas Tribune is excited to partner with Austin's Paramount Theatre for the debut of Paramount Conversations, a series of interviews from the Paramount with noted journalists, scientists, authors and thought leaders.

In this first episode of the series, Tribune CEO Evan Smith sits down with Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning author and staff writer for The New Yorker, to discuss Wright's latest book, “The End of October.” The novel, a medical thriller, follows a global pandemic that brings the world to its knees.

Wright is an author, a screenwriter and a playwright who joined The New Yorker in 1992. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller “The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11” and “Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief,” for which he co-produced HBO’s Emmy award-winning documentary adaptation. Previously, Wright worked at Texas Monthly and was a contributing editor to Rolling Stone.

The Texas Tribune is a media partner for this debut episode of Paramount Conversations.