Why We Can't Get Enough Of The Undead

Zombies have shambled a long way from the realm of low-budget horror. They’ve become the go-to monsters for movies and video games. The Walking Dead is one of the biggest hits on television. Courses on zombies are now taught in college.

Foreign Policy magazine reported recently on an unclassified government document titled CONOP 8888. It's a detailed synopsis on how the military could do battle with — zombies. The U.S. Strategic Command wanted a scenario for dealing with a widespread national emergency, so it devised a zombie attack protocol that covered training civilians how to survive in a post-apocalyptic world and deploying and withdrawing military personnel.

Navy Captain Pamela Kunze told the magazine, "This document is not a U.S. Strategic Command plan." Yet the report contains a disclaimer that "this plan was not actually designed as a joke." From the Here & Now Contributors Network, Andrew Schneider of Houston Public Media looks at why the undead have gone mainstream.