May 7, 2026
Dr. Lentzos is a CNS Non-Resident Scholar.
Summit Talks with Filippa Lentzos
In this third episode of Summit Talks, Beatrice Fihn takes the conversation somewhere entirely new: swapping hiking boots for a snowboard and heading to the slopes of Crans-Montana in Switzerland for a full day on the mountain with Filippa Lentzos, associate professor at King’s College London and NGO coordinator of the Biological Weapons Convention. One on a snowboard, one on skis, they carry their conversation across chairlifts and runs in one of the most unusual and visually stunning formats seen yet on Summit Talks.
They start with the basics: what bioweapons actually are, why they are so hard to define, and how the Biological Weapons Convention achieved something remarkable by banning an entire category of weapons of mass destruction at the height of the Cold War. But the picture today is more complicated. AI and synthetic biology are rewriting what is possible and who can do it, high-level labs are multiplying around the world, and the boundary between biodefense and offensive research is quietly shifting. Filippa is measured, but the stakes she describes are anything but.
After a full day on the slopes, they finally sit down for a deeper conversation as the light fades over the Alps. By the time darkness closes in, Filippa has mapped out who has a role to play, from science classrooms to biotech boardrooms, and made the case that knowledge, not panic, is the most powerful tool we have.
00:00 – Rethinking what a weapon is
00:23 – Welcome to Summit Talks
00:54 – Meet Filippa Lentzos
01:54 – What is a bioweapon?
02:46 – First run of the day
04:03 – What does Filippa actually do?
05:17 – Is lab research ever scary?
06:31 – Weapons you cannot see
07:02 – The Biological Weapons Convention
07:53 – Growing up hopeful, living in uncertain times
08:37 – Finding your place in a big problem
09:26 – Sitting down as the sun sets
09:40 – Do countries still have bioweapons today?
10:13 – Can we keep the world safe for the next 50 years?
10:46 – Goodnight from Crans-Montana
