VOICES: Chicken Cannons, Problem Bears, and the Hidden Business of Breaking Things on Purpose

Hudson Valley Community College welcomes journalist and author Alex Davies to campus as part of its Voices: A Library Lecture Series.

Alex Davies takes audiences inside test engineering — the hidden profession that decides what safe actually means — from a bird cannon that fires chickens into jet engines at 200 miles an hour to a grizzly bear with a government testing job. Drawing on his new book, Kobuk the Destroyer, Davies shows how a small, imperfect, deeply human process of imagination, negotiation and compromise sits behind nearly everything we build, buy and trust, and why understanding it matters more than ever.

Alex Davies is a journalist and author who has reported for and led editorial teams at Wired, The Athletic and Business Insider. He had covered everything from autonomous vehicles and electric aviation, to Formula 1 and the engineers behind the systems we rely on every day. His debut book, Driven: The Race to Create the Autonomous Car (Simon & Schuster, 2021), was an award-winning inside account of the self-driving industry. His new book, Kobuk the Destroyer: And Other Tales from the Wild, Unseen World of Test Engineering (W.W. Norton, 2026), explores the hidden world of product testing.

If you require an accommodation to participate in this event, please contact the Center for Access and Assistive Technology at caat@hvcc.edu, (518) 629-7154 or TDD/TTY (518) 629-7596. Please be aware that advance notice is requested as some accommodations may require time for the college to arrange.