Season 1, Episode 6

Beyond the COVID-19 Crisis

In March 2020, the UN Secretary General described COVID-19 as the most challenging crisis the world has seen since WWII. As the year draws to a close and the pandemic lingers on, we explore what life beyond crisis might look like.

Beyond the Covid-19 Crisis • Season 1, Episode 6

Listen on these platforms

The worldwide scale and scope of discontinuity, loss, and uncertainty has made the year of the pandemic like no other in recent memory. How are we processing this moment, and how do we move forward? In this episode, we talk to three students, who share how the COVID crisis has reshaped their undergraduate experience at Penn and their visions for the future. We also hear from a professor of English on the parallels between the traumas of the early 20th century and our current challenges, and an expert in the science of resilience offers her thoughts on coping with crisis.

Guests

Omar Husni, C’22

Samira Mehta, C’21

James Nycz, C’21

Karen Reivich, Director of Resilience and Positive Psychology Training Programs, Penn Positive Psychology Center

Paul Saint-Amour, Walter and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Humanities and Chair, Department of English

Transcript »

 

Host

Alex Schein

Producer

Loraine Terrell

Editors

Alex Schein and Loraine Terrell

Interviewers

Sue Ahlborn, Alex Schein, and Loraine Terrell

Illustration

Nick Matej

Music

Theme music by Nicholas Escobar, C’18

Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions

More Episodes

There’s Something About Darwin

There’s Something About Darwin

In this episode, we’ll hear from a philosopher of science and an evolutionary biologist on what it is about Darwinian evolution that has made it a poster child for science denial, and why it’s important to understand the facts.

Facts vs. Feelings

Facts vs. Feelings

In this episode, we’ll hear from a particle cosmologist, along with a scholar of religion and science, on what makes people feel the way they do about scientific information and why it’s so hard to communicate about science.