The Sunday Magazine for September 13, 2020
The Sunday Magazine with Piya Chattopadhyay debuts this Sunday!
How the pandemic is reordering society: It's been six months since WHO declared a global pandemic and COVID-19 upended, re-shaped, and re-ordered our lives and our society. COVID has created an inflection point, a "before" and an "after". So what will the new order ahead look like? And what can be done now to influence the shape of that new order? Psychiatrist Kwame McKenzie, sociologist Scott Schiemann, economist Lindsay Tedds weigh in on the seismic changes buffeting us and how they're going to play out in the months and years ahead.
Word Processing: "Word Processing" is a recurring segment where we dissect the origins and evolution of language and the changing meaning of words and phrases. This week sociolinguist Jamaal Muwwakkil talks about words and terms and their racist roots - and why a list of censored words is not the solution.
Vaccination, interdependence and the common good: As the need for a COVID-19 vaccine and fears about vaccination intensify simultaneously, people are turning to the 2014 book On Immunity to better understand this moment. Piya Chattopadhyay talks to author Eula Biss about the underlying fears driving vaccine skepticism, how she confronted her own fears as a mother and why she believes vaccination is something we owe each other in an interdependent society.
Why We Swim: As the strange summer of 2020 closes, author Bonnie Tsui looks at why humans are drawn to swimming, especially during the pandemic. Her memoir-cum-social history Why We Swim explores the many ways we interact with water across history and cultures. With autumn almost upon us, Tsui's love letter to swimming reminds us of the transformative power of plunging into water.
