Life After Coronavirus

In this brief video, several experts talk about life after the global pandemic. Adil Najam, Dean, Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, and his colleagues set out to answer this question: what will our post-COVID-19 world look like? I tackled that question early in the pandemic by looking at Applying History to our current day. Mr. Najam interviewed leading thinkers on 101 distinct topics and produced a video series which you can find Here.

In a recent Article on the series, he describes how our pre-pandemic world was anything but normal, and our post-pandemic world will not be a return to normal. He references four specific reasons why this conclusion was drawn:

Disruption will accelerate. As most now would agree, the pandemic is accelerating what was already inevitable – in some cases, that acceleration is astounding: See my post on Ecommerce.

Politics becomes more turbulent. Well, this one is playing out as we speak, but it is another example of a phenomenon that was already with us, becoming more visible through the lens of the pandemic.

Pandemic habits will persist. Going online, automation, remote work, and telemedicine are just examples of an acceleration that persists post pandemic.

Crisis creates opportunity. The pandemic illuminated much that was lying beneath the surface. The crisis provides an opportunity to address those things that we now see more clearly.

Here is one video from the series. Visit the link above to see additional videos.