At a Distance

Artist Shantell Martin talks with us about the racial and economic inequality of Covid-19, the virus of racism, the power of reflection, and the importance of fighting against institutional memory loss.

Tristan Harris, president and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology and co-host of the Your Undivided Attention podcast, discusses the speed blindness caused by our technology systems and how Silicon Valley could effectively engage in climate action.

Susan Magsamen, the founder and executive director of the International Arts + Mind Lab at Johns Hopkins University, speaks with us about neuroaesthetics, the importance of self-expression, and the need for a from-the-ground-up “generative model” in policy and politics.

Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley, the husband-and-wife author duo of the forthcoming book “The Coming Quarantine,” talk about quarantine’s historical origins, political abuses of power during shelter-in-place orders, and designing “pandemic-friendly” cities.

Economist, Nobel laureate, and Harvard University professor Eric Maskin discusses the supply-chain challenges in restarting the economy, the issues he foresees with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and why he thinks America will remain a center for global innovation.

Dr. David Katz, the CEO of the start-up Diet ID and the former director of Yale University’s Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, speaks with us about the importance of acknowledging doubt and analyzing Covid-19 through science, sense, and consensus.

Anthropologist and paleobiologist Nina Jablonski talks about how “this little piece of RNA with a punk haircut” is causing us to reflect on our relationship with nature and technology, and why future discourse needs to be structured around a classic liberal-arts education.

Molly Jong-Fast, editor-at-large of The Daily Beast and co-host of the podcast The New Abnormal, discusses the White House’s response to Covid-19, what’s ailing both the left and right in American politics right now, and her hopes for the November 2020 election.

Sarah Williams Goldhagen, author of the book “Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives,” speaks with us about how the pandemic may lead to a greater localization of place and the profound psychological and emotional effects of the built world.

Christian Madsbjerg, a professor at The New School and co-founder of the consultancy Red Associates, talks about conducting better high-stakes decision making under stress and why we need to overhaul how knowledge is created and organized.