As California lifts longtime public health restrictions and life in parts of the United States begin returning to a semblance of pre-pandemic normalcy, it is important to recall the unfolding crises of the past 15 months. In this episode, UCLA Historian Peter Baldwin, author of the recent book Fighting the First Wave: Why the Coronavirus was Tackled So Differently Across the Globe, looks back on the past year and offers intriguing historical insight into why some countries were more effective at initially containing the coronavirus than others. He discusses the simultaneously global and local reach of the pandemic and analyzes the differences in political and cultural approaches to the pandemic across different countries around the world.