How the Pandemic is Changing Us

We know the pandemic has upended our daily lives, but we are only beginning to grapple with its impacts on our mental health and the long-term implications for our society. Dr. Nicholas Christakis, a physician and a sociologist at Yale University, directs the Human Nature Lab at the university and is the co-director of the Yale Institute for Network Science. He is also the author of Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live. He joins us to discuss the psychological burdens we each bear, the irreversible changes to our culture and what it will look like when we return to a new “normal”.

Inspired by the Crosscut Festival, the At-Large speaker series features in-depth conversations with renowned journalists and authors about the big issues and big ideas making headlines across the country and here at home.

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Thank you to our supporting sponsor Seattle Children’s.

About the speakers:

Nicholas A. Christakis, MD, PhD, MPH, is a social scientist and physician at Yale University who conducts research in the fields of network science, biosocial science, and behavior genetics. He directs the Human Nature Lab and is the Co-Director of the Yale Institute for Network Science.

Dr. Christakis latest book, Apollo’s Arrow, offers a riveting account of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as it swept through American society in 2020, and of how the recovery will unfold in the coming years. Drawing on momentous historical epidemics, contemporary analyses, and cutting-edge research from a range of scientific disciplines, Dr. Christakis explores what it means to live in a time of plague — an experience that is paradoxically uncommon to the vast majority of humans who are alive, yet deeply fundamental to our species.

Unleashing new divisions in our society as well as opportunities for cooperation, this 21st-century pandemic has upended our lives in ways that will test, but not vanquish, our already frayed collective culture. Featuring new, provocative arguments and examples ranging across medicine, history, sociology, epidemiology, data science, and genetics, Apollo’s Arrow envisions what happens when the great force of a deadly germ meets the enduring reality of our evolved social nature.

Dr. Christakis’ body of work in his lab focuses on how health and health behavior in one person can influence analogous outcomes in a person’s social network. A related body of work uses experiments to examine the spread of altruism, emotions, and health behaviors along network connections online and offline. His lab has also examined the genetic and evolutionary determinants of social network structure, showing that social interactions have shaped our genome.

Mark Baumgarten is the managing editor at Crosscut where he oversees a newsroom of dedicated reporters, producers and editors telling the stories of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. He is also the host of the Crosscut Talks podcast.