Stories of COVID™

Tony Gebhard is sheltering with his family in Southern Michigan while COVID-19 passes.  His opinion at the time of the interview is that we ought to be striving toward herd immunity, that to shelter …

Mário Ribeiro Alves is a startup leader in Porto, Portugal.  He has observed the pandemic from the standpoint of travel, business, and personal safety.  In this episode he describes the precautions h…

Emma Harris was living in Loja, Ecuador, when news of COVID-19 reached her school.  As the school shut down, she had to make a decision:  Stay in Ecuador, or fly home to the UK during a time that the…

Geny Martinez lives in rural New Jersey.  She joked in our interview that there are more cows than humans in the county, though that hasn't been accurate for some time.  Still, the population density…

Jane Wu lives in the Bay Area (San Francisco, CA), but is originally from a suburb of Wuhan, China.  She heard about COVID-19 early in December as her family started taking precautions.  Soon, Wuhan …

Pumla Maswanganyi lives in South Africa.  She travels all over the world as an advisor and strategist.  At first, it seemed her career was over, as COVID shut down airports and events.  Soon it becam…

Dr. Grace Lee lives in Vancouver, Canada.  She heard about COVID-19 in its earliest days due to her family in Hong Kong.  As the pandemic has evolved, she began to wonder what was really happening.  …

Every ten episodes I publish a bonus episode highlighting the final messages participants are providing for future generations, as the purpose of this book is to both document this era for posterity …

Jason Schemmel lives in Michigan.  He found himself in a fortunate situation when the pandemic hit — he had a new job that came with a raise, and his wife had just given birth and was still on her le…

Gina Giordano of Austin, Texas, is cofounder of Doula Training International and Born Into This.  Her work is in training doulas across the world to support women as they give birth.  The pandemic an…

Sneha lives in Kathmandu, Nepal.  The Coronavirus first came on the scene during the Nepali new year.  Though the government and community were cautious, they still were unaware just how transmittabl…

Kirsten Zeiter lives in Washington DC.  She traveled frequently during the early days of the coronavirus, witnessing international attitudes and policies toward the virus.  On her last trip, she refl…

I interviewed Chris Day on April 28, 2020.  In this interview, she describes how being an expat from the United States has created a sense of survivor's guilt while she lives in security in beautiful…

Sophie Edwards interviewed on April 28, 2020.  At that point, Toronto was a ghost town.  In this interview, Sophie describes a vision of the empty streets as she realized that COVID-19 was getting re…

Eric Z lives in Northern Germany.  He is very concerned about the disinformation and conspiracy theories emerging across media and forums.  Eric draws our attention to the larger issue of our rights.…

Landon Mabe was at Rice University in his senior year when COVID-19 disrupted our lives.  He had graduation plans, expectations, and goals, all of which were derailed within one week as Rice shut dow…

Sarah Farbman was teaching english in Ecuador when the virus was first announced.  She and her partner then had to make a series of decisions around travel and locality to keep each other safe.  Ulti…

Pamela Watson lives in London, UK.  She traveled to Australia for a nation-wide book tour just after the UK launch as COVID-19 was ramping up.  One by one, her events were canceled, and the state bor…

I end each interview with the same question:  Knowing that books outlive us, what message do you want future generations to have about this time?  The answers are saved for these special bonus episod…

Nelson Cooper is a resident of San Francisco, but was on an extended trip across Asia when COVID-19 began its spread.  As the news hit, he went from one country to another, wondering if he was safe, …