Five years after a global pandemic, historic protests, and social rupture, where are we now—and what have we forgotten? In this episode, Nora and Marcus Harrison Green dive into the lingering impacts of 2020, from fractured families to the backlash against empathy itself. With humor, honesty, and a touch of John Mayer fandom, they explore how we hold memory, process grief, and dare to vision something better in a nation that feels like a group project where half the class didn’t show up. This is an episode about collective endurance, radical imagination, and finding joy, however strange or small, while still stuck in the “meanwhile.” If you’ve ever wondered why things feel both over and still happening then this one’s for you.

Mentioned in the episode:

• Pew Poll on impacts of pandemic

• Affective Polarization

• Reply All - “The Least You Could Do”

• Nudibranchs

• 1M Experiments

• Nancy Pelosi in her Kente Cloth

Further reading / Listening:

Marcus’ piece on the Othello BLM march in 2020 | Nora’s research on mutual aid networks | Arundhati Roy @ Financial Times | You’re Wrong About podcast on losing relatives to FoxNews and QAnon

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*Nora and Marcus’ work on the podcast is separate from their professional roles and does not represent the views of their employers.

Music: No Tears for a Wolf · Ahamefule J. Oluo · Okanomodé. Used with permission.

Logo by Nikki Barron