COVIDCalls

EP #174 - 11.20.2020 - Practices of Memory for COVID-19

Today we have a discussion of COVID-19 Memorials with Chris Kocher, Joanna Hutchinson, Katherine Fugate, and Madeleine Fugate

Chris Kocher is the founder and executive director of COVID Survivors for Change.  He is also the co-creator of a project, National COVID-19 Remembrance, an art installation and memorial to victims of COVID-19 that involved 20,000 empty seats on the Ellipse in Washington, D.C., and several statewide Remembrance events also featuring empty chairs.  He previously launched and led the Everytown Survivor Network, a part of Everytown for Gun Safety, which is the nation’s largest community of gun violence survivors working together to end gun violence. 

Based in West Philly, Joanna Hutchinson is a part-time sculptor, avid crafter, and enjoys a career in finance. Joanna is the artist behind 100,000 Folds: a community sculpture project honoring COVID victims in the United States and worldwide. She likes bringing people together: for friendship, community, and art making. 100,000 Folds is a way for the artist, and others, to mourn and reflect around the coronavirus crisis.

MADELEINE FUGATE is 13 years old and an 8th grade student at The Buckley School in Sherman Oaks, California. When Madeleine was in the 7th grade, she was given a Community Action Project with the theme "Young Changemakers in a Covid-19 World." After hearing stories from her mother, who worked on the AIDS Memorial Quilt in the 1980s and told her healing it was at the time, Madeleine created the Covid Memorial Quilt to honor and remember all those who have died of COVID-19. Word has spread of the Covid Memorial Quilt and Madeleine has now received over 100 Memorial Squares from the US and from around the world.

KATHERINE FUGATE is a screenwriter, best known for creating, writing and executive producing the TV series ARMY WIVES. She was honored to work with First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden on the "Joining Forces" campaign shining a light on the sacrifices of our military families. Katherine served 8 years on the Board of Directors of the Writers Guild of America, West. Katherine is the proud mother of Madeleine.

EP #173 - 11.19.2020 - Poverty and the Long Term Pandemic Impact

Today we have a discussion of poverty and the long term economic impacts of the pandemic with Megan Curran and Zach Parolin.Megan Curran and Zachary Parolin are Postdoctoral Research Scientists at the Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy.

They examine policy strategies for poverty reduction and how the tax system and social safety net can better support children and families. Their recent work together has examined the impact of the pandemic and related economic relief efforts, such as the CARES Act, on families, poverty, and family hardship. 

EP #172 - 11.18.2020 - Friendship and Loss in the Age of COVID-19

Today we have a discussion of friendship and loss in the age of COVID-19 with writer Jared Misner.

Jared Misner is a writer who lives in Charlotte, NC—he graduated from journalism college at U Florida.  He is a social media manager at Davidson College. His work has appeared in NYT, Our State, Charlotte Magazine, Chronicle of Higher Education.

EP #171 - 11.17.2020 - The COVID-19 Oral History, Memory, and Narrative Archive

Today we have sociologist Ryan Hagen, co-director of the NYC Covid-19 Oral History, Narrative and Memory Archive.

Ryan Hagen is a postdoctoral research fellow in the department of sociology at Columbia University who studies risk and social change. His research explores how people imagine future dangers and try to avoid them, and how this process of risk perception and management shapes the social world in the present. He is currently at work on a book based on an ethnography of emergency managers and continuity planners in New York City, and is currently the co-director of the New York Covid-19 Oral History, Memory, and Narrative archive, a longitudinal study of the lived experience of the pandemic in New York City, which launched in April of 2020 and is currently conducting its second wave of interviews.

EP #170 - 11.16.2020 - The Digital Divide and the Pandemic

Today we have a discussion of the digital divide, the tech industry, and COVID-19 with Roger Cheng.

Roger Cheng is the executive editor and head of CNET News, where he manages everything from daily breaking stories to larger investigative packages. Prior to this, he was on the telecommunications beat and wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal for nearly a decade.

EP #169 - 11.13.2020 - The Viral Art Project

Today we have a discussion of the Viral Art Project with Mark Kelner.

Mark Kelner is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Washington, DC and Brooklyn. A graduate of George Mason University, where he studied with the esteemed novelist Vasily Aksyonov, his work has appeared in Artenol, The Atlantic, The Washington Post and The Times among other media outlets.  His practice centers on the distortion of ubiquitous mass culture –cigarette labels, oil and gas station logos, fast food signs, and retail culture, among other touchstones. In 2019, his solo exhibition “Solaris: Shelter for the Next Cold War” garnered wide acclaim and over 13,000 visitors. Of late, he has shown at Ronald Feldman Gallery in New York and the Librairie du Globe in Paris. Prior to the art world, he worked with filmmaker Steven Spielberg, coordinating the production of video testimonies of Holocaust survivors in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union for the USC Shoah Foundation Institute.

EP #168 - 11.12.2020 - Faces of COVID

Today we have a discussion with Alex J. Goldstein, the creator of Faces of COVID.

Alex Goldstein created FacesOfCOVID in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic as a means of lifting up the stories behind the statistics of those lost to COVID and affirming their dignity, and holding our government leaders accountable for our failures to adequately respond to the pandemic. 

Goldstein is currently CEO of the strategic communications firm 90 West, which he founded in 2016 to better serve companies, organizations, and leaders that are making a positive impact on the world -- with a focus on equity, economic mobility, and the climate crisis. 

Prior to founding 90 West, Alex served for eight years in numerous key leadership roles with former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, including as senior advisor and executive director of Governor Patrick’s political committee, as press secretary and spokesman for the Patrick-Murray administration from 2011-2012, and as press secretary on Governor Patrick’s successful 2010 reelection campaign.

Most recently, Alex served as the senior communications advisor and spokesman for Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley’s historic and successful campaign for Massachusetts’ 7th Congressional District.

EP #167 - 11.11.2020 - Stigma and COVID-19

Today we have a discussion of anti-Chinese Stigma during the COVID-19 pandemic with Njoki Mwarumba and Jack Rozdilsky.

Njoki Mwarumba Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Management and Disaster Preparedness at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Dr. Mwarumbas dissertation was an examination of select indicators of social vulnerability and determinants of health, and their impact on the global community during the H1N1 2009 pandemic. The dissertation encapsulates Dr. Mwarumbas interest in the role of social vulnerability during public health disasters for purposes of engaging and bolstering social capital and indigenous knowledge towards more resilient communities.

Jack L. Rozdilsky is an Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director for the Disaster and Emergency Management Program at York University in Toronto, Canada. He is currently a co-investigator on a Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Rapid Research project sponsored by the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. Prior to joining York University, Dr. Rozdilsky was a university professor of emergency management in both Illinois and Texas, and he also worked in the public sector inland use planning and he has directed regional hazard mitigation planning efforts.

EP #166 - 11.10.2020 - The Social Sciences in the Pandemic with Alondra Nelson

Today we have a discussion of the social sciences and COVID-19 with Alondra Nelson.

Alondra Nelson, President of the Social Science Research Council and Harold F. Linder Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, is an acclaimed researcher and author, who explores questions of science, technology, and social inequality. Nelson’s books include, Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination and The Social Life of DNA: Race, Reparations, and Reconciliation after the Genome. She is coeditor of Genetics and the Unsettled Past: The Collision of DNA, Race and History (with Keith Wailoo and Catherine Lee). Nelson serves on the Board of Trustees of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Russell Sage Foundation, and on the Board of Directors of the Teagle Foundation and the Data & Society Research Institute. She is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Philosophical Society, and the National Academy of Medicine.

EP #165 - 11.09.2020 - Music Performance in the Pandemic

Today we have a discussion of musicians and how they are coping with the pandemic with Rafe Offer, and a public health update with Esther Chernak.

Rafe Offer has held senior positions with some of the world’s largest companies, including as Marketing Director for Disney.  Rafe continues to consult top companies including Microsoft, Aviva, The Daily Mail Group and Amazon. 

Rafe is CEO and co-founder of Sofar Sounds, a cutting-edge music company and worldwide promoter of new bands. It has grown from one London living room into a global music phenomenon which has created the world’s largest international network of live music events, and has been touted by the Guardian as ‘a quiet revolution’ and New York Magazine as ‘one of the top new brands in America’.