Pandemic Perspectives

In 2022, Howard Burton launched the Pandemic Perspectives Project: a documentary film, podcast series and this engagingly candid collection of essays that chart his personal quest to make some sense of the COVID-19 pandemic through his interaction with a diverse array of 32 experts.

Directly inspired by the award-winning writer, physician and self-professed "biology watcher" Lewis Thomas, Howard takes us on a thought-provoking tour of a wide range of key societal issues, from biology to politics to contemporary morality. 

Examples of societal issues that are examined:

• The need to rethink current educational practices
• The future of scientific research
• The challenges of making evidence-based public policy in an age of rapid information and misinformation
• The widespread confusion about how science actually works
• The importance of balancing basic and applied research
• The implications for coherently addressing climate change
• The tension between individual liberties and communitarian ideals
• The need to critically evaluate the level of care in our society
• The importance of looking at history during a time of crisis
• The perils of nationalism and the necessity of thinking globally
• To what extent the pandemic has revealed our true moral nature

Visit our website for details about the documentary film, Pandemic Perspectives: https://ideasroadshow.com/.