Revisiting the Pandemic on Two Platforms — a Tantalizing Time Frame, a Shared Experience, and a Reminder of Just How Much Sh*t Went Down
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Where are my readers at?
Where are my podcasters?
If you’re both, today’s post will be a treat. I’m sharing the highlights of two completely different genres with overlapping content.
Book
Jodi Picoult’s Wish You Were Here is a novel set in the pandemic. Netflix has already scooped up the rights, so jump on this book before it becomes a feature film.
It says it’s a story of resilience about the triumph of the human spirit, but it’s a love story set in the most fascinating of times — the pandemic.
The best part was wondering aloud more than once, “what’s going to happen next?!” and then remembering, Oh, yes, I lived through it too.
If you can live it and still get caught up in how it unfolds — that’s the sign of a good story. Reading a first-hand account of a global event and experiencing it through someone else’s eyes was fun.
But be forewarned, it’s somewhat traumatizing, too, in the way everything about the pandemic was: Reliving the uncertainty and fear, the disruption, not knowing the end date, and seeing wildly different approaches to survival.
Podcast
The Disrupted Workforce’s August 2 podcast episode: 6 Trends that will Define Your Career & Future takes a look at the same global event from a business perspective.
It’s a great listen for many of the same reasons — tantalizing time frame, a shared experience, and a reminder of just how much sh*t went down:
- historic change
- record vaccine development/deployment
- remote and hybrid acceleration (half the workforce!)
- automation, AI, contactless customer experiences
- (on-going) back-to-work battle, job loss, worker shortages, reinventing the employee experience, and talent wars
- inflation, crypto crashes, unprecedented supply chain issues
- side-hustle and start-up frenzy
