Overview

"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/."

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9781771703031

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Reviews

Howard Burton's unique and discerning approach provides stimulating insights into the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on medicine, science, policy and what is, or should be, society's response. This makes for a fascinating and informative read. -Joanna Haigh, Emeritus Professor of Atmospheric Physics, Imperial College London Howard Burton is just what the moment calls for: an informed generalist with a hunger for knowledge who feasts at the table with specialists. Seeking the widest possible perspectives on the matters of our time, he weaves them together as a writer with a filmmaker's touch, telling stories that both inform and entertain. -Darrin McMahon, Mary Brinsmead Wheelock Professor of History, Dartmouth College Parting from an initial biological perspective, this wonderful book engages in a capacious and multi-disciplinary series of commentaries on how the pandemic has impacted (and continues to impact) our world. Revealing deep fissures in our educational, political, and social fabric, Burton's book represents a heart-wrenching testimony of what Covid-19 has done to our world and to ourselves. Not unlike Boccaccio or Defoe's descriptions of the plague, Pandemic Perspectives will inform future generations of these dark years and of our variegated and often ineffective responses to the virus. -Teofilo Ruiz, Distinguished Research Professor of History, UCLA Few people have delved as deeply into the COVID pandemic, and from as many different angles, as Howard Burton. In this wise and deeply thought-provoking book, he reflects on how his thinking about society, science, and the human condition changed in the process of making a documentary film that features a couple dozen experts from diverse fields about how our society stumbled through the pandemic into a changed world. This is not a book about disease but rather about human relations and society - and how they may never return to what passed as normal a decade ago. -Roy F. Baumeister, University of Queensland, author of The Self Explained, and The Power of Bad

Author Information

Howard Burton is a documentary filmmaker and the author of 5 books: Pandemic Perspectives: A filmmaker's journey in 10 essays; Exceptionally Upsetting: How Americans are increasingly confusing knowledge with opinion & what can be done about it; Burning Down UNESCO: A Guide to Innovative Fundraising; First Principles: Building Perimeter Institute; Letters From Languedoc.Howard holds a PhD in theoretical physics and an MA in philosophy and was the Founding Director of Canada's Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. He lives in France.

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