The Age of Crisis: COVID-19 & our Post-Pandemic Future | Adam Tooze

Sep 13, 2021

Adam Tooze, Professor of History at Columbia University and author of "Shutdown: How COVID Shook the World Economy," unpacks the tumultuous first year of the pandemic. He analyzes the interplay between power and knowledge, examining how trust in authorities was fractured. Tooze also critiques the fragility of the neoliberal order and discusses challenges posed by rising powers like China. The conversation delves into the future of U.S. leadership, the role of central banks, and the pressing need for innovative solutions to climate change and societal division.

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ANECDOTE

Sounds of the Pandemic

Adam Tooze lived on Broadway in Manhattan near a hospital during the pandemic's peak.
He describes the constant sound of ambulance sirens as a visceral reminder of the crisis.

INSIGHT

Societal Weaknesses Exposed

The pandemic exposed existing societal weaknesses, particularly in the US.
It revealed an inability to unite for collective action and address the crisis effectively.

INSIGHT

Distrust of Authority

Distrust of authority fuels vaccine hesitancy and pandemic divisions.
This skepticism is prevalent across the political spectrum, not just a two-sided issue.

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In Episode 208 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with Adam Tooze, professor of history and the director of the European Institute at Columbia University. He’s also a prolific public commentator and author of several prize-winning books including his latest, “Shutdown: How COVID Shook the World Economy.”

In the first part of their conversation, Demetri and Adam work their way through the chain of events that occurred between the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 in January 2020 and the inauguration of Joe Biden in January 2021. Effectively the period that we now consider to be the first full year of the pandemic. In Adam’s own words we “wrestle with power and knowledge in time,” in an effort to understand the nature of the forces that this pandemic has unleashed, their constancy, and their implications for shaping not only our children’s futures but more immediately, ours as well.

In the second part of our conversation, Demetri and Adam begin to dissect specific aspects and features of the modern world whether those be the fragility of our debt-financed economy and the neoliberal order, the threat, perceived or imagined to the United States, its citizenry, and its power structure posed by the rise of a potential peer-competitor in the form China, as well as the future of warfare and how to think about the proper relationship between the state and the private sector in the context of the types of polycrises of the Anthropocene that Adam and Demetri discuss during this conversation. It’s a phenomenal episode that you will not want to miss.

You can access the second part of this episode, as well as the transcript and rundown to this week’s conversation through the Hidden Forces Patreon Page. All subscribers gain access to our premium feed, which can be easily added to your favorite podcast application.

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Producer & Host: Demetri Kofinas

Editor & Engineer: Stylianos Nicolaou

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Episode Recorded on 09/09/2021