Omnia Podcast

“In these times” has been a handy turn of phrase in 2020, with varying adjectives used to modify it. Challenging. Unique. Strange. What started as a useful shorthand for the COVID-19 pandemic and the surreal nature of stay-at-home orders became used describe world-wide protests and calls for racial justice. This fall, the OMNIA podcast goes beyond the shorthand, using COVID-19 as a platform for a six-episode series that explores the science, social science, and history that has shaped events in 2020.To kick things off, we talk to a biologist about contagion. We’ll get insight on mutations, tracking COVID-19’s spread, and protection from antibodies and vaccines. But COVID-19 is more than the disease itself, so we drop in on a conversation between sociologists about health inequality. They’re not surprised that Black, brown, and low-income communities are being affected by COVID-19 at higher rates, but they are concerned about the still-unknown long-term effects on physical and mental health. And finally, a phi