FreshEd #192 – Sitting Quietly in a Room Alone: The fight against Covid-19(Yaneer Bar-Yam)

Note: FreshEd is on holidays. Since the pandemic continues to rage worldwide, I wanted to re-air an interview from March. Much of what Yaneer Bar-Yam mentioned then is still true today, 9 months later. -- Blaise Pascal, the 17th Century French mathematician and physicist, once wrote “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” As people and governments around the world are wondering whether or not to self-isolate to stop the spread of covid-19, Pascal’s adage has become more pertinent than ever. As we grapple with our new world, I wanted to bring you a special episode of FreshEd. With me is Yaneer Bar-Yam, a physicist, systems scientist, and founding president of the New England Complex Systems Institute. Yaneer has spearheaded endcoronavirus.org, which aims to minimize the impact of Covid-19 by providing useful data and guidelines for action. In our conversation, Yaneer discusses what different countries are doing in response to the virus and talks specifically about children and whether or not they should be in school. www.freshedpodcast.com/bar-yam/ -- Get in touch! Twitter: @FreshEdpodcast Facebook: FreshEd Email: [email protected]