EPISODE · Jan 29, 2026 · 16 MIN
How Plague Trained Us
from Celebrate Creativity · host George Bartley
Send us Fan Mail GEORGE: Today: How Plague Trained Us How plague trained Elizabethan culture—audiences included— toward certain fears and reflexes… and how COVID trained us in remarkably similar ways. GEORGE: Quick reminder: my Shakespeare can look back from the present day—films, scholarship, modern claims— but he cannot predict the future. No prophecy. WILL: Memory, yes. Foresight, no. GEORGE: Now, When I say “habits of mind,” I mean the reflexes that become automatic: how you interpret a cough how you feel about crowds what you do with your hands what you believe when you’re afraid what you do to feel safe who you trust, and how quickly you withdraw trust WILL: An epidemic trains a person the way war trains a person— not by speeches, but by repeated fear. GEORGE: Exactly. Repetition makes instinct. Support the show Thank you for experiencing Celebrate Creativity.
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Send us Fan Mail GEORGE: Today: How Plague Trained Us How plague trained Elizabethan culture—audiences included— toward certain fears and reflexes… and how COVID trained us in remarkably similar ways. GEORGE: Quick reminder: my Shakespeare can look back from the present day—films, scholarship, modern claims— but he cannot predict the future. No prophecy. WILL: Memory, yes. Foresight, no. GEORGE: Now, When I say “habits of mind,” I mean the reflexes that become automatic: how you interpret...
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How Plague Trained Us
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