Welcome to post Corona, the show where we try to understand how COVID-19 will reshape our economies,

cultures, and geopolitics.

I'm Dan Sino. With much of the electoral uncertainty in the U.S. behind us, we wanted to turn our attention to the long-term societal impact of the pandemic.

There are lots of discussions these days about how COVID-19 is the defining crisis of our time.

Governments have poured trillions of dollars into the global economy, hoping for a V-shaped recovery.

But now, almost a year in, we know there will be no quick fixes, no simple prescriptions.

Will we ever return to a pre-Corona world or will some changes outlive the

pandemic itself? In each episode I'll have a guest on to try to unlock how this crisis will transform an aspect of our

lives or transform a different part of the world.

Topics we will be looking at will include the future of work, education,

digital health care, and even US-China relations.

I hope you will find these conversations

as illuminating as I have.

Today we'll talk with Derek Thompson of the Atlantic about the future of the labor market.

Just to set the table here, in the spring the unemployment rate rocketed up to close to 15%.

This all basically happened overnight as the global economy was instructed to shut down.

At the same time, many workers kept their jobs but changed how they work.

According to a Stanford University study, over 40% of workers flipped to work

to work from home during the pandemic.

And according to a Harvard Business School study,

that changed to remote work could be permanent

for one in six workers.

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