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From Wondry, I'm Stephen Johnson, and this is American Innovations.

On American Innovations, we tell stories of the crucial breakthroughs and triumphs of

modern science and technology.

And there's something they all have in common, whether it's the discovery of the polio

vaccine or the innovation of organ transplants, people working together to rise to the challenge.

The coming months will be filled with just these kinds of stories, stories of heroism,

collaboration and invention.

We're launching a new weekly show to document them.

It's called Fighting Coronavirus.

I have a personal connection to the subject of epidemics.

About 15 years ago, I wrote a book called The Ghost Map.

It's the story about the collar epidemic in 19th century London.

And while it starts with the confounding and terrifying disease, the thing about the

ghost map is that against all odds, it turns out to be an optimistic story, a story of

triumph and ingenuity.

And that's the thing.

Whenever we're threatened on a mass scale, we collaborate, we invent, and we often end up

leaving the world in an even better place.

The people I speak with on this show will all be part of that push for something better.

We're going to learn from our past history and also talk about new solutions to the

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