I'm M routine powers.

It's Saturday, April 11th.

This is a bonus episode of Post Reports.

When the history of the coronavirus pandemic

is written, the vanishing of toilet paper

might rank as just a footnote

in an otherwise dark and frightening account.

But it might be a very long, complex,

and even wise footnote because toilet paper,

or rather the lack of it,

turns out to reveal a great deal about who we are

and how we behave in a crisis.

I'm Mark Fisher, senior editor at The Washington Post.

And he's been looking at toilet paper

and the weird psychology of how we've tried to use it

to feel some sense of control over our pandemic rattled lives.

We asked Mark to read his story for you here.

It showed David Cohn something about the nature of humanity.

As a checkout guy at a supermarket in Asheville, North Carolina,

he saw people buying absurd amounts of toilet paper.

But he also saw people reach the cashier's counter

and decides suddenly to consider those who have less.

...