Why pandemics are not inevitable with Sonia Shah

The TED Interview

TED

Society & Culture, Personal Journals

4.4 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 2 April 2020

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What can past pandemics teach us how to tackle the current one? Tracing the history of contagions from cholera to Ebola and beyond, science journalist Sonia Shah explains why we’re more vulnerable to outbreaks now than ever before, what we can do to minimize the spread of coronavirus and how to prevent future pandemics. This virtual conversation is part of the TED Connects series, hosted by science curator David Biello and current affairs curator Whitney Pennington Rodgers. It was recorded on March 31, 2020. To learn more, visit go.ted.com/tedconnects

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective
0:11.0	Hello there, I'm Chris Anderson, welcome to the Ted interview.
0:14.8	I hope you're doing okay, these are such challenging, weird days.
0:19.8	This is the next episode in a series of daily livestreamed conversations where we try to
0:25.0	understand and navigate this challenging moment.
0:29.2	What you're about to hear is a conversation between science writer Sonia Shah and Ted's
0:34.2	science curator David Biello.
0:36.4	Recently Sonia published a book, aptly titled Pandemic, and she's here today to help us
0:42.1	understand what we can learn from pandemics of the past for the world we suddenly find
0:46.1	ourselves in today.
0:48.0	And I guess that we might experience more of in the future.
0:52.2	For timing reasons, what you'll hear is the interview exactly as it was recorded.
0:56.6	I'll hand it off to David and Sonia now.
0:59.4	And our current affairs editor, Whitney Pennington-Rodges, will pop in every now and then with questions
1:04.6	from the livestream audience.
1:06.8	Let's dive in.
1:07.8	Thanks for joining us Sonia.
1:09.7	Nice to be here, nice to see you.
1:12.1	Nice to see you too.
1:13.6	So I guess I'll start with having written a book about this, what does it feel like to
1:18.7	have it kind of come true?
1:22.1	Well, it's very eerie and surreal, but I think that's how a lot of people are feeling.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from TED, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of TED and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.