The Next Normal 2021
Covid-19 flipped a circuit breaker between the world before the pandemic and a different world that's emerging from the aftermath. The AC podcast dug into its archives to re-connect with some of the people we interviewed in the past. We wanted to understand how they navigated 2020 and how they're positioning themselves for the future. It shows us that history is lurching forward, rather than progressing in a nice, smooth line.
The Next Normal: A Conversation w. Steve Masur, partner at Masur Griffits Avidor LLP
“I said that Friday, March 13th, was the last day of the Old World, and that Monday, the 16th was the new day of the new world, and that any deal you had been working on prior in the old world might not happen.”
The Next Normal: A Conversation w. Brent Friedman, Screenwriter for Video and Games
“An hour before my meeting, I got a phone call saying Hulu’s offices were being closed and you could not come. And if you did show up at the office, you would be escorted out by security. And this was my first sense of, OK, the world is shutting down.”
The Next Normal: A Conversation w. Shelley Peterson of Lockheed Martin
“The key word is imagine. When we’re having to imagine, we’re having to interpret. And when we interpret, we’re hoping that we get the interpretation right. But sometimes we don’t.”
The Next Normal: A Conversation w. Natalie Monbiot of Hour One
“How will we wean ourselves from the reliance on our screens and on technology and algorithmic based platforms that continue to draw us in? I mean, those old problems still exist.”
The Next Normal: A Conversation w. Missy Cruz, Emergency Room Technician
“Every day, I had a fever I could not break. I just never knew when the end was going to come. And I think the hardest part for people who had Covid, especially in the beginning, was there was no data.”
The Next Normal: A Conversation w. Lori H. Schwartz, Curator and Technology Catalyst
“Your community, more than ever before, is going through the same exact thing that you’re going through, meaning that the line between how a business person has been operating and how a consumer has been operating has never been closer.”
The Next Normal: A Conversation w. Laura Rizzotto, Award Winning Singer & Songwriter
“Balance to me is never just being on a straight line and feeling like, oh yeah, this is OK. It’s checking in to make sure that I can still keep it up. But also, I think losing your balance is part of finding balance, you know what I mean?”
The Next Normal: A Conversation w. John Rossant, Chairman of the New Cities Foundation
“The consensus is, and I very much feel this, is that the mobility revolution — the revolution in the way goods and people move around — is so profound, that it has its own dynamic that is somewhat insulated from the pandemic.”
The Next Normal: A Conversation w. Hanson Hosein, Curator and Connector
“What we really need more than ever are trusted sacred stories. Or at least new sets of trusted, sacred stories that will allow us to come together in ways that the old stories just don’t do for us anymore.”
The Next Normal: A Conversation w. Devin Liddell, Principal Futurist at Teague
“What it really comes down to is deciding what is our preferred future? What’s the future we actually want? And then, of course, what’s our will to create it?”
The Next Normal: A Conversation w. Francesca Marie Smith, Creative Consultant & PhD Candidate
“I think anger can be a very powerful motivating force to highlight a problem and demand change. But I personally don’t believe that anger is the best engine to make that change happen.”
The Next Normal: A Conversation w. Edward Shenderovich, Co-Founder & Chairman at Knotel
“I came to the States in 1990 leaving the Soviet Union behind. In 1991, the Soviet Union stopped existing. That was a real shock, this idea of immigration and your country no longer existing was a real trip.”
The Next Normal: What COVID, Distance & Uncertainty Can Teach Us in 2021
“The America I was born into will not be the America I die in. But like Taylor, the astronaut from the Planet of the Apes, I leave the 20th century with no regrets.”