2020
May
21
Thursday

Monitor Daily Podcast

May 21, 2020
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Mark Sappenfield
Senior global correspondent

“Even the very wise cannot see all ends,” Gandalf told Frodo in “The Fellowship of the Ring.”

At this moment, the tendency to predict the future can be overwhelming. News is dominated by questions of when the pandemic will end, what course it will take, and what it will change. We hear the world will never be the same again – from energy use to office spaces to education.

Undoubtedly there will be change, but in his article, “I Predict Your Predictions Are Wrong,” the Atlantic’s Yascha Mounk notes how resilient humanity is. Change is a powerful force, but so is continuity. And when it comes to predicting the path of the coronavirus, The New York Times’ Nicholas Kristof notes that “nonexperts are supremely confident in their predictions, while epidemiologists keep telling me that they don’t really know much at all.”

The point is not to alarm. But as Mr. Kristof says, it is to start with humility. Each moment presents an opportunity to put aside fears and be guided by reason, wisdom, and humanity. That brings its own kind of certainty. “Humanity will survive this pandemic,” writes Mr. Mounk. “In its aftermath, as after so many other disasters, we will learn to thrive anew.”


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Today’s stories

And why we wrote them

Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
A woman carries away fresh food at a Los Angeles Regional Food Bank giveaway of 2,000 boxes of groceries April 9, 2020. Food banks in Los Angeles County report an 80% increase in demand as unemployment has soared.

Essay

Courtesy of Sarah Khan
Writer Sarah Khan pauses in front of one of the famous ornamented doors of Zanzibar's Stone Town as children run by, in 2019 (left). A tantalizing iftar feast awaits at the home of Nassra Nassor in Zanzibar.
John Minchillo/AP
Jayden Deltoro (left) watches "Trolls World Tour" at the Four Brothers Drive In Theatre, May 15, 2020, in Amenia, New York. Innovators are looking at the drive-in model as a way for people to experience live events without being elbow to elbow.

The Monitor's View

Reuters
People stand in line to receive food aid near Pretoria, South Africa, May 20.

A Christian Science Perspective

About this feature

A message of love

Ali Hashisho/Reuters
Children play in a pool on the rooftop of a building in Sidon, southern Lebanon, May 21, 2020. The country’s economy was already reeling before the coronavirus outbreak. The country's prime minister now warns of major food shortages.
( The illustrations in today’s Monitor Daily are by Karen Norris. )

A look ahead

Thank you for joining us today. Please come back tomorrow when our Sara Miller Llana looks at how past crises have brought not only challenges, but also change and fresh hopes – and what this crisis might bring.

And a reminder that we’re now giving you a place to track today’s faster-moving headline news that we’ll be reporting on more deeply soon.

More issues

2020
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