A Deeper Sickness

For hundreds of thousands of families, the death of their loved ones will never be forgotten, but for millions more, their memories of that year are giving way to indistinct recollections of general anxiety and anger. A Deeper Sickness is a one-of-a-kind eyewitness account that chronicles the disease, the disinformation, the frayed social fabric, and the violence that converged around the twelve astonishing months of 2020. Award-winning historians Margaret Peacock and Erik Peterson set out with a mission to preserve what they call the “focused confusion” of this fateful year. They consulted with dozens of experts and witnesses from a wide range of fields—from distinguished epidemiologists and healthcare workers to leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement, district attorneys, political scientists, philosophers, and more. Their journey revealed a sick country that believed it was well and a violent nation that believed it was peaceful, one that mistook poverty for prosperity and accountability for rebellion. Organized by almost daily entries, A Deeper Sickness will help listeners sift through the chaos and misinformation that characterized those frantic days. It is both an unflinching indictment of a nation that is still reeling and a testament to the power of human resilience and collective memory. Listeners can also share their story about the pandemic by visiting an interactive digital museum, where the authors have preserved dozens of more stories and interviews.