Crises: Personal and National Resilience
For individuals, crises often lead to positive personal change. We are forced to take stock of our abilities and limitations. In the best cases, we adapt so that we can cope better in the future. Why, then, can’t nations and the world similarly learn from their mistakes? Join Pulitzer-Prize-winning writer, geographer, and historian Jared Diamond as he investigates national and global resilience, and asks whether we will be honest enough to deal with the threats facing humanity.
Part 1: Personal and National Crises
Therapists know that dealing with personal crises requires acknowledgement, accepting responsibility, and subsequent personal change. Could similar rules apply to nations? Diamond uses case studies to explore how nations do or don’t respond to crises, and the ways in which they’ve managed, or failed, to learn their lessons.
Part 2: The World Crisis
Nuclear weapons, climate change, inequality, resource depletion - the existential threats facing humanity are dire. They require strategies of global coordination. But will we do it? Will COVID-19’s global threat motivate us to solve other global threats? Diamond examines how globalization can bring global solutions.