What have you been doing during this global pandemic? For me, I have transitioned to operating my publishing company remotely and staying busy. I am eating better because no more junk food and I am also exercising more by swimming. I don't think that our world and our society will ever be the same once we eradicate COVID-19. I am not being dismal, just stating how I feel. With any crisis, there is always an aftermath and today's author interview brings that to the forefront. Meet author Trond Undheim and learn about his book Pandemic Aftermath: How Coronavirus Will Change Global Society.
Trond Undheim
Author website: http://pandemic-aftermath.com/
Goodreads site: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53487336-pandemic-aftermath
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trond.undheim
Goodreads site: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53487336-pandemic-aftermath
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/trond.undheim
Tell your readers a little about yourself,
where you grew up, where you live now, where you went to school etc. Let them
get to know the personal you.
I grew up in a town in Norway called Trondheim, which is
interesting to some people since my first name is Trond, which means
"happy", and since "heim" means town or home, it makes me
happy from Happytown. Pretty upbeat start!
I've lived all over the world. I graduated High School in Branford, Connecticut. I studied in Belgium (I was the only one with an all-weather jacket and a mountain bike in the entire town of Liege back in 1993) and Italy (I was an outsider walking the streets of Naples in the Italian south). I also spent a year at UC Berkeley in California during my Ph.D. during the first Internet heydays, attending roof parties all as part of my research. My work has taken me to the EU in Brussels, to London with Oracle and now to Boston where I worked at MIT for many years. This is all quite strange because I don't particularly like to travel. I do love great conversation, and I love the outdoors. I can drive people nuts talking for hours on end about world issues, plants, music, books, or technology.
What inspired you to author this book?
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Pandemic Aftermath was born as I sat in my attic pondering why the WHO didn't call
it a pandemic even though it evidently was. I forecasted a much more
significant event was about to unfold, dropped everything else for two months,
and hunkered down to document the world-shattering event. I think my skill set
was a good match for understanding the bigger picture. I'm trained in scenario
and foresight methods (popularly called being a futurist), I've worked with
technology innovation from public health to pharma to AI and virtual and
augmented reality at MIT and in various of my startups. I had just authored a
book called Disruption Games (2020) about how to thrive on failure and seek out
the kind of deep learning experience that is only possible when working closely
with a startup. I was supposed to be writing on my next book, Future Tech
(2021), which will be a more systematic study of the forces of disruption
surrounding technology, policy, business, and culture. I put that on hold for a
bit since I realized that the entire context of technology (medium-term) would
now potentially be framed in terms of how it contributed to a post-pandemic
future. All of that needed to be digested. Also, I'm not a doctor, and I didn't
want to risk exposing my kids by volunteering in hospitals or anything like
that. I firmly believe that we all have to contribute. In Norway, there is a
term called "dugnad" which is a generalized phenomenon similar to
what the Midwest calls a barnraise--we all come together when there is a big
task and volunteer to accomplish the task together--without any money changing
hands. This is my contribution to the public "dugnad" surrounding
coronavirus.
Where did you get the inspiration for your book's cover?
Pandemic Aftermath is the most historically aware of my books so far. I've always
been fascinated by the longterm perspective on human history. I had also just
read a biography of Leonardo Da Vinci, the book Learning from Leonardo by
Fritjof Capra. Mona Lisa's smirk kind of screams secrets. Also, did you know
that a Boston physician, Dr. Mandeep Mehra, medical director of the Heart &
Vascular Center at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, has diagnosed Mona
Lisa as suffering from thyroid disease? Not that thyroidism is contagious, so
she wouldn't have worn a mask. In any case, in the book, I point out that the
long term legacy of the Black Death included the onset of the Renaissance.
Wouldn't it be great if contemporary society's global issues, be they pandemics
or environmental cataclysms, cause use to enter another creative period in
human history? I also want to point out that Aftermath literally means
"aftergrowth" and refers to the second coming of grass after the
harvest -- growth after tragedy. I found it poetic.
Who has been the most significant influence on you personally
and as a writer?
I'm indebted to my father, who was a great thinker and academic
who taught me near everything I know about science, psychology, learning, and
experiments. I worked in his research lab for many years and way before I
graduated high school. He was a cognitive psychologist with joint expertise in
human intelligence and dyslexia. I suffer from neither but got to learn a lot.
In terms of writing, I devour any book I can get hold of. I've assembled a
library of about 10,000 books, but I've read many more. My local library ran
out of books for me to read. I think Jules Verne's stories have been formative.
I've probably read each of his five masterpieces at least five times, Around
the World in Eighty Days, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Twenty
Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Mysterious Island and From the Earth to the
Moon, but so have contemporary authors like F Scott Fitzgerald. In the suspense
genre, I actually like Lee Child's Jack Reacher series. Don't get me
started on books. I love non-fiction as well, and I read essays and poetry,
too. I've recently discovered that I like biographies beyond those of polar
explorers, so that has definitely broadened my outlook. Also, I regret very
much not having crossed the South Pole on cross country skis when I had the
chance. I thought it was done once and for all in 1911 with Roald Amundsen, but
then Colin O'Brady did it in 2018. Did I say I love the books of great
explorers? Another childhood inspiration was Norwegian adventurer Thor
Heyerdahl who embarked on the Kon-Tiki expedition where he sailed 8,000 km
across the Pacific Ocean in a hand-built raft from South America to the Tuamotu
Islands to try to prove that people from South America could have settled
Polynesia in pre-Columbian times. The book he wrote is almost a bible to me when
it comes to appreciating and uncovering the mysteries of life. My struggle with
non-fiction is that most of it is lifeless. In contrast, I'm drawn to authors
that share some of their own stories as they are writing about important
business, tech, or cultural phenomena.
What were your struggles or obstacles you had to overcome to get
this book written?
The first obstacle was that I was constrained to sources I had
in my house, books, and literature accessible through the Internet. I also had
to write at breakneck speed. The 427 pages, including 40 pages of references
was written in just about two months. I also had to block out a lot of the
noise coming from a media that was overwhelmed with alarmist storytelling but
without a common thread in the narrative beyond constantly creating scapegoats.
The reflection level around public health is generally not very sophisticated.
It is a field that has largely not innovated its core over the past hundred
years, despite enormous societal and technological changes. My desire wasn't to
unmask all of that, but it is one of the results of my work.
Tell your readers about your book.
Pandemic Aftermath is the story of what could happen over the next decade. The
first portion of the book is non-fiction, and I chart the timeline of the first
three months of the pandemic, which I found to be particularly gripping. I also
try to put this pandemic into a historical and socio-political perspective with
an eye to how it will impact the political economy and geopolitics. The second
portion is a scenario-based novel where I've depicted five scenarios. I felt
very strongly that since so many others were presenting all kinds of
predictions, I wanted to be more measured. We don't know very much. What we do
know is that the pandemic has created uncertainty. But rather than quell that
uncertainty too early, it is important to delve into it, to try to uncover what
our options are and what might happen if this pandemic isn't the only ill that occurs
on this planet in the next decade. I also wanted to imagine the possibilities.
In Borderless world, an expert-led world federal state where leaders are able to implement globalization and strategies to fix health systems fully. Yet, the cost is a synthetic world, where nature and the elderly, are both abandoned.
In Borderless world, an expert-led world federal state where leaders are able to implement globalization and strategies to fix health systems fully. Yet, the cost is a synthetic world, where nature and the elderly, are both abandoned.
In Nation-state renewal, with enormous virus death tolls,
borders close down, and people stop traveling vast distances. This is the
decade of intermittency, cycles of opening up society is followed by cycles of
closing down, repeatedly and physical distancing is needed throughout the
decade. China, Scandinavia, Singapore, Qatar, and Germany thrive, while
formerly "great" nations like US, UK, Russia, Brazil, and India
struggle.
In Two worlds apart, with a failed vaccine, the top 0.1% of
population separates from the 99.9% in entire new walled-off financial
districts plus a set of islands purposefully constructed to avoid contagion,
filled with the world's most expensive real estate, governed by their own laws.
In Hobbesian chaos, all vaccines fail, no protective state lasts
beyond a year, the rule of law ceases to exist, and terrorist groups (Boko
Haram, the Mafia, al Qaeda), clans and ideological movements sweep through the
earth with constant struggle and fight for scarce resources as a result.
In Status Quo, the vaccine works, the world is still a tri-polar
order (US, China, Russia rule in each hemisphere) and after a period of
readjustment, society, and the world economy, on most dimensions, will not be
significantly altered by this pandemic experience. However, remote work is now
a real thing.
Who is your target audience, and why?
I target anybody who has experienced this pandemic at close
range but who wants to get out of the short term misery that we have created
for ourselves. It is essential to look forward. Typically, pandemic exercises
are carried out with government and business decision-makers, so those are
definitely my target audience. However, I think that the pandemic affects all
of us. Any citizen should have a clear idea of what they feel the pandemic
means for their future, for the future of their children, and for the choices
we have to make as a society.
What do you consider your greatest success in life?
I thought a lot about that during the pandemic. I think I'm the happiest
with having brought three wonderful children into the world. This is also why
I'm so deeply worried about the next decades. I feel a strong responsibility to
make sure that they have all the resources they need to make good choices and
live a life in freedom. I'm quite happy with knowing that I've lived a life
where I've explored all the options that have been on the table and then some.
I'm a very curious person. I consider myself lucky to be living out that
adventurous attitude to life in my myriad of projects. I love learning new
things. I love making things. I love reflecting about life, and I love sharing
my thoughts with others. I'm quite happy to have published two books this year,
and I'm looking forward to perhaps writing even more. It's all about figuring
out where your contribution must lie. For me, I'm a passion-driven person. I
have my own internal structure, but to the outside world, it might look a bit
disjointed. Success is an internal thing, but it is displayed through actions
that matter. Bringing that message to more people is part of what I consider
successful living.
What one unique thing sets you apart from other writers in your
genre?
I'm imaginative, and I have a strong sense of the macro forces
that drive society. I've also got an enormous appetite for reading and
digesting research reports. I think I must have read thousands of pages of text
every day for the past two decades. After a while, something sticks, and it
allows you to see patterns and appreciate what's distinctive and what's
fleeting about changes you see around you.