Today, Explained looks at how the coronavirus pandemic reshaped the world

2020 is a year that changed everything. As December draws to a close, Today, Explained is taking a look back at how the coronavirus pandemic impacted every aspect of our lives in the new series You, Me, and Covid-19.

Host Sean Rameswaram, along with the Today, Explained team, will examine how the virus changed our relationships to each other and the places we live, how it upended our livelihoods, and how it redefined what we thought of as “normal.”

The series includes a special interview with Dr. Anthony Fauci, as well as reporting from Vox reporters Brian Resnick and Haleema Shah. The first episode is out Monday, December 21, with new episodes dropping through December 29, 2020.

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Episode 1, December 21 | Millennials are moving back in with their parents (again), but they are discovering multigenerational living has its perks. A mother and daughter reflect on how the pandemic has brought them closer together, and a professor examines the American stigma of living with your parents.

Episode 2, December 22 | First it was SXSW. Then Coachella. Then just about every concert and live show you can imagine. 2020 devastated the music industry and its fans as live performances were canceled or postponed indefinitely because of the pandemic. Vox’s Haleema Shah reports on how, in the wake of economic challenges and struggles to connect with audiences, musicians like DVSN did what artists do best: get creative and find a way through.

Episode 3, December 23 | The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Fauci has spent a lot of time in the spotlight recently. In a livestreamed interview with the unofficial human of the year, he told Sean Rameswaram that 85 percent of the US needs to get the Covid-19 vaccine for “true herd immunity.” Fauci also reflects on how this year has impacted him both professionally and personally.

Episode 4, December 28 | We can’t stop talking about how the coronavirus has changed humanity, but what about the animals? Some of them are dying. Some of them are thriving. Oh, and they started it. Vox’s Brian Resnick and science writer David Quammen explain.

Episode 5, December 29 | Reflections on how the pandemic and the year’s ensuing politics, economics, and social upheaval changed people’s ways of looking at the world. Featuring a guy who bought a gun, and then bought another; a woman who never wanted kids and then decided to try; someone who had to shut out family over Black Lives Matter; and an incarcerated individual who felt helpless about preventative measures on the inside, and then the outside.