EA After Dark: COVID, Connection, and the Complexity of Truth (Part One)

NEW BONUS EPISODE

Five years ago the COVID-19 pandemic changed everything—our relationships, our sense of safety, our trust in institutions, and even how we understand personal and collective responsibility. In this two-part bonus episode, Jamie and Joan take a deep, unfiltered dive into the ways the pandemic shaped them—not just as individuals, but as healthcare professionals, friends, and human beings navigating a world in crisis.

This conversation isn’t about rehashing statistics or taking a definitive stance on policy. Instead, it’s an exploration of personal experiences, shifting perspectives, and the emotional currents that ran beneath everything we lived through. They talk about the challenges of navigating differing beliefs—within families, friendships, and even within themselves. They reflect on the tension between rightness and truth, how defensiveness can shut down meaningful dialogue, and why curiosity and grace matter more than ever.

Joan shares what it was like to experience the pandemic as a physician, watching public health measures unfold in real time, while also grappling with the complexities of personal integrity and professional responsibility. Jamie reflects on how fear, uncertainty, and evolving social norms shaped the way people moved through the world—how some clung to certainty while others were forced to constantly adapt. They talk about the emotional toll of lockdowns, the deeply human need for connection, and how codependency and social responsibility became intertwined in ways many of us are still unraveling.

At the heart of this conversation is the question: How do we hold space for differing experiences while still honoring our own? Jamie and Joan explore the messiness of belief shifts, the role of empathy in difficult conversations, and the importance of acknowledging both the systemic failures and the deeply personal struggles that shaped our collective pandemic experience.

An Important Note from Joan about this conversation:

One of the topics Jamie and I touch on in this conversation is vaccines.

On reflection after listening back to this recording, it feels most in integrity for me to name my current beliefs and positioning towards vaccines clearly:

1. I support the recommendations of all publicly funded and approved vaccines where I live and work.

2. Adverse and undesired medical events can and do happen after vaccines, but I do not believe there is sufficient, credible evidence showing that autism is caused by vaccination.

3. Based on how much benefit we get from vaccination both at an individual and community level, even when also considering the possibility of adverse events, it’s important to me both as a human and as a physician to state clearly that I support and recommend vaccination.

— Joan Chan, MD

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