May 15, 2021 • 33 mins
This podcast began with the notion that the visuals of pandemic life around the world needed to be described. Many months have since passed, and those visuals have changed. This week, Christine and JJ check in on COVID and lockdown visuals around the world. From anxiety on the streets of Toronto, to India's infection rate graphs, and vacationing goats in North Whales, to vaccinated wales in New York museums, Talk Description to Me has you covered.
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Episode Transcript
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JJ Hunt (00:04):
Talk description to me with Christine Malec and JJ
Hunt.
Christine Malec (00:29):
Hi, I'm Christine Malec.
JJ Hunt (00:30):
And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description to Me where
the visuals of current eventsand the world around us get
hashtag in description richconversations.
Christine Malec (00:47):
Before we begin today, I would like to remind
everyone that we are onclubhouse. And we will be
hosting our first event onThursday, May 20, at 7pm.
Eastern, and it's calleddescribing the invisible
universe. And our special guestwill be Kim arcand of the
chanter observatory. And we'llbe talking about the work that
(01:08):
they're doing to make astronomymore accessible. So we're going
to combine Kim's subject matterexpertise with Jade is
describing and it's going to beawesome. So if you're on
clubhouse, please look for us attalk description to me and join
us for our event on May 20.
There's a significant way inwhich our podcast got started,
(01:28):
just by describing COVID and thelook of the streets and the
world in COVID. That was whatgot JJ and I thinking about
describing current events. Andso this week, we want to revisit
that because it's been over ayear. And although at the time,
it would have been impossible tobelieve we're still we're still
(01:49):
in the midst of of COVID events.
And so we want to do a littlesurvey around the world of
images from different places.
And since JJ and I are inToronto, we thought we would
start here partly because I wantto get this this grumpy thing
out of the out of the way it's awe are still very much in in
(02:13):
lockdown stay at home order. Soevery part of the world is in a
different place around thepandemic, which is kind of what
got us thinking about this thatdifferent countries are
approaching it differently. SoJJ and I here in Toronto are
still hunkered down at home.
There's no restaurants, there'sno salons, there's there's very
(02:37):
little yeah to to recommend thecity at the moment as a fun
place to be. So JJ, can we startwith some of the visuals that
you're seeing as the as thespring opens up here, but
everything else is stayingclosed.
JJ Hunt (02:50):
As you say, spring has sprung and I walk a lot that's
one of the only things we can doright now is get out and walk
right. We can't go into movietheaters, we can't go into
restaurants and cafes. So it'soutdoors, and it's walking. And
so I walk through a lot of WestEnd Toronto neighborhoods. And I
(03:10):
have noticed some changes overthe year right, the way people
were behaving on this in thestreet, at the beginning of the
pandemic and the way peoplebehave now is a little bit
different. So, you know, whenwhen passing people on the
sidewalk, I've noticed that alot of people, a lot of sighted
people, at the beginning of thepandemic would step off the
(03:33):
curb, and into the street toavoid passing someone to close
might or maybe do the zigzagfrom one side of the street to
another. So if you're walkingdown the street and someone's
coming toward you on thesidewalk, you're zigzag across
the street to the other side ofthe street until someone
approaches in that direction,then you're zigzag back, a lot
of that zigzagging back andforth. But while people were
(03:54):
doing that, at the beginning ofthe pandemic, I noticed that
there was a lot there was extranods and smiles or hellos, a
little extra wave to people evenbeyond the kind of forced
pleasant demeanor that Canadiansare often teased for, right, we
would be compensating for thelousy feeling that comes with
avoiding people by being extrapolite, hello, how you doing?
(04:17):
It's not you. It's the pandemic,you know, it's that kind of
thing. But now I'm noticing thatpeople are tired. And people are
maybe a little bit moresuspicious of each other because
some people aren't followingsocial distancing rules and
norms. Right? And so now we arestill zigzagging we are still
(04:38):
stepping into the street toavoid people on sidewalks. But
now maybe we're looking away.
We're not waving and smiling nowmaybe people I'm watching people
hold their breath. I do this alittle bit too, I'm afraid.
Well, as you're passing someonein the suit, you kind of tighten
up and you hold your breath. Youkeep your head down. You're not
making that kind of contact withanyone. As if It's absurd as if
(04:58):
making a friendly eye contact orwe're sharing a little wave is
somehow contagious. It's silly.
It's but that's I think maybe alittle bit of where we're at. So
that kind of vibe as I'm walkingthrough the city is definitely
noticeable. The visuals of that,the feeling of that, for sure
(05:20):
are noticeable.
Christine Malec (05:22):
I remember talking to you after one of the
press conferences in which wegot some some very strict
lockdown instructions. And we Ishould say we were having a lot
of variant issues here, which iswhy things are so bad. And I
remember you remarking that thenext day in walking in your
(05:44):
morning walk, people just lookedupset.
JJ Hunt (05:48):
Yeah.
Christine Malec (05:48):
That really struck me.
JJ Hunt (05:49):
Yeah, people have been looking really despondent and
really an angry. I'm alsofinding as I'm walking past
people, you know how you catchjust snippets of conversations,
as you're walking past people onthe sidewalk, you get two or
three sentences, and over andover and over again, as I would
pass people on the sidewalk.
You'd hear just a little bit ofthat check in like, what do you
(06:13):
think of this? I can't believewe're still doing that. And can
you believe they made this ruleirregular, and there's a lot of
anger and frustration. And youcan, you can see that tension in
the way people are carryingthemselves the way they are
holding their bodies close andtight. And the way they are
reacting to others on thestreet, the way they are
communicating with each other.
(06:34):
If they're walking in pairs, orin small, you know, family
groups. It's tense, it really istense.
Christine Malec (06:41):
And what else are you seeing on the streets in
the city?
JJ Hunt (06:44):
Well, it's interesting to see how public spaces are
being occupied. So parkscontinue to be packed,
especially spring comes around.
And they they were, you know,pretty busy throughout the
winter. But as spring comesalong, lots and lots of people
in parks and it is kind of likewhen you go to a park, it's now
it's a little bit like when yougo to a beach when you're on
vacation, and you have to findand occupy your own personal
(07:05):
space. So yeah, you know, itstarts off with everyone spread
out, and then more people comeand they put their picnic
blanket or their towel down, youknow, equidistant to all the
other groups, and now you filledin those gaps. And then and then
more people come and they fillin the gaps between them. And so
you end up with this, you know,this spread on lawns, and in
(07:26):
parks where people try and keepsome distance by filling in the
spaces between other groups. Thephotos, I always like to mention
this a photos if taken fromabove of these crowded parks,
they show that distance betweenthe groups of people. But when
you take photos across a busyPark, or a busy beach or a
(07:49):
sidewalk or something, it'sreally deceptive, it makes a
diff the distances betweengroups appear much smaller, that
point of view really changesthings. So newspaper photos that
have drone footage, or satellitefootage from above, much more
trustworthy, to figure outwhether or not people are
socially distance. And then thatthe way others public spaces
like residential alleyways,there are a lot of those in my
(08:11):
neighborhood in Toronto wherethere are alleyways that lead to
people's garages behind houses.
And those are often packed withkids on scooters and bikes, you
know, zipping back and forth,often wearing their COVID masks,
and people gathering for acouple of drinks in the garage
(08:31):
or, you know, on the frontporches and really any outdoor
space that can be occupied nowis occupied. There is an unused
restaurant patio that's at theend of my street. This is just
for a restaurant that's notcurrently occupied. And people
have have dragged like a strangemismatched collection of old
lawn chairs and side tables andjust left them there. And now
(08:54):
people hang out there a lot ofthe day and into the evening.
We've had we've nicknamed it thePiazza. And people go and hang
out there. And you know, mostlyit's okay. Mostly, it's just
people trying to find ways toconnect with each other and
spread out a little bit. Sothat's what you do, you create
(09:15):
your own Piazza.
Christine Malec (09:16):
In talking about getting ready for this
episode, we understood clearlythat it would be disrespectful
and lacking in compassion, notto acknowledge the worst thing
that's going on in the worldaround COVID, which is the
situation in India and we talkedat some length and with
difficulty about how to coverit, how to talk about it. And
(09:42):
JJ, maybe you can sort of try tosum up what we were, what our
thoughts are on how to how totalk about this the situation.
JJ Hunt (09:50):
Yeah, it's been a real it's been a struggle to figure
out how to cover this. You know,we You and I both talked about
not wanting to be quite so NorthAmerican and Eurocentric And
especially with regards to thisglobal pandemic. And the story
in India right now is the globalpandemic story. And truly,
there's a very important visualcomponent to this story. And it,
(10:13):
it absolutely fits our mandate.
But the visuals are, they'reterrible. They're they're
agonizing, and they're crushing.
I mean, rapt bodies lined up inthe streets, mass funeral pyres,
people weeping, it's just, it's,it's awful. And while it's true
there, there may be some benefitto describing those images in
(10:36):
detail. You know, perhapsdescriptions of the ongoing
horrors will help people maketheir own decisions about
wearing masks, or to make theirown decisions about where to
donate their time, or theirmoney or their energy. It might
even add to conversations aboutvaccines and variants, and very
real global resource inequality,which is a serious issue. All of
(10:59):
those things might be true, butthe fact is spending time
considering and describing anddiscussing those images. It has
a real emotional cost, rightboth for us, for you and I and
also a real cost for thelisteners too. And one of the
things, of course, Chris, thatyou and I talked about is that
(11:20):
we are all a little bit closerto the edge than is comfortable
right now. Right? We're allfeeling the strain of the
situation. So what we've decidedto do is instead of describing
the horrific visuals, to conveythe magnitude of the situation
in India, we're going to try anddescribe some of the charts and
graphs that visualize thestaggering data. And our hope is
(11:45):
that this will properly conveythe severity of this surge and
the weight of the moment.
Without trotting on any of ouralready fragile mental health.
Christine Malec (11:55):
There's no right or wrong choice. This is
just how JJ and I have decidedto approach it. And so it's no
intention of disrespect for thegenuine human suffering. But I
think JJ expressed it very well.
And so this, this is the waythat we have chosen. So I guess
we want to just offer our anyapologies to anyone who feels
(12:18):
that this was not the rightchoice of how to talk about
India. So JJ, walk us throughsome of the the data
visualizations that you've seen.
JJ Hunt (12:29):
Reuters, the news agency has on their website a
COVID-19 tracker, and they'vegot lots of interactive graphs
and charts. You can plug invarious locations, and they'll
give you information that's,that's current and up to date in
the form of these interactivegraphs, and charts. So the most
straightforward graphs are theline graphs that track new
(12:52):
infections and daily deaths. Thebottom of these graphs on the
horizontal axis is a line thattracks the date. And it goes
from December 31 2020, on ourleft, all the way to may 10
2021. On our right, and thevertical axes, which are on our
right, they track numbers. Sowe've got two different graphs
(13:15):
here, one tracks the dailyinfections, and that's by the
100,000. And the other graphtracks, daily deaths, and that's
by the 1000. And then there's ayellow line that tracks these
numbers. And it, you know, Bobsalong along this graph. So the
yellow line that tracks thenumbers line up very closely on
(13:37):
these two different graphs, theone tracking new infections and
the one tracking deaths, dailydeaths, they line up very
closely on the two differentgraphs from December to March
2020, the line is flat along thehorizontal axis in both, so no
infections, no deaths, this is,you know, December to March
(13:58):
2020. And then from about Marchto May, the infections start to
rise, so first into the hundredsand then into the 1000s. But the
numbers are so low compared tothe scale on the vertical axis,
that the line still looksvirtually straight along the
bottom of the graph. And that'sthe same with the graph mapping
the graph mapping the deaths,right? It's not until June of
(14:22):
2020, that the that the yellowline starts to rise. And what it
does is it creates a smallmountain on both of the graphs
on each one of the graphs, theline rises up, hits a peak and
then begins to fall again, thepeak is almost 100,000 new
infections on September 16 2020,and almost a little over 11,000
(14:46):
deaths for about the same time,September 2020. And in both
cases, those little mountainshapes reach the lowest number
that's indicated on the verticalaxis. So about 100,000 and About
1000, and then the linegradually falls back down and
hovers just above the horizontalaxis from January to March 2021.
(15:10):
But then, by April 2021, theline shoots up, I mean, truly
nearly vertically on each one ofthe graphs, the lines that shoot
up reach four times higher onthe vertical axis than those
mountains that peaked inDecember. So at the beginning of
(15:32):
March 2021, there were 12,000new daily infections, and under
100 deaths, by the beginning ofMay, over 400,000 new
infections, and over 4000 dailydeaths. So these lines shoot
(15:52):
straight up four times higherthan the previous peak. And if
you zoom in really close on thedata, you can see that there may
be one or two reporting periodsthat indicate that the numbers
might now be dropping, but thedrop is too small to register
visually, straight up the lineis straight up 400,000 new
(16:15):
infections 4000 daily deaths.
Christine Malec (16:19):
Obviously, you've been looking at
visualizations from many placesover the course of the year. So
just to put it in context, thisdoes this look like any other
visualization you've seen fromanywhere else?
JJ Hunt (16:30):
It's interesting, the way different waves register in
different places is, is reallyquite different. So in some
places, you have distinct peaksfor wave one and wave two and
wave three. In some cases, youhave very few, like a very small
peak for wave one or wave two.
But wave three is a big peak.
(16:53):
And that's a big mountain. It'sreally, it's really interesting
how these, this particular thesetwo charts look very different
from place to place, a good wayto compare. There's another
graph another datarepresentation to provide a more
global context. So near thebottom of the webpage, are a
series of these gray horizontalbars with fine vertical white
(17:18):
lines that cross the across thehorizontal bar. And I'll look at
one that breaks down. That'sjust labeled deaths globally. So
this tracks all death in indifferent countries around the
world, the white lines representthe number of deaths in each
individual country. So eachcountry that is reported COVID,
(17:38):
number of death tolls isassigned a separate thin white
line, countries with zerodeaths, their lines are at the
left edge of the gray bar,that's the start of the bar. And
then the country with the mostdeaths, that's the far right,
that marks the end of the bar.
So this representation is allabout relativity, fewest COVID
deaths to the most COVID deaths.
(17:59):
At the left nearest zero, thereare a cluster of white lines, so
many white lines at the baractually looks white. And if you
move the pointer over thislittle area, the countries that
are that are here and theirexact death tolls associated are
they'll pop up. And this clusterof white lines occupies maybe
(18:19):
the first 10th of the bar. Sothis, these are countries that
have had between zero and 20,000deaths. And then if you move
toward the right from about that1/10 of the way along the bar,
to maybe a quarter of the wayalong the bar, that area, there
have lines that are spread out alittle bit, but they're still
gathered together. So there'sstill there's gray, you know,
(18:41):
empty space between them. Butthey're still gathered together.
And here, deaths range from25,000, in Belgium, to almost
130,000 in the UK. And thenthere's a big gap. If you move
toward the middle of the bar,there's a great big gap until
you reach about the middle. Andhere there are three lines,
(19:03):
Mexico has almost 220,000, Indiahas almost 250,000 and Russia
has just over 250,000 that'smore or less the middle of this
bar. And then there's anotherbig gap as you move to the right
and about three quarters of theway along that bar is one line,
(19:24):
a single line, Brazil 422,000deaths. And then all the way at
the end of the line, the verylast line that marks the end of
the bar. That's the UnitedStates 582,000 deaths.
Christine Malec (19:40):
Thank you for the time that you spent looking
at that it's their their numberswhen you say them, but we all
know what they mean exactlyreally hard to to be focusing
your energy on. When I look onTwitter and other social media,
it's clear that everywhere is ata different place in terms of
what going on. So in Toronto,you can't eat out on a patio,
(20:03):
but in Spain, they're havingconcerts. And so that's in a way
that's what got me thinkingabout this episode is that the
range of how people are livingthese days and so I think JJ
you're able to get some reallygood images from the UK about
JJ Hunt (20:19):
I got some fantastic images so I started flipping
through online photos I googledlike pandemic life UK, and just
look through photos and, and Iwas seeing some interesting
images, but I wasn't sure ifthey were actually
representative of what was goingon. So I thought, you know what,
I'm going to reach out to tosomeone in the UK, so I flipped
through my international Leagueof Extraordinary describers
(20:41):
Rolodex,
Christine Malec (20:42):
Ha ha ha.
JJ Hunt (20:42):
and I contacted a lovely colleague and Twitter
friend in London, Roz Chalmers,and I asked her if, if there
were any UK pandemic visualsthat she thought we could talk
about. And she emailed us awonderful list, complete with
photos and some of her thoughts.
It was just lovely of her totake the time. So thank you very
much was just so great of you.
(21:05):
And so she sent a couple ofthings she sent some before and
after pictures of TrafalgarSquare. Trafalgar Square, of
course, is a very famous squarein central London, often visited
by tourists used for communitygatherings, political
demonstrations, protests, just abig open square with their two
matching fountains in the squaresome statues, a pillar monument,
(21:26):
and pre pandemic. This spacewould generally be packed with
people, it's a bustling place,lots of traffic, whipping a
boat, people meeting andgathering going in and out of
the National Gallery. But in thepandemic picture that Roz sent
me, it looks, it looks empty,like really, this is a photo she
(21:46):
sent as a middle of a bright andsunny day. But there are only a
handful of people standing atone of the fountains and there
are a few people crossing thisvast expanse of what I think is
like gray concrete, it justlooks very, very quiet. Roz also
drew my attention to an antilockdown protest in London, the
(22:09):
unite for freedom protest, whichwas I believe, last week. And of
course, there have been sporadicanti lockdown anti mass protests
all over the world, anywherewhere people have the legal
right to protest, there havebeen protests, I've seen photos
and news of protests from, youknow, Canada, the US or across
the UK. And people are oftencarrying signs that say things
(22:31):
like my body, my choice, shutyour face, wash your hands, stay
afraid, or freedom is nonnegotiable. And the people that
these protests they, you know,just scanning these photos, they
appear to be of different ages,they're wearing clothing of
different styles. But I shouldit's worth noting that scanning
(22:52):
the photos, the protesters doseem to be predominantly white.
One of the things that madethese recent unite for freedom
protests notable was that someof the people involved chose to
wear yellow stars of David toexpress the idea that they had
been persecuted. And I didn'tknow if this was just a terrible
And that's a visual symbol thateveryone recognizes right? The
(23:15):
one off choice or part of agreater movement. So I dug
around a little bit and I founda few other images in the press.
There were a handful of antivaccination protesters who wore
the Star of David in the CzechRepublic back in January, and a
few folks in Avignon France, whowore these yellow stars reading
"non vaccine". And of course, thse stars are modeled after
(23:40):
he yellow badges that were usedby the Nazis to identify J
ws leading up to the Holocaus.
yellow star?
It is a potent symbol that is isabsolutely clear. Some of these
stars that are being worn inthese in these anti vaccination
(24:02):
protests, some of them areamateurish, like the ones from
France I saw where they lookedlike they were just simple stars
cut out of yellow constructionpaper with handwritten messages
inside. But some of them areproper stars of David a six
pointed hexagram made of yellowfabric with with black writing
inside and in some of them themessages of protest were written
(24:23):
in a mock Hebrew font.
Christine Malec (24:25):
Gasp!
JJ Hunt (24:25):
So absolutely fully intentionally referencing these,
these stars that were used bythe Nazis. I mean, it's just
staggering.
Christine Malec (24:38):
Wow, I did not know that.
JJ Hunt (24:39):
Yeah, I was I was pretty shocked to see those too.
But then Roz also said let'slighten things up a little bit
and she sent me a link to somenews stories that I had not
heard before. And this iswonderful. So goats.
Christine Malec (24:55):
There's an obsession with goats. The media
loves goats love. They areeverywhere.
JJ Hunt (25:01):
Ah, and they are taking over a lovely little town in
North Wales. So there's a herdof wild goats. And I'm going to
do my best to get mypronunciations right but it's
this is Wales here. So it's alittle tricky. So there's a herd
of wild goats that live in greatOrme county park, this is a
limestone headland in NorthWales. And there there's a
(25:24):
nearby a seaside town calledLlandudno, And there are so few
visitors that are at this littleseaside town. And you know,
residents have been locked down,people are staying indoors. So
the mountain goats have decidedto become city goats. And they
they keep wandering down fromthe headlands into town and just
(25:48):
like chill out and they eat thegrass and they ate people's
hedges, and they just wanderabout town so people have been
photographing them and postingvideos on YouTube. These are
like, you know, waist tall goatsshaggy white for short tails and
long gnarly horns that curveback over their heads. And you
(26:10):
know, as I say images of themchewing the grass and the parks
and eating hedge rows in frontof houses and churches. I've
seen photos of them walkingsingle file along the sidewalk
past little boutique shops.
There's a picture of four goatswalking past the upper crust
sandwich shop. There's a photoof these goats are walking up a
picturesque street lined withrows of lovely white houses that
(26:34):
have matching bay windows andpeaked roofs and they're just
walking between the rows ofparked cars, photos of them
gathered outside of thehairdresser's.
Christine Malec (26:44):
Ha ha ha!
JJ Hunt (26:45):
There's one photo, they're all looking at us, which
really adds to the strangehumor. These goats like sitting
on the sidewalk looking at us asthey have their pictures taken.
There's one picture of fourgoats standing outside, this
might be a small apartmentbuilding, maybe an office
building. And there are twopeople inside the building
standing at the glass frontdoor. And like looking out at
(27:08):
the goats, they're eitherunwilling or unable to step
outside, because these goats arejust chilling out in front of
the building. Oh, it'sfantastic. Lovely, crazy images.
Christine Malec (27:20):
I know that some of the mass vaccination
clinics are are quite notablefor for their their their
visuals and some of the wistfulthings that are going on. So I
think JJ, you had some visualsfrom New York about that.
JJ Hunt (27:32):
I mean, they're all over the place. Wherever these
vaccination clinics need to beheld. If they're having to find
strange places to hold theminteresting, you know, you got
to be close to the populations.
And often sometimes you want tobe indoors, sometimes if
depending on the weather, youcan be outdoors. And there are
lots of events spaces that areunused right convention centers,
(27:53):
hotels, stadiums, museums, themeparks, racetracks. And so in
various cities, they are usingthose quirky locations as their
vaccination clinics. And one ofmy favorites, some fantastic
images of come from New YorkCity, where they have turned the
American Museum of NaturalHistory into a vaccination
(28:13):
clinic. And for those who havenever been to this iconic
Museum, it is a wonderful one ofa kind. Kind of an anachronistic
museum. I always say it's amuseum that belongs in a museum.
Many of the exhibits especiallythe beloved heritage ones, are
(28:34):
of the diorama variety. Soreplicas big and small set up in
displays in like quazi naturalsurroundings. Very, very
antiquated. This diorama sceneand they're old, like some of
these are really heritage. So Ialways think if like if the
(28:58):
filmmaker Wes Anderson was evergoing to design a museum, it
would be the American Museum ofNatural History in New York and
this is now a mass vaccinatevaccination site in the city.
And there are a handful ofphotos that are available to the
public. One of the museum's mainopen galleries the family Hall
of ocean life is where the wherethe main clinic is, and
(29:18):
suspended in the air in thisfamily Hall, backed by a grid of
false skylights is a famous lifesize model of a blue whale. 94
feet long, it's long, pointedhead aimed down, like at a 45
degree angle, its tail bent towhere it's where its body begins
(29:40):
to narrow. It looks like thiswhale is about to dive toward
the floor. And this is directlyabove the vaccination clinic.
Christine Malec (29:52):
Ha ha ha! I love it.
JJ Hunt (29:53):
So like right below there are these little cubicles
curtained-off cubicles in grayand black, and a curtain
curtained-off waiting room withsocially distance folding
chairs. And right above this 94foot long whale that has a
bandaid on its fin on itspectoral fin right where it
would have recieved its shot.
Christine Malec (30:14):
Oh my god I love that!
JJ Hunt (30:15):
It's pretty cute. And then there are other wonderful
photos from the museum clinic.
There are photos that look likesnapshots that maybe healthcare
workers have snapped of eachother and then provided to
various press organizations.
I've got a photo here of twohealth care providers in these
kind of translucent plastic labcoats and surgical masks.
(30:37):
There's a standing white womanand a seated black woman. And
behind them is I'm going toguess like a 1/3 scale diorama
of two black men in bathingsuits free diving in an
underwater world of colorfulcoral and fish.
Christine Malec (30:53):
Heh heh.
JJ Hunt (30:53):
The light from the photographer's flashes
reflecting off the glass wallthat's protecting this diorama.
And these two healthcare workersare just you know, going about
their thing doing their doingtheir business. Another snapshot
with a row of skin similarlydressed healthcare workers and
they're seated in front of alarger diorama. This diorama has
an arched roofline. It's gotthese giant blubbery walruses
(31:18):
with wrinkled snouts andscarred, leathery, brown hides
and, and, and these foot longtusks. And these walruses are
just lounging on a false icefloe behind this row of these
health care workers. And a thirdsnapshot that perhaps my
favorite features to young womenhealth care workers with medium
(31:42):
skin tones, long, dark hair. Andagain, both of these health care
workers in their translucent labcoats, they've got safety
goggles, name tags, they'reholding maybe clipboards or
tablets, they're engaged inconversation, very animated
conversations, ones pointed tothe mask. The other ones like
reaching out with a pen, they'reclearly you know, figuring out
their day figuring out theirapproach, and right behind them
(32:02):
stocks a polar bear in a displaycase.
Christine Malec (32:05):
It's a keeper! Ha ha ha!
JJ Hunt (32:05):
And there's a hand painted icy sunset North Pole
backdrop behind the polar bear.
It looks like the artwork from a1980s Nordic hair metal band
greatest hits album orsomething. It's just p enomenal.
(32:26):
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(32:49):
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(33:11):
and you can follow us on Twitterat talk description.
Talk description to me with Christine Malec and JJ
Hunt.
Christine Malec (00:29):
Hi, I'm Christine Malec.
JJ Hunt (00:30):
And I'm JJ Hunt. This is talk description to Me where
the visuals of current eventsand the world around us get
hashtag in description richconversations.
Christine Malec (00:47):
Before we begin today, I would like to remind
everyone that we are onclubhouse. And we will be
hosting our first event onThursday, May 20, at 7pm.
Eastern, and it's calleddescribing the invisible
universe. And our special guestwill be Kim arcand of the
chanter observatory. And we'llbe talking about the work that
(01:08):
they're doing to make astronomymore accessible. So we're going
to combine Kim's subject matterexpertise with Jade is
describing and it's going to beawesome. So if you're on
clubhouse, please look for us attalk description to me and join
us for our event on May 20.
There's a significant way inwhich our podcast got started,
(01:28):
just by describing COVID and thelook of the streets and the
world in COVID. That was whatgot JJ and I thinking about
describing current events. Andso this week, we want to revisit
that because it's been over ayear. And although at the time,
it would have been impossible tobelieve we're still we're still
(01:49):
in the midst of of COVID events.
And so we want to do a littlesurvey around the world of
images from different places.
And since JJ and I are inToronto, we thought we would
start here partly because I wantto get this this grumpy thing
out of the out of the way it's awe are still very much in in
(02:13):
lockdown stay at home order. Soevery part of the world is in a
different place around thepandemic, which is kind of what
got us thinking about this thatdifferent countries are
approaching it differently. SoJJ and I here in Toronto are
still hunkered down at home.
There's no restaurants, there'sno salons, there's there's very
(02:37):
little yeah to to recommend thecity at the moment as a fun
place to be. So JJ, can we startwith some of the visuals that
you're seeing as the as thespring opens up here, but
everything else is stayingclosed.
JJ Hunt (02:50):
As you say, spring has sprung and I walk a lot that's
one of the only things we can doright now is get out and walk
right. We can't go into movietheaters, we can't go into
restaurants and cafes. So it'soutdoors, and it's walking. And
so I walk through a lot of WestEnd Toronto neighborhoods. And I
(03:10):
have noticed some changes overthe year right, the way people
were behaving on this in thestreet, at the beginning of the
pandemic and the way peoplebehave now is a little bit
different. So, you know, whenwhen passing people on the
sidewalk, I've noticed that alot of people, a lot of sighted
people, at the beginning of thepandemic would step off the
(03:33):
curb, and into the street toavoid passing someone to close
might or maybe do the zigzagfrom one side of the street to
another. So if you're walkingdown the street and someone's
coming toward you on thesidewalk, you're zigzag across
the street to the other side ofthe street until someone
approaches in that direction,then you're zigzag back, a lot
of that zigzagging back andforth. But while people were
(03:54):
doing that, at the beginning ofthe pandemic, I noticed that
there was a lot there was extranods and smiles or hellos, a
little extra wave to people evenbeyond the kind of forced
pleasant demeanor that Canadiansare often teased for, right, we
would be compensating for thelousy feeling that comes with
avoiding people by being extrapolite, hello, how you doing?
(04:17):
It's not you. It's the pandemic,you know, it's that kind of
thing. But now I'm noticing thatpeople are tired. And people are
maybe a little bit moresuspicious of each other because
some people aren't followingsocial distancing rules and
norms. Right? And so now we arestill zigzagging we are still
(04:38):
stepping into the street toavoid people on sidewalks. But
now maybe we're looking away.
We're not waving and smiling nowmaybe people I'm watching people
hold their breath. I do this alittle bit too, I'm afraid.
Well, as you're passing someonein the suit, you kind of tighten
up and you hold your breath. Youkeep your head down. You're not
making that kind of contact withanyone. As if It's absurd as if
(04:58):
making a friendly eye contact orwe're sharing a little wave is
somehow contagious. It's silly.
It's but that's I think maybe alittle bit of where we're at. So
that kind of vibe as I'm walkingthrough the city is definitely
noticeable. The visuals of that,the feeling of that, for sure
(05:20):
are noticeable.
Christine Malec (05:22):
I remember talking to you after one of the
press conferences in which wegot some some very strict
lockdown instructions. And we Ishould say we were having a lot
of variant issues here, which iswhy things are so bad. And I
remember you remarking that thenext day in walking in your
(05:44):
morning walk, people just lookedupset.
JJ Hunt (05:48):
Yeah.
Christine Malec (05:48):
That really struck me.
JJ Hunt (05:49):
Yeah, people have been looking really despondent and
really an angry. I'm alsofinding as I'm walking past
people, you know how you catchjust snippets of conversations,
as you're walking past people onthe sidewalk, you get two or
three sentences, and over andover and over again, as I would
pass people on the sidewalk.
You'd hear just a little bit ofthat check in like, what do you
(06:13):
think of this? I can't believewe're still doing that. And can
you believe they made this ruleirregular, and there's a lot of
anger and frustration. And youcan, you can see that tension in
the way people are carryingthemselves the way they are
holding their bodies close andtight. And the way they are
reacting to others on thestreet, the way they are
communicating with each other.
(06:34):
If they're walking in pairs, orin small, you know, family
groups. It's tense, it really istense.
Christine Malec (06:41):
And what else are you seeing on the streets in
the city?
JJ Hunt (06:44):
Well, it's interesting to see how public spaces are
being occupied. So parkscontinue to be packed,
especially spring comes around.
And they they were, you know,pretty busy throughout the
winter. But as spring comesalong, lots and lots of people
in parks and it is kind of likewhen you go to a park, it's now
it's a little bit like when yougo to a beach when you're on
vacation, and you have to findand occupy your own personal
(07:05):
space. So yeah, you know, itstarts off with everyone spread
out, and then more people comeand they put their picnic
blanket or their towel down, youknow, equidistant to all the
other groups, and now you filledin those gaps. And then and then
more people come and they fillin the gaps between them. And so
you end up with this, you know,this spread on lawns, and in
(07:26):
parks where people try and keepsome distance by filling in the
spaces between other groups. Thephotos, I always like to mention
this a photos if taken fromabove of these crowded parks,
they show that distance betweenthe groups of people. But when
you take photos across a busyPark, or a busy beach or a
(07:49):
sidewalk or something, it'sreally deceptive, it makes a
diff the distances betweengroups appear much smaller, that
point of view really changesthings. So newspaper photos that
have drone footage, or satellitefootage from above, much more
trustworthy, to figure outwhether or not people are
socially distance. And then thatthe way others public spaces
like residential alleyways,there are a lot of those in my
(08:11):
neighborhood in Toronto wherethere are alleyways that lead to
people's garages behind houses.
And those are often packed withkids on scooters and bikes, you
know, zipping back and forth,often wearing their COVID masks,
and people gathering for acouple of drinks in the garage
(08:31):
or, you know, on the frontporches and really any outdoor
space that can be occupied nowis occupied. There is an unused
restaurant patio that's at theend of my street. This is just
for a restaurant that's notcurrently occupied. And people
have have dragged like a strangemismatched collection of old
lawn chairs and side tables andjust left them there. And now
(08:54):
people hang out there a lot ofthe day and into the evening.
We've had we've nicknamed it thePiazza. And people go and hang
out there. And you know, mostlyit's okay. Mostly, it's just
people trying to find ways toconnect with each other and
spread out a little bit. Sothat's what you do, you create
(09:15):
your own Piazza.
Christine Malec (09:16):
In talking about getting ready for this
episode, we understood clearlythat it would be disrespectful
and lacking in compassion, notto acknowledge the worst thing
that's going on in the worldaround COVID, which is the
situation in India and we talkedat some length and with
difficulty about how to coverit, how to talk about it. And
(09:42):
JJ, maybe you can sort of try tosum up what we were, what our
thoughts are on how to how totalk about this the situation.
JJ Hunt (09:50):
Yeah, it's been a real it's been a struggle to figure
out how to cover this. You know,we You and I both talked about
not wanting to be quite so NorthAmerican and Eurocentric And
especially with regards to thisglobal pandemic. And the story
in India right now is the globalpandemic story. And truly,
there's a very important visualcomponent to this story. And it,
(10:13):
it absolutely fits our mandate.
But the visuals are, they'reterrible. They're they're
agonizing, and they're crushing.
I mean, rapt bodies lined up inthe streets, mass funeral pyres,
people weeping, it's just, it's,it's awful. And while it's true
there, there may be some benefitto describing those images in
(10:36):
detail. You know, perhapsdescriptions of the ongoing
horrors will help people maketheir own decisions about
wearing masks, or to make theirown decisions about where to
donate their time, or theirmoney or their energy. It might
even add to conversations aboutvaccines and variants, and very
real global resource inequality,which is a serious issue. All of
(10:59):
those things might be true, butthe fact is spending time
considering and describing anddiscussing those images. It has
a real emotional cost, rightboth for us, for you and I and
also a real cost for thelisteners too. And one of the
things, of course, Chris, thatyou and I talked about is that
(11:20):
we are all a little bit closerto the edge than is comfortable
right now. Right? We're allfeeling the strain of the
situation. So what we've decidedto do is instead of describing
the horrific visuals, to conveythe magnitude of the situation
in India, we're going to try anddescribe some of the charts and
graphs that visualize thestaggering data. And our hope is
(11:45):
that this will properly conveythe severity of this surge and
the weight of the moment.
Without trotting on any of ouralready fragile mental health.
Christine Malec (11:55):
There's no right or wrong choice. This is
just how JJ and I have decidedto approach it. And so it's no
intention of disrespect for thegenuine human suffering. But I
think JJ expressed it very well.
And so this, this is the waythat we have chosen. So I guess
we want to just offer our anyapologies to anyone who feels
(12:18):
that this was not the rightchoice of how to talk about
India. So JJ, walk us throughsome of the the data
visualizations that you've seen.
JJ Hunt (12:29):
Reuters, the news agency has on their website a
COVID-19 tracker, and they'vegot lots of interactive graphs
and charts. You can plug invarious locations, and they'll
give you information that's,that's current and up to date in
the form of these interactivegraphs, and charts. So the most
straightforward graphs are theline graphs that track new
(12:52):
infections and daily deaths. Thebottom of these graphs on the
horizontal axis is a line thattracks the date. And it goes
from December 31 2020, on ourleft, all the way to may 10
2021. On our right, and thevertical axes, which are on our
right, they track numbers. Sowe've got two different graphs
(13:15):
here, one tracks the dailyinfections, and that's by the
100,000. And the other graphtracks, daily deaths, and that's
by the 1000. And then there's ayellow line that tracks these
numbers. And it, you know, Bobsalong along this graph. So the
yellow line that tracks thenumbers line up very closely on
(13:37):
these two different graphs, theone tracking new infections and
the one tracking deaths, dailydeaths, they line up very
closely on the two differentgraphs from December to March
2020, the line is flat along thehorizontal axis in both, so no
infections, no deaths, this is,you know, December to March
(13:58):
2020. And then from about Marchto May, the infections start to
rise, so first into the hundredsand then into the 1000s. But the
numbers are so low compared tothe scale on the vertical axis,
that the line still looksvirtually straight along the
bottom of the graph. And that'sthe same with the graph mapping
the graph mapping the deaths,right? It's not until June of
(14:22):
2020, that the that the yellowline starts to rise. And what it
does is it creates a smallmountain on both of the graphs
on each one of the graphs, theline rises up, hits a peak and
then begins to fall again, thepeak is almost 100,000 new
infections on September 16 2020,and almost a little over 11,000
(14:46):
deaths for about the same time,September 2020. And in both
cases, those little mountainshapes reach the lowest number
that's indicated on the verticalaxis. So about 100,000 and About
1000, and then the linegradually falls back down and
hovers just above the horizontalaxis from January to March 2021.
(15:10):
But then, by April 2021, theline shoots up, I mean, truly
nearly vertically on each one ofthe graphs, the lines that shoot
up reach four times higher onthe vertical axis than those
mountains that peaked inDecember. So at the beginning of
(15:32):
March 2021, there were 12,000new daily infections, and under
100 deaths, by the beginning ofMay, over 400,000 new
infections, and over 4000 dailydeaths. So these lines shoot
(15:52):
straight up four times higherthan the previous peak. And if
you zoom in really close on thedata, you can see that there may
be one or two reporting periodsthat indicate that the numbers
might now be dropping, but thedrop is too small to register
visually, straight up the lineis straight up 400,000 new
(16:15):
infections 4000 daily deaths.
Christine Malec (16:19):
Obviously, you've been looking at
visualizations from many placesover the course of the year. So
just to put it in context, thisdoes this look like any other
visualization you've seen fromanywhere else?
JJ Hunt (16:30):
It's interesting, the way different waves register in
different places is, is reallyquite different. So in some
places, you have distinct peaksfor wave one and wave two and
wave three. In some cases, youhave very few, like a very small
peak for wave one or wave two.
But wave three is a big peak.
(16:53):
And that's a big mountain. It'sreally, it's really interesting
how these, this particular thesetwo charts look very different
from place to place, a good wayto compare. There's another
graph another datarepresentation to provide a more
global context. So near thebottom of the webpage, are a
series of these gray horizontalbars with fine vertical white
(17:18):
lines that cross the across thehorizontal bar. And I'll look at
one that breaks down. That'sjust labeled deaths globally. So
this tracks all death in indifferent countries around the
world, the white lines representthe number of deaths in each
individual country. So eachcountry that is reported COVID,
(17:38):
number of death tolls isassigned a separate thin white
line, countries with zerodeaths, their lines are at the
left edge of the gray bar,that's the start of the bar. And
then the country with the mostdeaths, that's the far right,
that marks the end of the bar.
So this representation is allabout relativity, fewest COVID
deaths to the most COVID deaths.
(17:59):
At the left nearest zero, thereare a cluster of white lines, so
many white lines at the baractually looks white. And if you
move the pointer over thislittle area, the countries that
are that are here and theirexact death tolls associated are
they'll pop up. And this clusterof white lines occupies maybe
(18:19):
the first 10th of the bar. Sothis, these are countries that
have had between zero and 20,000deaths. And then if you move
toward the right from about that1/10 of the way along the bar,
to maybe a quarter of the wayalong the bar, that area, there
have lines that are spread out alittle bit, but they're still
gathered together. So there'sstill there's gray, you know,
(18:41):
empty space between them. Butthey're still gathered together.
And here, deaths range from25,000, in Belgium, to almost
130,000 in the UK. And thenthere's a big gap. If you move
toward the middle of the bar,there's a great big gap until
you reach about the middle. Andhere there are three lines,
(19:03):
Mexico has almost 220,000, Indiahas almost 250,000 and Russia
has just over 250,000 that'smore or less the middle of this
bar. And then there's anotherbig gap as you move to the right
and about three quarters of theway along that bar is one line,
(19:24):
a single line, Brazil 422,000deaths. And then all the way at
the end of the line, the verylast line that marks the end of
the bar. That's the UnitedStates 582,000 deaths.
Christine Malec (19:40):
Thank you for the time that you spent looking
at that it's their their numberswhen you say them, but we all
know what they mean exactlyreally hard to to be focusing
your energy on. When I look onTwitter and other social media,
it's clear that everywhere is ata different place in terms of
what going on. So in Toronto,you can't eat out on a patio,
(20:03):
but in Spain, they're havingconcerts. And so that's in a way
that's what got me thinkingabout this episode is that the
range of how people are livingthese days and so I think JJ
you're able to get some reallygood images from the UK about
JJ Hunt (20:19):
I got some fantastic images so I started flipping
through online photos I googledlike pandemic life UK, and just
look through photos and, and Iwas seeing some interesting
images, but I wasn't sure ifthey were actually
representative of what was goingon. So I thought, you know what,
I'm going to reach out to tosomeone in the UK, so I flipped
through my international Leagueof Extraordinary describers
(20:41):
Rolodex,
Christine Malec (20:42):
Ha ha ha.
JJ Hunt (20:42):
and I contacted a lovely colleague and Twitter
friend in London, Roz Chalmers,and I asked her if, if there
were any UK pandemic visualsthat she thought we could talk
about. And she emailed us awonderful list, complete with
photos and some of her thoughts.
It was just lovely of her totake the time. So thank you very
much was just so great of you.
(21:05):
And so she sent a couple ofthings she sent some before and
after pictures of TrafalgarSquare. Trafalgar Square, of
course, is a very famous squarein central London, often visited
by tourists used for communitygatherings, political
demonstrations, protests, just abig open square with their two
matching fountains in the squaresome statues, a pillar monument,
(21:26):
and pre pandemic. This spacewould generally be packed with
people, it's a bustling place,lots of traffic, whipping a
boat, people meeting andgathering going in and out of
the National Gallery. But in thepandemic picture that Roz sent
me, it looks, it looks empty,like really, this is a photo she
(21:46):
sent as a middle of a bright andsunny day. But there are only a
handful of people standing atone of the fountains and there
are a few people crossing thisvast expanse of what I think is
like gray concrete, it justlooks very, very quiet. Roz also
drew my attention to an antilockdown protest in London, the
(22:09):
unite for freedom protest, whichwas I believe, last week. And of
course, there have been sporadicanti lockdown anti mass protests
all over the world, anywherewhere people have the legal
right to protest, there havebeen protests, I've seen photos
and news of protests from, youknow, Canada, the US or across
the UK. And people are oftencarrying signs that say things
(22:31):
like my body, my choice, shutyour face, wash your hands, stay
afraid, or freedom is nonnegotiable. And the people that
these protests they, you know,just scanning these photos, they
appear to be of different ages,they're wearing clothing of
different styles. But I shouldit's worth noting that scanning
(22:52):
the photos, the protesters doseem to be predominantly white.
One of the things that madethese recent unite for freedom
protests notable was that someof the people involved chose to
wear yellow stars of David toexpress the idea that they had
been persecuted. And I didn'tknow if this was just a terrible
And that's a visual symbol thateveryone recognizes right? The
(23:15):
one off choice or part of agreater movement. So I dug
around a little bit and I founda few other images in the press.
There were a handful of antivaccination protesters who wore
the Star of David in the CzechRepublic back in January, and a
few folks in Avignon France, whowore these yellow stars reading
"non vaccine". And of course, thse stars are modeled after
(23:40):
he yellow badges that were usedby the Nazis to identify J
ws leading up to the Holocaus.
yellow star?
It is a potent symbol that is isabsolutely clear. Some of these
stars that are being worn inthese in these anti vaccination
(24:02):
protests, some of them areamateurish, like the ones from
France I saw where they lookedlike they were just simple stars
cut out of yellow constructionpaper with handwritten messages
inside. But some of them areproper stars of David a six
pointed hexagram made of yellowfabric with with black writing
inside and in some of them themessages of protest were written
(24:23):
in a mock Hebrew font.
Christine Malec (24:25):
Gasp!
JJ Hunt (24:25):
So absolutely fully intentionally referencing these,
these stars that were used bythe Nazis. I mean, it's just
staggering.
Christine Malec (24:38):
Wow, I did not know that.
JJ Hunt (24:39):
Yeah, I was I was pretty shocked to see those too.
But then Roz also said let'slighten things up a little bit
and she sent me a link to somenews stories that I had not
heard before. And this iswonderful. So goats.
Christine Malec (24:55):
There's an obsession with goats. The media
loves goats love. They areeverywhere.
JJ Hunt (25:01):
Ah, and they are taking over a lovely little town in
North Wales. So there's a herdof wild goats. And I'm going to
do my best to get mypronunciations right but it's
this is Wales here. So it's alittle tricky. So there's a herd
of wild goats that live in greatOrme county park, this is a
limestone headland in NorthWales. And there there's a
(25:24):
nearby a seaside town calledLlandudno, And there are so few
visitors that are at this littleseaside town. And you know,
residents have been locked down,people are staying indoors. So
the mountain goats have decidedto become city goats. And they
they keep wandering down fromthe headlands into town and just
(25:48):
like chill out and they eat thegrass and they ate people's
hedges, and they just wanderabout town so people have been
photographing them and postingvideos on YouTube. These are
like, you know, waist tall goatsshaggy white for short tails and
long gnarly horns that curveback over their heads. And you
(26:10):
know, as I say images of themchewing the grass and the parks
and eating hedge rows in frontof houses and churches. I've
seen photos of them walkingsingle file along the sidewalk
past little boutique shops.
There's a picture of four goatswalking past the upper crust
sandwich shop. There's a photoof these goats are walking up a
picturesque street lined withrows of lovely white houses that
(26:34):
have matching bay windows andpeaked roofs and they're just
walking between the rows ofparked cars, photos of them
gathered outside of thehairdresser's.
Christine Malec (26:44):
Ha ha ha!
JJ Hunt (26:45):
There's one photo, they're all looking at us, which
really adds to the strangehumor. These goats like sitting
on the sidewalk looking at us asthey have their pictures taken.
There's one picture of fourgoats standing outside, this
might be a small apartmentbuilding, maybe an office
building. And there are twopeople inside the building
standing at the glass frontdoor. And like looking out at
(27:08):
the goats, they're eitherunwilling or unable to step
outside, because these goats arejust chilling out in front of
the building. Oh, it'sfantastic. Lovely, crazy images.
Christine Malec (27:20):
I know that some of the mass vaccination
clinics are are quite notablefor for their their their
visuals and some of the wistfulthings that are going on. So I
think JJ, you had some visualsfrom New York about that.
JJ Hunt (27:32):
I mean, they're all over the place. Wherever these
vaccination clinics need to beheld. If they're having to find
strange places to hold theminteresting, you know, you got
to be close to the populations.
And often sometimes you want tobe indoors, sometimes if
depending on the weather, youcan be outdoors. And there are
lots of events spaces that areunused right convention centers,
(27:53):
hotels, stadiums, museums, themeparks, racetracks. And so in
various cities, they are usingthose quirky locations as their
vaccination clinics. And one ofmy favorites, some fantastic
images of come from New YorkCity, where they have turned the
American Museum of NaturalHistory into a vaccination
(28:13):
clinic. And for those who havenever been to this iconic
Museum, it is a wonderful one ofa kind. Kind of an anachronistic
museum. I always say it's amuseum that belongs in a museum.
Many of the exhibits especiallythe beloved heritage ones, are
(28:34):
of the diorama variety. Soreplicas big and small set up in
displays in like quazi naturalsurroundings. Very, very
antiquated. This diorama sceneand they're old, like some of
these are really heritage. So Ialways think if like if the
(28:58):
filmmaker Wes Anderson was evergoing to design a museum, it
would be the American Museum ofNatural History in New York and
this is now a mass vaccinatevaccination site in the city.
And there are a handful ofphotos that are available to the
public. One of the museum's mainopen galleries the family Hall
of ocean life is where the wherethe main clinic is, and
(29:18):
suspended in the air in thisfamily Hall, backed by a grid of
false skylights is a famous lifesize model of a blue whale. 94
feet long, it's long, pointedhead aimed down, like at a 45
degree angle, its tail bent towhere it's where its body begins
(29:40):
to narrow. It looks like thiswhale is about to dive toward
the floor. And this is directlyabove the vaccination clinic.
Christine Malec (29:52):
Ha ha ha! I love it.
JJ Hunt (29:53):
So like right below there are these little cubicles
curtained-off cubicles in grayand black, and a curtain
curtained-off waiting room withsocially distance folding
chairs. And right above this 94foot long whale that has a
bandaid on its fin on itspectoral fin right where it
would have recieved its shot.
Christine Malec (30:14):
Oh my god I love that!
JJ Hunt (30:15):
It's pretty cute. And then there are other wonderful
photos from the museum clinic.
There are photos that look likesnapshots that maybe healthcare
workers have snapped of eachother and then provided to
various press organizations.
I've got a photo here of twohealth care providers in these
kind of translucent plastic labcoats and surgical masks.
(30:37):
There's a standing white womanand a seated black woman. And
behind them is I'm going toguess like a 1/3 scale diorama
of two black men in bathingsuits free diving in an
underwater world of colorfulcoral and fish.
Christine Malec (30:53):
Heh heh.
JJ Hunt (30:53):
The light from the photographer's flashes
reflecting off the glass wallthat's protecting this diorama.
And these two healthcare workersare just you know, going about
their thing doing their doingtheir business. Another snapshot
with a row of skin similarlydressed healthcare workers and
they're seated in front of alarger diorama. This diorama has
an arched roofline. It's gotthese giant blubbery walruses
(31:18):
with wrinkled snouts andscarred, leathery, brown hides
and, and, and these foot longtusks. And these walruses are
just lounging on a false icefloe behind this row of these
health care workers. And a thirdsnapshot that perhaps my
favorite features to young womenhealth care workers with medium
(31:42):
skin tones, long, dark hair. Andagain, both of these health care
workers in their translucent labcoats, they've got safety
goggles, name tags, they'reholding maybe clipboards or
tablets, they're engaged inconversation, very animated
conversations, ones pointed tothe mask. The other ones like
reaching out with a pen, they'reclearly you know, figuring out
their day figuring out theirapproach, and right behind them
(32:02):
stocks a polar bear in a displaycase.
Christine Malec (32:05):
It's a keeper! Ha ha ha!
JJ Hunt (32:05):
And there's a hand painted icy sunset North Pole
backdrop behind the polar bear.
It looks like the artwork from a1980s Nordic hair metal band
greatest hits album orsomething. It's just p enomenal.
(32:26):
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