Olga Khazan, award-winning health and science writer for The Atlantic, is publishing her first book in the middle of a pandemic. As a Russian-Jewish immigrant who grew up in West Texas, she is no stranger to dramatic life adjustments. Or as she might put it, embracing the “weird.”
Khazan’s book, “Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World,” discusses how to own individuality and distinctiveness. We asked her to share a few lessons she learned as a health reporter and if she had any insight into adapting to the new social norms.
How has your experience as a health reporter prepared you for something of this nature?
Khazan: I covered the Zika and Ebola epidemics for The Atlantic. That helped me get up to speed in the world of epidemiology and disease control and modeling. Still, this virus is just so different. It’s much more contagious than Ebola, and it affects a greater swath of the country and the population than Zika did.
So while I learned a lot from those two outbreaks, I think there’s still a lot that all of us—journalists and MDs alike—are learning about coronavirus every day.
What advice do you have for journalists to stay safe while reporting right now? How has your reporting process changed?
Khazan: I’m doing a lot more phone reporting. I would probably still door-knock or meet in person if the story was important enough, but honestly, it’s hard to maintain 6 feet of distance while doing in-person reporting. And there’s not enough PPE to go around, so that makes it extra risky.
Still, there are some stories you can only get in person. I really admire journalists who are reporting from inside hospitals these days.
Your book launched on April 7, how has coronavirus affected the rollout?
Khazan: It has made it much more challenging, to put it mildly. My book has little to do with coronavirus, which is currently the topic taking up all the news attention. Also, all the reviewers and media folks are working from home, which has made it hard to send out hard copies to peoples’ offices.
Still, I’m really committed to getting the book out there, so if any reporters, editors, or reviewers want a copy, I’m happy to send them one from my personal stash!
What are your strategies to promote the book?
Khazan: As far as promotion, it’s tough because coronavirus is dominating the news, but I’m just hoping people are looking for something fun and interesting to read to get a break from all the gloom.
(Note: Khazan is promoting her book digitally. She participated in a virtual talk with Politics and Prose bookstore on April 7, 2020.)
Are there elements of your book that can help people navigate these weird times?
Khazan: One thing I talk about in a new op-ed I wrote for the Globe and Mail is how hard it is to change social norms on a dime. That’s part of why we’ve seen people partying in bars after social-distancing began, and why people now feel awkward about whether they can decline social invitations, or whether they should be postponing things like weddings. Those things are all parts of social rules, or norms, that are very ingrained. We like to follow the rules, and we dislike people who break them, and it’s hard when they change so suddenly.
So what we had are people who were essentially following two different sets of rules: One group doing the new rule of social distancing, another that was following the old rule of togetherness. Luckily, because of all the social pressure around social distancing, the new norm is swiftly becoming that if a friend offers to come over, you should reprimand him or her 🙂
How are you taking care of yourself during the pandemic?
Khazan: The best way: Eating lots of bread and watching lots of Netflix.