In 2029-2030, I will take to the road again, revisiting the people who told their stories to me in 2020-2021. While I am on the road, I also will be meeting in person and virtually with book groups, community gatherings, school classes, and academic convenings as people reflect on the pandemic’s 10-year anniversary and how the pandemic changed – or didn’t change – each of our lives.
For me, the pandemic changed my life. What started as a road trip to satisfy my curiosity has turned into a serious endeavor to collect people’s stories during times of intense change, then share those stories so we can process what’s happening and preserve those stories so historians can get a glimpse into how history unfolded, one story at a time.
Follow updates about the Who We Are Now In An AI World project on my LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellefishburne/.
Find out how I ended up in a motorhome driving all over the U.S. during the pandemic: https://www.whowearenow.us/about-michelle.
If you’d like to contact me, my email is michelle.fishburne@gmail.com
ABOUT
Michelle Fishburne
Listening to Americans while history is unfolding.
In 2020, I was curious about how the COVID-19 pandemic was affecting people’s lives while it was happening, so I set off across America’s empty roads to find out. I didn’t mean to become an oral historian. I also didn’t mean to become an author, but my journey taught me how much easier it is for us all to process challenging times when we share our stories with each other.
Now as the country and the world are facing another major societal change, brought on by the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence, I am curious again, asking questions and listening to people’s stories.
These are stories of history in the making, while history is unfolding, while none of us know how it’s going to turn out.
Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, which now feels so long ago, none of us knew in the beginning how it was going to affect us, and looking back at those stories now feels surreal. There are stories of cleaning off the mail, neighbors sitting around campfires in their subdivisions, children at home all day instead of in school, etc.