241. What We Learned from COVID: Truth, Trauma, and Transformation 

Michele Weldon, Boomer, award-winning author, journalist, and emerita faculty member at Northwestern University, joins us to reflect on the deeply personal and cultural shifts we experienced during the pandemic years. Through her latest book, The Time We Have: Essays on Pandemic Living, Michele invites us to examine how the global crisis changed everything—from how we work to how we grieve. With her signature wit and emotional clarity, Michele shares how writing through 2020–2024 became both a mirror and a memory, capturing what so many of us felt but never had the words to say. From holding our breath when strangers passed by to the fear of unknowingly infecting loved ones, Michele gives voice to our collective anxiety, love, loss, and resilience. 💛 We explore: • The story behind The Time We Have • Writing through grief, fear, and cultural shifts • How COVID changed relationships, work, and everyday rituals • The role of misinformation and cultural defaults in pandemic response • Public shame, gender roles, and the emotional labor of women • Why we all need "captions" to help us make sense of life • The sacred, sensory joy of holding new life after loss 🎧 Timestamps 0:00 – Introduction 1:09 – About The Time We Have and why she wrote it 2:20 – How the pandemic changed us culturally and personally 4:45 – Joy, loss, and the strangeness of pandemic rituals 5:43 – Trauma, grief, and the unknown in early 2020 6:40 – Book passage: Fear and protecting loved ones 8:25 – The weight of decisions in pandemic life 9:25 – Lies, disinformation, and a “parallel pandemic” 13:35 – Public shame, gender norms, and the agency to choose 16:27 – Parenting, silence, and how women internalize expectations 18:39 – “Captions” and why we need context to define ourselves 21:27 – Brownie rebellion, self-expression, and family dynamics 23:30 – Can we have too much self-esteem? 25:27 – Participation trophies, parenting patterns, and healing 27:24 – Book passage: The sacred scent of a newborn and pandemic joy 30:47 – What she’d tell her 20-something self 💬 Memorable Quotes “Every interaction seemed to offer an incendiary fuse.” “I had to protect him from me.” “The disinformation was deadly. It wasn’t just a mistake—it was deliberate.” “Acceptance isn’t surrender. It’s choosing what you will carry.” “We need captions to understand our lives—not labels, but meaning.” “The dreams you have—you can achieve, one step at a time.” “Even the gravitas of the pandemic stepped aside to allow happiness its own space.” 🔑 3 Key Takeaways The personal is historical. Michele's essays remind us that our individual stories during COVID are part of a much larger cultural reckoning. Shame is not yours to carry. Public judgment, especially toward women, has long been used to control behavior. We get to decide what we internalize and what we release. Hope coexists with grief. In one hospital room, in a COVID-weary world, joy and relief can bloom with the scent of new life. We need to make room for both. 🌟 More About Michele Michele Weldon is a veteran journalist, author of seven nonfiction books, and speaker on topics of media, identity, and culture. Her latest work, The Time We Have, chronicles our shared and personal experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic with humor, grief, and insight. She does private editing and writing coaching, you can contact here: micheleweldon@msn.com. 👉 Get the Book Available at Barnes & Noble, independent bookstores, libraries, and online retailers everywhere. 📬 Connect with Michele •Website: https://micheleweldon.com/ •Instagram: @micheleweldon•Facebook:⁠https://www.facebook.com/michele.weldon.35 ⁠•LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/michele-weldon-1209906/⁠ 🎙️ Connect with Your Host, Yo • Website: girltaketheleadpod.com • Email: yo@yocanny.com • Instagram: @yocanny • Online Store: Cards & Gifts that spark connection • FB Group: Girl, Take the Lead!