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VOL. 196, NOS. 16–17 | 2020 4 | From the Editor 6 | Conversation 8 | For the Record The Brief News from the U.S. and around the world 9 | Key Senate races to watch

11 | Young Nigerians protest police brutality

14 | Why women are leaving the workforce

16 | War in the Caucasus The View Ideas, opinion, innovations 19 | Gavin Yamey on the false allure of Features △ herd immunity Absentee ballots Election 2020: America’s Test The Great Reset being collected 21 | What Stephanie Trump and Biden sell dueling Out of the crucible: an inclusive, from a drop box Land learned visions to a weary electorate sustainable economy in Painesville, about grief after Ohio, on Oct. 16 miscarriage By Molly Ball 24 By Mariana Mazzucato 56

22 | TIME with ... Everything to know about Tackling tech’s social problem Photograph by departing British casting your ballot 30 By the Duke and Duchess of Sussex 62 Dustin Franz— spy chief Alex AFP/Getty Younger The false narrative of voter fraud Poland’s coal and Europe’s future Images By Vera Bergengruen 36 By Justin Worland 64 Efforts to suppress the Black vote A more virtuous capitalism is possible By Justin Worland 38 By Klaus Schwab 72 The election is already in court An architect’s blueprint for earth By Alana Abramson 39 By Ciara Nugent 76 A new “army” of poll watchers Work and flow By W.J. Hennigan and By Alana Semuels 83 Vera Bergengruen 40 Plus: Viewpoints from Jane Fraser, Exhale: the U.S. will be O.K. Darren Walker, Yuriko Koike, By Molly Ball 42 Ian Bremmer, Kristalina Georgieva, Marcos Galperin, Ngozi Okonjo- The Childcare Crisis Iweala, Yo-Yo Ma and more 59 Day cares may not survive Best Fantasy Books By Abby Vesoulis 46 ON THE COVER: The 100 greatest works of all time; Illustration by A hopeful model preface by N.K. Jemisin 91 Spooky Pooka By Belinda Luscombe 49 for TIME

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2 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 Introducing ATEM Mini The compact television studio that lets you create presentation videos and live streams!

Blackmagic Design is a leader in video for the television industry, Live Stream Training and Conferences and now you can create your own streaming videos with ATEM Mini. The ATEM Mini Pro model has a built in hardware streaming engine for live Simply connect HDMI cameras, computers or even microphones. streaming via its ethernet connection. This means you can live stream to YouTube, Then push the buttons on the panel to switch video sources just like a Facebook and Teams in much better quality and with perfectly smooth motion. professional broadcaster! You can even add titles, picture in picture You can even connect a hard disk or flash storage to the USB connection and overlays and mix audio! Then live stream to Zoom, Skype or YouTube! record your stream for upload later!

Create Training and Educational Videos Monitor all Video Inputs! ATEM Mini’s includes everything you need. All the buttons are positioned on With so many cameras, computers and effects, things can get busy fast! The the front panel so it’s very easy to learn. There are 4 HDMI video inputs for ATEM Mini Pro model features a “multiview” that lets you see all cameras, titles connecting cameras and computers, plus a USB output that looks like a webcam and program, plus streaming and recording status all on a single TV or monitor. so you can connect to Zoom or Skype. ATEM Software Control for Mac and PC There are even tally indicators to show when a camera is on air! Only ATEM Mini is also included, which allows access to more advanced “broadcast” features! is a true professional television studio in a small compact design!

Use Professional Video Effects ATEM Mini is really a professional broadcast switcher used by television stations. * This means it has professional effects such as a DVE for picture in picture effects ATEM Mini ...... US$295 commonly used for commentating over a computer slide show. There are titles * ATEM Mini Pro...... US$595 for presenter names, wipe effects for transitioning between sources and a green screen keyer for replacing backgrounds with graphics. ATEM Software Control...... Free

Learn more at www.blackmagicdesign.com * Price subject to change. From the Editor

Before and after

i don’T ofTen use This space To direcT included excerpts of conversations from our your attention to other publications, but I do special TIME100 Talks hosted in October by recommend you check out an article Science Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of published online on Sept. 24. Titled singing Sussex, on how to build a better digital world. in a silenT spring, it adds a new entrant You can watch the full program at time.com/ to the list of uplifting changes in the natural time100talks world that occurred when we humans went into temporary retreat at the start of the pan- Few events will shape the world to come demic. It appears that in the relative hush of more than the result of the upcoming U.S. the San Francisco Bay Area this past April and presidential election. As Americans decide if May, the song of the white-crowned sparrow it’s time to reach for a reset button of our own, became quieter and sweeter than it had been this issue includes a special report on the clos- We stand at a before. ing days of the 2020 campaign. “On Nov. 3 This has been a year of so much pain, (or, hopefully, soon after), we will finally get rare moment, hardship, chaos and loss. And yet as nations an answer to the question of what these past one that will around the world begin four discombobulat- to rebuild from the ing years have meant,” separate pandemic, it is clear writes TIME’s national history into that we also have a political correspondent once-in-a-generation Molly Ball. “It is a deci- before and opportunity to change sion not about what pol- after for our tune. Our issue icy proposals to pursue this week, in partner- but about what reality generations ship with the World we collectively decide to Economic Forum, inhabit.” explores that oppor- To mark this historic tunity, which the fo- moment, arguably as con- rum’s chairman, Klaus △ sequential a decision as Schwab, has called Fairey designed the 2008 and any of us has ever made “The Great Reset.” How 2011 Person of the Year covers of at the ballot box, we have can we seize this mo- President-elect Obama and the for the first time in our ment of disruption to Protester amid the Arab Spring nearly 100-year history push for a world that is replaced our logo on the healthier, more resilient, sustainable and just? cover of our U.S. edition with the imperative What do all of us— individuals, businesses and for all of us to exercise the right to vote. To governments—need to do to ensure that we help, we’ve provided readers with a guide on don’t simply revert to what was before? how to vote safely during this extraordinary Schwab, while acknowledging that it’s year. The artwork on the cover is by Shepard “hard to be optimistic about the prospect of a Fairey, whose work includes two prior TIME brighter global future,” offers some glimmers covers. “Even though the subject in the por- of hope in the form of companies that are re- trait knows there are additional challenges to defining success to be about more than prof- democracy during a pandemic,” Fairey says its. Economist Mariana Mazzucato provides a of the image, the person is determined to use road map for transforming our financial struc- their “voice and power by voting.” tures. Danish architect Bjarke Ingels describes We stand at a rare moment, one that will his extraordinarily ambitious Masterplanet—a separate history into before and after for gen- blueprint for a greener earth. Our correspon- erations. It is the kind of moment in which dents around the globe speak with business readers across the country and around the leaders and policymakers about their more im- world have always turned to TIME. We thank mediate plans—from Tokyo’s Governor Yuriko you for doing so now. Koike, currently preparing for the rescheduled Olympic Games in 2021, to Citigroup’s newly Edward Felsenthal, appointed CEO, Jane Fraser, the first woman ediTor-in-chief & ceo to run a major Wall Street bank. We’ve also @efelsenThal

4 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 SPONSOR’S WELCOME LETTER

Redesign Capitalism to Incorporate Social Value

The world was facing daunting challenges before the COVID-19 crisis. Climate change, environmental destruction, worsening inequality and widening disparities are problems that some among us chose to downplay or dismiss.

Those challenges can no longer be ignored. The COVID-19 crisis has exposed and amplifi ed our problems – and in some cases made them worse. As well, we have come to re-value just how precious our families and personal relationships are. We are beginning to realize that unless our societies are just, fair and healthy then our individual security and wellbeing are built on fragile foundations. KENGO COVID-19 is a reckoning. While exacting a heavy price, it is SAKURADA also presenting us with the chance to safeguard our futures. We must make the most of this moment. Governments, Group CEO citizens and businesses must change their behaviors. We all Sompo Holdings, Inc. must prioritize how we can contribute to building sustainable societies. We need a new capitalism that increases consumer demand for goods and services that contribute to the SDGs, and Capitalism has lifted countless people out of poverty. that rewards companies meeting that “good demand” with However, with the expansions of digitalization and economic returns. In addition, capital markets should factor globalization, capitalism has produced greater inequalities in forecasts for long-term profi ts generated by corporate and divisions. In its present form, capitalism is not truly actions in line with ESG, even if those actions do not deliver contributing to the well-being of humanity. We need to short-term returns. reimagine capitalism, to incorporate social sustainability and people’s well-being. Some signs of this are emerging, such as the impact of ESG investment on corporate valuation. In this context, Capitalism is a socio-economic system designed to meet companies should set key performance indicators and take the demands of people. To redesign this system, to create a concrete actions to realize social value that can contribute “new capitalism,” the following points should be considered: to future profi ts. SOMPO is working to develop roadmaps for its businesses to generate greater economic value – and to Create a system that can generate “good demand” to ensure they create social value. meet the various objectives of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and captures that as In Japan, SOMPO has entered the nursing care business as economic profi t. an investment in the future to help solve the social challenges of a rapidly aging society. SOMPO is determined to reform Business should pursue the happiness of the whole eldercare and nursing homes. Our goal is that through society in line with Environmental, Social and Corporate technology and datadriven research we can design “nursing Governance (ESG), and society should support those care that makes our grandparents smile.” That, in turn, would businesses that do, hence resulting in greater future bring greater happiness to society as a whole, and reduce profi ts and increased current corporate values the burden of nursing care on society.

SOMPO, with its mission of being a “theme park for security, health and well-being,” aims to contribute to the happiness A New Capitalism of people, society and the planet.

e.g. Photo: Yu Kaida Yu Photo: Conversation

WARNING SIGNS me to see how the big Ameri- Re “When Will We GeT a can media shamelessly vilify Vaccine?” [Sept. 21–28]: a sitting President without I remember sitting in my any respect for the office. third-year microbiology lec- Philip Loong, ture toward the end of last boRonia, ausTRalia year, listening to the profes- sor warn us that the next GET REAL pandemic will come and Re “doWn The RabbiT the world will not be ready. Hole” [Sept. 21–28]: Call- There was a sense of urgency ing them conspiracy “theo- that prompted me to con- ries” might be too much of sider why the world didn’t an honor. It might sound as seem worried about this. So if it has something to do with when COVID-19 began its science or is a kind of fact- journey across the world, based thinking. So why not it wasn’t a shock to me. I call them conspiracy myths core of how we can address it stantly undergone reform couldn’t help but feel frus- from now on? Apart from is through innovation. Gov- to achieve a more prosper- trated. Why didn’t we listen that, it’s really incomprehen- ernments can either engen- ous, just and equitable soci- to those so desperately trying sible to imagine people like der or impede such innova- ety. Granted, economic and to prevent this disaster? the woman in your article tion through legislation, and social inequality still exists Kimberley Bourke, who “spends most of her free to achieve this, drawing at- in the country. But succes- malveRn, ausTRalia time researching child sex tention to the issue through sive Thai governments have trafficking” when they could protest can be vital. No pol- worked hard to rectify this PLACING BLAME instead actually help by vol- icy, and no act of civil disobe- problem, investing in educa- Re “The ameRican niGhT- unteering at a child-abuse/ dience, however, will lead to tion, development and qual- mare” [Sept. 21–28]: It is no domestic violence helpline or success in fighting climate ity of life among others. Al- longer news that the current support a similar cause. change if it does not enable though the Royal Family is U.S. President has been mis- Dayson Ickbert, scientists and developers to above politics, it plays an leading the nation all along beRlin come up with sustainable al- important role in supporting in the face of the COVID-19 ternatives to replace carbon- these efforts with volunteer pandemic. What amazes me THE PATH TOWARD CHANGE emitting technologies and initiatives, relief projects and is that he could still win re- Re “QuicK TalK” [sepT. 21– power sources in use today. more, earning the respect election despite all this. 28]: Jane Fonda illustrates Larissa Saar, and gratitude of the Thai Tetsuro Umeji, the main problem with much bonn, GeRmany people. KudamaTsu ciTy, Japan of the climate movement Thani Thongphakdi, through her statement that INVESTING IN THAILAND Ambassador of Thailand This aRTicle blames The “civil disobedience has to Re “Thailand’s inconve- to the U.S., Trump Administration become the new norm.” This nient Truth. Why This Bil- WashinGTon for every failure resulting suggests that climate change lionaire Is Risking It All to from the pandemic without was the result of unjust leg- Back Reform of the Monar- SETTING THE RECORD once mentioning that some islation and could easily be chy” [Sept. 24]: This online STRAIGHT ▶ In the Aug. 17/ states like New York are run fixed by the right policy. Cli- article is one-sided and por- Aug. 24 story about the future of American policing, we misstated by Democrats. I am not an mate change is the result of a trays misconceptions about when Joseph Wysocki became police American, but still it sickens multitude of factors, and the Thailand, which has con- chief in Camden, N.J. It was in 2019.

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6 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 How is Giga connecting every school in the world?

50% of humanity GIGA IS: • producing real time connectivity maps for every is not connected school in more than 30 countries. to the Internet. • structuring layers of public and private financing to de-risk connectivity infrastructure investments.

• building new regulatory frameworks and © UNICEF/UNI40599/Pirozzi CORPORATE PARTNERS structuring common bids for school connectivity with our government partners. Ericsson SoftBank Global Partner for Investment Advisers • investing fiat and cryptocurrency in digital School Connectivity Strategic Engagement public goods for education, job skills and Mapping Adviser entrepreneurship.

Giga, an initiative launched by UNICEF and ITU, aims to connect every school in the world so every young person can access information, opportunity and choice. We invite new government and corporate partners to find out more and join us:www.gigaconnect.org/start

GIGA IS ACTIVE IN: ANGUILLA • ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA • ARGENTINA • BENIN • BHUTAN • BOLIVIA • BOTSWANA • BRAZIL • BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS • COLOMBIA • DOMINICA • DOMINICAN REPUBLIC • ECUADOR • EL SALVADOR • GRENADA • GUATEMALA • HONDURAS • JAMAICA • KAZAKHSTAN • KENYA • KYRGYZSTAN • MONTSERRAT • ORGANISATION OF EASTERN CARIBBEAN STATES • NIGER • PHILIPPINES • RWANDA • SERBIA • SIERRA LEONE • ST. KITTS AND NEVIS • ST. LUCIA • ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES • TAJIKISTAN • TOGO • UZBEKISTAN • VIETNAM • ZIMBABWE For the Record ‘As a nation, we can listen and we can debate. After all, we are too 17,000 m.p.h. Orbital speed of an old Chinese rocket booster and a small to lose sight defunct Soviet satellite that narrowly missed hitting each other in orbit on Oct. 15. A collision could have created a huge debris field, exacerbating a worsening space-junk of other people’s problem that threatens satellites and spacecraft perspective.’ JACINDA ARDERN, New Zealand Prime Minister, after winning ‘What we re-election by a landslide vote on Oct. 17 have to have is GOOD NEWS a civil ‘You can of the week union hold me Twelve-year-old Nathan Hrushkin law.’ responsible.’ discovered the fossilized bones of a POPE FRANCIS, RODRIGO DUTERTE, 69 million-year-old speaking on rights for Philippine President, speaking on hadrosaur duck- same-sex couples in a television Oct. 19, on the nearly billed dinosaur, documentary released on 6,000 killings reported by police the Nature Oct. 21—his first explicit since he launched a drug war after Conservancy of expression of support on taking office in 2016 Canada announced the issue as Pontiff on Oct. 15 $25,000 ‘WHEN PEOPLE TRY TO SUPPRESS Prize money awarded SOMETHING, IT’S NORMALLY BECAUSE Oct. 14 to 14-year-old Anika Chebrolu as part of the 3M Young Scientist THAT THING HOLDS POWER. THEY’RE Challenge, for research that could lead to a potential AFRAID OF YOUR POWER.’ TIME FOR DESIGN BIRD BROWN BY ILLUSTRATIONS treatment for COVID-19 LIZZO, musical artist, accepting an honor at the Billboard Music Awards on Oct. 14 with a speech calling on U.S. viewers to vote in the 2020 elections

‘I thought I had muted the Zoom video.’ JEFFREY TOOBIN, New Yorker staff writer and CNN legal analyst, in a statement to Vice published Oct. 19, after he was suspended from the New Yorker following reports he had exposed himself during a video call

8 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 SOURCES: NPR; THE WASHINGTON POST; AP; CNN; BILLBOARD; VICE BATTLEGROUNDS Republican Senator Joni Ernst’s bus at a campaign event in Des Moines, Iowa, on Oct. 11

INSIDE

POLICE-BRUTALITY PROTESTS WORKING WOMEN BEAR THE FRANCE MOURNS TEACHER SWELL IN NIGERIA BRUNT OF COVID-19 RECESSION KILLED IN TERRORIST ATTACK

PHOTOGRAPH BY KATHRYN GAMBLE

The Brief is reported by Alejandro de la Garza, Suyin Haynes, Joseph Hincks, Ciara Nugent, Billy Perrigo, Madeline Roache, Simmone Shah and Olivia B. Waxman TheBrief Opener

POLITICS Battle for the Senate By Lissandra Villa

ESS THAN TWO WEEKS FROM ELECTION DAY, enough seats to wrest outright control of the Senate rise, Re- Senate Republicans are caught in a political vise. publican Senate candidates are adopting a variety of strate- More and more members of their party are realiz- gies to save their political skins. Some are old standbys for L ing that President Donald Trump is hurting their politicians trying to distance themselves from an unpopular chances for re-election—and very possibly for control of the top-of-the-ticket candidate. Others are less elegant. chamber. “We are staring down the barrel of a blue tsunami,” The situation may hold a longer-term lesson. Says Sasse: “It Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse said on a recent call with constit- has always been imprudent for our party to try to tie itself to a uents, published by the Washington Examiner. Trumpian brand.” Then again, it’s easy for Sasse to go out on GOP Senators are in a catch-22: standing by the Presi- that limb: he’s widely favored to win. Elsewhere, the breadth dent could hurt them, but straying too far risks losing sup- of GOP tactics—and the number of states where they’re being port from his stalwart base. As Democrats’ chances of netting tried—shows just how broad the Senate battleground is. 

TACTIC #1: TACTIC #2: TACTIC #3: TACTIC #4: TACTIC #5: The Artful The Firewall Single-Issue The Feel-Good The All-In Dodge Argument Distancing Story Approach

At a debate on Oct. 6, In North The most popular—and In Colorado, Senator Even some Republicans Arizona’s Republican Carolina, traditional—approach Cory Gardner ducked in deep red states fi nd Senator Martha McSally Senator to emerge is to broadly when asked, during an themselves in was asked a simple Thom Tillis, side with the President, Oct. 9 debate against his uncomfortably question: Was she locked and then pick individual Democratic challenger, close races. For proud of her support for in a tight issues on which to John Hickenlooper, them, the refl ex President Donald Trump? re-election disagree. In Maine, whether he was proud of more often than Instead of answering, she campaign against Republican Susan the President’s response not is “damn the launched into a straight- Democratic challenger Collins, trailing in her to COVID-19. “We have torpedoes, full speed to-camera monologue Cal Cunningham, re-election bid against to work each and every ahead.” Lindsey Graham about how she’s proud seemed to Democratic challenger day to make sure that of South Carolina, for one, of her work “fi ghting suggest that Sara Gideon, has we are proud of our has fully embraced Trump, for Arizonans,” before the strongest repeatedly used that response,” said Gardner, including on his handling pivoting to an attack argument tactic. Recently, she said who has lagged behind of public health. But for keeping

on her Democratic she favored the Senate Hickenlooper by more even in South Carolina, GRAHAM: HICKENLOOPER, KELLY, GARDNER, MCSALLY, PAGES: THESE TIMES/REDUX; YORK NEW THE PAGE: PREVIOUS challenger, Mark Kelly, a Senate waiting until after the than 10 points in several where it should be safe whom she is trailing. In Republican election to vote on a of the most recent to go all in, Graham has Iowa, Senator Joni Ernst majority was Supreme Court Justice. polls. “This isn’t a found himself in a close TIMES/REDUX YORK NEW EID—THE KHOLOOD HARRISON: AP; NAZCA: CUNNINGHAM, TILLIS, IMAGES; GETTY recently told reporters that it would Others have question of pride, re-election race that she is “running be a conservative distanced themselves this is a question against Democratic on my own issues,” insurance policy in from the Administration’s of getting through challenger Jaime according to the Des the event that Trump corona virus response and this together. I Harrison. Moines Register. Ernst, loses. “The best check attacks on Obamacare. believe we must In Georgia, where who is also trailing on a Biden presidency Senator John Cornyn of get through this two other close Senate her opponent Theresa is for Republicans to Texas, who is favored to by staying together, races are playing out, Greenfi eld, reportedly have a majority in the hold his seat, told the staying united.” both GOP incumbents added that she thought Senate,” Tillis, who is Houston Chronicle that have cast themselves the President would carry trailing Cunningham, told Trump had "let his guard as staunch Trump allies. the state. Both Senators Politico. down" on COVID-19. Even Gardner, left, took Senator David Perdue have consistently stood Senate majority leader an upbeat tone in appeared at a Trump rally with the President on Mitch McConnell, who is a debate against in Georgia on Oct. 16. most issues. The incumbent leading comfortably in his Hickenlooper Senator Kelly Loeffl er, McSally, far own race, made a point of who was appointed to left, trails saying in October that he her seat and is fi ghting Kelly in her hadn’t been to the White in a special election Arizona race House since August, to retain it, has an ad noting its “approach” to touting her as “100% coronavirus has been Trump.” And Trump has “different” (read: less called Representative responsible) than Doug Collins, the other the Senate’s. top Republican in the special election, an “unbelievable friend of mine.” 10 TIME November 2/November 9, 2020 NEWS TICKER Thai pro- democracy protests rage

Thailand’s embattled Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha vowed to protect the monarchy on Oct. 19 after several days of student-led protests. For months, protesters have called for monarchy reforms, a new constitution and Prayuth’s ouster. Thousands have rallied in October, despite dozens of arrests and a ban on protests.

CAT’S OUT OF THE BAG While working on part of the Nazca Lines on Peru’s southern coastal plain, U.S. to execute researchers discovered a 120-ft.-long feline fi gure etched into a hillside, as an image released by the female federal government on Oct. 15 shows. Ancient communities drew hundreds of geometric shapes in the area inmate by moving rocks to uncover the sands beneath. Offi cials said the cat art, dated to sometime between 200 B.C. and 100 B.C. and now preserved, “was about to disappear” because of natural erosion. The U.S. will carry out its fi rst execution of a THE BULLETIN female federal prisoner in nearly 70 years, the Nigeria’s youth rise up Justice Department announced on Oct. 16. against police brutality Lisa Montgomery, 52, who was convicted THE NIGERIAN ARMY AND POLICE SHOT PROTESTERS’ DEMANDS On Oct. 11, the in 2007 of killing a dead at least 12 peaceful protesters in two government announced the disbanding of pregnant woman in order to kidnap the suburbs of Lagos on Oct. 20, an Amnesty SARS. This is the fourth time in four years baby, is scheduled to International investigation confi rmed. Au- there has been an announcement of either be executed by lethal thorities disputed the report, though video the disbanding or the reform of the force, injection on Dec. 8. footage that had emerged online appeared but activists say the move does not go far to show authorities fi ring live rounds at par- enough. Protesters also demand justice for ticipants in nationwide #endSARS protests the families of victims of police brutality, Khashoggi’s over police brutality, which are calling for retraining of SARS offi cers before they are fi ancée sues the disbanding of the Special Anti-Robbery redeployed to other police units, and cre- Saudi leader Squad (SARS). U.S. presidential candidate ation of an independent body to oversee in- Joe Biden urged Nigeria to cease the “vio- vestigations into police brutality. In a lawsuit fi led in a lent crackdown on protesters.” U.S. court on Oct. 20, CRITICAL MOMENT The protests, organized Hatice Cengiz accused Saudi Crown Prince NOTORIOUS FORCE The #endSARS hashtag via social media, are leaderless, mostly Mohammed bin dates back at least to 2017, when it was used driven by young people who say they have Salman of ordering the to share experiences of assault and violence. been unfairly profi led by SARS offi cers. murder of her fi ancé, SARS was formed in 1984 to combat an Those in the movement don’t plan to stop slain Saudi journalist increase in armed robbery and crime, but the protests anytime soon, expanding their Jamal Khashoggi. The suit, which names 28 it has been widely accused of abusing its aims beyond police brutality to harness other people, could power. Amnesty reported at least 82 cases frustration over years of corruption and reveal details about of torture, ill- treatment and extrajudicial bad governance. “Something has to give,” what happened in the execution from January 2017 to May 2020. says 28-year-old Jola Ayeye, speaking from kingdom’s Istanbul Despite promises of reform, Amnesty says Lagos after the Oct. 20 violence. “We can- consulate in 2018. SARS offi cers still act with impunity. not keep living like this.” —SUYIN HAYNES 11

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GOOD QUESTION the workforce not because their jobs have Why are women vanished but because their support systems have. With schools and childcare facilities NEWS being driven out of closed, the job of caring for and educating TICKER the U.S. workforce? kids has fallen disproportionately on women. And, though the World Trade Organization DOJ fi les MORE THAN 12 MILLION AMERICANS ARE has found that the larger trend holds true antitrust suit unemployed, COVID-19 infections are spik- globally, with women more likely to feel the against Google ing, and thousands of schools and childcare economic disruption of COVID-19, the U.S. The Justice centers have yet to reopen in person. The is unique among industrialized nations in the Department fi led group bearing the brunt of all that? Women. ways it has failed them. Unlike most other a lawsuit against From August to September, 865,000 industrialized nations, the U.S. doesn’t guar- Google on Oct. 20 women— compared with just 216,000 men— antee paid parental or sick leave through per- alleging that the Internet giant violated dropped out of the U.S. labor force, according manent and universal federal laws. federal antitrust laws, to a National Women’s Law Center analysis Women’s decisions to exit the labor force following a monthslong of the latest jobs report. Meanwhile, 1 in 4 won’t just impact their own professional investigation. Eleven women are considering downshifting their lives. A 19-year, 215- company study out of Republican state careers or leaving the workforce altogether, Pepperdine University found a strong corre- attorneys general joined the suit, and per an annual Women in the Workplace study lation between companies promoting female other states said they published in September by McKinsey & Co. executives and their profi tability. In addition, may join later. and the advocacy group Lean In. “There’s no when fewer people are able to participate in historic parallel for what’s happening here the labor force, gross domestic product de- for women,” says Nicole Mason, president creases while the cost of labor increases. And Socialists win and CEO of the Institute for Women’s Policy if more dual-income families with children Research. “We have nothing to compare it opt for one parent to stay home, discretionary back power to: not to the 2008 recession or the Great consumer spending will suff er too. in Bolivia Depression.” Nor will the fallout be purely economic. The socialist party Some of those numbers can be attributed to The pandemic has unraveled years of advances of Evo Morales, the the types of jobs women often hold. Women- in creating more equal workplaces. In the six Bolivian President dominated industries, including health care, years McKinsey and Lean In have conducted ousted in 2019 after protesters accused education, food service and hospitality, have their workplace study, men’s and women’s at- him of stealing a been among the hardest hit by the COVID- 19- trition rates had always moved in tandem— fourth term, won the LUCAS/REUTERS MIRDASS—HANS ABDESSLAM PATY: IMAGES; GETTY PHONE: TIME; FOR DESIGN BIRD BROWN BY ILLUSTRATION induced recession. When restaurants lost their until now. “To think that we may lose all the country’s Oct. 18 dine-in business, for example, they laid off hard- earned progress we’ve seen in the repre- presidential election. servers—70% of whom are women. sentation of women in a single year,” says Ra- Centrist candidate Carlos Mesa conceded But layoff s and furloughs explain only chel Thomas, the CEO of Lean In, “it really has after early results part of the picture. Many women are leaving us breathless.” —ABBY VESOULIS showed Morales’ chosen successor, Luis Arce, leading him by over 20 points. TECH Distant dialing Court allows Though you may not get good cell service in your basement, you might Pa. ballot soon have bars in outer space, with extension NASA tapping Nokia on Oct. 14 to build a 4G network on the moon. Here, other The U.S. Supreme isolated spots with Internet access. Court is allowing —Alejandro de la Garza Pennsylvania mail-in ballots to be tallied if they are received within AQUATIC ACCESS COLD CALLING STEEP SERVICE three days of Election Researchers in Saudi Arabia French wireless-network A Nepal-based Day. Chief Justice John developed a wireless data company Sigfox took a telecommunications Roberts sided with connection that works cellular network for low- company installed 3G cell- liberal-leaning Justices underwater using lasers, powered devices to an phone antennae at Mount Oct. 19 in a 4-4 according to a June news Antarctic research station Everest’s base camp in decision that upheld a release. They have used to help researchers keep 2010, giving climbers lower-court ruling for “Aqua-Fi” to send fi les and track of one another’s Internet access even at the the critical swing state. make Skype calls. locations in 2016. mountain’s summit.

14 TIME November 2/November 9, 2020 Milestones

KILLED ANNOUNCED That the U.S. State Samuel Paty, teacher and symbol Department will By A death reopens a schism in France remove Sudan from a July 2022, list of state sponsors of terrorism, by Americans EVEN IN A COUNTRY THAT HAS SUFFERED MULTIPLE TERRORIST attacks in the past fi ve years, the beheading of a schoolteacher on President Trump, on in mental Oct. 19. crisis will be Oct. 16 has stunned France, igniting a cultural and political battle able to reach that could threaten the prospects of President Emmanuel Macron. LIFTED a hotline by Samuel Paty, a middle-school teacher, was stabbed and decapi- Pakistan’s ban on dialing 988 tated by an attacker on the streets of a quiet town northwest of social-media app Paris. Witnesses say the suspected killer, an 18-year-old of Chechen TikTok , on Oct. 19, after the Chinese- SIGNED origin who came to France as a refugee, shouted, “Allahu Akbar.” owned company Within minutes, police shot him dead. agreed to block Mental health’s The murder, apparently in retribution for Paty’s showing his stu- accounts that spread new number dents cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, has cracked open a deep “obscenity and immo- IF YOU KNEW YOU WERE schism that is rarely far from the surface in France. At issue is how rality,” per regulators. having a heart attack, you France’s 5.7 million Muslims assimilate, or not, in a country whose AGREED wouldn’t hesitate to call 911. constitution is based on an unyielding principle of secularism. Mus- Purdue Pharma, The National Suicide Hot- lim leaders fear the killing will precipitate a state crackdown that will maker of OxyContin, line Designation Act now deepen the divide between moderate and radical worshippers. “I to plead guilty to federal charges over aims to make it just as re- fear that this attack will be the last drop that makes the water spill,” its part in the opioid fl exive to seek help during a says Hassen Chalghoumi, a moderate Muslim cleric. crisis, according mental-health crisis. It also presents a steep challenge to Macron. Just 18 months to the U.S. Justice Signed into law on before he faces a tough re-election battle, the controversy sur- Department on Oct. 17 by President Don- rounding the killing threatens to shift the national conversation to Oct. 21. ald Trump, the act means the turf of the country’s resurgent far right. “Macron is identifi ed DISCOVERED people experiencing suicidal with the economy, with liberalism, with his international reputa- Human remains, ideation or a mental-health tion,” says Emmanuel Rivière, a top executive at the Kantar polling during excavations in emergency will, by July agency. “He is not identifi ed with crime and terrorism.” search of victims of 2022, need to dial only three —VIVIENNE WALT/PARIS the 1921 massacre and destruction of digits—988—to connect a Tulsa, Okla., Black with someone at a crisis cen- neighborhood known ter. The system off ers access as Black Wall Street, to specialists while being on Oct. 20. easier to remember than the LANDED National Suicide Prevention The first commercial Lifeline’s existing 10-digit passenger flight from phone number. the UAE to Israel, on Regina Miranda, a sui- Oct. 19, following an agreement to cide researcher at Hunter normalize relations College, says the new hot- between the nations. line could make people more comfortable getting help— DEBUTED Music label Big Hit particularly people of color, Entertainment, who may hesitate to call 911 which created given potentially “fragile re- mega-band BTS, on lationships with police.” So the South Korean long as the system gets ade- stock market, on quate funding, Miranda says, Oct. 15. The offering values Big Hit at “this three-digit number has $7.6 billion. the potential to make a sub- stantial diff erence.” DISCONTINUED —JAMIE DUCHARME Tab, Coca-Cola’s fi rst diet soda, introduced in 1963, per a com- If you or someone you know may pany announcement be contemplating suicide, call the on Oct. 16. The deci- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255 or text HOME to On Oct. 18 in Strasbourg, France, a memorial sion will take effect 741741 to reach the Crisis Text Line pays tribute to teacher Samuel Paty by the end of 2020. 15 LightBox Eruption of violence Dust blankets the yard of a house hit by shelling in Stepanakert, Nagorno-Karabakh, two weeks after Azerbaijan and Armenia resumed fighting over the disputed territory—Europe’s oldest “frozen war,” a conflict with roots dating from 1918 but that had been mostly dormant since 1992. Since it restarted on Sept. 27, hundreds of soldiers and up to 100 civilians have been reported killed. With children and most women evacuated from Stepanakert, the main city controlled by Armenia, the residents who remain use their basements as bomb shelters.

Photograph by Emanuele Satolli ▶ For more of our best photography, visit time.com/lightbox

HEALTHHOW NOT TO FIGHT COVID-19 By Gavin Yamey On Oct. 13, the White House confirmed it was embracing a strategy that involves deliberately letting the novel coronavirus rip through the population while attempting to shield the most vulnerable, such as the elderly and those with pre-existing health conditions. This approach is roundly rejected and discredited by scientists worldwide. ▶

INSIDE

NO RIGHT WAY TO GRIEVE WHAT WORRIES BRITAIN’S AFTER MISCARRIAGE FORMER TOP SPY

The View is reported by Simmone Shah 19 TheView Opener

This new strategy is also at the heart of a people would cause long-term illness in an es- controversial new statement, titled the Great timated 10% of those infected and would in- SHORT Barrington Declaration, written by three aca- evitably lead to infections and deaths in older READS demics with views far outside the scientific people. This strategy would lead to a massive ▶ Highlights mainstream—Jay Bhattacharya, Martin Kull- death toll— estimates suggest the result could from stories on dorff and Sunetra Gupta. be somewhere between 1 million and 2.5 mil- time.com/ideas They believe that if enough people get lion dead Americans. With the health system infected, survive and develop anti bodies pushed to a breaking point by the virus, ser- Lost support (natural protections from reinfection), then vices for diseases like cancer, diabetes, ad- the virus will no longer be able to spread diction treatment and heart disease would be President Trump’s through populations; society will effec- disrupted, which could lead to an increase in popularity with the active-duty military has tively have developed a natural “herd im- deaths from these other conditions. fallen dramatically over munity” from SARS-CoV-2. They want most Allowing millions to get COVID-19 would the past four years, Americans to stop worrying about getting also be devastating for the U.S. economy. An writes TIME contributor infected and just go back to normal life right economy cannot be healthy if its population retired admiral James away—back into offices, schools, colleges is sick. Assuming that the virus only affects Stavridis. Among the reasons: “the and universities, sports stadiums, concert us until the fall of 2021, the COVID-19 cri- COVID-19 crisis and halls and restaurants— while attempting to sis will cost the U.S. economy an estimated his mishandling of protect the most vulnerable $16 trillion; a herd-immunity the virus, which my from infection. strategy would likely push this experience tells me From a public-health and 40% much higher. comes across to the Percentage of Americans who military as a refusal to ethical viewpoint, this policy What about the idea of take responsibility at is deeply troubling. have pre-existing medical shielding the vulnerable? This conditions that could make the command level.” For a start, no pandemic them more vulnerable would be both impossible and has ever been controlled by inhumane. Supporters of a deliberately letting the in- shielding approach don’t spec- Torn apart fection spread unchecked in 2.7% ify exactly who they mean by the hope that people become The U.S.’s observed case “the vulnerable.” Let’s assume The political violence in immune. fatality rate as of Oct. 19 we’re defining “vulnerable” America threatens to Scientists estimate that a as those either at higher risk destabilize the nation, large share of the population, 9% of infection or at higher risk of warns David French, Percentage of Americans TIME contributor and 50% to 80%, would need to severe symptoms and death if author of Divided be immune to reach herd im- with antibodies, a Stanford infected. The U.S. Centers for University study estimates We Fall. “Each new munity against COVID-19. Disease Control and Preven- shooting and each Let’s be clear: the only way to tion estimates that over 40% of new terror plot tears achieve this without a huge $16 trillion Americans are at increased risk at our social fabric,” Estimated cost to the U.S. he writes. “It is time costs in terms of illness and economy of COVID-19 of infection because of pre- to bring peace to deaths would be through vac- existing medical conditions, so our streets.” cination with safe, effective all of these people would have COVID-19 vaccines. It cannot be reached by to be shielded. In addition, you’d have to iso- natural infection and recovery. Too many peo- late many people of color, many people who Family ties ple would die or become disabled; hospitals are disabled and many people who are elderly. would be overwhelmed. What kind of society would contemplate Susan Golombok, A recent study from Stanford University locking away so many vulnerable people for author of We Are suggests that only about 9% of the U.S. popu- months or years on end? Family, has been studying different lation has antibodies to the new coronavirus. Many countries in East Asia and the Pacific family structures Around 156 million more Americans would have been able to return to near normal living for decades. “What need to get infected to reach the 50% thresh- by suppressing the virus through testing, iso- matters most for old for herd immunity from natural infection. lating the infected, quarantining the exposed, children is not the You’ve seen the devastation caused by some wearing face masks and avoiding crowds. In makeup of a family,” she explains. “What 8 million cases, so just imagine the impact of contrast, here in the U.S., the Trump Admin- matters most an additional 156 million cases. istration’s embrace of herd immunity through is the quality of natural infection shows that it has admitted relationships within The auThors of the Great Barrington Decla- defeat rather than taking the necessary steps it, the support of their ration argue that most of us wouldn’t need to to protect Americans. wider community and the attitudes of worry about this kind of wildly uncontrolled the society in which transmission. This is a dangerous assertion. Yamey is a physician and professor of public they live.” Letting the virus run rampant in younger health at Duke University 20 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 SOCIETY “O.K.,” he said. My husband and I—both atheists—reached for My lost pregnancy each other’s hands to hold, bowed our heads and had a name closed our eyes. For the next several minutes, I said in By Stephanie Land the still space of our bedroom that it was O.K. that it didn’t work out with us. We understood and wished I stood, gardenIng gloves stIll covered In them well. I told Ellis I loved them so, so much. dirt from digging out the last of the hole with my hands, and let out the breath I didn’t realize I’d been All of this went against my nature. I believe in holding. My husband walked over and put his hand the right to choose. I have chosen to end a preg- on the small of my back. nancy before. I don’t believe life begins at concep- “I guess that’s deep enough,” I said. tion. My pregnancy had ended at five weeks, and I “I think so.” He rubbed my whole back then. I didn’t know that until my eight-week ultrasound. leaned into him, glancing up at the sliding glass It took two rounds of medication for my body to fi- door. Our three daughters, two my own and one his, nally let go of it when I was 12 weeks along. It was a sat at the dining-room table covered blastocyst, not a baby named Ellis. in paints and canvases— something I’d been so confident this time. I made sure to supply them with Third time was the charm. I’d even since we’d hunkered down in announced that I was pregnant March. The oldest looked up at on social media at five weeks. I me, but I quickly looked down at wanted to be able to announce. I the fresh dirt again. wanted to celebrate. I didn’t want “Should I go get it?” he said. to talk about my pregnancy in the We’d talked through the final past tense as I had twice before. I part of the plan several times. Yes- didn’t want to share only the grief. terday, my husband had made a When I typed up the words to small box out of rough-cut pine. announce my third miscarriage, That morning, we picked out the the response was immediate. hydrangea to plant over it. At my Many, by default, said, “I’m sorry,” nod, he knew to take the box into which made me want to scream. the house, grab my favorite ban- People offered unsolicited medi- danna and go to the freezer in the cal and spiritual advice. Then the garage. He’d take the remains from messages came by the dozens. my last pregnancy, the result of my They filled every inbox I had. third miscarriage in six months, Then I tweeted that my lost and gently wrap it in the bandanna pregnancy had a name and asked, before sealing the box. “What was your unborn’s name?” “I don’t want to see it again,” A few days later, I pulled my hus- I’d said. Images of the bloody toi- band aside to a quiet place where let, of my arm encased in a gar- I read names out loud: “Oliver, bage bag, reaching into the dark Quinn, Hannah, Olivia, Birdie, water to pull out a piece of tissue that Pearl and Wren.” There must have filled my palm, still played too often in my head. △ been at least 200. I said them out loud not only to I’d spent two days sitting on my bathroom floor. The author and her honor them, but to comfort myself. Knowing oth- I’d had a panic attack over how much blood had husband planted ers had names for their embryos, zygotes and fe- poured out of me. Twice. this Little Quick tuses somehow brought with it a validation and He returned from the garage, and I asked him Fire hydrangea over permission at the same time. I could grieve in to stop for a second before placing the box in the the remains of her whatever way I needed. If that meant burying a ground. “Here, let me take a picture,” I said. last pregnancy box full of remains I’d assigned the name of Ellis, We covered the box with a few handfuls of com- then that was perfectly O.K. post before placing the hydrangea—a dwarf version I closed my eyes, standing there, head tilted called a Little Quick Fire—in the deep hole. down toward our newly planted Little Quick Fire. “We should get a plaque for it that says ellIs’ I thought of those names, and the parents who’d Hydrangea,” he said. I hugged him from the side. loved them so fiercely. I wasn’t alone. They were all The night before, I sat on the side of the bed there beside me. staring at the floor. He asked what I was thinking about, and I started crying. Land is the author of Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay and

COURTESY STEPHANIE LAND “Maybe we should, I don’t know, talk to Ellis?” a Mother’s Will to Survive

21 TheView TIME with ...

Outgoing MI6 chief If I can press you on that a little. You served in Afghanistan. Does it trouble you that America is Alex Younger on encouraging a peace settlement that will see the fighting misinformation, Taliban return to power, without guarantees on the rights of women? It’s always been clear to me protecting democracy, that this is not the type of conflict for which there is and life as a spy a military solution. It has to end in dialogue. But the Taliban need to understand that Afghanistan is not By Angelina Jolie the same as when they were in charge. The Afghan people, Afghan women in particular, have totally WhaT impacT Will The pandemic have on different expectations. human security and human rights? I put that ques- tion to Sir Alex Younger, who until September How much were you conscious of the people who headed MI6, Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service. don’t have a voice but are on the receiving end From an undisclosed location, he spoke of a techno- YOUNGER of insecurity, like refugees? We are paid to be dis- logical race threatening the security and economic QUICK passionate, but we are human beings, and we’re se- strength of liberal democracies. But 30 years in es- FACTS lected for our capacity to be able to empathize. It is pionage, he said, convinced him of the power of impossible not to be profoundly influenced by the human agency: “We created the things that divide Letter grade circumstances of the people we talk to and touched us, and it’s in our power to solve them.” The head of by the suffering that we encounter. MI6 is referred Did you grow up wanting to be a spy? I don’t think to and signs If what you do is secret, how are agencies like I harbored a burning ambition to work in the secret letters in yours held accountable? Secrecy is not the pur- world. The opportunity came to me. green ink as pose of what we do. It’s part of what we do, and it’s “C”—unlike “M,” his necessary because there are many brave men and It must have been at times a lonely existence, liv- fictional women who agree to work with us whose only pro- ing a secret life. It is an unusual way of life, even if counterpart tection is our ability to keep their identity secret. it gets normalized after 30 years. There is a risk of in the But we are highly accountable. We don’t recruit isolation, but because our work is secret, those of us James Bond from some extra terrestrial planet. We recruit mem- universe. who do it develop tight bonds. bers of the public who share the same values as you Extension have, and that I have, and would simply not tolerate Did it involve sitting at the dinner table, conceal- Younger the types of breaches of law and values of which we ing things from your own family? We are never initially are sometimes accused. asked to conceal what we do from our partners. You intended to retire in 2019 do have to wait for the right moment before you but agreed to We are speaking because like many people, I’m bring your children in on the secret. stay on to help trying to find answers and a path forward at this steer Britain time. Do you see any possibility of regaining How do you prevent the pretense involved from post-Brexit. consensus on human rights and holding aggres- damaging your personal integrity? There is a Open secret sors to account? My expectation is that we’ll have trope in the movies that this is a morality- free envi- The existence to find different ways of creating consequences for ronment. Speaking for my former service, the oppo- of the Secret those who violate global norms. Our alliances are site is true. You need to have a very developed sense Intelligence our great strength as liberal democracies. Other val- of your values as a person, as a human being and as Service and ues systems don’t have alliances —they have clients. an organization. its chief We have genuine partnerships. wasn’t publicly acknowledged Some people might not think the world of es- until 1994. In your six years as MI6 chief you never took part pionage has anything to do with the wider good. in a conversation like this. Why are you speaking Not all intelligence services are the same. We seek now? Those of us who live in liberal democracies to defend the values of our liberal democracy, and are at risk of underestimating how much agency we understand that if we undermine those values we’ve got, how much power we’ve got to deal with we haven’t achieved anything. I reject the idea of a the problems we face. I want to send a message that moral equivalence between us and our opponents. our fate is in our hands. We should have confidence I don’t want to sound hubristic. We are not an NGO. in the things that make us strong: our institutions, But the satisfying fact is that protecting our coun- our alliances and our capacity to innovate. try’s and our allies’ interests often puts us up against the geopolitical bullies of the world—the terrorists We’re approaching the election here in America or the war criminals or the nuclear proliferators. We and hearing again about the possibility of for- make life harder for people like that. eign interference. How serious is the threat,

22 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 and to what extent are countries like Russia to need to retain the capacity to defend ourselves. We blame? Russia feels threatened by the quality of our need to establish rules of coexistence, even when alliances and, even in the current environment, the there is no love and precious little trust. We should quality of our democratic institutions. It sets out to use the weight of global problems to force states- denigrate them, and it uses intelligence services to manship on all sides. that end. It is a serious problem, and we should or- ganize to prevent it. And not, by the way, by behav- One of the issues is lack of trust in the informa- ing like Russia but simply by calling out what we ‘I want to tion we receive. What can we do as citizens to see. But we shouldn’t big up the Russian role, which send a better inform ourselves? Maybe I’m just a natu- does their work for them. And we shouldn’t allow message ral skeptic or just a trained intelligence officer, but ourselves to be distracted. Russia didn’t create the that our what gives me a really bad feeling is when I’m read- things that divide us. We did, and it’s in our power ing an article and I start violently agreeing and feel- to sort them out. fate is ing good about the fact that this person thinks the in our same as me. That’s incredibly comforting, but the Already there is the suggestion that China has hands.’ first thing you should do in those circumstances is emerged stronger from the pandemic, as other ALEX YOUNGER, go and find an article espousing exactly the oppo- countries have struggled. How will China on why he’s site point of view. I think there’s something about evolve? The Chinese government will do whatever speaking out disciplining yourself into finding both sides of the is in the interests of the Communist Party. It seems about the state argument and avoiding the echo chamber. I think very unlikely that as the Chinese economy matures, of the world we should be training ourselves, training our kids. It and growth rates slow, they will become more like should be part of our daily lives. —With reporting by us. On the contrary, I think they will seek to buttress Simmone Shah and madeline Roache their legitimacy by doubling down on nationalist ideology. We are going to have two sharply differ- Jolie, a TIME contributing editor, is an Academy ent value systems in operation on the same planet Award–winning actor and special envoy of the

ANDREW MILLIGAN—WPA POOL/GETTY IMAGES for the foreseeable future. We mustn’t be naive. We U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees 23 MOMENT O

Trump rallies in Ocala, Fla., on Oct. 16 PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG MILLS

T OF TRUTH A TIME SPECIAL REPORT ON ELECTION 2020 SEASON FINALE WITH HIS CHALLENGER IN THE LEAD AND THE NATION AT A CROSSROADS, DONALD TRUMP MAKES HIS LAST STAND By Molly Ball/Ocala, Fla.

The PresidenT’s voice sTarTs ouT a liTTle raspy, but before long he’s in full roar. “We’re going to have a big victory, and that will be the end of it,” Donald Trump says. “Because you know what? One more defeat and they’re going to accept it.” A murmur rises from the sweaty, jubilant crowd in this horse-breeding hub northwest of Orlando. Thousands are packed onto the airport tarmac in the blazing October sun. Nearly everyone is wear- ing a Trump shirt or hat—KeeP america GreaT, maKe l i Berals crY aGain, no more Bullsh-T, adoraBle dePloraBle Kid For TrumP—and al- most no one is wearing a face mask. They’re going to win Florida again, Trump says. There’s going to be a big red wave. In the other version of reality, things are far less hopeful for Trump. Most polls say his opponent, Joe Biden, is ahead in Florida, a state without which it’s almost “ impossible for Trump to win, where more ‘THEY CAN GET than 16,000 people have died of COVID-19 and nearly 4 million have already voted. RID OF TRUMP, The President is on the defensive in the BUT THEY CAN’T battlegrounds he won four years ago, struggling even in states he should have GET RID OF US.’ locked up, like Ohio and Georgia. At a —RAYMOND TEDESCO, time when the nation’s problems are urgent TRUMP SUPPORTER and obvious, Trump’s closing message is emotional contrast—compassion, trust, inclusion— an argle-bargle of conspiracy theories and and a plea for an ending, a do-over, a return to nor- personal grievance. mal times. “Everybody knows who Donald Trump As the President rallies in Florida, Biden is in is,” Biden says in Michigan. “We have to let them Michigan doing normal-candidate things: giving a know who we are.” But as Trump is fond of pointing pat speech on health care, holding a drive-in rally out, if the old normal was so great, he wouldn’t have at a fairgrounds in Detroit and posing for (masked!) gotten elected in the first place. selfies with a youth choir. But what Biden is doing An embattled Trump insisting the prognosticators is almost beside the point. This election isn’t about are wrong, while chaos swirls and his opponent Biden, and everyone, including Biden, knows it. attempts to play by the old rules: in so many ways, It’s about Trump: the ultimate referendum on it feels like 2016 all over again. Gloomy Republicans this norm-shattering presidency, the climactic epi- fret that Trump is dragging the party down with sode of our national nervous breakdown, the final him. One Republican Senator recently called the reckoning. From the start, Biden has been calling his President a “TV-obsessed narcissistic individual,” campaign a “battle for the soul of the nation,” and while another isn’t supporting his Supreme Court as trite and grandiose as that may sound, it’s hard nominee; Trump, of course, lashed out at both to disagree. It is a campaign premised entirely on of them on Twitter. The campaign pros wish he

26 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 would listen to them and behave, rather than, say, riots, the hundreds of thousands dead and millions ^ pursuing a vendetta against Dr. Anthony Fauci, the out of work. The travel ban, Robert Mueller, kids Biden campaigns at scientist held in far higher public regard, or hyping in cages, covfefe and Sharpiegate, Stormy Daniels a drive-in rally in dubious reports about Hunter Biden’s work in and Kim Jong Un, disinfectant injections, Kanye Detroit on Oct. 16 Ukraine, which some experts suspect may be Russian West, emoluments, impeachment. Very fine peo- disinformation. Trump needs to “stop whining ple on both sides. A debate where the candidates about people picking on him or trying to steal the and moderator spend the whole time yelling at each election,” says Republican strategist Charlie Black. other and then one winds up in the hospital. The “What he’s got to do is talk about the economy, talk past four years have been a political fever dream, a about packing the Supreme Court, and little else.” man-bites-dog story where no one can agree which Trump’s own aides privately admit that his touring side is the dog and which is the man. A large swath schedule is as much about keeping the President of the public has become convinced that Democrats busy and emotionally satisfied as it is an actual are in league with a Satan- worshipping pedophilia political strategy. cult, and Trump won’t say it’s not true, because that So many things have happened, yet nothing ever swath of the public loves him. seems to change. We have been through a lot since Everything has gone screwy, and anything could 2016: the shocks, the scandals, the protests and happen. This is the biggest difference from 2016:

PREVIOUS PAGES: THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX; JIM WATSON—AFP/GETTY IMAGES 27 though all the data seem to point to a Trump loss, It’s four hours’ drive north to get to Trump’s rally the pundits who were so certain four years ago now in Bemidji, through flat green farmland dotted with have a haunted air. To count Trump out is to tempt pretty lakes and the occasional roadside political fate. And so we need this election not only to de- sign. Nestled between reservations, the town is cide who will occupy the White House for the next “about one-third Native, one-third white and one- four years but also to settle the great national argu- third hippie,” a local tells me. One afternoon at ment that has consumed us since 2016. On Nov. 3 the beginning of June, a retired Lutheran pastor (or, hopefully, soon after), we will finally get an an- named Melody Kirkpatrick set up a lawn chair and a swer to the question of what these past four discom- homemade social-justice poster by the side of a road bobulating years have meant—whether Trump was and began to knit. The “knitters for justice” have what America wanted or some kind of exceedingly met every day since; Kirkpatrick estimates about 75 consequential fluke. It is a decision not about what people have joined her. “They think we’re here to policy proposals to pursue but about what reality we knit, and I say, ‘No, that’s just to keep from strangling collectively decide to inhabit. somebody,’” the cheerful, gray-haired 68-year-old One more defeat and they’re going to accept it. says with a laugh. Her face mask says STD—STOP Everyone dreams of a victory so total it will dis- THe DONALD—DON’T LeT THe iNFeCTiON SPReAD. credit the opposition and drive them into exile. But In the hours before the President’s plane lands, it will not be so easy to knit this torn-up country the Trump Shop, a converted trailer unaffiliated back together, as the virus makes its winter surge with the campaign, is doing brisk business sell- and the institutions of democracy teeter. “They can ing buttons, key chains, flags, socks, caps, glasses, get rid of Trump, but they can’t get rid of us,” Ray- koozies, stickers, hoodies and the occasional face mond Tedesco, a 58-year-old in sunglasses and a mask. Tractors flying massive Trump flags cruise TRUmP 2020 hat, tells me in Ocala, where the med- up and down the town’s main artery, Paul Bun- ics are hauling away audience members as they faint yan Drive. But Kirk patrick has plenty of company from the heat and thousands of disposable masks are too. Local Democrats and members of Indivisible piled unused by the metal detectors. “We ain’t going Bemidji line the route with homemade signs like nowhere. You can put that mental case Joe Biden in VOTe Him OUT BeFORe He KiLLS US ALL. office, we’re just going to get madder and louder.” Rural Minnesota wasn’t always a hotbed of politi- The people around him—a homeschool mom, a horse cal activity, but Trump’s victory was born in places trainer, an African-American would-be TikTok in- like this: the hollowed-out towns of the industrial fluencer who owns a local gym—nod in agreement. Midwest, where his pugnacious affect and broad- “These people are all wonderful, nice people. I’m sides against trade deals and immigration galvanized not so nice,” Tedesco continues with a toothy grin. legions of non-college-educated white people. Mich- “They want to come for me, they better bring some igan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania went Republican body bags.” I ask what he does for a living, and he for the first time in decades. Minnesota came within says, “I make trouble.” One way or another, this elec- 1.5 percentage points of flipping too. tion will be over soon. And then who knows what Since 2016, many have analyzed the revolution fresh trouble may start. after the fact. Trump has been hailed as the tribune of a working-class realignment and scorned as the dem- On my flight to Minnesota for another Trump agogue of white-identity politics. Theorists like his campaign rally, my seatmate gets into an argument former adviser Steve Bannon envisioned a tectonic over masks with a flight attendant. When I get to the electoral shift as a new politics of nationalism, iso- rental-car counter, the otherwise normal- seeming lationism and protectionism supplanted the GOP’s clerk has a sticker on his phone that says Q: TRUST stale supply-side economic dogma. THe PLAN. 2020 is nothing if not on brand. But Trump engineered something else too: an The corner of 38th and Chicago in Minneap- awakening on the other side. Shell-shocked liberals, olis is cool and still as the sun rises on a Septem- most of them women, poured into the streets and ber morning. Jersey barriers keep traffic out of the formed local clubs from Oakland to Oklahoma intersection, and the lit marquee of the boarded- City. They rallied for many causes—racial justice, up Speedway gas station tells you where you are: health care, immigrant rights, women’s rights—but GeORGe FLOYD SQUARe. The protesters are gone the organizing principle was getting rid of Trump. now, but the streets bear witness to the parox- There was indeed a realignment, but the number ysms of grief and rage Floyd’s killing unleashed. of working-class whites flocking to the GOP was YOU ARe NOW eNTeRiNG THe FRee STATe dwarfed by a massive swing of college- educated OF GeORGe FLOYD, says a sign. ReSPeCT ONe white voters, suburbanites and women to the ANOTHeR. Two miles away, cranes are repairing the Democrats. Add in a surge of young voters, voters looted Target store; across the street, the former of color, independents and seniors, and Biden has Third Precinct police station lies in ruins. “created a coalition that’s completely unique in

28 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 Democratic politics for the last 20 years,” says John against complacency. “If you’re a Biden supporter, Anzalone, his lead campaign pollster. there’s no reason you should be feeling this bad,” says For all the tortured explanations of 2016 and one Democratic consultant close to the Biden team its aftermath, the political history of this era may who blames “2016 PTSD.” be simple: most Americans didn’t want Trump In national polls, Biden is viewed far more fa- to be President in the first place. A confuence vorably than Clinton was, has a larger national of circumstances—the right opponent, Russian lead and does not face a substantial third-party interference, James Comey’s letter, the Electoral vote that could erode his standing. State polls College—put him in the White House. Trump was show the Democrat in a more comfortable posi- not a political theorist and applied no particular tion than Clinton ever truly enjoyed in Wiscon- focus to movement-building beyond the roar of the sin and Michigan, though other key states, such as crowd, the fattering of his ego. The millions who Florida and Pennsylvania, remain tight. A massive loved him gave him a feedback loop of affirmation fund raising advantage has allowed Biden’s team to and turned swaths of white rural America into outspend Trump on television by almost a quarter- Trump Country. billion dollars in Florida, Pennsylvania, Michigan, But the majority of Americans—particularly the North Carolina, Wisconsin and Arizona, and he has half of the electorate who live in suburban areas— the airwaves almost to himself in Ohio and Iowa. have taken to the polls over and over again since Democrats also have a clear edge over Republicans to express their displeasure, from local elec- when it comes to early ballot returns. Biden has tions to the 2018 midterms. And Trump opted to campaign lightly, content to keep voters has done little to persuade them to change focused on the incumbent. their minds. “Trump’s base is charged up. “ If all goes as planned, Biden will look like a politi- BIDEN Energizing them isn’t the issue,” says Larry cal genius for executing the most basic stratagems: Jacobs, a political scientist at the Univer- ‘CREATED A run toward the middle, avoid distractions, let your sity of Minnesota. The rural white vot- opponent self-destruct. But then what? “Donald ers he’s brought into the GOP fold, Jacobs COALITION Trump is mortally afraid of being seen as a loser,” says, are vastly outnumbered by the urban says Miles Taylor, a former Trump Administration and suburban voters he’s driven to the THAT’S UNIQUE appointee who’s now campaigning for Biden. “He’ll Democrats, with the result that he’s likely IN DEMOCRATIC cast any loss as illegitimate to make himself feel bet- to do worse in Minnesota than he did four ter. And the enormous detriment will not be to Don- years ago despite making it a top cam- POLITICS FOR THE ald Trump—it will be to the country and our demo- paign target. “This is one of those years cratic institutions.” that the President is so unpopular, a refer- LAST 20 YEARS.’ Should he win, Biden will face a set of thorny endum on him could be a wave all the way —JOHN ANZALONE, challenges beyond the pandemic and attendant re- down the ballot.” BIDEN CAMPAIGN cession. His unwieldy coalition includes centrists The Trump rally in Bemidji is America’s POLLSTER and socialists, apostate Republicans and rank-and- zillionth but this area’s first. Supporters file Democrats, COVID-nervous seniors and angry cram into the small airport hangar to hear young voters of color. He has laid out an ambitious the President say that Democrats want to fill economic agenda that promises to “build back bet- their state with third-world refugees like the liberal ter,” spending trillions to expand health care, build Minneapolis Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. He spends new infrastructure and address climate change. an extended digression praising the military skill of Some liberal activists have turned their attention General Robert E. Lee, goes on for several minutes to pushing for procedural changes such as elimi- about Hillary Clinton’s emails and gleefully describes nating the Senate filibuster and adding seats to the the “beautiful” sight of a reporter being hit with a Supreme Court, without which they say his agenda projectile on live television. Later, health authorities will be blocked; others argue this would represent an will report that the rally in Bemidji was the source of unacceptable escalation of Trump’s norm breaking. nine COVID-19 cases, two requiring hospitalization. “Our system has suffered greatly from the irregular order of Donald Trump, but Joe Biden with a steady lead down the homestretch, the knows how to get us back to normal,” says Taylor. Biden campaign is focused on avoiding mistakes. “If If there’s anything Trump’s election should have we learned anything from 2016, it’s that we cannot taught us, though, it’s that normal was always an underestimate Donald Trump or his ability to claw his illusion. America was always a weirder, angrier, way back into contention in the final days,” Biden’s more divided place than its politicians ever seemed campaign manager, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, wrote to recognize. There is no going back; the only way in an Oct. 17 memo to supporters. The front runner’s out is through. —With reporting by Charlotte team, working from their houses and apartments and alter, Brian Bennett, leslie DiCkstein, PhiliP team-building over Zoom and Slack, is on high alert elliott, simmone shah and aBBy Vesoulis • 29 YOUR VOTING QUESTIONS ANSWERED Tens of millions of Americans are trying to fi gure out how to cast a ballot in the middle of a pandemic. Here’s what to know about exercising your right

Is it better to vote early, or on Election Day? A: THERE IS, OF COURSE, NO SINGLE during early right answer. COVID-19 is impacting ev- voting, so polls eryone’s health, job and support system may not run as diff erently. But if you’ve decided to forgo smoothly. Some absentee or voting by mail—or if those states, including are not options for you in your state— battlegrounds like here are some factors to consider. Georgia and Florida, Early voting off ers some clear ben- have seen long lines form outside polling efi ts because polling places are often less places in the initial days of early voting, crowded than they are on Election Day. with some voters reporting waits of up to WHAT SHOULD I DO IF It’s an easy way to decrease your risk of 11 hours. Experts recommend monitor- SOMEONE TRIES TO STOP exposure to COVID-19 while still voting ing your local polling site and heading in ME FROM VOTING? in person. Most states are off ering some when the lines are short or the parking lot form of in-person voting before Election looks sparse. If you plan to drive to your A: Report it. If you’re at a Day this year, and many have upped the polling place, the Centers for Disease polling place, fl ag a poll worker number of hours and days that polling Control and Prevention (CDC) recom- or another offi cial. If you’re places are open. Some states have also ex- mends waiting in your car until the line elsewhere, notify your state tended voting to weekends—which is all is shorter to help reduce the spread of or local election offi cials. good news for keeping crowds in check. infection. Numbers and email addresses Early voting also acts as an insurance Voting on Election Day is hardly off are usually easy to fi nd online. policy. If something unexpectedly goes the table. If you’re on the fence, waiting If you have additional wrong on Election Day—your car breaks until the last moment gives you time questions or run into problems, down, the weather takes a turn—you’ve to make up your mind. Or if you just call or text 866-OUR-VOTE. already banked your ballot. enjoy the tradition of voting on the fi rst The hotline is a nonpartisan But there can be hitches. Poll workers Tuesday in November, that’s fi ne too. resource run by Election Protection, a coalition of voting- may still be getting used to the process —ABIGAIL ABRAMS access advocacy groups. You can also direct message or chat with a volunteer online. A: Your registration Keep in mind that voter becomes inactive if you suppression can take many haven’t voted in two forms—physical threats, CAN I STILL consecutive federal elec- intimidating phone calls and tions and haven’t replied misinformation designed to VOTE IF MY to requests verifying your keep you from casting your REGISTRATION address. But most states ballot. Even if you end up make it pretty easy to voting, speak up about what IS ‘INACTIVE’? re-up at a polling place— happened. Your colleagues so long as you bring valid and neighbors may be facing ID and, in some places, similar challenges. proof of your address. ÑLissandra Villa ÑSanya Mansoor

ILLUSTRATIONS BY MOLLY JACQUES FOR TIME HOW DO I KNOW A: If you live in Mississippi or Wyoming, you can’t know, unfortunately. But if you live in any other state or the District IF MY MAIL BALLOT of Columbia, you have access to a ballot tracker, according ARRIVED AND WAS to data from the National Vote at Home Institute. Each state’s tracker is a little different, so check with your local COUNTED? elections offi ce for details.ÑAlana Abramson

SHOULD I USE A DROP BOX INSTEAD OF MAILING MY BALLOT?

A: Despite the fl urry of recent misinformation about mail-in voting—much of it coming from the President’s Twitter feed— election offi cials have repeatedly stressed that both delivery methods are safe and reliable. Each offers pros and cons. If you’re in a rush to have your ballot reach election offi cials, choose an offi cial drop box. If you deposit your ballot anytime Will I be notifi ed if my mail ballot before your state’s deadline, is rejected, and if so, can I fi x it? it will be delivered to your local elections offi ce almost A: IT DEPENDS ON YOUR STATE. BY like depends on the state, and what infor- immediately. If you live in a Nov. 3, more than half the states will mation is on fi le. Some states will contact state or county that doesn’t have adopted what’s known as a “notice you by phone or email; others will send a offer drop boxes or that offers and cure” process, which requires elec- letter to your physical address. them on a limited basis, tion offi cials to tell you if your mailed How ballots are cured also varies. contact your local elections ballot is invalid for some reason—for ex- Some states simply inform voters that offi ce. Many states offer ballot ample, you forgot to sign it or you their ballots were rejected and ask drop-off locations, open at didn’t use the right envelope. them to cast a new one. Others certain hours of the day. Offi cials must then give you ask voters to provide evidence Mailing a ballot via the U.S. the opportunity to correct of their identity and some- Postal Service usually takes (“cure”) the problem. times require them to come more time, even in the best of circumstances, and in the Eighteen states had in person to a local elections past few months, delivery has some type of “notice and offi ce. To be safe, voting- slowed in much of the country. cure” process in place be- rights advocates recommend But mailing a ballot is also very fore COVID-19, and at least casting a ballot as soon as convenient and accessible, 11 more are putting them in possible to provide plenty of especially for folks who can’t place this cycle, according to time for any potential problems easily hop in a car. The Voting Rights Lab. In the 21 to be fl agged and fi xed. Check your state’s specifi c states that do not off er a statewide cure Since most states allow you to track deadlines for mail-in ballots process, some counties off er their own your mail or absentee ballot, advocates and the day they must be systems. Be sure to check with your local recommend regularly checking to see if postmarked and received. elections offi ce to know your options. it has been fl agged. If it has, you can call If you’re mailing it, election If you live in a state or county with a your local elections offi ce directly to see if offi cials recommend that you “notice and cure” process, you should re- you can either fi x it or throw out that bal- give yourself a buffer of a week ceive an offi cial notice if there’s an issue lot and cast a new one. ÑL.V. for your ballot to arrive. with your ballot. What that notice looks —MADELEINE CARLISLE 31 STATE OF WHY IS MY BALLOT CALIFORNIA SO CONFUSING? The order in which statewide candidates A: Some state ballots are listed rotates feature jarring design by voting district for choices, like extra-long fairness. As many columns or endless as eight names, like instructions. In most Kanye West’s, can cases, the reason is legal. appear before Joe When designing ballots, Biden’s and Donald election boards are Trump’s. often required to follow state- mandated rules on everything from the font to what languages are included. In many cases, ballots are designed so poorly that they result in people’s votes not being counted: voters skip sections or vote for someone they didn’t intend. With tens of millions of people voting GWINNETT by mail this year, the COUNTY, challenge is even greater. GEORGIA If you vote in person, Ballot design could ballot scanners will often affect the outcome notify you if you make of a Senate special a mistake. If you fi ll out election. a mail ballot, you won’t know immediately if you The problem: accidentally invalidated 1. Voters may see your vote. Election experts two columns of can- are particularly concerned didates as two races this year with the design and vote in each, of a ballot in Gwinnett invalidating their County, Georgia, the ballot. second-most populous COUNTY GWINNETT OF COURTESY BOTTOM: COUNTY; SACRAMENTO OF COURTESY TOP: 2. In a past California county in a battleground race, the two-column state with two contested design resulted in Senate races: a special nearly 5% of voters election and a normal making mistakes, per contest. For the special the Brennan Center. election, the ballot splits the list of candidates 3. Some ballot scan- into two columns, which ners notify in-person may visually suggest that voters if they’ve voters select a candidate made a mistake. in each column. If they Mail ballots don’t do that, their vote won’t offer that immediate count. Ballot design has safeguard. consequences. Just a few thousand mistakes could swing a tight race. ÑTara Law IF I OPTED TO GET A MAIL BALLOT, CAN I STILL VOTE IN PERSON? WHAT IF I’D PLANNED TO A: Yes—anytime, on or before Election Day. Just VOTE IN PERSON BUT I remember to bring your mail or absentee ballot GET SICK ON NOV. 3? with you when you go to your polling place. That gives election offi cials an opportunity to verify A: First things fi rst: if you that you haven’t voted already. Even if you forget feel sick or have been to bring your unused ballot, some states, including in close contact with California and Illinois, will still allow you to cast a someone who may have provisional vote. —S.M. COVID-19, you should stay home—even if you’d planned to vote in person. Medical experts say that’s What if something goes awry a hard-and-fast rule, and at my polling place? it applies on Election Day too. “The risk of you A: NEWS COVERAGE TENDS TO FOCUS for stuff ,” said Chris Anderson, the infecting a poll volunteer on where things have gone wrong—long Republican supervisor of elections in or somebody else who’s lines, power outages, broken voting Seminole County, Florida. In Northern out there voting is just not machines. But election experts caution states, election offi cials keep an eye out worth it,” says Dr. Marybeth against letting those reports scare you for blizzards and road closures, and Sexton, assistant professor away. In all likelihood, things will go election administrators in various states of infectious diseases at smoothly for you. And if they have prepared contingency plans Emory University School don’t, election administrators in case an election needs to be of Medicine. If you’re and volunteer groups are conducted in the wake of a worried about falling ill on prepared for any number terrorist attack. Nov. 3, or if your job makes of problems— from This year, local offi cials it hard to avoid corona- polls failing to open to and attorneys general virus exposure, consider dysfunctional voting are collaborating with casting a vote early or machines. “State and police on how to handle requesting an absentee local election offi cials have large-scale protests or or mail ballot. Some contingency plans,” says Sarah gatherings of overzealous jurisdictions are offering Brannon, managing attorney for supporters that threaten to curbside voting this year, the ACLU Voting Rights Project. disrupt the polls. If you run into which can reduce contact What specifi c preparations are problems at your own polling place, with others. (But remember being made depends on your state and reach out to your local elections offi ce, that if you’re genuinely ill, region. In most parts of Florida, for which will direct voters to a backup you still pose a risk to poll example, election offi cials are ready for polling place or provide information workers and anyone in your hurricanes. “We’re kind of already in about alternative ways to cast a vote. car.) If the worst happens that mood of always having to prepare —LISSANDRA VILLA and W.J. HENNIGAN and you’re hospitalized or have another medical crisis on Election Day, at least 38 states allow A: It depends on your state. Permanent laws in 26 states allow voters emergency absentee to designate someone else—a spouse, neighbor, caregiver, etc.—to voting. Some states, return a ballot on their behalf, according to the National Conference of such as Minnesota and CAN SOMEONE State Legislatures (NCSL). Some states have stricter rules. In Arkansas, Georgia, will deliver ballots ELSE DROP for example, if you plan to return someone else’s ballot, you must to people in the hospital. deliver it directly to a county clerk, sign an oath and show appropriate If you fi nd yourself in this OFF MY BALLOT identifi cation, per the NCSL. In Alabama, voters must mail or return situation, contact your local FOR ME? their own ballots, with only very narrow exceptions for medical elections offi ce; they’ll do emergencies. Many states have laws designed to prevent mass ballot everything they can to help collection, known pejoratively as “ballot harvesting,” which is when one you vote.ÑA. Abrams person collects and returns multiple ballots. —A. Abramson

33 State deadlines and rules at a glance Elections are run by state and local offi cials, so rules governing how voters access mail ballots and how ballots are counted often vary widely. If you have specifi c questions, call or visit your local elections offi ce AL AK AZ AR CA CO CT DE FL GA HI ID IL IN IA KS KY LA ME MD MA MI Can register to vote on Election Day PRES ONLY OCT. OCT. OCT. BY MAIL NOV. OCT. OCT. OCT. OCT. BY MAIL OCT. OCT. OCT. OCT. OCT. OCT. OCT. OCT. BY MAIL Standard requests to vote by OCT. 27 N/A N/A N/A OCT. 29 OCT. 30 IN PERSON 24 IN PERSON 22 30 IN PERSON mail must be received by 29 24 23 NOV. 2 2 30 GET BY MAIL 30 23 NOV. 2 11:59 P.M. 24 27 9 30 5 P.M. 20 28 NOV. 2 Mail-ballot drop boxes available statewide Signatures on mailed ballots must match one on file

If returned by mail, NOV. 2 NOV. 3 NOV. NOV. NOV. 3 NOV. NOV. NOV. NOV. NOV. NOV. NOV. NOV. 3 NOV. NOV. 2 NOV. 3 NOV. 3 NOV. NOV. NOV. 3 NOV. 3 NOV. completed mail ballots must NOV. 3 NOV. 13 3 3 NOV. 20 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 NOV. 17 3 NOV. 9 NOV. 6 NOV. 6 2 3 NOV. 13 NOV. 6 3 be postmarked or received by NOON 7 P.M. 7 P.M. 7 P.M. 8 P.M. 8 P.M. 7 P.M. 7 P.M. 7 P.M. POLL CLOSE NOON NOON 5 P.M. 6 P.M. 4:30 P.M. 8 P.M. 10 A.M. 5 P.M. 8 P.M.

What health precautions should I take to vote in person?

A: WITH SO MUCH ATTEN- entire time you’re inside tion on voting by mail this your polling place. Bring year, you might be wonder- your own pen, tissues ing whether it’s even safe and hand sanitizer with to vote in person. Medi- at least 60% alcohol—and cal experts say the level of douse your hands before risk depends on your per- and after touching any sonal health, the amount of voting equipment or shared COVID-19 transmission in surfaces, like clipboards or your community, and your doorknobs. (Just don’t use ability—and willingness—to sanitizer directly on a voting follow safety precautions at machine, as some electronic the polls. equipment can be damaged If you’re in a group that’s by disinfectants.) at high risk for severe illness The CDC also from COVID-19, think about the days before you plan to your polling station has recommends not bringing alternative options like vot- cast a vote, you should be added so you know what children or other non voters, ing by mail or curbside vot- extra vigilant in practicing to expect. Complete any although it can be tricky ing. But for low-risk people good hand hygiene, wearing registration forms ahead of to fi nd babysitters or other who want to vote in person, a mask that covers your time and bring all necessary caretakers, so plan ahead. experts say it can be done mouth and nose when you’re documents to avoid delays. And of course, the golden safely. (Even Dr. Anthony in public, staying 6 ft. away You can also practice fi lling rule of COVID-19: try to Fauci said he plans to go in from people not in your out a sample ballot to maintain 6 ft. of distance person to the polls, provided household and refraining shorten the time you spend from other people at all his busy schedule allows.) from attending large social inside. times. “If you did all of those If you too want to vote gatherings. You should also When it’s time to vote, things, and you successfully in person, start taking consider getting a fl u shot choose a mask that has distanced and everybody precautions now. “We should before you vote, Sexton says. multiple layers and fi ts in the polling place was really focus on trying to You’ll also probably comfortably over your nose masked, you should not have drive down transmission in want to make a voting plan. and mouth so that you’re had an exposure to COVID,” our communities ahead of Try to go at off -peak times not tempted to touch your says Sexton. Still, if you start time so that people can vote or during the early-voting face to adjust it. The mask feeling symptoms afterward, safely,” says Dr. Sexton of period if your state has one. should stay on while you’re isolate and get tested. Emory. That means that in Check out the precautions waiting to vote and the —A. ABRAMS MN MS MO MT NE NV NH NJ NM NY NC ND OH OK OR PA RI SC SD TN TX UT VT VA WA DC WV WI WY

N/A PRES ONLY BY MAIL NOV. NOV. BY MAIL OCT. BY MAIL NOV. OCT. BY MAIL NOV. OCT. NO NO OCT. 21 OCT. OCT. 23 OCT. 27 OCT. OCT. OCT. OCT. OCT. 24 OCT. OCT. OCT. OCT. NOV. FORMAL SPECIFIC N/A N/A IN PERSON N/A N/A N/A N/A DEADLINE DEADLINE IN PERSON 2 23 2 IN PERSON 20 IN PERSON 27 2 31 27 27 13 OCT. 30 2 27 23 23 28 29 2 NOV. 2 NOON 5 P.M. NOV. 2 5 P.M. NOV. 2 5 P.M. 5 P.M. 5 P.M. 5 P.M. 5 P.M.

NOV. 3 NOV. NOV. NOV. NOV. NOV. 3 NOV. NOV. 3 NOV. NOV. NOV. 3 NOV. NOV. NOV. NOV. 3 NOV. NOV. 3 NOV. NOV. NOV. 3 NOV. 3 NOV. 3 NOV. NOV. 2 8 P.M. NOV. 7 P.M. NOV. NOV. 3 NOV. 3 NOV. 3 NOV. 10 3 3 3 3 NOV. 10 3 NOV. 12 3 3 3 3 3 3 NOV. 6 3 3 NOV. 10 POLL CLOSE NOV. 10 8 P.M. NOV. 10 5 P.M. 2 NOV. 13 NOV. 6 3 POLL CLOSE NOV. 4 2 NOV. 23 NOV. 13 NOV. 9 EOD 7 P.M. 8 P.M. 5 P.M. 7 P.M. 7 P.M. 8 P.M. 5 P.M. 8 P.M. 7 P.M. 5 P.M. 7 P.M. NOON 8 P.M. 7 P.M.

WHAT TIME SHOULD A: Most people vote before work, during their lunch break or immediately after work. So if you have any I VOTE TO AVOID THE fl exibility in your schedule, try to avoid those windows. LONGEST LINES? The off-peak hours are generally very early in the morning—some polling places open at 6 a.m.—late morning and midafternoon. ÑMariah Espada

Should I be concerned if there’s no clear winner on election night?

A: NOV. 3 MAY FEEL LIKE THE FINAL required to send these votes to Congress. WHAT IF ONE CANDIDATE minute of a contentious championship On Jan. 6, the newly sworn in Congress game, but just because the clock will stop is expected to count and certify the Elec- CLAIMS VICTORY BEFORE doesn’t mean we’ll know who won. The toral College votes and verify a victor. ALL THE VOTES ARE IN? chance that Election Night passes with- And now for the bad news. Many elec- out a clear winner is higher than normal tion experts are concerned that states will A: Such a claim would be this year. be unable to meet some of legally meaningless—even First, the good news. these deadlines. As confi rmed if the candidate is also the There are a series of dead- COVID-19 cases spike around President of the United States. lines carved into America’s the country, tens of millions of Each state’s election results electoral process that are voters are opting to cast bal- must be certifi ed by state designed to ensure a victor lots by mail—which can take election offi cials, and the is determined before Inau- longer to tally. This slowdown, results of the Electoral College guration Day on Jan. 20. By paired with the GOP’s legal at- must be confi rmed by the Dec. 8, states should have tacks on voting by mail, raises U.S. Congress before they’re offi cial. To combat premature counted their votes and re- the question of whether some Election Day proclamations, solved court contests. Failing states will be able to fi nish consider ignoring social media to meet that deadline risks Congress get- counting and certifying ballots in the 35 and tuning out partisan outlets ting involved in disputes over the state’s days between Nov. 3 and Dec. 8. for 24 hours. If a candidate’s chosen Electoral College members. On The way some of this year’s pandemic- claim of victory does not match Dec. 14, the 538 electors convene in their era primaries unfolded isn’t exactly re- up with what state election states to cast their ballots. Missing this assuring: in fi ve states, election offi cials offi cials or nonpartisan outlets hard deadline could mean the state’s votes took more than nine days to call the win- like the Associated Press are not included in the tally toward 270 ners; two congressional primaries in New are reporting, sit back and electoral votes, the number needed to win York took six weeks. Patience may be wait. ÑA. Abramson the White House. On Dec. 23, states are paramount. —ABBY VESOULIS 35 case of three bundles of mail found in a ditch in Wis- consin was touted by Republican candidates in states from Illinois to Colorado. An ICE press release on al- FALSE leged voter fraud by noncitizens in North Carolina was picked up by conservative groups in California, Ohio and Montana. Allegations of double voting in ALARM the Georgia primary were promoted on Facebook by the Texas GOP. HOW THE VOTER-FRAUD FALLACY IS MANUFACTURED All these stories went viral before they had been properly investigated. None of them has been found By Vera Bergengruen by state or federal authorities to have prevented any- one from voting or to have impacted the outcome The sTory sTarTed wiTh liTTle more Than a of an election. None indicates the widespread fraud vague rumor. “They found six ballots in an office yes- that Trump and his allies allege. That argument rests terday in a garbage can,” President Donald Trump “primarily on unsupported speculation and sec- told a Fox News radio show on Sept. 24. “They were ondarily on isolated instances of voter fraud,” Judge Trump ballots. Eight ballots in an office yesterday in Robert Dow Jr. of the Northern District of Illinois, a certain state.” Four hours later, the White House a George W. Bush appointee, wrote in his rejection hinted to reporters that state was Pennsylvania. And of a GOP effort to block state election officials from by that afternoon, the rumor had become official in sending mail-in ballots to voters. Even the isolated the form of an announcement by the U.S. Justice De- incidents of real fraud, Dow wrote, prove that the partment. In a press release, federal prosecutors phenomenon “remained infinitesimally small.” declared that nine discarded ballots had been But there are signs the campaign to bolster the found in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and voter-fraud myth may be achieving its goal. By vali- that seven of them were votes for Trump. THE “ dating disinformation, government officials are turn- It is exceedingly rare for federal prose- ing falsehoods into truths, at least in the minds of the cutors to publicize an investigation that has VALIDATION OF public. One in four American adults now says voter barely started and rarer still for them to re- fraud is a major problem with mail-in voting, accord- veal politically sensitive details in the pro- DISINFORMATION ing to a Pew Research Center poll. This belief, which cess. The case exploded on national news state election officials and independent experts cat- and social media, with Republicans touting BY GOVERNMENT egorically reject, could undermine the results of the it as evidence of a plot to rig the election and Nov. 3 election and lend credence to Trump’s claims Trump arguing the same thing during a na- OFFICIALS of a “rigged” contest. It could give rise to a broader tional debate watched by 73 million viewers. IS TURNING push for restrictive voting measures in the future. By the time Pennsylvania’s election chief ex- And it has set a dangerous precedent in which the plained a week later that the discarded bal- FALSEHOODS powers of American government can be bent to dis- lots were the result of an “error” by a con- seminate disinformation for the political purposes fused temporary employee, not “intentional INTO TRUTHS of those in office. fraud,” the damage had been done. Luzerne County is a case study in one of The day before the Pennsylvania ballot case the ugliest developments of the 2020 election, erupted, a local news station in Wisconsin posted a in which the powers of federal, state and local govern- 107-word story that said the U.S. Postal Service was ment have become tools of Trump’s voter-fraud dis- investigating three trays of mail, including some ab- information campaign. From formal announcements sentee ballots, found in a ditch along a highway out- by the Justice Department and U.S. Immigration and side the town of Greenville. The sparse report rapidly Customs Enforcement (ICE) to state-level “election took on a life of its own. A write-up by the right-wing integrity” task forces, the President’s allies are mixing website Breitbart News, titled mailed-in balloTs politics and law enforcement to amplify his baseless found Tossed in wisconsin diTch, attracted claim that the election is plagued by rampant voter more than 68,000 comments, likes and shares on fraud. “They laundered the information through the Facebook, and was shared on Republican Facebook Justice Department, they teased it like it’s a PR cam- pages in Tennessee, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Wash- paign, and then the story dropped in the form of an ington, North Carolina, California, Utah, Texas and official press release,” Ankush Khardori, a former DOJ Florida. A summary by the Washington Examiner re- prosecutor, says of the Luzerne County case. “This ceived more than 250,000 interactions on Facebook. piece of information was tossed out and fed to the echo Republican National Committee operatives, White chamber, where it will have a permanent existence.” House officials and Trump himself invoked it as an Many Americans likely recognize similar stories example of pervasive fraud. from the nightly news or their Facebook feeds. The When state election officials announced a week

36 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 government agencies as megaphones to elevate local stories into mainstream news. Often this involves turning small, isolated in- stances of possible bad behavior into national scan- dals. In early September, for example, ICE issued a press release announcing charges against 19 non- citizens for allegedly voting illegally in the 2016 elec- tion. Republican members of Congress immediately seized on it to make a broader case against mail-in voting. “If universal mail-in ballots are allowed, more of this will happen,” Representative Brian Babin, a Texas Republican, wrote in a Facebook post. The ICE release mirrored a set of charges against more than a dozen noncitizens announced right be- fore the 2018 midterms, also for allegedly voting two years earlier. “Both sets of indictments came out right before elections,” says Helen Parsonage, an immigra- tion attorney who represents four defendants in the most recent case. “Investigations were apparently commenced in 2017, yet nothing was done with the cases until right before a presidential election. I find the timing of these charges to be highly suspect.”

in several states, Republican government of- ficials have also launched “election integrity” task forces, which critics say spread unfounded fears about participating in the election. After forming such a group in April to investigate voter fraud, Geor- gia secretary of state Brad Raffensperger on Sept. 8 announced a probe into 1,000 alleged incidents of people voting twice during the state’s 2020 prima- ries. He offered no evidence and when pressed by later that none of the discovered mail included any ^ reporters acknowledged he did not know whether ballots from Wisconsin, a crucial swing state, not one White House any of those cases were intentional. of the Republican officials revised their statements. press secretary The claim followed a familiar pattern: fling an None of these stories amplifying the purported scan- Kayleigh explosive rumor into the conservative media eco- dal was corrected or updated. Many are still being McEnany system, where it inevitably circulates and feeds a widely cited as evidence of voter fraud. The Wis- speaks to larger narrative even if it is never borne out. In the consin station’s follow-up story on the incident was reporters on end, the Georgia inquiry concluded many double shared just 33 times. Sept. 24 voters likely cast in-person ballots because they Republicans have spent decades searching for and thought their absentee ballots didn’t count. “It looks cataloging purported cases of voter fraud in a push like there’s no conspiracy, no massive intent, no im- to justify stricter voting laws, which studies show pact on election outcome, and yet it’s baked into the would serve to disenfranchise voters, especially mi- psyche of the Georgia public now,” says Cathy Cox, a norities. But even the best-funded efforts have come Democrat who served as the state’s secretary of state up short. Using data going back to 1982 on everything from 1999 to 2007. from presidential elections to state and local votes— Meanwhile, back in Pennsylvania, officials potentially hundreds of millions of ballots cast—the continue to watch Republicans across the country conservative Heritage Foundation found a grand total cast the Luzerne case as an example of pervasive of 1,298 instances of voter fraud. In a disclaimer, it voter fraud. In an interview with TIME, the says its review “does not capture reported instances state’s attorney general was blunt. “There is a big that are not investigated or prosecuted.” difference between a clerical issue and a criminal The 2020 election has provided no shortage issue, and it turns out this was a clerical issue,” of fodder for voter-fraud sleuths. Because of the says Josh Shapiro, a Democrat. “The problem expansion of mail-in voting during the pandemic, here is you have a President who is trying to there’s an ample supply of confusing postal issues, create a false narrative to suit his political aims.” human errors and lost ballots. More important, fed- —With reporting by AlAnA AbrAmson/WAshington

ERIN SCOTT—BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES SCOTT—BLOOMBERG/GETTY ERIN eral, state and local authorities increasingly use and AnnA PurnA KAmbhAmPAty/neW yorK □ 37 Blocking the ballots TRUMP HAS TURNED TO THE AGE-OLD PRACTICE OF SUPPRESSING THE BLACK VOTE By Justin Worland

The ouTrage and condemnaTion came fasT in September when President Donald Trump encour- aged his supporters to commit voter fraud. “Let them send [a mail-in ballot] in, and let them go vote,” Trump said in Wilmington, N.C., urging backers to test the mechanics of North Carolina’s system by voting twice. A U.S. President encouraging citizens to commit a felony is alarming enough, but in the next breath, Trump acknowledged intentions that were arguably more pernicious: he said Republicans in the state would also fight in court to halt “unsolicited votes.” Over the past four years, such measures have be- ^ “Unsolicited votes” indeed. Trump has a tendency come central tactics for Trump allies in the strategi- African to say the quiet part out loud, but in Wilmington, he cally critical state. As North Carolina experiences a Americans line was practically shouting that not all votes are created surge in voting by mail, Republicans have gone to up to cast ballots equal. And in North Carolina in particular, that means court to make it easier to reject mailed ballots on in 1965 after the one thing: suppress Black voters. This election cycle, technicalities. Already, election ofcials have con- passage of the Trump allies have gone to court to defend a restric- tested some 6,800 votes—a number bound to grow Voting Rights Act tive voter-ID law and to make it more difcult for as more people vote. The state is about 20% Black; voters to correct mistakes on mail-in ballots. Those 40% of the contested ballots come from Black voters. measures have been shown to disproportionately af- Maneuvers like these could be key to a Trump vic- fect Black voters. tory across the country, voting-rights advocates say. However appalling, this shouldn’t come as a great Black Americans are less likely to have the identifica- surprise. After Black people were brought to the New tion required by the wave of voter-ID laws enacted World as slaves, Black disenfranchisement was overt by Republican legislatures in the past decade. Pre- and uncontroversial. Over the centuries, despite con- dominantly Black neighborhoods are more likely to stitutional amendments and landmark legislation, face long lines on Election Day. Republican- aligned it’s a history the country can’t shake. The past de- groups have spread misinformation to discourage cade has brought a resurgence of the practice, fu- Black voters, like the claim that early-voting data eled by a Supreme Court decision and a President would be used for debt collection. The list goes on. who thrives on racial division. And so today, amid Efforts to suppress the Black vote may be front a national reckoning about racial injustice, Trump’s and center in 2020, but they’re nothing new. After re-election may hinge on the success of his efforts to the Civil War, the 15th Amendment banned racial suppress the voices of Black voters. voting restrictions but left states free to bar Black voters on other grounds. The Jim Crow era brought In June 2013, the Supreme Court overturned key a maze of laws in the South designed to do just that. IMAGES CHERRY—GETTY JON KENTUCKY: AP; 1965: provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, declaring The Voting Rights Act was supposed to end these that measures in question were meant to address discriminatory practices. For a time, the tide seemed “decades-old problems” and that the Constitution was to be turning, but today that progress is slipping away. “not designed to punish for the past.” Within hours, There’s more at stake in this election than whether North Carolina GOP ofcials touted plans for a new this regression helps deliver a win to Trump. Racial law to curtail early voting, require ID at polling places voter suppression, once primarily a regional blight, and end same-day voter registration—all policies has “metastasized across the country,” says Sherrilyn they understood would impact Black voters. A court Ifill, the president of the NAACP Legal Defense and said in 2016 the effort to suppress the state’s Black Educational Fund. “On the table will be whether this vote was carried out with “almost surgical precision.” is in fact a sound democracy.” □ expert Ned Foley, of “a litigation arms race.” The main reason for the surge in cases is COVID- Election 19, which pushed states to adjust their election rules, often by expanding access to voting by mail. Demo- crats, teaming up with voting advocacy groups, have on trial fought to make mail voting easier and to increase the time election officials have to count mailed ballots. THE 2020 OUTCOME COULD Republicans have pushed for increased restrictions BE DECIDED IN COURT on mail-in votes and limits on vote counts. Both sides tout high-minded principles behind By Alana Abramson their arguments, like increasing the franchise or decreasing fraud. But the electoral driver behind the fight is clear: Democrats are voting by mail at Far From the rallies, debates and attack ads significantly higher rates than Republicans this of the 2020 election, a less visible but equally im- cycle. President Trump is using these cases as fur- portant fight is playing out in America’s courts. For ther support for his claims of “massive fraud,” re- months, armies of Republican and Democratic law- fusing to commit to a peaceful transition of power, yers have flooded state and federal benches with and suggesting that the Senate has to move quickly hundreds of challenges to state election laws. The to confirm his replacement for Justice Ruth Bader cases grapple with mundane details like voting dead- Ginsburg, in case the election ends up before the Su- lines and ballot envelopes, but taken together they preme Court. will determine how many ballots get tallied and The courts have rejected the President’s claims whose votes count. of widespread fraud, with Republicans losing most Such details could make all the difference if the cases based on these allegations. But the fight over election is close in one or more key states. The battles restrictions on mail voting has ground to a draw, as could lead to fights in higher courts once the count- Democrats have suffered a recent spate of appeals ing begins. With both sides preparing for the possi- court defeats over looser voting rules. “Depending bility of post-election lawsuits, experts raise a worry- on the week, you may say it’s a very good Democratic ing prospect: a repeat of the 2000 election, in which week or a very good Republican week,” says Stanford the victor was determined by the Supreme Court rul- Law professor Nathaniel Persily. ing in Bush v. Gore. ▽ Already, this election is on track to be the most lit- The fighT is far from over. Both the Biden and the Election officials igated in history, and most of the votes aren’t even in Trump campaigns, as well as swing-state election of- wearing face yet. Lawyers representing the two parties’ interests ficials, are amassing legions of attorneys in prepara- masks oversee have filed at least 385 election-related lawsuits this tion for what’s to come after Nov. 3.“We have a team early voting in year just stemming from the pandemic. In 2016, there of dedicated legal professionals who are ready to re- Louisville, Ky., were 337 lawsuits total, according to data compiled by spond to whatever the President and his enablers put on Oct. 13 Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of Cali- forth,” says Pennsylvania attorney general Josh Shap- fornia, Irvine. We are in the midst, says election-law iro. The Republican National Committee is on a simi- lar footing. “With the help of our national network of attorneys, the RNC has been beating the Democrats in court for the last several months and that will con- tinue should they attempt to sue their way to victory in November,” RNC chief counsel Justin Riemer says in a statement to TIME. Lawyers on both sides hope they won’t need to go nuclear with post–Election Day litigation. If Trump or Biden wins both the popular vote and the req- uisite 270 Electoral College votes by a sufficiently large margin, individual state cases will be moot. But that may be wishful thinking. Biden’s lead is smaller in swing states than it is nationwide, and both legal teams are gearing up. The possibility of very narrow wins in tipping-point races “is going to predispose both campaigns to try and fight over the outcome as long as they can,” says Foley. Which means come Nov. 4, the whole country could find itself in court. —With reporting by Julia Zorthian • 39 surge of in-person voting as polls opened Oct. 19, and in Georgia, three times as many people had voted in person by Oct. 20 as at the same point in 2016, ac- SCARE cording to a survey of election officials by CNN, Edi- son Research and Catalist. The concern, even among some of Trump’s TACTICS most senior law-enforcement officials, is that his campaign’s rhetoric could end up getting peo- THE TRADITION OF POLL WATCHERS ple hurt. Right-wing extremist groups, including ‘PROTECTING THE VOTE’ HAS TAKEN QAnon, Proud Boys, Boogaloos and so-called mili- tia groups, have all called for a physical presence at AN INTIMIDATING TURN polling places, says Frank Figliuzzi, the FBI’s former By W.J. Hennigan and Vera Bergengruen counter intelligence director. “The mobilization has already occurred,” he says. “The specter of people who are violent in nature and have violent agendas, if you’ve ever voTed, you’ve probably seen a and often come armed with long guns is becoming poll watcher: they’re the quiet, modestly dressed a very real possibility.” folks standing to one side, observing the orderly pro- Efforts are under way to prevent intimidation and cess of democracy unfold. It’s a service provided by violence. Election officials are reviewing security your neighbors, Democrat and Republican alike, that plans for their local polling stations. Social-media is supposed to give us all a little extra confidence that platforms are monitoring calls to suppress the our elections are free and fair. “We’ve done it every vote. State attorneys general have instructed law election year as far back as I can remember,” says enforcement to arrest and charge anyone who Steve Knotts, a veteran Republican organizer intimidates voters or election workers. “You cannot in Northern Virginia’s Fairfax County. Prop- use those positions to try and interfere with a erly trained to follow local election rules, person’s right to vote,” Michigan attorney general “they’re simply another person at the poll- “ Dana Nessel said on an Oct. 6 call with the press. ‘ARMED ing place,” says Knotts. “We have to draw the line.” And then there’s President Donald MILITIAS ... Trump’s version of a poll watcher. In recent The Trump Team’s TacTics may seem familiar to months, official Trump campaign advertise- COULD LEAD TO older voters in some parts of the country, and not just ments have adopted the stark language of THE INTIMIDATION the Deep South where Jim Crow voter- suppression wartime recruitment, calling on support- measures were once widespread. During the 1981 ers to “enlist today” so they can join the OF VOTERS New Jersey gubernatorial election, the GOP was “top ranks” alongside “battle-tested Team caught hiring off-duty law-enforcement officers to Trump operatives.” In one widely shared UNDER THE “monitor” minority precincts and require Black or video ad, Don Jr., Trump’s eldest son, says, Latino voters to show registration cards. In primarily “The radical left are laying the groundwork GUISE OF POLL Black and Latino neighborhoods around Houston in to steal this election from my father ... We WATCHING.’ 2010, members of a Tea Party–affiliated group, True need every able-bodied man and woman the Vote, were accused of “hovering over” voters and to join Army for Trump’s election security —DARYL JOHNSON, FORMER “getting into election workers’ faces,” according to operation.” DHS SENIOR ANALYST Assistant Harris County Attorney Terry O’Rourke. If that sounds scary, it’s supposed to, say After the 1981 incident, the courts imposed a Democrats and voting-rights advocates. The consent decree on the Republican National Com- Trump team’s martial talk is intended to mobi- mittee, forcing it to submit all of its poll-watching lize his voters and deter those who support his oppo- plans for review by a judge. The decree expired in nent, former Vice President Joe Biden, says election- December 2017, and Trump campaign operatives law expert Rick Hasen at the University of California, got to work. “We were really operating with one Irvine. “I can think of nothing in recent history that’s hand tied behind our back,” Trump’s deputy cam- even close to this,” he says. “Trump is a candidate of paign manager, Justin Clark, told an audience at the a different era—an era when voter suppression was Conservative Political Action Conference in March. seen as acceptable.” Detailing plans to recruit 50,000 Republican vol- Most voters don’t seem particularly frightened unteers to become poll watchers in 2020, Clark by Trump’s attempt to turn mundane poll watching told the group, “We’re going to have scale this year; into an action-hero role. More than 2.3 million peo- we’re going to be out there protecting our votes.” ple had voted in person by Oct. 20, according to the That sentiment soon appeared online, taking on U.S. Elections Project, a data base run by Michael Mc- an overtly militaristic tone. Protecting our votes be- Donald with the University of Florida. Florida saw a came defend your ballot, and scale became an army.

40 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 Republican operatives speaking in measured tones about proper procedures and reminding pro- spective poll watchers to “be courteous to county staff and other watchers—yes, even our Democrat friends!”

ElEction officials, social-media platforms and law enforcement—worried the Trump campaign’s language will inspire something less civil—are pre- paring for the worst. In October, Facebook said it would no longer allow content that encourages poll watching by using “militarized” language that is intended to “intimidate, exert control, or display power over election officials or voters.” In a call with reporters, Facebook Vice President of Global Policy Management Monika Bickert said that posts using words like army or battle would be prohibited. U.S. law enforcement and security agencies also seem to be on alert. In an assessment that described far-right extremists as the largest domestic terrorist threat in the U.S., the Department of Homeland Se- curity (DHS) noted that such bad actors are focusing on election- or campaign-related activities. “Open- air, publicly accessible parts of physical election in- frastructure, such as campaign-associated mass gath- erings, polling places and voter-registration events, would be the most likely flash points for potential vi- olence,” the analysis read. Domestic terrorists “might target events related to the 2020 presidential cam- paigns, the election itself, election results or the post- Familiar groups responded. Ten years after their ^ election period.” controversial role in Houston, members of True the Trump supporters The current state of the country adds its own con- Vote have worked to recruit U.S. military veterans chant, “Four cerns. “Between the pandemic and civil unrest, the to go to polling places on Nov. 3, says Ed Hiner, a more years,” on timing couldn’t be worse,” says Daryl Johnson, a for- retired Navy SEAL who says he led the effort ear- Sept. 19 outside mer DHS senior analyst. A report by the Giffords Law lier this year but bowed out in June when the na- the Fairfax County Center to Prevent Gun Violence warned it is “likely tional conversation around poll watching became Government that significant numbers of people will bring guns Center in Fairfax, “too partisan.” Hiner says he promoted the effort to polling places under the guise of preventing elec- Va., disrupting to 2 million former service members through vet- early voting tion fraud.” Johnson says Trump’s rhetoric is fueling erans’ organizations. On Facebook, the group has these groups’ fear and paranoia. “By calling people echoed Trump’s call to send “sheriffs” to the polls to polling stations, these armed militias could show and posted messages like, “PA Patriots, you need to up and lead to the intimidation of voters under the engage—now! Eyes on every drop-off, polling place guise of poll watching.” and count.” Election officials are taking their own steps to The Trump campaign declined to answer TIME’s protect voters. On Sept. 19, during early in-person repeated requests for information about the number voting in Fairfax, Va., dozens of Trump supporters of poll watchers that registered through their web- chanting, “Four more years,” massed near a polling site. Thea McDonald, the campaign’s national deputy location, forcing officials to allow a group of voters press secretary, says that the “Army for Trump” is to wait inside. Now officials there say they will ex- about fairness, not intimidation. “Poll watchers will pand the site’s buffer zone, in which electioneering be trained to ensure all rules are applied equally, all is prohibited, from 40 ft. to 150 ft. valid ballots are counted,” she says. That’s just fine by Knotts, the GOP chairman That, of course, is what good poll watching is of Fairfax County, who is determined to over- supposed to be about, and those Americans who see a quiet, fair Election Day. “Most people don’t sign up for the traditional role with their local elec- even know who a poll watcher is,” he says. “My tion officials will find a nonpartisan process. Ob- hope is that they don’t even notice us, and every- servers from both parties typically undergo training thing goes on without a hitch.” —With reporting

KENNY HOLSTON—THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX and certification. GOP training videos show coiffed by mariah espada  41 to a peaceful transfer of power. The COVID-19 pan- demic has transformed voting procedures, while the charged political climate has focused attention on DON’T the mechanics of an electoral system that’s shaky, underfunded and under intense strain. It would be naive to predict that nothing will go wrong. But for many people, these reasonable concerns PANIC have hardened into terror that a constitutional crisis WHY FEARS OF POST-ELECTION is all but inevitable and that it will make the debacle CHAOS ARE OVERBLOWN in Florida in 2000 look like a walk in the park. That, experts say, is not the case. There are worst-case sce- By Molly Ball narios, and the President’s conduct has made them less unthinkable than usual. But the chances of their coming to pass are remote. Benjamin Ginsberg, who RepResenTaTive maRk pocan spends a loT of △ represented the GOP candidate in the 2000 recount, time lately trying to talk his constituents off the Just 22% of cautions against hysteria. “The panic seems to me to ledge. They’re terrified President Trump is some- Americans be way overblown,” he says. how going to steal the election, says Pocan, a liberal believe the Democrat from Madison, Wis. election will be What exactly are the worst-case scenarios? They “Literally daily I get this question,” Pocan “free and fair” start with the absence of a clear outcome on election says. In anxious tones, they ask about all of the night. Many states will be dealing with a massive in- election-related lawsuits, ballot deadlines, Electoral crease in mail and absentee ballots, which take lon- College technicalities and state-level hijinks. “People ger to process than in-person votes: they have to be are so nervous, because they think this guy will do removed from their envelopes, flattened for tabula- anything to stay in power,” he says. tion and checked for signatures and other technical Just 22% of Americans believe the election will requirements before they can be counted. Polls show be “free and fair,” according to a September Yahoo Trump’s disdain for mail ballots has led to a large News/YouGov poll, compared with 46% who say it partisan divide when it comes to voting methods: won’t be. The sense of worry is understandable. The far more Republicans plan to vote on Election Day, President has sown doubt with groundless talk of a polls show, while Democrats are more likely to vote “rigged” election and repeated refusals to commit by mail. If the tally is close, the delay could allow 42 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 Trump to baselessly claim that a surge of Democratic state. “The candidates themselves have almost no mail ballots in the days after Nov. 3 are fraudulent role in this process,” says Vanita Gupta, president and shouldn’t be counted. of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Three states loom largest in this concern: Michi- Rights and a top Justice Department official in the gan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. All three are key Obama Administration. “While people may make battlegrounds that have made a rapid and politically claims to powers and make threats about what they fraught push to expand voting by mail this year. All may or may not do, the reality is that the candidates have Democratic governors and Republican legis- don’t have the power to determine the outcome of the latures that have fought bitterly over election rules election. It’s really important that voters understand in state and federal courts. All have a limited abil- that while a lot about our system is complicated, this ity under state law to count or process mail ballots isn’t a free-for-all.” before the polls close. Other quirks, like a “naked Whether or not Trump concedes has little bearing ballot”—a legitimate ballot that a voter has failed to on the election’s resolution. Nor can he or any other enclose in the required security envelope—may cause candidate simply decide to put the election in the further uncertainty; a Pennsylvania court ruled this hands of the Supreme Court, as Trump has alluded year that such ballots would not be counted in that to and liberals have fretted about. There’s a legal pro- state, which Trump won by just 44,000 votes. It all cess to get there. The oft-invoked Bush v. Gore, the could add up to a presidential race that’s too close to Supreme Court case that resolved the 2000 standoff, call for days or weeks. was decided narrowly, specific to a particular situa- But for these delays to matter, the tally tion in a particular place, notes Joshua Geltzer, ex- would have to be very close, and the presi- ecutive director of the Institute for Constitutional dential race would have to hinge on those ‘THE “CANDIDATES Advocacy and Protection at Georgetown Law. “These three states. Current polls do not show a things Trump is saying—toss all the ballots, end the particularly tight race in those states, nor DON’T HAVE counting—those are not legal arguments,” he says. nation wide. And the polls have been far THE POWER TO Some fear a scenario in which, after weeks of un- more stable, with far fewer undecided vot- certainty, the time comes for states to name electors ers, than they were in 2016. Faster-counting DETERMINE THE to the Electoral College, and Republican legislators states like Florida and Arizona, which have try to appoint their own rosters, overruling their demonstrated the ability to rapidly tabulate OUTCOME OF state’s voters and forcing courts or Congress to re- large volumes of mail ballots, could well de- solve the matter. But experts point to the 1887 Elec- cide the election, rendering any uncertainty THE ELECTION.’ toral Count Act, which Congress passed to prevent in the Rust Belt irrelevant. —VANITA GUPTA, a repeat of the “dueling electors” of 1876. “It’s un- Still, suppose we do end up in a version FORMER JUSTICE thinkably undemocratic to hold a popular vote for of the worst-case scenario. The election’s DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL President and then nullify it if you don’t like the re- outcome is unclear after days or weeks, and sult,” says Adav Noti, chief of staff at the nonpartisan Trump is muddying the waters—lobbing Campaign Legal Center. While the possibility can’t lawsuits, disputing the count, accusing his be entirely dismissed given Republicans’ fealty to opponents of cheating and convincing large swaths Trump, judges would likely take a dim view of such of the electorate that something untoward is going an effort, not to mention the political storm that on behind the scenes. Mainstream media outlets would ensue. “It’s pretty clearly illegal under fed- and independent analysts urge caution or pro ject a eral law, and it almost certainly would violate the Biden win, but Trump calls it a left-wing coup and constitutional rights of the voters,” Noti says. “They refuses to concede. Conservative media, fellow Re- may try it, and it would be a serious situation, but I publicans and even the Department of Justice, all of don’t think it would succeed.” which have enabled Trump’s norm busting for the The past few years have convinced many past four years, back him up. Partisans take to the Americans to expect the unlikely, haunted by streets. America plunges into uncertainty. failures of imagination past. But when it comes to post-election mayhem, people’s imaginations may EvEn if this happEns, experts stress that Trump be getting the better of them. Hyping far-fetched does not have the power to circumvent the nation’s scenarios has a pernicious effect: it erodes people’s labyrinthine election procedures by tweet. Elec- confidence that their vote will count, dampening tions are administered by state and local officials the shared trust essential to democracy. “Supposing in thousands of jurisdictions, most of whom are ex- Armageddon comes, you do want people having perienced professionals with rec ords of integrity. thought of it,” says Ginsberg, the GOP election There are well-tested processes in place for dealing lawyer. “But by amplifying it as if it’s realistic, you with irregularities, challenges and contests. A can- create a very real problem of people not having faith didate can’t demand a recount, for example, unless in the system by which we choose our leaders. And

SEPTEMBER DAWN BOTTOMS FOR TIME the tally is within a certain margin, which varies by that’s really harmful.” • 43 Society

PROVIDERS CAN’T CAN TECH SAVE SURVIVE THE PANDEMIC THE INDUSTRY? page 46 page 49

44 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 Stella Pachak, 4, walks up to Ms. Brittany’s Village, a home day care in Colorado, on Sept. 17

PHOTOGRAPHS BY RACHEL WOOLF FOR TIME Society

Day cares on the brink BY ABBY VESOULIS

arch 27 was hands down the worst day of Cathleen Farrell’s profes- sional life. COVID-19 had hit the country like a tsu- nami a couple weeks before, prompting childcare centers, including the three she owns and operates in Medfield, Mass., to close until further notice. For two weeks, Farrell had continued to pay her 26-person staff, hoping the crisis would be over soon. But by the end of that month, her finances had become unten- able. She reluctantly assembled her em- ployees to deliver the grim news: every- one would be furloughed indefinitely. On the video call with her staff, Farrell cried. “I felt like I was doing it to them,” she ^ demic, and 70% said they’re incurring says, her voice cracking in the retelling. Most New York City childcare “substantial” new operating costs, ac- Stopping people’s paychecks during a pe- centers, like this one, were required to cording to a July survey from the National riod of economic uncertainty cut against shut down from April to mid-July Association for the Education of Young how she saw herself. “I’m a caretaker,” she Children (NAEYC). Across the industry, says. “I take care of people.” any employee who is not feeling 100%.) enrollment has plummeted by two-thirds, But Farrell’s decision to furlough her Farrell was able to defray some of while costs continue to soar. Day-care staff was just the beginning of her finan- these costs with a $156,000 federal Pay- managers must hire more staff to handle cial woes. In order to reopen her day-care check Protection Program loan and a smaller class sizes, spend more on legal centers in July, shortly after Massachu- $100,000 federal Economic Injury Di- fees to navigate the process of obtaining setts gave childcare directors the green saster Loan (EIDL) from the Small Busi- government loans and abiding by state light, she had to retrofit her facilities to ness Administration. But seven months regulations, and shell out more for sanita- keep kids safe and quell their parents’ into the pandemic, that cash is nowhere tion supplies and cleaning personnel. Un- fears. That meant purchasing thousands near enough. In all, she tallies her losses less the government invests significantly of dollars’ worth of new equipment: 18 air to exceed $390,000. “Money is flying in the industry—and soon— NAEYC pre- purifiers at $200 a pop; an $800 electro- out the window,” she says. “It’s been dicts that 40% of the childcare businesses static sanitizing device; half a dozen $369 heart- wrenching to see a thriving busi- it surveyed will shutter. Permanently. strollers to keep toddlers farther apart; ness collapse.” Enrollment at her facili- The deaTh and outside play equipment and tents ties has yet to rebound. For weeks, her of the childcare industry IMAGES KEITH—GETTY STEPHANIE that set her back well over $10,000. Far- largest childcare center operated at 20% as we know it may have a domino effect rell also doubled the frequency at which capacity. Until October, Farrell couldn’t across the economy. If these businesses professional cleaners visited her facili- even afford to pay herself. fail, owners like Farrell will face hard- ties and began paying her staff more in Not that it provides much solace, but ship, but so will the roughly 1.1 million overtime, in part because they had to pick Farrell is far from alone: 86% of child- people—96% of whom are women and up additional hours as their co-workers care providers reported serving fewer 40% of whom are women of color—who took more sick days. (Farrell sends home children than they were before the pan- work as caretakers. Mass closures across

46 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 their businesses for more lucrative ones. measures are important. Research shows Families, meanwhile, may opt to keep a that early- childhood education shapes parent home to watch the kids. “Absent everything from adult brain volume to our collective investment in childcare, reading proficiency. “That has an im- there really won’t be an effective com- pact on our future labor force and their munity recovery,” warns Lynette Fraga, economic potential, which ultimately is the CEO of Child Care Aware, an industry tied to our country’s economic potential,” research and advocacy organization. “If says Katica Roy, a gender economist. But we aren’t supporting childcare providers, these requirements also have the effect of there won’t be childcare to go back to.” making day cares less nimble in the face of economic crises. Millions of AMericAn pArents, While other enterprises can quickly who already spend an average of about cut down on costs by downsizing, going $10,000 per toddler per year for child- remote or skimping on staff, day cares care, may wonder why their day-care don’t have that luxury. Caretakers who center is in such dire financial straits. need to quarantine or call in sick also pose The answer, in part, is simple econom- outsize problems for their bosses. Since ics: operating a day care requires a lot most day cares are not currently allow- of overhead—rent, utilities, staff salaries ing parents to enter the buildings, centers and equipment—while profit margins are need to have enough staff to bring chil- relatively slim. COVID-19 has made those dren inside in the morning and back to ratios even worse. “This was an industry their parents outside in the evening. They that was really struggling before the pan- also need to have enough staff to watch demic,” says Simon Workman, the direc- the children throughout the day—but tor of early-childhood policy at the Cen- not so many that they can’t cover payroll ter for American Progress (CAP). “If you and other expenses, like purchasing per- were struggling to get by before, then the sonal protective equipment. That delicate chance of you closing now is pretty high.” calculus can create huge logistical prob- Lauren Brown, the director of World lems for both childcare operators and the of Wonders Childcare and Learning Cen- working parents who rely on them. “If I ter in Marysville, Ohio, says her center don’t have enough staff to operate safely,” spent 300% more on cleaning costs over says Meredith Kasten, who runs Early the industry will also have a ripple effect the summer, while grossing $20,000 less Childhood Center in Greensboro, N.C., on parents, who depend on day-care cen- in June and July compared with previous “then I have to close the whole building.” ters to work outside the home. Without years, because of reduced enrollment. Even in the best economic times, access to affordable and convenient child- Annette Gladstone, the co-founder of childcare centers are hardly big money- care, many parents—and the burden falls Segray Eagle Rock preschool in Los An- makers. The average day-care operator disproportionately on mothers—will be geles, tells a similar story. She’s strug- grosses $48,000 a year, according to the forced to quit their jobs. It’s no longer a gling to pay rent on her center’s build- Bureau of Labor Statistics, while standard question of whether this will happen, but ing in part because many of the children childcare workers make roughly $24,000. how pervasive it will be. From August to her company usually cares for have yet Usually these jobs come with little or no September, 865,000 women dropped out to re-enroll. Segray Eagle Rock normally paid time off or other benefits. Only 15% of the labor force, according to the latest has 177 kids; in mid-October, it was still of childcare workers receive employer- jobs report; 216,000 men did too. This serving only 35 to 40 kids per day. And sponsored health insurance, according mass exodus is already hindering wom- again with the costs: despite the blister- to a 2015 Economic Policy Institute re- en’s advancement, exacerbating gender ing Southern California heat this summer, port. (The lack of health care benefits can income inequality and putting a drag on Gladstone kept the windows open and the be problematic under any circumstances, the U.S. economic recovery. “If we had a air- conditioning on because the CDC in- but the stakes are particularly high during panic button, we’d be hitting it,” says Ra- dicated the practice could increase venti- an ongoing pandemic.) chel Thomas, the CEO of Lean In. “We lation, thus decreasing viral transmission. As COVID-19 restrictions loosen in have never seen numbers like these.” Stringent government regulations de- some states, and parents begin to send Mass closures of day-care centers signed to safeguard child safety and de- their kids back to day care, some child- may also warp the childcare industry in velopment are also a factor. Most states care operators have struggled to hire back the long term, experts say. Newly unem- require that day-care centers maintain their laid-off staff. Part of the reason has ployed caretakers, who tend to make low high adult-to-child ratios and ample to do with the industry’s dismal compen- wages in demanding settings, may never square footage. In some places, day-care sation. Some childcare workers actually return to their profession, and childcare- operators are required to hire staff trained saw their incomes increase when they lost center owners may choose to abandon in early- childhood development. These their jobs, thanks to the extra $600 per 47 Society

week in unemployment pay provided by some kind. For millions of American we’re asking parents to foot the bill and the CARES Act—a provision that expired parents, that choice is stark: either they it’s so expensive,” she says, “it means that in July. This summer in Florida, an un- pay for private day care or they choose to the only way to really make that happen employed worker could have received as stay home, thus giving up their income. is to essentially exploit the people who much as $875 per week from both state But at the same time, American society are doing it.” and federal unemployment benefits. has not rewarded the childcare industry That’s close to twice what the average for the vital role it plays. While Ameri- Farrell, From massachuseTTs, childcare worker makes normally. cans agreed long ago that children have is acutely aware of that dynamic. After But part of the problem facing child- a right to a public-school education— months of exorbitant expenses, she’s care operators looking to rehire staff may to which even nonparents contribute in worried about the viability of her smallest also be widespread instability across the taxes—there is no similar consensus on childcare center—and about her retire- industry. The shaky economics of running sharing the cost of caring for smaller kids. ment plans. Currently 57, she’d planned to a day-care facility combined with the un- bow out in the next eight years, but now certainty of the ongoing pandemic, which worries she will have to stick around lon- continues to worsen in many parts of the ger to pay back the debts she’s accrued. country, makes employment in the sec- 70% “Knowing that I owe that EIDL money tor unsavory to some. It’s unclear if pro- PERCENTAGE OF CHILDCARE CENTERS THAT back scares the hell out of me,” she says. viders who are hired back now will still REPORTED “SUBSTANTIAL” NEW OPERATING She has 30 years to repay the loan, but have a job in a month or a year. According COSTS AS A RESULT OF THE PANDEMIC can’t fathom working into her late 80s to to CAP data provided to TIME, the costs do so. “I don’t even know if I am going of providing center-based childcare have to be on this earth in 30 years,” she adds. increased by an average of 47% since be- Short of the pandemic miraculously fore COVID-19. In California, costs have 325K ending and enrollment levels recovering, jumped 54%, and in Georgia, they’ve sky- there’s a glimmer of hope for childcare- rocketed 115%. NUMBER OF CHILDCARE WORKERS WHO center directors like Farrell. On the pres- Home-based childcare facilities, which LOST THEIR JOBS FROM FEBRUARY TO JUNE idential campaign trail, former Demo- served up to 30% of infants and toddlers cratic candidates including Senators before the pandemic, are also suffering. Kirsten Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren Such facilities usually enroll fewer kids, floated tax breaks and universal childcare which some parents may see as a bene- 18% plans that would have pumped money fit during COVID-19. But the sector has SHARE OF CHILDCARE CENTERS into day-care centers while also reducing been in decline for years. From 2005 to THAT ANTICIPATE STAYING AFLOAT the cost of care for working- class fami- 2017, the number of small licensed fam- BEYOND JULY 2021 IF ENROLLMENT lies. Democratic presidential nominee ily childcare businesses dropped 52%, ac- RATES STAY DOWN Joe Biden has since taken up that man- cording to a government- funded report. tle, calling for tax credits and subsidies Ellen Dressman, the founder of Frog that would ensure families earning less Hollow Nursery School, a home-based than 1½ times the median income in their day care in Berkeley, Calif., has been 1 in 4 state aren’t having to spend more than 7% in business for more than two decades of their incomes on childcare. and recruited her children to join it too. PROPORTION OF WOMEN WHO ARE There’s also been some movement in But when her state permitted childcare CONTEMPLATING DOWNSHIFTING THEIR Congress. In July, the Democrat-led House businesses like theirs to reopen over the CAREERS OR LEAVING THE WORKFORCE passed a bill appropriating $50 billion to- summer, only two families planned to SOURCES: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE EDUCATION OF YOUNG ward the Child Care Stabilization Fund return—not enough to cover operating CHILDREN, MCKINSEY & CO./LEAN IN, DEPARTMENT OF LABOR to provide grants to childcare provid- costs. If Dressman, 65, and her daughter ers. But that bill is unlikely to pass the lose the business, which covered their The disparity is clear. While public- GOP- controlled Senate, and even if it did, mortgage, they could lose the home that school administrators have also grappled it probably wouldn’t be enough to save the day care operated out of, too. “I didn’t with new COVID-19- related safety proto- childcare centers that are already under- realize how much the industry really cols and increased expenses, they are but- water. The Center for Law and Social Pol- needs public support until now,” she says. tressed by government funding. Day cares icy estimates the industry would require aren’t—and are therefore left to sink or nearly $10 billion per month to survive The calamiTy currently facing the swim. Marcy Whitebook, the founding di- the pandemic, according to an April re- childcare industry was both predictable rector of the Center for the Study of Child port. “It is short-term triage, but it may and preventable, some experts say. After Care Employment at the University of be too late,” Whitebook says of the House all, private day care is intrinsic to the func- California, Berkeley, says there’s no good bill for emergency funds. “We’re in a fast- tioning of the American economy. Par- reason why the U.S. does not provide pub- moving vehicle toward destruction of a lot ents of small children cannot participate lic support for childcare in the same way of people’s lives, livelihoods and health. in the labor force without childcare of other industrialized nations do. “Because And kids are in that vehicle too.” □

48 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 used-car yards of the U.S. childcare ecosystem: the The rise of place people go when they can’t afford anywhere else, which may be why the number of fully licensed op- the ‘carebnb’ erations has more than halved in the past 15 years, from 200,000 to 86,000. BY BELINDA LUSCOMBE One of the reasons Schultz was able to move so swiftly was that she had joined a childcare franchise or the past six years, Brittany known as MyVillage, a Colorado startup that matches Schultz has been a kindergarten teacher parents with caregivers, eHarmony-style, and takes in the Denver public school system. On care of a lot of the administrative work, like billing May 28, she left, and on June 15, she and insurance. MyVillage is one of a growing num- opened Ms. Brittany’s Village day care ber of companies—usually with reassuring names in her home in Commerce City, Colo., with her three like Wonderschool, WeeCare or NeighborSchools— children and one from another family. Within two ^ that are trying to use technology to transform the months of opening, she was, she says, making the Brittany day-care industry by creating more home-based care same money as she had made in a classroom but was Schultz set up centers, and improving the reputation and profitabil- responsible for only nine kids. She and her husband, a childcare ity of the ones that already exist. Childcare veterans who works with her, currently earn about $5,000 a center in her warn that they have a steep climb ahead of them. month. home in June; About 7 million children under the age of 5 Schultz is a peppy, can-do woman with the inde- she’s making are cared for in someone’s home, according to the fatigable good cheer and focus that are key to work- more money 2016 National Survey of Early Care and Education. than she did as ing with little kids. But even for the very energetic, to a teacher About 4 million of them are looked after by a rela- go from zero to opening a childcare center in a mat- tive. The other 3 million are in a home day care. De- ter of weeks is remarkable. The licensing procedures spite the number of children they care for, however, and safety requirements are significant, and can re- these home-based day-care centers have often been quire home renovations. Opening your own business overlooked—by policymakers and legislators, parents in the teeth of a pandemic shutdown takes some guts. and nonprofits—since more than 90% of them are not And many teachers, especially those with graduate regulated, and it’s difficult to get a clear idea of the degrees like Schultz, have historically shunned a standard of care. Expanding and improving the sector change of profession to what many see as babysit- was one of the centerpieces of the childcare-reform ting. Home-based centers are often regarded as the initiative that Ivanka Trump shepherded through the 49 White House in December, though it stopped there. Care, suggests that providers could make $100,000 But now a perfect storm has landed on the child- a year: 300% more than the industry average. care landscape, whipped up by the twin fronts of fear While the pandemic has been hard on all provid- and opportunity. Many parents, spooked by the po- ers, home-based centers have proved the most ro- tential for COVID-19 infection at big centers, and bust. The Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC) found that no longer necessarily commuting to work, are look- childcare centers operating out of people’s homes ing for smaller, more local options for their children, were the most likely of any type of provider to stay especially those that will take siblings of different ^ open. More than a quarter of them continued oper- ages. Millennials, raised in the sharing economy, al- “I don’t want ating without any interruption, while only 12% of ready regard domestic space as multipurpose. Teach- parents to childcare chains kept functioning. ers like Schultz, alarmed by the prospects of either see me as a The representatives of the tech-based networks teaching entirely online, or contagion in schools, are babysitter,” talk about home-based childcare not as a last resort, looking for another way to work. People suddenly says Schultz, but as an artisanal, locally sourced amenity, childcare’s need jobs. And governments and employers have checking in version of Airbnb—that could also change the world. Liam Delgado, come to realize that without childcare, their work- “The continuity of care and this partnership that de- 2, while his force is significantly less productive. The expensive dad Matthew velops between a provider who works with the child on-site office childcare centers sit empty while -em holds him. for a couple of years and a parent, that’s the magic ployees stagger under the double load of parenting “I’ve worked of it,” enthuses Brian Swartz, one of the founders of and working from home. Everyone’s looking for new harder than the Boston-based NeighborSchools. “We think this solutions. that and put in is the model for the future of childcare in America.” These winds are buffeting a care system for the years and years This has not been the way home day cares have youngest Americans that was already in disarray, and and years of been regarded by many parents. “I was worried ini- childcare tech entrepreneurs believe they have the teaching and tially because of all the bad stories from social media solution. For a fee, they offer home-based carers help training.” about in-home day care,” says Victoria Melanson, with the tasks that algorithms do well, including pay- who needed care for her 3-year-old son after the pan- roll, marketing, billing and scheduling. They provide demic meant older relatives could no longer look after curricula, training webinars, mentorship and often a him. Bigger chain centers were out of the family’s kind of virtual teachers’ lounge, where providers can price range, if they were open, so she went with a mingle with others and kvetch or offer support, and a home day care through NeighborSchools, and loves it. path to licensure. They have search portals to match These “carebnbs,” as they might be called, had parents and local providers. One of them, Wee- been around before SARS-CoV-2 arrived, but

50 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 the virus has made their business more relevant. is one of the most ancient and global infant-rearing WeeCare, the biggest of the networks, had 600 day- practices we have. Mothers have been leaving their care providers signed up in December, almost all children with trusted and experienced neighbors in California. As of October, it has 2,700 providers since people first started to gather in villages. But across 25 states. Wonderschool, which started in perhaps because the work has always been done by 2017 and got a $20 million injection of funds from women—and, in America, women of color—it does investors led by Andreessen Horowitz a year later, not attract the respect that might logically be ac- now has 1,000 centers. Interest from parents has ^ corded to people who nurture our newest beings. skyrocketed, especially for those centers that are Hassan According to Home Grown, a national organi- outdoors, sometimes known as forest schools. Both Albayati, zation that advocates for home-based care centers, NeighborSchools and MyVillage have expanded their 3, smiles at sometimes called family childcare centers or in-home geographic reach during the pandemic, and several another child childcare, there are about 1.12 million paid carers platforms have started partnerships with businesses while they who work in their homes, of whom only 7%—some looking to help their employees. wait for snack 86,309—are fully licensed. These are the ones whose time. The most numbers have been dropping the fastest; more than Ask Any pArent unexpected about the U.S. childcare system, part of running a fifth of them have closed in the past six years. This and you can settle in for a long and exasperated de- the center, decline, experts agree, is one of the prime drivers of tailing of the parlous state of affairs. “In my city, there says Schultz, the increasing number of what are called childcare are not a lot of options that are affordable but high- has been “the deserts: areas where the demand for childcare vastly quality,” says Mike Schmorrow, a lumberman from insane amount exceeds the supply. Gloucester, Mass. He didn’t qualify for any childcare of diapers I It’s not quite clear why the home day-care sector subsidies, “even though if I were to pay the full retail have to change has shrunk. Linda Smith of the BPC believes retir- price, I wouldn’t be able to afford to live.” He ended on a daily ing providers are not being replaced. Chang says she up sending his son to a home-based day care half an basis.” found “a significant disconnect between millenni- hour away, which charged him $100 for two days. als who are now the parents and the baby boomers On the other end of the income spectrum, Jessica who were all the providers. Many of them didn’t have Chang, who founded WeeCare, was so confounded websites ... or even any reviews online.” by finding care that she bought and operated three But nearly everyone suggests it’s simply because preschools herself before building the online child- the work is hard and the rewards and respect are care marketplace. “Preschools don’t scale,” she says. low. Most home-based day-care providers’ jour- In many ways, childcare in a local person’s home ney to profitability is not as smooth as Schultz’s. 51 Society

Joy Gilbert opened her first home-based Visiting the organization’s chat room Nonprofits, foundations, state govern- childcare center in 2017, for her son and about twice a week has helped her feel ments and local communities have been the children of friends and family. “I just less isolated—and understand the thicket trying to remedy the low level of licensing set up my own space in my mom’s home,” of compliance and training regulations for years. Jessica Sager started her non- she says. “I didn’t really know much about that she needs to meet to get licensed in profit All Our Kin 20 years ago, and works the billing process and stuff. I wouldn’t Colorado. “If I didn’t have MyVillage, I intensively with home-based caregivers in say it was the best financially.” When the probably would not have pursued licens- Connecticut and New York to raise qual- childcare center she had been working at ing so soon. I feel like it’s kind of a lot to ity and put them on the path to licensure before she had her son found a space for do by yourself,” she says. Gilbert watches and thus more profitability. The tech ap- him, she went back to work there. two children, plus her own two kids, right proaches are helpful, she says, but the real “Even during regular times, it is not now, but if she got her license and en- work of training and helping home-care easy to be a home-based childcare pro- rolled five, she says, she would triple the providers is “deep, deep in-person work.” vider,” says Natalie Renew, director of income from her last job. Other childcare advocates worry that Home Grown. The hours are long— tech companies will not build platforms a Health and Human Services sur- While the stated aim of all the new capable of reaching the families who need vey put it at an average of 56½ hours a home-care networks has always been to the most help, those who are poor enough week—and the pay is suboptimal, about that their childcare is subsidized by the $30,000 a year for a licensed provider, government. An investigation by the non- less for an unlicensed one like Gilbert. profit education news service the Hech- The business is also precarious. Most 45% inger Report found that as of December states allow only four infants or up to 2018, only 12% of Wonderschool families eight children if some are over the age of PERCENTAGE OF U.S. PARENTS WITH paid with government vouchers, and 30% 6. Many take several kids from the same CHILDREN UNDER 5 WHO WERE PAYING of WeeCare families. These days, reps family. If just one family pulls out—be- FOR CHILDCARE IN JANUARY 2020 from both networks say, at least 40% of cause of job loss, a move or countless their franchisees are working with fami- other life changes—the provider loses a lies who have subsidized care. huge chunk of her income. All the tech- But if nothing else, the tech people nology in the world can’t forestall this. 12% are bringing entrepreneur-level energy to MyVillage was able to raise some funds an industry that has long had very little from its investors for their providers SHARE OF THOSE PARENTS WHO WERE agency. After providers were prevented who lost clients in the pandemic, and USING A HOME-BASED CHILDCARE CENTER from opening centers by some Colorado Home Grown spread $1.2 million around homeowners’ associations, MyVillage 12 states, but it’s like pouring a cup of spearheaded a law that disallowed such water on a forest fire. 30% exclusions. When NeighborSchools had Yet home-based care is a vital part of more than 100 women stuck in a Mas- the childcare infrastructure, serving more PORTION OF THOSE CENTERS THAT sachusetts licensing bottleneck, Swartz vulnerable populations, younger children REMAINED OPEN DURING THE PANDEMIC, complained to the media and got a call and low-income families. Homes are also ACCORDING TO PARENTS, THE HIGHEST from the early education commissioner the preferred care option of most fami- OF ANY TYPE OF PROVIDER that day. lies of color, says Myra Jones-Taylor, chief SOURCE: BIPARTISAN POLICY CENTER Veterans of the battle for childcare policy officer of early-childhood organiza- are mostly welcoming of the new re- tion Zero to Three. “There’s a vast body cruits with their shiny new tools, but of research that shows that Black boys are increase the supply of childcare, the sit- are wary of seeing them as the solution. being treated as menacing and deserving uation is beginning to look a little like a “I think they have a place in our system. of discipline at an early age,” she says. “We land grab of existing providers. “Some of Do I think they’re the saving grace?” says already see the racial bias emerging in pre- the other [startups] have all but stopped Linda Smith. “Nuh-uh.” After 40 years school.” Parents feel their sons, especially, supporting new providers,” says Swartz working on the issue, including a stint in will be treated more fairly at home-based of NeighborSchools, which is aiming for the Obama Administration, she says the care centers. “They don’t have to worry a 50-50 mix of newbies and existing cen- missing piece of the childcare puzzle is about a cultural bias,” says Jones-Taylor. ters. “My understanding is they found it an understanding among policymakers, “The women are of the community.” to be laborious.” It makes sense that the business leaders and the non parent pub- Community is part of what drew Gil- tech industry wants to work mostly with lic about how much it really costs to look bert to the profession. After she got fur- providers who are already licensed, who after very young human beings. The loughed from her day-care center at the can charge enough that the percentage is childcare crisis will not be solved, she and start of the pandemic, she answered an worthwhile, but it’s a little like retrofit- other advocates believe, until that real- ad for MyVillage: “It seemed like the ting the lifeboats on the Titanic; the vast ization sinks in. But since that might be perfect fit. I could look after my children majority of home-based childcare provid- a while, advocates say, anyone is welcome and at the same time help other families.” ers do not fall into this category. to dig in and help. 

52 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 You can’t be an expert in everything. So we’re building a community that is...

The most innovative founders and investors collaborating to tackle challenges, grow their businesses and navigate the changing world.

www.thefoundingnetwork.com

In a year the world stopped, there was time to think about how we want to make it better when it begins turning again. TIME, in partnership with the World Economic Forum, asked leading thinkers for ideas on how to transform the way we live and work—and civic leaders, policymakers and heads of business about their plans to realize a better world.

ILLUSTRATION BY BRIAN STAUFFER FOR TIME THE GREAT RESET HOW WE BOUNCED BACK

A dispatch from the year 2023 on how the world came together to create a more sustainable, inclusive economy By Mariana Mazzucato

The year is 2023. The Covid-19 pandemiC has Come to an end, and the global economy is on the path to recov- ery. How did we get here? How did our economy and so- ciety evolve to overcome the greatest crisis of our age? Let’s begin in the summer of 2020, when the unabated spread of disease was heralding an increasingly dire outlook for economies and societies. The pandemic had exposed critical vulnerabilities around the world— underpaid essential workers, an unregulated financial sector and major corporations neglecting investment in favor of higher stock prices. With economies shrinking, govern- buildings; revamped public trans- ments recognized that both households and businesses needed port designed to be sustainable, ac- help—and fast. But with memories of the 2008 financial crisis still cessible and free; and an artistic re- fresh, the question was how governments could structure bailouts vival in public squares, with artists so they would benefit society, rather than prop up corporate profits and designers rethinking city life and a failing system. with citizenship and civic life at its In an echo of the “golden age” of capitalism—the period after heart. Governments used a digital 1945 when Western nations steered finance toward the right parts revolution to improve public ser- of the economy—it became clear that new policies were needed to vices, from digital health to e-cards, address climate risks, incentivize green lending, scale up financial in- and create a citizen- centered welfare stitutions tackling social and environmental goals, and ban financial- state. This transformation required sector activity that didn’t serve a clear public purpose. The European both supply-side investments and Union was the first to take concrete steps in this direction after agree- demand-side pulls, with public pro- ing in August to a historic €1.8 trillion recovery package. As part of curement becoming a tool for innova- the package, the E.U. made it mandatory for governments receiv- tive thinking that funneled through ing the funds to implement strong strategies for addressing climate all branches of government. change, reducing the digital divide and strengthening health systems. The U.S. began to change its ap-

In late 2020, this ambitious recovery plan helped the euro proach after Nov. 3, 2020, when (2) SHUTTERSTOCK stabilize and ushered in a new European renaissance, with citizens Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump helping to set the agenda. The European leadership used challenge- in the presidential election and the oriented policies to create 100 carbon-neutral cities across the Con- Democrats held the majority in both tinent. This approach led to a resurgence of new energy- efficient houses of Congress. Following his

56 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 ILLUSTRATIONS BY NEIL JAMIESON FOR TIME COVID-19 therapies, impacting the pricing of a range of medicines from cancer therapies to insulin. Richer countries also committed to increas- ing manufacturing capabilities glob- ally and using mass global procure- ment to buy vaccines for poorer countries. On Feb. 11, 2021, the FDA ap- proved the most promising COVID-19 vaccine for manufacture in the U.S. Mass production began immediately, plans for swift global distribution kicked in, and the first citizens re- ceived their shots within three weeks, free at the point of use. It was the fast- est development and manufacture of a vaccine on record, and a monumen- tal success in health innovation. When the vaccine was ready for distribution, national health author- ities worked constructively with a co- alition of global health actors—led by COVID-19 the WHO, the Bill and Melinda Gates CONVINCED Foundation and others—to collec- tively devise an equitable global dis- US WE COULD tribution plan that supported public- health goals. Low- and middle-income NOT GO BACK countries, along with health workers TO BUSINESS and essential workers, were granted priority access to the vaccine, while AS USUAL higher-income countries rolled out immunization programs in parallel. The end was in sight for our health crisis. But in June 2021, the global Inauguration in January 2021, President Biden moved quickly to re- economy was still in a depressed build frayed ties between America and Europe, setting up a forum to state. As governments started debat- share collective intelligence that could inform a smarter form of gov- ing their options for new stimulus ernment. European governments were eager to learn from the invest- packages, a wave of public protests ment strategies used by the U.S. government—like those led by de- broke out, with taxpayers in Brazil, fense research agency DARPA—to spur research and development in Germany, Canada and elsewhere call- high-risk technologies. And the U.S. was eager to learn from Europe ing for shared rewards in exchange how to create sustainable cities and reinvigorate civic participation. for bailing out corporate giants. With Biden in office, the U.S. took With COViD-19 still rampant, the world woke up to the need to those demands seriously and attached prioritize collective intelligence and put public value at the center strong conditions to the next wave of of health innovation. The U.S. and other countries dropped oppo- corporate bailouts. Companies receiv- sition to a mandatory patent pool run by the World Health Orga- ing funds were required to maintain nization that prevented pharmaceutical companies from abusing payrolls and pay their workers a mini- patents to create monopoly profits. Bold conditions were placed on mum wage of $15 per hour. Firms were the governance of intellectual property, pricing and manufacturing permanently banned from engaging in of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines to ensure the therapies were stock buybacks and barred from pay- both affordable and universally accessible. ing out dividends or executive bonuses As a result, pharmaceutical companies could no longer charge until 2024. Businesses were required whatever they wished for drugs or vaccines; governments made it to provide at least one seat on their mandatory for the pricing to reflect the substantial public contri- boards of directors to workers, and bution to their research and development. This extended beyond corporate boards had to have all politi-

The Great Reset is reported by Mélissa Godin, Anna Purna Kambhampaty, Madeline Roache, Simmone Shah and Julia Zorthian 57 THE GREAT RESET

cal spending approved by sharehold- the apocalyptic. Climate breakdown finally landed in the developed ers. Collective bargaining agreements world, testing the resilience of social systems. In the Midwestern remained intact. And CEOs had to cer- U.S., a severe drought wiped out crops that supplied one-sixth of the tify that their companies were com- world’s grain output. People woke up to the need for governments plying with the rules—or face criminal to form a coordinated response to climate change and direct global penalties for violating them. fiscal stimulus in support of a green economy. Globally, gold-standard bailouts Yet this was not about just Big Government, but Smart Govern- were those that safeguarded work- ment. The transition to a green economy required innovation on ers and sustained viable businesses an enormous scale, spanning multiple sectors, entire supply chains that provided value to society. This and every stage of technological development, from R&D to deploy- was not always a clear-cut exercise, ment. At regional, national and supranational levels, ambitious Green especially in industries whose busi- New Deal programs rose to the occasion, combining job-guarantee ness models were incompatible with schemes with focused industrial strategy. Governments used pro- a sustainable future. Governments PEOPLE WOKE UP curement, grants and loans to stimulate as much innovation as pos- were also eager to avoid the moral TO THE NEED FOR sible, helping fund solutions to rid the ocean of plastic, reduce the hazard of sustaining unviable compa- digital divide, and tackle poverty and inequality. nies. So the U.S. shale sector, which GOVERNMENTS A new concept of a Healthy Green Deal emerged, in which cli- was unprofitable before the crisis, mate targets and well-being targets were seen as complementary was mostly allowed to fail, and work- TO FORM A and required both supply- and demand-side policies. The concept ers were retrained for the Permian Ba- COORDINATED of “ social infrastructure” became as important as physical infra- sin’s fast-growing solar industry. structure. For the energy transition, this meant focusing on a future RESPONSE TO of mobility strategy and creating an ambitious platform for public In the summer of 2022, the other transportation, cycling paths, pedestrian pathways and new ways major crisis of our age took a turn for CLIMATE CHANGE to stimulate healthy living. In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti suc- cessfully turned one lane of the 405 freeway into a bicycle lane and broke ground in late 2022 on a zero- carbon underground metro sys- tem, free at the point of use. Rising to the role of the “entrepreneurial state,” government had finally become an investor of first resort that co-created value with the public sector and civil society. Just as in the days of the Apollo program, working for government—rather than for Google or Gold- man Sachs— became the ambition for top talent coming out of univer- sity. Government jobs became so desirable and competitive, in fact, that a new curriculum was formed for a global master in public ad- ministration degree for people who wanted to become civil servants. And so we stand here in 2023 the same people but in a differ- ent society. COVID-19 convinced us we could not go back to busi- ness as usual. The world has embraced a “new normal” that ensures public- private collaborations are driven by public interest, not private profit. Instead of prioritizing shareholders, companies value all stake- holders, and financialization has given way to investments in work- ers, technology and sustainability. Today, we recognize that our most valuable citizens are those who work in health and social care, education, public transport, super- markets and delivery services. By ending precarious work and prop- erly funding our public institutions, we are valuing those who hold our society together, and strengthening our civic infrastructure for the crises yet to come. The COVID-19 pandemic took so much from us, in lives lost and livelihoods shattered. But it also presented us with an opportunity to reshape our global economy, and we overcame our pain and trauma to unite and seize the moment. To secure a better future for all, it was the only thing to do.

Mazzucato is a professor at University College London and author of The Value of Everything: Making and Taking in the Global Economy

58 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 for minorities in the U.S. The data revealed we have a lot of work to do to get more women and people of color in senior and higher- paying roles. But we think it’s essential to give people the information they need to hold us accountable for progress. And it’s time to kill the notion that there’s a trade-off between diversity and meritocracy.

What are the economic and organizational benefits to Citi and society at large in having a more diverse workforce? If we take our cues from politics, which has become more divisive than ever, it’s easy to view the world through a zero-sum lens. But nothing could be further from reality, especially when it comes to the workforce. A survey by Harvard Business Review found that diverse companies have significantly higher revenues from innovation, and greater margins. Research shows that if women participate equally in the economy, global GDP would increase by 26% by 2025.

Do you agree this is a moment for governments, economies and companies to rethink how to make money, create opportunity and rebuild social contracts? It’s getting outdated to think about a corporation’s obligation to so- EXPANDING ciety separately from its duty to its shareholders. It’s not an either/ or. Companies like Citi occupy positions of great economic respon- sibility, and we’ve tried to use our influence to confront inequity in THE PIE all its forms. And while we are proud to use philanthropy to advance these efforts, the biggest impact we can make as a bank is through Jane Fraser, the new CEO of Citigroup, our core business capabilities. on rethinking the bank’s mission By Eben Shapiro Do you think there are opportunities to be found in this crisis? New, more efficient ways of working, for example, or long-term investments that are being overlooked? In February, CItI PresI- The pandemic has forced us to reimagine how we do business. dent Jane Fraser, 53, will be- In normal times, for instance, when we bring a company to the pub- come the first female CEO not lic markets, our sales force would fly around the world to meet with only of Citi but of any major Wall Street investors. During the pandemic, we’ve conducted those road shows bank. She spoke with TIME to discuss completely virtually, with no impact to investor demand. building a diverse workforce, the changing responsibilities of corpora- You operate in 160 countries. Are you concerned that current tions and expanding the economic pie. geopolitical currents would lead to more nationalism and more ‘FOR BANKS LIKE restrictive trade barriers? Your promotion to CEO has been OURS, THERE’S We operate from the conviction that the free flow of capital expands rightly celebrated, but we know the market, lowers prices, increases the sources of production, en- that moves like this require inten- A BUSINESS courages innovation and ultimately grows the economic pie. But the tion. Can you address the myth of IMPERATIVE TO reason why we’re seeing a backlash to globalization and why national- the pipeline problem? ism is gaining strength is because the pie is not being shared equally. The talent exists, full stop. What EXPANDING Impeding trade, though, will only reduce the economic resources we we’ve really tried to do at Citi is make FINANCIAL need to fix the problem. sure diverse candidates see us as a place where they can thrive and ad- INCLUSION’ In the near-medium terms, what makes you concerned and what vance their careers. Things like strong makes you optimistic? parental- leave policies and maintain- The wealth gap is disrupting society and has caused people to lose ing an inclusive culture can make faith, and so much of the problem comes down to access. I worry that a huge difference. But to see results, the pandemic is only making it harder for people to get the education you need transparency and account- they deserve, the health care they need, the jobs that will give them ability. A few years ago, in a move financial security. But I also have a lot of hope that this crisis can serve that was pretty far outside our com- as a wake-up call for our industry. For banks like ours, there’s a busi- fort zone, we publicly disclosed Citi’s ness imperative to expanding financial inclusion. There’s a growing

JULIAN R. PHOTOGRAPHY—AFP/GETTY IMAGES raw pay gap for women globally and expectation from the public that we do that. 

59 CONTENT FROM SOMPO HOLDINGS

Japan’s Sompo Group uses data to make positive contributions to society

SOMPO COMBINES CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGIES SOMPO has never wavered in its mission. As it expanded WITH WISDOM TO BUILD “A THEME PARK FOR into Property and Casualty Insurance and began opening offi ces in other countries and continents, SOMPO strove to SECURITY, HEALTH AND WELLBEING”. improve its clients’ safety before accidents could happen. In Japan is a nation in the midst of profound and complex the 21st century, SOMPO and its 80,000-plus employees change. A society caring for an aging population, coping in 30 countries on six continents realize that new risks are with rapid technological evolution, and challenged by the arising from new sources every day. Those risks increase existential threat of climate change, Japan is also confronting with age, and Japan is a rapidly aging society. SOMPO has Covid-19. No wonder people are feeling a greater need than entered the nursing care business in Japan and as the ever for security, health and wellbeing. As one of Japan’s country’s largest nursing home operator aims to change it largest insurers, SOMPO is striving to meet those needs— for the better. Change is more dynamic and fast-paced than and not for the fi rst time. ever. In response, SOMPO is changing too.

More than a century and a quarter ago, Japan was also “We are transforming SOMPO from a company that steps dealing with disruption. The country had opened its borders in when the unexpected happens to one that actively after centuries of self-imposed isolation, and its people were contributes to a more fulfi lling life. Rather than merely adapting to new ideas from the wider world. The capital assisting customers in times of injury or accident, we will be Tokyo was an ancient city where nearly every building was a constant presence at their side—a partner who enhances still made of wood. Fires were frequent and devastating. every day,” says Kengo Sakurada, Sompo Group’s Chief And so in 1888, the company that would eventually become Executive Offi cer. SOMPO was founded as Tokyo Fire Insurance, the fi rst fi rm of its kind in the island nation. To achieve that, Sakurada is leading SOMPO in building what he calls “A Theme Park for Security, Health and Wellbeing.” In SOMPO’s theme park, the attractions are made possible by No wonder people are feeling artifi cial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), advanced a greater need than ever for data analytics and all the technological tools of the Fourth security, health and wellbeing. Industrial Revolution. As one of Japan’s largest insurers, SOMPO is striving These new digital technologies are disrupting entire to meet those needs—and not industries. SOMPO has chosen to adapt to and adopt them for the fi rst time. in reinventing itself. Digital tools deliver data SOMPO uses to craft smarter approaches to its traditional and new types of insurance products. In recent years, the company has moved into agriculture and crop insurance on several From its inception, the company viewed its role as more continents, and risk assessment and insurance for self- than just paying benefi ts in the aftermath of disaster. It saw driving vehicles. its purpose as protecting people and society from harm. To that end, it established the Tokyo Fire Brigade, and its “We create high-quality solutions that integrate powerful “insurance company fi refi ghters” were at the ready 24 digital technology. By matching these solutions to each hours a day, 365 days a year, putting their lives on the line in customer’s needs, we will become a ‘theme park’ of the service of safety and security. possibilities and opportunities for everyone,” Sakurada says. CONTENT FROM SOMPO HOLDINGS

SOMPO possesses a treasure trove of ‘real data’ – data acquired through sensors that detect real-world activities. The company has amassed vast volumes of valuable information on accidents, catastrophes, lifestyles, health and nursing care. Using that information, SOMPO provides solutions that prevent accidents and illness. SOMPO handles its data with care and the utmost respect for privacy because it values the trust of its customers.

SOMPO’s customers come from every walk of life, and the company is committed to making positive contributions to society.

No company can solve complex social issues on its own. To maximize its impact and expertise, SOMPO is building partnerships with elite global fi rms in a wide variety of disciplines. SOMPO’s latest collaboration is one of its most promising.

Last November, the fi rm forged an alliance with Palantir Technologies Inc. of the United States to found Palantir Technologies Japan. In 2020, Palantir Technologies Inc.’s advanced software platforms were deployed to support the global COVID-19 response at institutions including the U.S. Department of Defense, multiple U.S. government health agencies, the United Kingdom’s National Health Service, and others.

At Sompo International, a global specialty provider of Healthcare is the fi eld in which SOMPO’s data is making property and casualty insurance and reinsurance outside the most signifi cant diff erence right now. Even before the Japan, tracking climate change, which is threatening global pandemic, SOMPO was using technology to revolutionize food security, is another challenge. AgriSompo, Sompo elder care at its facilities, using innovations tested at International’s global agricultural platform, partners with SOMPO’s Future Care Lab in Japan. This allows them to farmers to address these weather-related risks and assists tailor care for each individual while giving seniors more in mitigating losses. Pioneering weather index insurance, freedom and independence, making their golden years AgriSompo is helping farmers battle droughts and fl oods richer and more fulfi lling. while working with agro-technology fi rms globally, including our exclusive partnership with CropTrak, a U.S.-based tech SOMPO’s use of technology helped Japan avert a company that collects , tracks and verifi es data along the catastrophe. Nursing homes have been epicenters of entire food supply chain. Through these strategic alliances, Covid-19 outbreaks in many countries. But SOMPO’s the company customizes solutions that support and approach minimized the need for physical contact at its address farmers’ concerns, enabling them to make better, 400 nursing homes by using a video conference system. more intelligent business decisions, improve traceability, This is reducing the risk of Covid-19 transmission along satisfy sustainability reporting and deliver healthy, nutritious with other standard precautions. The result is that a very food to markets. small percentage of Covid-19 deaths in Japan have been at nursing homes.

The New York Times wrote that Japan’s positive nursing home experience “may off er important lessons for the entire industry as it reviews policies and protocols for the next possible world health crisis.”

Those lessons fi t neatly with SOMPO’s philosophy: technology should benefi t people and society. “That is our philosophy when thinking about Japan’s social issues,” Sakurada says. And so the company keeps learning and creating new and better solutions to the problems we all face. SOMPO’s central pillar is still insurance, not technology. But SOMPO is harnessing new technologies to more eff ectively protect its customers – and to create a safer, healthier, more secure world. SOMPO’s Theme Park for Security, Health and Wellbeing is still under construction. However, it is well worth the price of admission today. THE GREAT RESET A BETTER TECH FUTURE

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex speak to critics of social media about creating a more positive online world

On OcT. 20, The Duke anD Duchess Of sussex hosted an episode of TIME100 Talks focusing on social media and our online lives. They spoke with Reddit co- founder Alexis Ohanian; Tristan Harris, president of the Center for Humane Technology; and UCLA professor Safiya U. Noble, among others. Below are edited and condensed excerpts from their conversations. the Duchess of sussex: You decided to step back from your board seat at Reddit and instead ask they give that seat to a per- son of color and specifcally someone who is Black. I think, you know, that resonated with people in a huge way, especially be- cause you said you were doing it because you were inspired by your daughter, Olympia. ohanian: When I looked at the positions that I occupied, especially one, Reddit is a multibillion- dollar company, has a lot of influence on how we work, how we play, how we the world, especially in the United States. And I thought about the role get informed, everything, you know, that it plays and the role that all social-media companies play in our To watch the you look at all of us who created those society and the world that it’s shaping for everyone, including people complete platforms, and there is a common like my daughter, like my wife. I knew that I had a responsibility to be conversations, thread among all of us. able to answer her when she asked me in 10 years when she’s a snarky go to time.com/ We all look the same. We all had teenager, you know, what I did to help be a part of making things bet- sussex-talks very similar education experiences ter for her. And I’m happy to see that since, you know, that resignation and backgrounds. And the way that protest, Reddit started making a lot of changes to improve the content, has now played out and manifested you know, banning a ton of communities really built around hate and 15 years later is the culmination of, started to enforce more seriously a lot of these policies. frankly, a lot of blind spots. And I say this, you know, knowing that there’s the Duchess of sussex: What do you think that we’re losing in a generation of CEOs who I meet now a broader sense when we don’t have that level of representation, who are sort of the version of me but, not just in the companies themselves but in what the content is you know, 15 years later, fresh out of and how it’s being shared? college, starting something that they ohanian: If we look at the platforms and specifically in technol- know one day will be, or really truly ogy and in social media that have shaped so much of how we live, believe will be, a world- changing-

62 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 yet begun to realize the legacy and the effects that all of these platforms and what social media and what the online space is doing to all of us on a deeper level. ohANIAN: I do think there’s gonna be some work that will need to be done to deradicalize a generation, especially here in the United States, who, you know, predominantly white, predominantly male, feeling very disaffected and sort of left behind and frustrated by a lot of things, and who’ve found solace, who’ve found community, who’ve found kin- ship in dark corners that normalized really socially toxic behavior ... But I think that is gonna be a lot of the important work of the next de- cade or so, to try to find ways not just to curb the abuse going forward, but also to sort of reintegrate folks who, you know, have used these platforms to find community around some of the most vile things.

the Duke of sussex: What are the tech algorithms, what are they incentivized to do for us, and what is the actual price that we’re paying for that? Noble: I would say that one of the things that is highly incentiv- ized is the virality; that means the speed through which some of the worst types of content can flow through platforms. So we know that, for example, racism and sexism are very big business in technology platforms. Not just social media but also the other kinds of search- and ad-driven kinds of platforms ... Those things don’t necessarily start in Silicon Valley, but I think there’s really little regard for when companies are looking at maximizing the bottom line through en- gagement at all costs, it actually has a disproportionate kind of harm and cost to, again, vulnerable people. hArrIs: We often ask, How much have you paid for your Facebook account recently? Zero. But they’re worth more than $725 billion. So how are they worth so much? Well, they monetize something. It’s not just our data. They need our attention. And obviously, because there’s only so much attention—just like with the planet, there’s only so many resources, and you have an infinite growth economy on a finite amount of the planet surface area—we have an infinite growth atten- tion economy on a finite amount of human attention at the base ... And they’re competing to seduce us with that promise of virality. If you go to TikTok today, they’ll show you on a list of hashtags you can post against, that if you post a video for a hashtag in Doritos Dance you’ll reach a billion people, and that’s very enticing to each type company, who have so much Top: The Duke and of us. But of course that doesn’t reward what’s true, what’s credible more perspective than I did ... And Duchess of Sussex; or what’s really good for society. And that’s really the core problem. I’m excited because at the end of the bottom, from left: day, there is a strong capitalist reason Tristan Harris, the Duke of sussex: How do we really make progress know- to want this, aside from the obvious Safiya U. Noble ing that we have this platform, this global platform to really ef- and Alexis Ohanian societal one. And as more and more fect change for good? companies realize that and are able hArrIs: These are big questions ... The tech companies have kind to show that this is not just the right of hollowed out many of the institutions that we would derive what thing to do from a societal standpoint, are the values that are important to us. I mean publicly funded media. but the right thing to do from a busi- Well-funded local newspapers. These are the other entities that have ness standpoint, I think it really starts gone bankrupt as a result of the extractive sort of clickbait practices. to get momentum. The way that the Big Tech giants sort of reformat what it means to be a local newspaper, which is increasingly about that race to the bot- the Duchess of sussex: The good tom of the brain stem to get those clicks. Which also makes them less outweighs the bad [online], but my profitable over time, which also decreases the quality of journalism, goodness, the loud can be so loud. which means that we have a less educated citizenry. What is actually I think you’ve talked about and you important to us? What are we paying attention to? That is the thing tweeted recently that we haven’t that we’re losing control over. □

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The landscape surrounding a THE ART coal mine in the Polish region of OF THE Silesia in 1978 GREEN DEAL

Europe wants to fight that was 70 years ago, and now the climate change as it union is attempting to unite against the threat of climate change. rebuilds. Will Poland’s The plan is simple yet bold. In coal country get on board? December, the E.U. outlined plans By Justin Worland/ to spend what would total €1 trillion Katowice, Poland ($1.17 trillion) on a “Green Deal” aimed at eliminating the bloc’s car- bon footprint by 2050 and refash- ioning the economy around new, low-carbon industries. The invest- ment, originally meant to be funded iT’s winTer in The souTh of Poland, buT The through the E.U. budget, private-sec- ground is clear of any snow, and the thick clouds don’t tor financing and other country con- carry any precipitation. Instead, the skies have been tributions, includes everything from darkened by a layer of smog. The culprit is coal, and if retrofitting buildings to scaling up there was any doubt, it would be dispelled by the 50-mile drive across the infrastructure necessary for elec- the countryside from historic Krakow to the industrial city of tric vehicles to investing in hydrogen- Katowice. Lining the highway, there are the coal-processing facilities, energy storage. After the pandemic where the rock is cleaned and prepared for use. Smokestacks jut into struck, the E.U. structured its COVID- the sky, marking the country’s coal-fired power plants. Even the 19 recovery package around acceler- homes, visible from the highway, have a faint gray-colored exhaust, ating the plan. “We need to change the result of the coal being used for heat. how we treat nature, how we produce The pollution is a blight; Katowice ranks among the most and consume, live and work, eat and polluted cities in Europe, and locals complain about the low air heat, travel and transport,” said Ur- quality. But even so, many here aren’t ready to let go of the natural sula von der Leyen, president of the resource that has powered the nation’s economy since the Industrial European Commission, the E.U.’s ex- Revolution. Culture in Katowice—and in smaller cities and towns in ecutive body, in a September speech. the surrounding province of Silesia—developed around the mines, Bold moves to address climate from the soccer clubs sponsored by the mining companies to the change are broadly popular— polling local festivals they supported. Strikes at Silesian coal mines played has shown more than 90% of E.U. a key role in the uprising that brought democracy to Poland in the citizens support aggressive action 1980s. Today, the mines still occupy a place of reverence to many of on climate change—but any serious the region’s residents. A 131-ft. former mine-shaft tower sits near measure to tackle the issue faces one the city center, and at the adjacent Silesian Museum, visitors can big challenge: the many regions and walk away with souvenir coal paraphernalia. “People may not like industries across the Continent that it, but they also need to acknowledge the good side,” says former remain reliant on heavy industry underground coal miner Marek Wystyrk over coffee in Katowice and fossil fuels. So officials in Brus- when TIME visited in December 2018. “It’s not all evil.” sels crafted a so-called Just Transi- Katowice, with a population around 300,000, may seem like an tion plan to direct some €150 billion odd place to look to understand the future of the European Union. ($177 billion) to the regions most vul- But as the E.U. seeks to turn its recovery from the corona virus pan- nerable to a move away from fossil demic into a moment to pivot to a greener future, this city and myriad fuels. The money is intended to act others built upon a fossil-fuel economy face a reckoning. The E.U. PHOTOGRAPH BY both as a catalyst for these regions actually began as an alliance around coal and steel production. But MICHAL CALA to adapt and as an insurance policy

64 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 73 THE GREAT RESET

to make sure the climate agenda maintains broad popular support. The Green Deal broadly—and Just Transition specifically—are altering the politics of climate change in Europe and the nature of the bloc’s economic development. It might determine the jobs and industries that employ workers across the Continent for the next century. In Poland, the Green Deal has already fueled a rush to chart a new path, one that honors the country’s coal-mining heritage while also preparing it for a new future. In September, the country committed to shutting down its coal mines for good. The question now is how to do that, and whether the country can move fast enough to meet the E.U.’s deadlines. “We are at a key, critical moment in the history of Poland and in the making of the European Green Deal,” says Michal Kurtyka, Poland’s Climate Minister. The stakes may be just as high abroad. From Kentucky to South Australia, Ukraine to Indonesia, coal communities around the world are watching closely, looking for models of a successful transition. More important, because the E.U. is the world’s second largest econ- omy and second largest market, the Green Deal will ripple across the world, igniting the global race to develop a clean-energy economy. “It is an invitation for cooperation—with China, India, the United States, Canada,” says Karsten Sach, deputy director-general of the German Environment Ministry. But for the invitation to work, the miners in Katowice will have to be on board.

The popular image of a coal miner is easy enough to picture: a large, hard-hatted man, dressed in a soiled uniform with a face darkened by the black rock he spends all day extracting. Marek Wy- styrk couldn’t have looked more different: bespectacled and neatly dressed, he would look more in place in a library than deep un- derground. We meet in a café in a stately prewar office building in downtown Katowice. Wystyrk, who spent nearly 20 years in the underground mines, first as a miner and then as a manager, is full of what seem like con- tradictions. Speaking through a translator, he praises coal, but he doesn’t say he wants his kids to join the industry. He says something needs to be done about climate change, but doesn’t think it should ‘WE ARE AT A KEY, on the principle that a common mar- be Poland’s responsibility to address it. He touts his region’s coal- ket for coal and steel—essential to mining heritage, but he decries how it has left so many behind. It’s a CRITICAL the economy of any industrialized nuanced view—like those of so many on the ground—that’s rooted in MOMENT ... IN nation—would eliminate the risk of an effort to grapple simultaneously with two dueling realities: coal another intra-European confict and has provided for millions of Polish families, and climate change and THE MAKING OF create a new foundation for economic the transition away from fossil fuels will, sooner or later, kill the in- THE EUROPEAN development. dustry. “I would like to defend the good name of mining,” he says. This alliance grew in significance “It’s not just environmental degradation.” GREEN DEAL.’ over the following decades, espe- Indeed, coal has given Poland a lot: the fuel for the country’s eco- —Michal Kurtyka, cially as the Eastern bloc of commu- nomic development for the past 150 years. Demand for the natural Poland’s nists eroded in the 1980s and 1990s. resource in Europe helped build Poland’s railroads and grow cities Climate Minister (In Poland, that transition came surrounding mines, and the rock became a symbol of prosperity and about in part because of strikes that a strong work ethic. After World War II, Poland nationalized the ground the country’s economy to a mines in line with its shift to a communist economic system and halt in 1988, including at coal mines.) helped power the entire Soviet bloc. With time, the E.U. came to regulate On the other side of the Iron Curtain, Western European countries the agricultural sector and make sought new ways to collaborate and protect their common interests, environmental policy. The central and coal played a central role. In 1952, six European countries formed European government pushed its the European Coal and Steel Community. The organization, which members to espouse democratic val- would evolve into the 27-member European Union, was founded ues and rewarded them with invest-

66 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 Then the corona virus pandemic hit. Rather than slow down the pro- cess, leaders in Brussels saw an op- portunity to expedite their plans. The E.U. Commission—the bloc’s executive body—promised to pour hundreds of billions of euros into the economy in response to the virus and the subsequent lockdowns that halted economies across the Conti- nent. A quarter of the €750 billion recovery plan would be directed to- ward low-carbon investments; the re- mainder of the funds came with a “do no harm” provision, meaning the in- vestment shouldn’t be used on proj- ects that harm the environment. And, to keep up the momentum, E.U. lead- ership promised to spend that pro- portion of the bloc’s budget on green measures over the next seven years. Polish leaders in Warsaw faced a conundrum: the government re- mained rhetorically committed to coal, but the economics had be- come increasingly difficult. Until the corona virus plunged the world into global recession, Poland had expe- rienced three decades of sustained economic expansion. But the coun- try would need to rethink its econ- omy to return to growth. As electric- ity demand plummeted, caused by the pandemic and subsequent lock- downs, coal mines shuttered with difficult economic headwinds an- ments from its central budget. Poland joined in 2004, after adopting Men illegally mine ticipated ahead even when the pan- a market economy and becoming a democracy. for coal to be used demic eases. And leaders in Brussels But since the very beginning, tensions have existed between to heat homes demanded that the country commit richer and poorer countries in the union over everything from fis- in Walbrzych, to net zero to be eligible for all of its cal policy to defense and migration. The need to respond to climate Poland, in 2013 allocated money under the Just Tran- change is no different, especially as it’s the poorer, largely Central sition program. and Eastern European nations whose economies depend more on So, slowly, Poland changed its heavy-polluting industry. tone. In late July, after months of The Green Deal was born out of all those challenges. A new econ- foot dragging, Polish leaders signed omy, European leaders hope, will lead to a revived and more inte- on to the package. The deal would grated Continent. “The European Green Deal is Europe’s new growth allow Poland to receive half of its al- strategy,” said von der Leyen before she presented the program in located Just Transition money even December. “It will cut emissions while also creating jobs and im- if it didn’t commit to eliminating its proving our quality of life.” carbon footprint. Polish Prime Minis- At first, Poland rejected the plan’s ambitions. President Andrzej ter Mateusz Morawiecki hailed it as a Duda had promised to save the coal industry and its jobs—part of victory: “We won,” he said. But it was a controversial populist appeal to national identity and heritage. also a major concession to the E.U.: “As long as I am the President,” he said in 2018, “I won’t allow Poland accepted that it would lose out for anyone to murder Polish mining.” For months, Duda’s govern- on billions of euros unless it quickly ment opposed the bloc’s 2050 carbon-neutrality target, the only changed course.

MATTHEW BUSCH E.U. country to do so. With that money on the line, the

67 THE GREAT RESET

pressure has only grown. In Septem- ber, the country achieved a break- through when it committed to close its mines by 2049, and suggested a willingness to consider the bigger promise to green its economy—with the right conditions. “We are not say- ing it’s impossible, but we are saying let’s make sure we all exactly know how it’s going to happen,” says Kur- tyka, the Climate Minister. “We can- not say in the office in Brussels or in Warsaw: ‘That will be the objective,’ and move on.” in Poland, discussions have begun from the bottom up. Rather than face- less bureaucrats sending down or- ders, plans for the energy transition from fossil fuels are being developed with the support and guidance of local communities—the people most likely to be affected by the change. In the west-central region of Wielkopolska, for example, the E.U. estimates that 6,000 jobs in coal are threatened by the move away from fossil fuels. Maciej Sytek heads the regional authority charged with re- structuring the local economy. His mandate is huge. He arranges regu- lar meetings that incorporate labor unions, local government authori- ties and NGOs. The subcommit- tees are devoted not just to topics like the economic or energy impli- cations of the transition but also to Police in Katowice, people who lose their jobs are given a new identity, are given hope.” factors like “social affairs” and “so- one of the most One model for progress can be found across the border in Ger- cial infrastructure”—a recognition polluted cities many, where as of 2018 some 32,000 people were directly employed of the cultural challenges inherent in in Europe, use in the coal-mining industry. The German government launched a ending a local industry. drone technology commission to study how to phase out the energy source in 2018. to test smoke Locals here are largely sold on coming out of In coal-mining regions across the country, local leaders met with the the initiative already. They opposed chimneys in 2018 commission and crafted regional priorities to be collated into one plans to open new coal-mining terri- national plan that passed the German Parliament in July. “We were tory when the current mines are de- able to agree on big transformative policy in a rather peaceful way,” pleted, and a local mine owner has says the German Environment Ministry’s Sach. even opted to train his employees to The corona virus pandemic hasn’t changed the country’s road map, work in the solar industry. (The larg- but it has changed the timeline. “We need to undertake investments, est Polish solar farm is scheduled to which otherwise would be staggered in the next 10 to 15 years, within open soon in Wielkopolska.) Mean- the next three to five years,” says Sach. while, Sytek is working to attract Change is not equally welcome everywhere, however. Silesia, the MACIEK NABRDALIK—VII/REDUX a range of new industries. E.U. fund- Polish region where Katowice is located, poses perhaps the most ing is critical to making it happen. difficult challenge for transition in the entire E.U. The coal sector “Sometimes you have to just hon- employs some 73,000 workers there, and many in the region remain estly tell yourself that you need to hesitant to give up the industry that for decades formed the back- change and start building something bone of their society. Today, locals sadly recall the restructuring of new,” he says. But “it’s crucial that the the mines in the 1990s after the fall of the communist regime. That

68 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 E.U.’s target and argue that the region still needs a plan to end those jobs within a reasonable time frame. Local trade unions remain skep- tical that the disruption to jobs and livelihoods can be overcome with a quicker transition. “Sometimes local authorities are even weaker than the trade unions,” says Joanna Mackowiak-Pandera, who heads Polish energy think tank Forum Energii. So the European leadership in Brussels is pulling out all the stops to convince this corner of the Continent that progress will not leave it behind, economically. The European Economic Congress, an impor- tant business summit, convened in Katowice in September, bringing some of the biggest companies and the most important policymakers to debate the future of Europe in the heart of Poland’s coal country. Frans Timmermans, the E.U.’s Green Deal czar, made the importance of the city to the bloc’s energy transition explicit in a speech. “We will have to roll up our sleeves to make sure that this transition is socially fair,” he said. “And there is no other region in Europe today where Just Transition is more important than in Silesia.”

West Virginia and silesia may be 4,500 miles apart, but there’s a lot they could learn from each other. Just after President Trump took office in 2017, I traveled to West Virginia, the heart of U.S. coal country, to talk to locals about the future of the industry. Virtually everyone I interviewed knew the industry was in trouble and understood the reasons why. Yet they enthusiastically preferred Trump, who promised that he would miraculously “make coal great again” and restore the industry, over Hillary Clinton, who proposed giving coal communities $30 billion to adapt to life without it. It shouldn’t have been a surprise. West Virginia, a Democratic stronghold as recently as the 1990s, has reliably voted red ever since Al Gore promised bold action on climate change in his 2000 presidential run. Simply put, building support to end an entire industry from the people who will be affected is a tall order—no matter how many billions politicians say they’ll deliver. And it’s even harder to do from a distant capital without boots on the ground. That’s why what happens in Silesia—for better or worse—will ripple around the world. Already, policymakers are watching closely. transition resulted in more efficient ‘IN THE SMALL A recent Columbia University report on Polish energy policy argued mines but left hundreds of thousands that the discussions between Warsaw and Brussels could offer “con- of people out of work. “In the small TOWNS, IF YOU crete proof” that vulnerable communities will cooperate with climate towns, if you close down a mine, you CLOSE DOWN A measures under the right circumstances. will experience a quick social degra- “It’s important to engage in good faith, and with patience and per- dation,” says Wystyrk, referring to the MINE, YOU WILL severance, with parts of a population that are climate cautious,” says 1990s in Silesia. EXPERIENCE A report co-author Jonathan Elkind, who ran the U.S. Department of That’s not to say the efforts there Energy’s international-affairs department under President Obama. haven’t started. Even before the ad- QUICK SOCIAL “All around the globe there are places and people who are more am- vent of the Green Deal, local devel- DEGRADATION.’ bitious, and [people who are] more cautious.” opment authorities had begun plan- Supporters of Just Transition measures say that they’re necessary —Marek Wystyrk, ning for an energy transition. Since at former coal miner to make climate policy politically viable. They certainly can’t hurt least 2018, local leaders have engaged politically, but the truth is that industries reliant on fossil-fuel in conferences and dialogues on the extraction are bound to evolve and, eventually, fade—regardless topic, crafting plans to drive new in- of whether local communities are on board. Working on a plan vestment and improve the quality of now will simply ease the pain. Just ask the people watching the life. A breakthrough came in Septem- transition on the ground in Poland. “We are deeply aware that ber when Silesian coal-mining unions there’s no alternative,” says Sytek, director of the energy transition in endorsed the plan to end coal mining Wielkopolska. “We’re not tricking ourselves. Coal is not the future.” by 2049. Still, many see that date as —With reporting by AnnAbelle ChApmAn/WArsAW, and AnnA too far in the future to align with the purnA KAmbhAmpAty and JuliA ZorthiAn/neW yorK 

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3 GET INVOLVED IN THE FAIR CHANCE HIRING INITIATIVE REAL One legacy of the “tough on crime” era is that about one-third of U.S. adults now have a criminal record, mostly for minor crimes that nonetheless hamper their ability to get a job. That’s why the Society for EQUALITY Human Resource Management has urged employers to take the Get- How companies can show they really ting Talent Back to Work Pledge as part of the Fair Chance Hiring Ini- value Black lives By Darren Walker tiative by employing qualified job applicants with crimes in their past.

4 PAY YOUR EMPLOYEES A LIVING WAGE The federal minimum wage—$2.13 per hour for tipped work- Since proTeSTS over The ers, and $7.25 per hour for others—is not a living wage. From 2012 killing of George Floyd to 2014, nearly half of government public assistance went to people erupted across the U.S., I’ve who worked full time but still fell below the federal poverty line. received numerous calls from corpo- Black workers make up about 11% of the workforce, but 38% of Black rate CEOs who want to know what workers who now work for the minimum wage would get a raise. they should do and where they can Commit to paying your workers a living wage of at least $15 per hour, quickly donate $10 million to advance and more in higher-cost parts of the country. the cause of racial justice. The first thing I do is remind them 5 PROVIDE A SAFE of Martin Luther King Jr.’s caution AND HEALTHY WORKPLACE that philanthropy must not be used Lack of adequate health-insurance to obscure the economic injustices coverage is a big reason Black, Latinx that make it necessary. The frustra- and Native American people have con- tion and rage we’re seeing across the tracted the corona virus at a dispropor- country aren’t just about a racist sys- tionately higher rate than white Amer- tem of policing. icans. Does your company manipulate They’re also about original sins— the schedules of your workers to fall a genocide of Native Americans and just below the threshold for health enslavement of Black Africans whose coverage? Does it label people inde- stolen land and labor built this coun- pendent contractors even if they spend try’s wealth. It’s about the predations the bulk of their days working for you? of modern-day capitalism that have allowed a privileged few to hoard the 6 PROVIDE PAID SICK lion’s share of the nation’s wealth. AND FAMILY LEAVE This time the usual corporate play- Black workers often cannot afford to book isn’t going to work. Here are take time off to care for a newborn or eight things every corporate leader a sick family member. The lack of paid can do to improve Black lives. STANDING UP sick leave is another reason so many people of color have suffered higher rates of illness and death from COVID-19. The pandemic 1 REMAKE YOUR C-SUITE FOR BLACK should have proved that paid leave is a moral issue. Change starts at the top. Do you LIVES MEANS have Black board members? Black 7 ADVOCATE FOR A MORE PROGRESSIVE TAX CODE executives in your leadership team? INVESTING IN THE Standing up for Black lives means investing in the essential If you do, are they token appoint- ESSENTIAL building blocks of social equality, from adequately funded schools ments, or do they have real power to to universal health care and affordable housing. These things require recommend changes that would make BUILDING government action at scale. What we really need is a progressive tax your company more racially equitable? BLOCKS OF code that will address these problems. ILLUSTRATION BY EDEL RODRIGUEZ FOR TIME FOR RODRIGUEZ EDEL BY ILLUSTRATION 2 HIRE AND ADVANCE SOCIAL EQUALITY 8 ADVOCATE FOR SHAREHOLDER REFORMS MORE BLACK PEOPLE I hear you saying, “I have public shareholders to whom I’m ac- You have the power to transform countable. Supporting tax policies that work against my company’s Black lives immediately, simply by bottom line will only drive down our share price.” Yes, and this is hiring and promoting more of us. why the current model of shareholder- driven capitalism that puts Tell your managers that they cannot quarterly profits over people is bad for the long-term social and eco- go forward with a hire or a promotion, nomic health of the country. at any level, unless the candidate pool is racially diverse. Walker is the president of the Ford Foundation

70 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 to prove that people, all together from across the world, have de- feated the virus. Since the Olympics were postponed, we have been discussing with the International Olympic Committee how to down- scale the competition and reduce costs. Our goal is to show a new model for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Will there be any substantive changes in how the 2021 Games are run in order to safeguard public health? We have to make thorough preparations to account for athletes, spec- tators and all those involved. We need to discuss border controls, how we are going to welcome people from across the world and run the athletes’ village. We need to make our countermeasures against COVID-19 more robust. And our model will be passed on to future Olympic host cities, such as Beijing, Paris and L.A.

How has Tokyo handled the pandemic, and how is it forcing you to rethink how the city is run? Tokyo has a population of 14 million, and we have had about 400 deaths from COVID-19 so far. We have been encouraging our peo- ple to regularly wash their hands, wear masks and abide by so- RAISING cial distancing. Currently, people are facing tough situations both at home and at work. This year’s GDP drop was the biggest since World War II. And we are aware that people will begin to lose their THE GAMES jobs or their businesses. We must now establish our “new” daily lifestyle and find the balance between keeping our people safe and Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike on why maintaining the economy. the 2021 Olympics will be so important By Charlie Campbell How are you reassessing infrastructure needs following the pan- demic, such as public transport and remote working? Last year, only 25% of people in Tokyo used remote working, but PerhaPs more than any it went up to 60% in June this year. Japanese people were known other city, Tokyo bet big on to work from early morning to late at night, but such habits had to 2020. Japan’s capital had ear- change after COVID-19. We would like to increase the remote-work marked $12.6 billion for hosting an population further. This is a good opportunity to redesign Tokyo Olympic Games that would rejuve- from a city filled with automobiles to a city arranged around people. nate run-down neighborhoods and turbocharge the country’s tourism in- How important is the relationship between the Tokyo govern- dustry. Then the COVID-19 pan- ment and national government, especially at a time of crisis, and demic hit, postponing the Games and ‘TOKYO 2021 how can it be strengthened? throwing the city’s plans into uncer- We need to keep working closely with the national government in tainty. Despite spiraling costs, Tokyo WILL BE A various fields including COVID-19 issues [and] the Tokyo 2020 Governor Yuriko Koike says her city SYMBOLIC GAMES Olympics—and [new] Prime Minister [Yoshihide] Suga and I agreed is ready for next year’s rescheduled on that. At the same time, the local government has autonomy to a Games and sees opportunities to TO PROVE PEOPLE certain extent. It is our responsibility to implement measures for leverage the crisis to improve gover- HAVE DEFEATED the well-being of local people. And we would like to ask the national nance. This interview has been trans- government for its continuous support for autonomous local govern- lated from Japanese and was edited THE VIRUS’ ments so that we can fulfill our responsibilities. for length and clarity. Do you think COVID-19 can help foster positive change? Given the huge sums spent on the Although people’s attention is focused on COVID-19, climate change postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics, has caused natural disasters across the world. It may be small, what how important is making the re- each individual can do; maybe whether a person wears a mask or scheduled Games a success? doesn’t wear a mask is a small issue, but such small things can make It is extremely important. You can feel a difference if shared by 7 billion people. More people began to ride the power of sports is even stronger bikes because of the pandemic, and that helps reduce CO₂ emissions. because of the current situation—and It is possible to deal with these two issues at the same time by fight-

KENJI CHIGA FOR TIME Tokyo 2021 will be a symbolic Games ing the pandemic while sustaining the economy. •

71 THE GREAT RESET CAPITAL IDEAS

A group of companies are beginning to redefine how to measure success By Klaus Schwab

in The immediaTe monThs ThaT followed The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the world as we knew it was turned upside down. Like most people, I was constrained to observing the situation from inside my home and the World Economic Forum’s empty offices, and I relied on video calls to know how others were doing. Since those early moments of the crisis, it has been hard to be optimistic about the prospect of a brighter global future. The only immediate upside, perhaps, was the drop in greenhouse- gas emis- sions, which brought slight, temporary relief to the planet’s atmo- sphere. It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that many started to wonder: Will governments, businesses and other infuential stake- possible, when stakeholders act for holders truly change their ways for the better after this, or will we the public good and the well-being go back to business as usual? of all, instead of just a few. Looking at the news headlines about layoffs, bankruptcies and the Mere months after the pandemic many mistakes made in the emergency response to this crisis, anyone began, work was started on more than may have been inclined to give a pessimistic answer. Indeed, the bad 200 potential SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. news related to COVID-19 came on top of the enormous economic, Many of them resulted from multi- environmental, social and political challenges we were already fac- national collaboration involving both ing before the pandemic. With every passing year, these issues, as the public and private sectors, like many people have experienced directly, seem to get worse, not better. AstraZeneca’s collaboration with Ox- It is also true that there are no easy ways out of this vicious cycle, ford University in the U.K. Companies even though the mechanisms to do so lie at our fingertips. Every like Unilever approached the World day, we invent new technologies that could make our lives and the Economic Forum’s COVID Action planet’s health better. Free markets, trade and competition create so Platform with offers to supply hygiene much wealth that in theory they could make everyone better off if products, ventilators or simply logisti- there was the will to do so. But that is not the reality we live in today. cal help. There was also strong cooper- Technological advances often take place in a monopolized econ- ation between governments and busi- omy and are used to prioritize one company’s profits over societal ness, to secure the funds needed for progress. The same economic system that created so much prosperity vaccine development and distribution. in the golden age of American capitalism in the 1950s and 1960s is Looking forward, such virtuous now creating inequality and climate change. And the same political instincts can become a feature of our system that enabled our global progress and democracy after World economic systems rather than a rare War II now contributes to societal discord and discontent. Each was exception. Rather than chasing short- well intended but had unintended negative consequences. term profits or narrow self- interest, Yet there are reasons to believe that a better economic system companies could pursue the well-be- is possible—and that it could be just around the corner. As the ini- ing of all people and the entire planet. tial shock of the COVID crisis receded, we saw a glimpse of what is This does not require a 180-degree

72 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 turn: corporations don’t have to stop pursuing prof- but vague pledge. By the summer of its for their shareholders. They only need to shift to 2019, Moynihan and others put forth a longer- term perspective on their organization and the idea of creating a tool to measure its mission, looking beyond the next quarter or fis- themselves. By the fall, the work was cal year to the next decade and generation. Some are under way, and the Big Four consult- already doing so. ing firms— Deloitte, EY, KPMG and Maersk, a Danish shipping giant, for example, di- PwC—signed on to define the metrics. vested its oil and gas divisions, and is focusing on By January 2020, a first consulta- providing sustainable shipping solutions. Reacting tion draft of the metrics was ready, to increasing pressure from climate activists and and enthusiastically received. Then younger generations, Black Rock asked the CEOs of the COVID-19 disaster struck. Would companies it invested in to more explicitly pursue the project survive this global crisis? environmental, social and governance goals. These And, more broadly, would the whole decisions may hurt short-term profits for itself as idea of stakeholder capitalism die in shareholder, but it maximizes long-term returns the COVID crisis? The concept had in a world where people increasingly revolt against been embraced by the U.S. Business a system they perceive as unfair. Roundtable—a major Washington- Building such a virtuous economic system is not a based lobbying group of U.S. firms— utopian ideal. Most people, including business lead- just months earlier. Now, it was ers, investors and community leaders, have a similar feared, that nascent commitment to attitude about their role in the world and the lives of stakeholder capitalism could make others. Most people want to do good, and believe that way for a more realistic approach in doing so will ultimately benefit everyone, including companies: save what you can, even if a company’s shareholders. But what’s been missing it means laying off employees or cut- in recent decades is a clear compass to guide those in ting off suppliers. leading positions in our society and economy. But if anything, the enthusiasm of the companies working on the project For the past 30 to 50 years, the neoliberalist ide- increased. “There was a sense that this ology has increasingly prevailed in large parts of the was really important, especially in the world. This approach centers on the notion that the crisis,” said Maha Eltobgy, who headed market knows best, that the “business of business is business,” and RATHER THAN the initiative for the World Economic that government should refrain from setting clear rules for the func- Forum. In the fall of 2020, the metrics tioning of markets. Those dogmatic beliefs have proved wrong. But CHASING were finalized and publicly released. fortunately, we are not destined to follow them. SHORT-TERM Of course, we remain far from In September, my belief that a more virtuous capitalist system is our goal of achieving a better global possible was reaffirmed by an initiative of the forum’s International PROFITS, economic system for all. The Stake- Business Council led by Brian Moynihan of Bank of America. They COMPANIES COULD holder Capitalism Metrics are just one released the Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics: nonfinancial metrics of many initiatives that are needed to and disclosures that will be added (on a voluntary basis) to compa- PURSUE THE WELL- get to such an outcome—and time is nies’ annual reporting in the next two to three years, making it pos- BEING OF ALL quickly running out. But in a world sible to measure their progress over time. where pessimism is increasingly the Doing so requires answering questions such as: What is the gen- PEOPLE AND THE order of the day, and narrow and der pay gap in company X? How many people of diverse backgrounds ENTIRE PLANET short-term self- interest is still allur- were hired and promoted? What progress has the company made ing, initiatives like these demonstrate toward reducing its greenhouse-gas emissions? How much did the that a more inclusive and sustainable company pay in taxes globally and per jurisdiction? And what did model is possible. It is up to us to rep- the company do to hire and train employees? licate and follow such an approach. The initial idea that companies should try and optimize for more When that happens, those who follow than just short-term profits came around 2016 from a handful of busi- the path of stakeholder capitalism will ness leaders who wanted the private sector to play a role in achieving soon find that it leads to a more inclu- the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Individuals such sive and sustainable economy for all. as Moynihan, Frans van Houten of Philips and Indra Nooyi, then at PepsiCo, enlisted many of their peers in this commitment. Schwab is founder and executive In the following years, pressure from social- and climate-justice chairman of the World Economic movements such as Fridays for Future (inspired by Greta Thun- Forum. This essay was adapted from berg), #MeToo and Black Lives Matter added to the sense of ur- his book Stakeholder Capitalism, to be

KHALIL MASRAAWI—AFP/GETTY IMAGES gency. Business needed to do more than make a well- intentioned published in the U.S. in January 2021

73 THE GREAT RESET

electorate and growing public anger at FASTER the nation’s political establishment have been building for years. The President, Congress, the civil service and the news AND MORE media have increasingly become targets of public vitriol. In 2020, COVID­19 has proved that even an object as innocu­ DANGEROUS ous as a surgical mask can become part of a culture war. Democrats and Re­ The pandemic has put global trends into publicans have also divided sharply on hyperdrive. We need to adapt By Ian Bremmer how best to balance the needs of pub­ lic health and economic vitality. The problem of political polarization and reduced confidence in institutions is “There are decades accelerating globally. Many countries where nothing happens; and THE K-SHAPED RECOVERY have seen protests against COVID­ there are weeks where de­ created lockdowns—and also against cades happen.” Often attributed to RECOVERING leaders who did not take public health Vladimir Lenin, this quote says a lot Tech seriously. Retail about the impact of the novel corona­ Software services SHIFTING GEO POLITICAL virus in an already fast­changing NEED world. There is no history­changing ASSISTANCE ARCHITECTURE revolution on the horizon, but the past Travel Even before the arrival of the corona­ few months of the pandemic have tur­ Entertainment virus, the world had entered a period Hospitality bocharged four of the most significant Food services of geopolitical recession, one in which geo political trends of recent decades: international leadership and cross­bor­ growing inequality, eroding legitimacy der cooperation were evaporating, with of democratic institutions, antiquated fewer recognized referees to rebuild global architecture and ever faster lev­ PRE-COVID-19 RECESSION RECOVERY confidence in the existing global sys­ els of technological disruption. tem. The pandemic and its economic U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE and political effects have revealed just GLOBAL INEQUALITY how broken the international system Inequality within countries was a really is and how inadequate our Cold War–era multinational institu­ problem long before any of us had tions are for the tasks at hand. A prime example: a “my country first” ever heard the term COVID. In the approach to vaccine development and distribution will damage every­ pandemic’s early days, the U.S. Con­ one by encouraging vaccine hoarding, breeding international animosi­ gress responded with strong fiscal ties and ensuring that those who need help most will receive it last. stimulus, but the contentious elec­ THE MOST tion season has brought bipartisan DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY cooperation to a halt. Economic con­ INNOVATIVE PARTS We’re witnessing an acceleration in the rivalry between the still dom­ ditions will worsen as unemployment­ OF OUR inant U.S. and the still ascending China. No arena of competition will insurance funding runs low, the num­ become more important than the creation of disruptive new tech­ ber of foreclosures grows, furloughs ECONOMIES HAVE nologies. COVID­19 has accelerated investment in automation of become permanent, and winter makes SUFFERED THE the workplace, machine learning and AI. In essence, the pandemic life even more difficult for restaurants has decimated the engines of the 20th century economy— factories and the travel industry. This isn’t just LEAST DAMAGE and brick­and­mortar retail—while turbocharging the engines of the a U.S. trend; political leaders around 21st, like information technology and online retail. the world are now debating whether As with every great technological leap forward in human history, they can afford more fiscal stimulus at the digital revolution will create both winners and losers. Over time, a time when many people desperately these and other technologies will unlock more human potential by need it. And as the global economy creating unprecedented opportunities for distance learning, the prac­ sputters forward, widening wealth tice of tele medicine, advances in agriculture and the breakthroughs divides will spur anger and protests. that will create the “smart cities” of the future. The most innovative parts of our economies have suffered the least damage. THE CRUMBLING LEGITIMACY There are segments of society that can’t make this great leap for­ OF POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS ward. The question of how governments can rewrite the social con­ In the U.S., deep divisions within the tract to provide for as many as possible remains urgent and vital. 

74 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 Therefore, [we need to] focus on the health of people, the capac- ity of the medical system to cope with increasing infections, and above all work together to get the most durable solutions: vaccines and treatment. Secondly, we strongly recommend that what has worked to put the floor under the world economy is sustained for as long as necessary. In other words, do not withdraw policy sup- port prematurely. And, three, we know that to get out of this crisis, there is a need for fiscal stimulus. Use this money wisely. This is a once-in-a-century opportunity.

In that vein, you’ve said climate change should be a key focus of stimulus. How can the recovery help address climate change? Millions of jobs have been destroyed, and many of them may not come back, especially those held by low-skilled workers. If you have to rapidly create jobs, public infrastructure with green criteria can be a great place to invest. Renewable energy creates more jobs in com- parison to fossil-fuel-based energy. So the goal should be to marry these two objectives: create jobs and bring emissions down.

It doesn’t seem countries have followed that guidance thus far. The very first round of response to the crisis was indiscriminately A GROWTH support for the economy as it was. We have occasionally seen steps toward greening, but they were more the exception than the rule. By some estimates, 5% of the first round of fiscal support went green. CLIMATE But in the second round, we are in a different place. We are going to be more focused on what exactly the money would buy and orient the IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva recovery toward this new objective: job-rich and climate-resilient. on what markets can’t do alone By Justin Worland Beyond the opportunities you mention, the IMF has also warned about the risks climate change poses to the global economy. How can the IMF make sure these risks are considered? Kristalina GeorGieva, an Early on, we talked about how we can better inform decisions on the environmental economist by basis of assessing risk to financial stability related to climate. The training, took office as the fund invented stress tests which are now universally adopted to judge managing director of the International the health of the banking system. We want to build one more layer of Monetary Fund in October 2019, stress testing for climate-related financial- stability risks. intent on greening the financial system. A year on, the COVID-19 There has been a lot of talk about the possibility that the recov- pandemic has created a whole new ‘USE FISCAL ery might be K-shaped, with the rich getting richer and the poor set of challenges for her—and what getting poorer. Does capitalism need to be reformed? the Bulgarian-born economist calls STIMULUS Having lived in a centrally planned economy [in Soviet Bulgaria], a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to WISELY. THIS IS I look at capitalism as an economic system that is effective, efficient rebuild the economy sustainably. and rational. However, markets are not perfect. Markets on their own A ONCE-IN-A- are not going to move us to a low-carbon, climate- resilient path. We The IMF said on Oct. 13 that the CENTURY have to bring policies that correct these market imperfections, and world economy will shrink by 4.4% we have to be very clear that without policy intervention we may this year. What needs to be done to OPPORTUNITY’ cause a lot of damage to our standard of living, to our well-being. drive a return to growth quickly? And another aspect of capitalism that will not fix itself without pol- What we have reported is less dire icy intervention is access to opportunity and inequality. than just a couple of months ago, but this is still the worst recession since How can countries address inequality amid all of these crises? the Great Depression. The road ahead The first and most important piece of this is access to opportunity— is going to be steep. There are three to quality education, health care and social protection. And that re- actions we recommend. The first one quires raising revenues. The fund has come up with a very clear is recognizing that we cannot have a message: more proportionality in taxation at this time can support durable exit from the economic cri- growth, not harm it. It would expand the ability to build the produc-

CHESNOT—GETTYIMAGES sis until we exit the health crisis. tive capacity of everyone. 

75 THE GREAT RESET BLUEPRINT FOR THE PLANET Architect Bjarke Ingels is drawing up a plan to save the world By Ciara Nugent

Bjarke ingels can someTimes sound like a mad BIG’s ski slope scientist. “One thing I’ve learned a lot about over the past on top of a power year is stone flour,” the 46-year-old Danish architect says plant, opened over Zoom from his couch in Copenhagen. A mischievous to the public in smile spreads over Ingels’ tanned, boyish face as he explains: during Copenhagen in October 2019, the last ice age, glaciers ground rocks down into a fine, nutrient- rich embodies Ingels’ substance, which stimulated flora and fauna in some parts of the ethos of “hedonistic world. Geologists are now investigating stone flour’s ability to bring sustainability” life to infertile areas. “So say that in each container ship that sails across the oceans, you reserve four containers, fill them with stone flour and inject some when you cross a marine desert,” he says. As plants grow, they would draw down carbon from the atmosphere, reducing the greenhouse effect. “Then you can turn on the carbon- sucking capacity of the oceans.” The outlandish scale of Ingels’ thinking won’t come as a surprise to anyone who’s followed his career. Over the past decade, Ingels has gone from the enfant terrible of architecture—known for head- turning innovations like a mountain-shaped apartment block or a pair of twisting towers in Miami—to one of the busiest architects in the world. Bjarke Ingels Group, fittingly known as BIG, has worked for high-profile companies like Google and WeWork, and has 21 projects under construction, from Ecuador to Germany to Singa- pore, with dozens more in the pipeline. Ingels’ next project is a plan to save the world. When architects lay out a city block or a neighborhood, they often create a mas- ter plan: a document identifying the problems that need to be ad- dressed, proposing solutions and creating an image of the future that all parties involved then work toward. In Masterplanet, BIG applies that thinking to the entire earth, laying out how we can redesign the planet to cut greenhouse emissions, protect resources and adapt to climate change. Stone flour may be one of the more left-field notions in the plan, but it will also fold in projects that are already under way. A few years from now, Ingels hopes, a newly installed Prime Minis- PHOTOGRAPH BY ter or CEO might pull out Masterplanet when they want to address LUCA LOCATELLI

76 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 77 THE GREAT RESET

a climate issue within their remit, and see how to borrow from and add to global efforts. Formulating a plan to fix cli­ mate change during your spare time may smack of hubris, if not megalo­ mania. Climate­justice activists, who argue that climate action needs to address not only emissions but also systemic inequalities, question Ingels’ right to draft a plan for the entire planet, as well as his ability. Meanwhile, his fellow architects say the industry’s focus needs to be on tasks like improving the energy ef­ ficiency of buildings, not on flashy planetary vision boards. And even in a world where the COVID­19 pan­ demic has transformed our under­ standing of what is possible in terms of collective responses to a global challenge, it’s all but impossible to imagine any single climate plan achieving meaningful uptake from industries, governments and com­ munities around the world. For Ingels, though, none of that is a reason not to start one. Even when you’re making a master plan for a neighborhood, he says, it’s so large, it’s impossible to grasp at first. “But you go through iterations where you show it, you get a lot of feedback, and then you change it, until you tick all the boxes,” he says. “So even if in the beginning it Ingels poses at one­liner” in a 2016 review of his seems so complex and so vast, eventually you get there.” Via 57 West, an installation—a curved wall made up apartment building of steps—at the Serpentine Gallery. the architecture world has been called slow to respond to cli­ he designed in The structure, Wainwright found, mate change. But over the past few years, architects, builders and de­ New York City, in “provided gawp factor by the buck­ 2016; his firm signers have increasingly recognized the responsibility they bear: the currently has 21 etload, but with some hiccups on construction and operation of buildings accounted for 39% of global buildings under closer inspection.” energy­related CO₂ emissions in 2018, according to a U.N. report. construction That “gawp factor” has helped Prominent architects in the U.S. and the U.K. have signed a pledge around the world make Ingels’ buildings exceedingly declaring a climate emergency. Activist groups like the Europe­wide popular. His most famous proj­ Architects Climate Action Network, launched last year, are pressur­ ect may be CopenHill: a 279­ft.­ ing architecture schools to make sustainability and resilience more tall power plant in the Danish central to curriculums and firms to implement best practices in the capital, where trash is burned to face of resistance from clients. In September, European Commission generate low­carbon energy in a president Ursula von der Leyen announced the creation of a “new process so clean that BIG could European Bauhaus”—evoking the influential 1920s design school— place a ski slope on top. The build­ where architects and others will work on design solutions for climate ing finally opened to the public in problems “to give our systemic change its own distinct aesthetic.” October 2019, with a positive re­ For architects, it won’t come as a surprise that Ingels has de­ ception from users and reviewers. cided to strike out with his own bold climate plan. His buildings Acknowledging the critique of In­ are famous for centering a single big headline­grabbing idea— gels’ work as “a bit flashy and a bit a characteristic that led the Guardian’s architecture critic Oliver trashy,” the Observer’s Rowan Moore Wainwright to dub him “the undisputed king of the architectural said the project lived up to the hype.

78 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 “This is a work well matched to its architects’ strengths. Nicety is whether or not it’s even possible to not really the thing in this [old industrial area]; a compelling idea eliminate greenhouse- gas emissions is. Plus a dollop of chutzpah.” or sequester carbon because of the CopenHill embodied Ingels’ concept of “hedonistic sustainabil- complexity. So it ends up being a lot ity,” laid out in a 2011 TED talk, which holds that reducing our envi- of ... opinions. And also a feeling of ronmental impact should also increase our quality of life, and that hopelessness,” he says. “That’s not the it’s designers’ jobs to make that calculation work. The approach greatest call for action.” has certainly appealed to clients. BIG has won a number of high- Ingels says architects—whose profile commissions centered on sustainability. In Manhattan, daily work is turning requirements the firm is playing a key role in the construction of the Dryline, and feedback from an array of par- a park cum flood defense that will hug the island’s shoreline. In the ties into built reality—have some- foothills of Japan’s Mount Fuji, BIG is designing an entire town in thing unique to bring to the fight. partnership with Toyota, envisaged as a utopia for clean transport Politicians are bogged down by short technology. Construction begins in 2021. On the late- summer day electoral cycles that don’t reward TIME spoke to Ingels, the state government in Penang, Malaysia, long-term planning. Activists are announced BIG as the winner of a competition to design a master great at getting attention for issues plan to transform Penang Island’s south shore into a series of resil- but rarely have the power to enact ient artificial islands. their plans. Climate scientists are great at understanding problems. As the projects grew larger, Ingels says, so did his belief in the “But they are not entrepreneurs. importance of scale when planning for a sustainable built environ- ‘THE IDEA Their specialty is not starting things ment. “When you’re building a house, there’s a few things you can OF ARCHITECTURE up and making them happen.” do—add some solar panels on the roof and so on—but most of it is The practical barriers to the so- not very effective.” If you’re planning a city block or a neighborhood, AS PROVOCATION lutions proposed by Ingels are, of though, you can start working with some “synergies,” he says: cap- IS SOMETHING course, massive. For example, cre- turing rainwater over a large area; designing to take advantage of ating a unified global electrical grid the differences in energy use between residential buildings, which THAT BUILDS could solve many problems, and typically spend energy on heating, and commercial buildings, which ON BJARKE’S make it more efficient and easier to spend energy on cooling in the middle of the day. “There are all kinds power our world solely from renew- of things you can start doing. And every time you go up in scale, you SKILL FOR able sources. But electricity-market can actually do more.” The logical conclusion, he decided, was to at- PRESENTATION.’ experts say it’s almost too com- tempt to tackle the entire world. plicated to fathom doing so. Even Masterplanet divides the world’s environmental problems —Edwin Heathcote, a proposal to unite the main grids architecture into 10 sections. Five cover greenhouse-gas-emitting sectors— critic at the within the U.S. in 2018 was stifled by transport, energy, food, industry and waste management—and Financial Times political pressure, according to re- five cover other areas humans need to address to live sustainably porting by the Atlantic. on earth—biodiversity, water, pollution, health, and architecture But Edwin Heathcote, an architect and urbanism. The plan will initially take the form of conven- and the architecture critic at the Finan- tional master- plan documents used by architects, “including bud- cial Times, says Masterplanet fits into gets, area tables, system layouts and phasing strategies,” according a history of “architects who set out a to BIG. It will include ongoing projects, like the work of a plastic- big idea as a provocation, more than recycling plant in the U.S., as well as more out-there ideas like cre- a proposal.” He cites R. Buckminster ating floating cities to house communities affected by rising sea Fuller, who appeared on TIME’s cover levels, or unifying global electrical grids to help solve the problems in 1964 with his plan to use giant geo- of “intermittency”—unreliable and inconsistent energy production desic domes, including one over Man- by renewable sources, an obstacle to their wider adoption. BIG is hattan, as a way to building efficiently consulting industry experts in energy, waste management, trans- at a very large scale. The idea never port and other fields, before a first draft is made public in 2021. came to pass. But it became “one of By linking projects up in a single overarching plan, BIG says, the most referred-to images in archi- it will “prove that a sustainable human presence on planet earth is tecture” and fed into the Eden Project, attainable with existing technologies.” Masterplanet will account for a biological reserve in Cornwall, Eng- 10 billion people—a figure we are due to hit not long after 2050— land. With architectural visions like with the highest available living standards. Ingels says he wants both this, Heathcote says, “the idea begins to galvanize businesses and governments to do more, and to change to pique people’s interests. It’s so kind the way the public sees climate action. “I think a lot of people don’t of seemingly impossible that people really understand whether or not the different initiatives by differ- begin to think, Well, actually, maybe

PREVIOUS SPREAD: INSTITUTE; INGELS: PARI DUKOVIC—TRUNK ARCHIVE ent countries or different companies are adding up to something, there’s something in this. I think the

79 THE GREAT RESET

A WORLD IN TROUBLE

Masterplanet envisions how humans can live sustainably and safely on earth when there are 10 billion of us, a number we are expected to hit idea of architecture as provocation is around 2050. The proposal calls for rapid cuts to emissions of greenhouse something that builds on Bjarke’s skill gases and better management of natural resources. for presentation, his ability to synthe- New Delhi size big ideas for a broad audience.” Expanding cities Megacity population estimates in 2050 36.2m As if to prove this point, BIG tells TIME it envisages Ingels hosting a 10- part documentary series, in the vein of Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, explaining the 10 sections of Masterplanet to the public. New “He has to say that he wants this York City m to actually be realized,” Heathcote 24.8 Tokyo adds. “I’m sure he does. He would 32.6m like to be, I’m sure, the man who saves the world.” Mexico City Mumbai A mAster plAn 24.3m m presumes authority. Lagos 42.4 From the 17th century to the 20th, 32.6m master plans were a key tool for Eu- ropean colonizers to create settle- ments in their empires in the Amer- icas, Africa and Asia. More recently, within the U.S., master plans were at worked in Europe and the U.S. and has mostly white male part- the heart of the midcentury projects ners, says he’s aware that attempting this project will attract “all for urban renewal, which resulted in kinds of criticism.” He’s keen to stress that BIG “has no author- the displacement of low-income res- ity whatsoever over the planet.” He doesn’t want his firm to be in idents and minority communities. charge of redesigning the earth but “to get the ball rolling and see For climate-justice activists, the idea if we can get more people involved.” “We believe it could be a use- of a 46-year-old white European man ful tool to accumulate initiatives in a practical, pragmatic way. And even suggesting a master plan for the instead of complaining about why no one is doing it, we thought, planet is troubling. O.K., let’s just start doing it. It’ll only have an impact if enough rel- “We are in the situation that we evant entities think it’s useful and want to contribute and collabo- are in right now because of mas- rate and criticize.” ter plans coming out of Europe that Billy Fleming, director of the McHarg Center at the University of have been responsible for extraction Pennsylvania Stuart Weitzman School of Design, who leads projects [of resources], enslavement and colo- to redesign urban space to improve sustainability and quality of life, nialism,” says Elizabeth Yeampierre, says the central goal of Masterplanet—to create a unified plan for a executive director of the New York sustainable planet—is not a bad one. “I think a plan created through City–based climate- justice orga- consensus is something that folks involved in the U.N. Environmen- nizing group Uprose. For her, the tal Programme would like to get to and never do, for all kinds of rea- Masterplanet idea is “brimming with sons.” But BIG is not an appropriate body to lead such action, he hubris” and an “outdated approach” says. “Making images of the future can and often does prefigure it. to solving the climate crisis. And doing that comes with a real responsibility to the people whose Yeampierre argues that people lives will be transformed by the future these images can prefigure. from the Global South and commu- And as a design firm that—in Bjarke’s telling in [public speeches]— nities of color in the Global North, is very disinterested in any kind of political questions, they’re not who will be disproportionately im- accountable to anyone or any community.” pacted by the physical and economic Ingels’ approach to politics has sometimes made him an uncom- harms of climate change, should not fortable ally for progressives. In January, while on a research trip to just be consulted on plans to address Brazil for luxury- ecotourism firm Nomade, Ingels posed for a photo climate change but should also be during a meeting with the country’s far-right President Jair Bolsonaro. the ones to originate them. “So far Social media filled with criticism of Ingels for working with a man who we have moved the dial on address- has rolled back protections for Indigenous communities and fiercely ing climate change slowly, because encouraged deforestation in the Amazon. In a statement, Ingels called deference has always been given to the criticism “an oversimplification of a complex world.” “As much as people with privilege as the drivers I would enjoy working in a bubble where everybody agrees with me, of solutions.” the places that can really benefit from our involvement are the places Ingels, whose firm has mostly that are further from the ideals that we already hold.”

80 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 Scaling up How BIG estimates total world energy demand could be Growing world population met by carbon-neutral sources, expressed as total global footprint

10 BILLION 10B by 2050 16.1 million sq km Wind power Present day

5.6 million sq km Solar power 5B 109,000 sq km Nuclear power Projected Dotted line includes safety zones around plants COVERAGE AREAS FOR SCALE ONLY

ASSUMPTIONS: CURRENT WORLD ENERGY USE IS 153,000 TWH PER YEAR. WORLD ENERGY USE IS SCALED TO 10 BILLION POPULATION WITH A SINGAPORE- LEVEL ENERGY CONSUMPTION OF 564,000 TWH PER YEAR. WIND POWER ASSUMES AN AVERAGE YEARLY ENERGY PRODUCTION (NEXT GEN 10 MW TURBINES) OF 35 GWH PER SQ KM. SOLAR POWER ASSUMES AN AVERAGE YEARLY ENERGY PRODUCTION FOR PV SOLAR FARMS OF 100 GWH PER SQ KM. NUCLEAR-POWER MODELS 1800 1900 2000 2100 FROM THE BRUCE NUCLEAR STATION ONTARIO OF 48,000 GWH PER YEAR WITH A LAND USE OF 9.3 SQ KM

Ingels doesn’t like to associate That brand of pragmatism often puts Ingels at odds with climate himself with any particular ideol- activists, including those within his industry. Among architects, ogy or political project. But he says the question of whether or not those who care about sustainability Scandinavian- style social democ- should accept commissions for airports has become a major point of racy has some clear advantages. He debate. Would Ingels build an airport? “Definitely,” he says, adding and his family normally spend their that BIG would then use the best available strategies to make opera- time in New York, but shortly after tions more sustainable. “I mean, would you refuse to fly? Should the the COVID-19 pandemic hit the city whole world stop flying? So if we agree that sometimes it’s necessary in March, they moved back to Copen- to jump on a plane, then let’s make it happen.” hagen for a while. “It seems like a wel- fare state is maybe better equipped,” A few dAys before TIME spoke with Ingels, an education initia- he says with a smile. “You know, eq- tive in Denmark asked him for some help creating classes for high uity is a good thing in times of crisis: schoolers. The request made him think of his own student days, public health care, social security and FOR INGELS, THE and he pulled out the thesis that he, like all Danish teenagers, wrote free education—it works well!” at the end of high school, at age 19: “Environmental Policy on He does not look to the state to CLIMATE-CHANGE Global, Regional, National, Local and Individual Level: A Follow- play the largest role on climate, how- CHALLENGE MUST Up on the Rio Conference.” The title, which refers to a 1992 U.N. ever. He says the climate- change summit, was, he admits, “not so catchy.” But he got the top grade. challenge must be met primarily by BE MET PRIMARILY The world into which BIG is releasing Masterplanet is unrec- private businesses. As an architect, BY PRIVATE ognizable from the one where Ingels was writing in 1993, or even he says, he’s learned that “anything the one where he began thinking about this idea in spring of last that’s entirely relying on public BUSINESSES year. For one thing, yearly global CO₂ emissions have risen by spending is dependent on funding. more than 60% since 1990, and we are perilously close to reach- And when the funding runs out, you ing a catastrophic average global temperature rise of more than have to raise more. If you can make 1.5°C over the preindustrial era. For another, the pandemic has things both environmentally and ec- forced countries to shutter economies and inject unprecedented onomically profitable, they become sums of public money to keep society afloat. Like many, Ingels self- scaling.” The state’s primary role sees a sign of hope there for climate action. “If we could apply a in the climate-change fight, he says, similar decisiveness toward the climate crisis, I think we could should be “to eliminate the barriers deal with it much more impactfully and much quicker than we that have been implemented over imagine possible today.” time,” including “various kinds of Whether Masterplanet is the basis for that decisive action or not, trade barriers” in sectors like en- Ingels says his 19-year-old self would be pleased with the bold ac- ergy. “The environment doesn’t care tion he is taking. Twenty-seven years later, preparing his next envi- about party politics or about out- ronmental project, he’s definitely gotten better at titles. The grade is dated ideologies, for that matter.” still pending. —With reporting by madeline roache/london •

81 THE GREAT RESET

very beginning. Funnily enough, we have started to grow at much faster rates now on our 21st anniversary. It’s an overnight success story that took over two decades.

Did you know Mercado Libre would be successful from the start? When we launched, I did a survey with 20 Latin American classmates at Stanford and asked them if they thought the model was going to work in Latin America: 100% of them said no, that Latin Americans would never buy something they hadn’t seen or touched from [some- one] they didn’t know. It turned out it worked.

In 2019, e-commerce accounted for roughly 4% of retail sales in Latin America, compared with 11% in the U.S. How has the pan- demic changed things? I believe that that figure is going to be closer to 10% this year. The pandemic moved us forward between three and five years.

Mercado Libre’s market capitalization topped $60 billion this summer, making it one of Latin America’s most valuable compa- nies. Does that success feel strange while the world is suffering? If it was us selling, maybe it would. But we are literally saving hun- SELLER’S dreds of thousands of sellers from having to file bankruptcy. Latin American governments have been less able to provide people with the money to sustain long lockdowns than governments in Europe MARKET or the U.S. provided. But millions of small- and medium-size busi- nesses are able to continue operating safely and make a living. So, Marcos Galperin, the e-commerce king on the contrary, we are becoming an essential service. of Latin America, on betting against cash By Ciara Nugent The pandemic is likely to make inequality in Latin America even worse than it already is. Is that bad for business? For sure. Long term, we want a prosperous society with as many peo- When marcos Galperin ple being well-off as possible. I believe equality per se is not a value. founded Mercado Libre in We want the starting line to be as close to equal as possible. But that’s 1999, less than 3% of the pop- a starting line. If some people want to work harder or they have a bet- ulation of Latin America was online. ter idea, and they make more, what’s the problem with that? It’s a bit But the Argentine’s e-commerce plat- like sports. The best team wins and becomes champion, and the worst form flourished as the region became team loses. And that’s, I think, more interesting for society in general. more connected, and now claims to be the market leader in all its major The pandemic has brought a lot of negative changes. Do you pre- economies. Like other online sellers, ‘THE PANDEMIC dict any positive changes? it has thrived during the corona virus MOVED US I think we’re going to start addressing climate change in a much more pandemic, doubling sales in the sec- aggressive way. Businesses need to take the lead. For example, hav- ond quarter year on year. Galperin FORWARD ing large companies like us put in orders for electric vehicles helps spoke to TIME about the future of BETWEEN THREE a lot to jump-start the infrastructure we need. e-retail and the economic potential of the Americas. AND FIVE YEARS’ What’s your next big bet? We believe cash will disappear in Latin America. Partly because QR

What’s different about doing e- payments and digital payments are a better experience. But also, SARAH PABST—BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES commerce in Latin America com- because they use cash for everything, 50% of Latin Americans have pared with Europe or the U.S.? no history of their financial transactions and therefore no access to We had to create everything credit. We have started to create a digital financial history for them. from scratch. The logistics for That means we can provide loans to people that have never had ac- e-commerce and the infrastructure cess to loans. for digital payments—we had to cre- ate it all. Some of our international I’ve read you enjoy chess. Has that helped you as a businessman? competitors, like eBay and Amazon, I used to be a fan of chess. Now I lose to my son. So I’m not a fan grew [much faster than us] from the anymore. •

82 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 and employees were generating the most creative work they’d done in a long time. A shorter workweek was something TGW’s leaders had been dreaming about for a year, but they worried how clients would react, says Kribs, 37. “And then COVID happens and we’re like, You know what, let’s do this,” she says. “It was almost this like ‘F it’ kind of a thing.”

Office wOrk was brOken long before the pandemic. Technology has seamlessly connected workers to one another, but it’s brought with it an endless stream of distractions. The average knowledge worker— essentially someone who performs cerebral tasks for their job—checks email every six minutes and spends more and more time in meetings. Since productivity in office work is more difficult to monitor than manual work—it’s easy to see if a hotel room has been cleaned, for instance—many knowledge workers feel wedded to their desks, since the time they spend at their computers has become a proxy for how hard they are working. The pandemic is forcing compa- nies to rethink how they structure work, and some are trying ambitious changes to try to fix what is broken. WORK IN They’re shortening the workweek, doing away with meetings and re- thinking the butts-in-seats mental- PROGRESS ity. They’re adjusting workdays to suit the needs of employees scattered across time zones and faced with The quest to free employees from childcare responsibilities. Some are distraction By Alana Semuels even reimagining offices as nonwork retreats for employees who need a break from home. It’s not just small companies like TGW that are switching how they In AprIl, As offIce workers Across the world Tamara Hlava in structure work. Morrison’s, a U.K. stared down months of being stuck at home while juggling the Column Five supermarket chain, said in July its childcare, their jobs and general anxiety about a global office on Jan. 23; 1,500 corporate employees would re- pandemic, Lisa Kribs and Gavin Thomas, the co-founders even before the ceive the same pay to work a four-day of a marketing firm in Rochester, N.Y., decided to try an experiment pandemic, the week. Slack, the messaging-software company had made to make life more pleasant for their stressed-out employees. changes aimed at company, started a company holi- They implemented a four-day workweek at their eight-person helping workers day one Friday a month for its staff company, TGW Studio, and cut the number of meetings by about stay focused to rest and recharge. JPMorgan said 50%. By paying everyone their same salaries while expecting them in August that its employees would to work less, they hoped employees would be more productive dur- permanently cycle between remote ing the hours they were actually on duty. work and the office. They were right. Two months later, productivity had increased, Companies like TGW say they

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BRIAN GUIDO FOR TIME 83 THE GREAT RESET

hope their experiment motivates others to try something different. “This is really the time, as a soci- ety, to think through all of this,” says Thomas. “People are really getting excited about new ways of thinking about work.” Since the 1970s, knowledge work, made up of non routine, cognitive tasks generally performed by people sitting at desks, has blossomed. This has freed millions from the routine and often physically grueling jobs of the past as bookkeepers, factory workers and the like, but the tech- nology that helped create knowl- edge work has ushered in endless distractions. The pandemic has added heaps more, with as many as 1 in 4 peo- ple working from home globally, up from more than 1 in 12 before the pan- demic. Aside from interruptions by kids, roommates and spouses, work- ers are in more meetings so that col- leagues can hear what everyone is up to. After companies transitioned to remote work in March, the number of meetings jumped 12.9%, the num- ber of internal emails increased, and workdays grew 48½ minutes Leanne Robinson, Mesa, Calif., was experimenting with longer, according to one global study of 3 million workers. left, and Shea the idea of incorporating fow time What this means is less time for the type of focused work that Costales at Column into employee schedules before the keeps workers happy and productive. Instead, people are spending Five on Jan. 23. pandemic. Between around 12:30 and their time switching between meetings, emails, chats and their core The firm is trying 4 every day, it encouraged everyone new ways to help work tasks. Multi tasking has been shown to cost as much as 40% of employees be to refrain from Slacking, emailing or someone’s productive time. productive while calling one another so workers could This has implications for the world’s economy. After growing working at home concentrate on their own projects. globally at a rate of 3% per year in the early 2000s, productivity— But during the pandemic, as Column essentially how much people get done in an hour of work—grew at a Five employees shifted to working rate of 1.4% in 2019, according to the Conference Board. Some econo- from home, they saw their schedules mists argue that the same technology that fueled a boom in productiv- disrupted by family responsibili- ity in the early 2000s has become so disruptive that it ruins workers’ ties. Flow became more difficult to ability to focus. “We’re in a productivity crisis, and the arrival of email achieve, so the company redoubled in the 1990s is really what kicked it off,” says Cal Newport, a George- its efforts, says Tamara Hlava, the town computer-science professor who studies technology’s impact vice president of people and culture on cognition. “If you are writing an article, checking Slack and jump- at Column Five. ing into email, your brain is performing at a fraction of its potential.” Workers now set a blue fow emoji that looks a bit like lightning on their With so many people struggling to balance work and family time Slack status to let colleagues know during the pandemic, more companies are stepping in to help work- not to disturb them. Some employ- ers achieve what’s known as “fow,” the state of being so absorbed ees, like finance manager Daniella in a task that you lose track of time. Kribs, of TGW, first noticed the Hughes, instructed family members benefits of fow when women who were new mothers returned to like her husband to follow fow too. work. Eager to get home to their babies, they would sit down and “I’ve really had to train him to allow get into a deep groove, accomplishing more than people who spent me to be in fow time,” she says. long hours at the office. Other companies are helping Column Five, a marketing company with headquarters in Costa employees get into focus time by

84 Time November 2/November 9, 2020 providing them with monitoring soft- economics professor Nicholas Bloom. ware, a development that can seem That’s why some business owners Big Brotherish, but that companies are still investing in offices; they’re say is useful in making sure people just building a different kind. John spend their work hours on the right Sweeden, who runs a small software tasks. “If you want to become more firm that works in the oil and gas in- productive, using your time correctly dustry, broke ground in August on and understanding what you’ve done a new office building on a 25-acre with an hour—that is the place you plot near Oklahoma City. Much of should start,” says Mathias Mikkelsen, the space will be “a place where zero the CEO of Memory, a Norwegian work gets done,” he says. company that makes an AI-powered There will be a large salon for so- time-tracking app. Memory has seen cializing; employees will be encour- an 18% jump in paying customers aged to spend hours there, talking from the same time last year. about anything. Sweeden is building Other companies, including TGW, a guest cottage that will house a rotat- are finding that cutting back on meet- ing slate of visitors; in exchange for a ings can help workers find more time free place to stay, these visitors will be for deep work. “How many meetings asked to socialize with and give feed- have we all sat in where everybody’s back to Sweeden’s company. laptop is open and they’re checking The complex will also feature indi- their mail and you know only half lis- vidual office chambers for employees tening?” says Kribs. There is tangi- who struggle to focus at home—small ble evidence that reducing meetings rooms without Internet access set works: Microsoft Japan increased aside for people to get into flow. “Es- productivity 40% last year when it sentially the office becomes a break moved to a four-day workweek and from working at home,” Sweeden cut its standard meeting length in says. “You get to socialize with co- half, to 30 minutes. workers, help people, get help, learn, Now that many workers have decamped to different time zones, teach and discuss ideas.” some companies are reconsidering the whole idea of live meetings. ‘THIS IS REALLY Sweeden’s future office is based Column Five started using software called Loom, which lets employ- THE TIME, AS on a design concept called the Eudai- ees leave video messages in documents that walk colleagues through monia machine, developed by archi- directions or important context. Buffer, a social-media management A SOCIETY, TO tect David Dewane. Eudaimonia is a platform with 90 employees in 19 countries, no longer has mandatory Greek term that describes the state of meetings and instead uses Threads, a platform that lets employees THINK THROUGH contentment humans achieve when weigh in on questions and decisions whenever is convenient to them. ALL OF THIS.’ they’re flourishing in life or work. (Threads is itself a child of the pandemic; it launched in stealth mode Achieving a state of eudaimonia —Gavin Thomas, in 2019 and decided to open up in March to help more customers TGW co-founder “purely comes down to managing bring together remote workers.) “One of the problems with meetings distractions,” says Dewane, whose is that you often get the most outspoken, strongest opinions heard,” ideal office has different zones, each says Hailley Griffis, the head of public relations at Buffer. designed to put workers’ minds into As employers adapt to remote work, the biggest question facing a progressively deeper focus. them is what to do with their physical offices. Even before the pan- Column Five, the Costa Mesa mar- demic, many employers had begun questioning the wisdom of open- keting company, had built a new office plan offices, which became popular in the past two decades. With based on the Eudaimonia machine be- employees seated in close quarters side by side and sharing kitchens fore the pandemic. Now, the company and break areas, the offices enabled constant distractions. Once the hopes employees still use it, but not pandemic hit, they also proved potentially lethal. for work. “We want to keep that space Now, many companies are questioning the worth of offices at all. for socializing—if you want to go in Tech companies, including Twitter, Facebook and Shopify, have and share a LaCroix with somebody said they will let many employees work from home permanently. and have a conversation,” Hlava says. But going fully remote can deal a blow to employees’ mental health; “Going to the workspace and choos- when Ctrip, a Chinese company, allowed more than 100 employ- ing how you want to be that day leads ees to work from home for four days a week starting in 2010, they to the freedom and autonomy that were happy for three months, but within nine months, about half is good for a work culture.” —With wanted to return to the office, according to research by Stanford reporting by Julia Zorthian 

85 THE GREAT RESET

to do things differently. Our decade will be pivotal for WHAT determining whether we can keep the impact of climate change to a manageable level. This can be achieved only if HAPPENS businesses, governments and civil society pull together to make the investments that will determine the shape of NEXT our future. COVAX, the inter- national effort to develop and equitably distribute COVID-19 Six leaders on what vaccines across the globe, is a the pandemic era will NGOZI sterling example of this kind of OKONJO-IWEALA collaboration. mean for the world If we seize the opportunity in the years to come Amid the catastrophic ruin now, in years to come we will be left by the pandemic, I believe able to look back at 2020 and there are reasons to be talk about how humanity turned positive. I have hope that the the corner and built a fairer post-COVID world could yet be world. There is no alternative. fairer and more equitable. The pandemic has brought Okonjo-Iweala is chair of Gavi, into clearer focus the need the Vaccine Alliance

TONY BLAIR LILY COLE

The key political challenge of today is the What we learn from this crisis technological revolution. We’re experiencing the will be different for everyone. 21st century equivalent of the Industrial Revolu- But for me, it starts with tion, and politics is slow to catch up. COVID-19 understanding why it hap- will only accelerate it. Companies will digitalize pened in the fi rst place. This faster; innovation will be spurred by the necessity means acknowledging the of fi nding new ways to work and by cutting costs. links between environmental The impact, along with the huge hangover bill degradation and emerging for dealing with the virus and the loss of economic diseases, and recognizing activity, will be to produce a lot of hardship with that the climate crisis is a the burden falling often on the most vulnerable. public-health concern. Pre-existing injustices will seem even more We also need to rethink unacceptable, releasing pent-up anger and an economic model that possibly even social unrest. So governments will struggle. Populists will have plenty to play with. And social divisions will become more raw. It will require political leadership that can ana- lyze, understand, explain and point the way. Hope- fully this is the politics that emerges from the COVID nightmare. Yet the absence of global coor- dination during the crisis has been truly shocking. And damaging. Think how much faster we could have developed things like rapid, on-the-spot tests if the world had worked together. I have always been an optimist. For the fi rst time in my political life, however, I am doubtful. Still hopeful but troubled.

Blair is a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom STEWART BUTTERFIELD

The massive global shift to distributed work during the pandemic will not be undone. Nearly 9 of 10 workers do not want to return to the offi ce full time. That’s going to reshape offi ces, the com- panies that use them, the cities organized around them, and everything from public transit to housing prices. That might sound like a problem, but it’s also an opportunity. With lowered prices, cities will once again be hospitable for art- ists, teachers and nurses, along with more of the independent businesses that struggled to compete with chains as urban com- mercial space became prohibitively costly. Demand for housing with appropriate working spaces will increase, harking back to the preindustrial patterns of work and family life. We will be able to expand the information-age opportunity to YO-YO MA communities that have never shared in it. Tools that allow for asynchronous collaboration will permit people to balance work In 1948, the U.N. General and family responsibilities. This will allow us to rethink cities Assembly came together and themselves too—reducing traffi c, increasing green space, trans- ratifi ed a Universal Declara- forming former offi ces into homes and cultural institutions. tion of Human Rights, describ- This isn’t a pipe dream or some far-off future; this is now, and ing the world they wanted to next year, and the year after that, if we embrace the opportunity build, one defi ned by equality, to reimagine and the responsibility to reinvent. opportunity and safety for all. We may have failed in so Butterfi eld is CEO of Slack many ways to deliver on the promise of that document, but every generation has a chance, and an obligation, places growth above all else. the pandemic, so will it be to do better. Many activities that cause pivotal to our future recovery. To me, that begins with cul- GDP to rise—like selling Without the innovations and ture—the place where arts, arms or cutting down trees— breakthroughs that come sciences and society connect. also increase violence and from science, progress always When scientists from dozens environmental degradation. stagnates. of countries join hands to And yet the pursuit of GDP But science is also a value unlock the mysteries of our growth is at the heart of many system, and it can play an universe; when a fi lmmaker of our policy frameworks. We important role in connecting or musician lifts up voices need to study why our model people in our fractured world. and stories from the margins; has benefi ted so few, and This is because science is when museums and concert create a system that could both universal and unifying. halls redefi ne the communi- help many. It is universal because the ties they serve based on val- This pandemic has been laws of nature are the same ues like access, curiosity and an X-ray on innumerable everywhere on earth; and it is collaboration —that is taking existing forms of inequality, FABIOLA GIANOTTI unifying because the quest for action for a better future. highlighting how our system knowledge and the desire to If you do not consider your- fails so many people around The pandemic has thrust understand how things work self a cultural being, I chal- the world. This is a time to science into the spotlight. are aspirations we all share. lenge you to think differently: be creative, to go back to Governments turned to scien- Science has neither we are all cultural citizens, the drawing board and to tists for advice before taking passport nor gender, ethnicity and culture will be the engine leverage the current political decisions and implementing nor political affi liation, and of our reconstruction, as it appetite for transformative measures. Distinguished has long been recognized as always has been. Culture is policies that could address virologists, immunologists a facilitator of cross-border the foundation on which we the enormous challenges we and epidemiologists even alliances. Global challenges will build a world where we face. We cannot let this crisis replaced celebrities on the require global solutions, and reaffi rm our commitment to go to waste. front pages of newspapers. In global collaboration. Science equality and safety for all, we a sustainable world, science can show the way. act with empathy and we know Cole is a model, entrepreneur must remain center stage and that we can always do better. and author of Who Cares not be put back in its box until Gianotti is head of the Wins: Reasons for Optimism the next crisis hits. Just as sci- European Organization for Ma is a cellist and a

BLAIR, MA: WIREIMAGE; COLE, BUTTERFIELD, GIANOTTI: GETTY IMAGES; OKONJO-IWEALA: FILMMAGIC in Our Changing World ence is pivotal to dealing with Nuclear Research (CERN) U.N. Messenger of Peace

87 THE GREAT RESET

In terms of supply chain and logistics, what changes do you think will be most enduring? The supply chain came under a lot of strain. We’re still digging into the learnings, but a couple things emerged that we’re going to focus on. One is you’re going to see us raise the expectation we have on fill rates to ensure product ordered is reaching our stores. We’re also going to sharpen our assortment. That will allow us to get higher vol- umes and more predictable production capacity from our suppliers— the result is more assured flow of product to the customer even when a surge in demand hits. During the pandemic, we saw the benefits of our relationships with local suppliers, so we’ll build on those as another way to help ensure access to product.

In terms of game-changing technology on the nearish-term horizon—two to five years—what do you think will have the most impact on your business? I don’t think you can pin it down to one piece of technology. Some- times the magic happens when we put several pieces together. The key is to be clear on which big problems we’re trying to solve and then working backward to overcome all the hurdles to solve them. We’re testing or studying drone delivery, eliminating the checkout LOCKDOWN line and leveraging new technologies in our supply chain. Is it the corporate world’s responsibility to retrain workers LESSONS displaced by technology? Yes, we should be part of that solution. Technology is fundamentally Doug McMillon, the CEO of Walmart, changing what it means to work—and the retail industry is no excep- on why the retailer is focusing on tion. Knowing this, for several years now, we’ve invested heavily in stakeholder capitalism By Eben Shapiro our associates as the skills needed to perform the jobs of the future continue to change. For us, this has resulted in higher wages, inno- vation in our on-the-job training and more education opportunities Doug mcmillon sTarTeD aT for our frontline associates. the nation’s largest retailer as a teenager, unloading trucks for Is there a correlation between the growing interest from corpo- an hourly wage. He explains how he has rations in stakeholder capitalism and the decline in the ability positioned Walmart during the pan- of governments to solve big problems? demic to make sure the $500 billion– Big problems don’t rest on the shoulders of government or corpo- plus company thrives in the new land- rations alone. I think the growing interest in stakeholder capital- scape that emerges going forward. ‘WE SIMPLY WON’T ism stems from companies genuinely invested in doing good for our world, because it’s the right thing to do and because businesses who What pandemic-induced changes BE HERE IF WE take this approach are stronger. We simply won’t be here if we don’t in how you run your company do DON’T TAKE CARE take care of the very things that allow us to exist: our associates, cus- you expect to persist beyond the tomers, suppliers and the planet. That’s not up for debate. pandemic? OF THE VERY When the pandemic hit, there was no THINGS THAT What is your reaction to people coming into your stores, not question that we needed to put all our wearing masks and confronting your associates? attention on the safety of our associ- ALLOW US TO EXIST’ We understand some people can’t wear masks for health reasons. ates and serving our customers who Where I get concerned is that it’s become a political issue. Our teams MICHAEL NAGLE—BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES needed access to food and critical continue to handle these situations with great care and reinforce the supplies. It became clear there were importance of wearing a mask. Millions of customers pass through a lot of meetings that didn’t need to our stores each week, and we don’t think it’s too much to ask people happen and, also, that not everybody to wear a mask when it comes to protecting one another. needed to be involved in every deci- sion. That kind of rigorous prioritiza- Do you wear a mask? tion was kind of a reset for our pro- Yes. And I appreciate our associates doing it and doing it for so cesses, and I think we’ll keep working long. We believe it has contributed to their safety and the safety in a more streamlined way. of our customers. 

88 Time November 2/November 9, 2020

The most engaging, inventive and influential works of fantasy fiction, in chronological order beginning in the 9th century

ILLUSTRATIONS BY CORINNE REID FOR TIME Books

9TH CENTURY 1871 THROUGH THE THE POWER OF FANTASY THE ARABIAN NIGHTS LOOKING-GLASS This collection of folktales, also BY LEWIS CARROLL By N.K. Jemisin known as One Thousand and Decades of adaptation and One Nights, has an infamous consolidation have jumbled he world is stories. framing device: Scheherazade, Carroll’s two Alice books in our Consider the “flat-earther” who the vizier’s daughter, is set to collective memory, with Alice’s constructs elaborate chains of causa- be married then killed by the Adventures in Wonderland largely king; she forestalls this fate by subsuming its 1871 sequel. tion and meaning from facts that have persuading him to hear a story, But it was Looking-Glass that little to do with each other. Consider which she draws out for 1,001 introduced indelible English bigotry, which does the same—and nights by ending each on a cliff- nursery-rhyme characters like yet we have built entire school cur- hanger. These short stories are Humpty Dumpty and twins ricula, legal systems, infrastructure deeply misogynistic. They’re also Tweedledee and Tweedledum tremendously influential, having into Alice’s world. and industries around such ideas as “women can’t handle shaped storytelling far beyond pressure” and “poor people are lazy.” Why do we believe the Islamic golden age when 1902 FIVE CHILDREN one set of paranoid, questionable hypotheses and not an- they were initially compiled—the AND IT other? Why do we designate some people as “heroes” and earliest known printed page BY E. NESBIT others as “villains,” and why are we so loath to change dates to the 9th century. After moving into their summer home in the English countryside, those designations when the people in question turn out 1485 LE MORTE D’ARTHUR five brothers and sisters go to be just ... people? How is it that we lately seem to have BY THOMAS MALORY digging in the local gravel pits and become a society that cares more about compelling non- One of the earliest printed works make a curious discovery: at the sense than about boring rationality? Or were we always of the genre can be found in Le bottom of a hole, the children find that kind of society, and we just care more now because Morte d’Arthur, French for “the a strange furry creature. Nesbit death of Arthur,” which has gone describes their subsequent the nonsense is hurting a broader swath of people? on to inspire everyone from adventures in witty prose without These are fraught times—but there have always been Monty Python to Stephen King. patronizing her younger audience. fraught times for someone in the world, somewhere. And The 500-year-old text mixed and Instead, she invites her readers there have always been those whose mastery of the art matched its parts from the work to understand the realities of of storytelling has helped us understand how powerfully of many, all while inventing new living in a grownup world—which perspectives and themes—much has its difficulties, no matter the stories shape the world. C.S. Lewis sought to comfort as the genre still does today. level of magic involved. children with faith. Philip Pullman disturbed them with warnings of encroaching fascism. There are many stories 1865 ALICE’S ADVENTURES 1907 OZMA OF OZ aimed at children on this list, possibly because we’re still IN WONDERLAND BY L. FRANK BAUM BY LEWIS CARROLL openly hungry for stories in childhood, and thus the ones After the success of The The tale of a curious girl who Wonderful Wizard of Oz, we absorb then have a lasting effect. That hunger doesn’t falls down a rabbit hole into a published in 1900, Baum really change when we grow up, however; the need is magical world never ceases to wrote a whole series of wildly still there, acknowledged or not—especially if the stories ignite children’s imaginations. inventive Oz books—14 in all, we’ve been given up to that point don’t encapsulate real- The book helped to replace stiff most of them featuring the ity. Thus it’s fitting that some of the most powerful story- Victorian didacticism in children’s young heroine he introduced literature with a looser, sillier in the first, Dorothy Gale of tellers on this list, such as Victor LaValle, engage with style that reverberated through Kansas. Nearly all are terrific, (4) IMAGES GETTY TIME; FOR KANG SYLVIA SANGSUK WARDROBE: THE AND WITCH THE LION, THE adult concerns like parenthood instead of myth. the writing of 20th century but the third may be the most Is it comforting to see how many of the stories on this authors as different as James memorable: Ozma of Oz finds list wrestle with the need to reform institutions and lead- Joyce and Dr. Seuss. Amid Dorothy en route to Australia ership? It could be. Yet the newer storytellers here, many hundreds of derivative works (and by ship. After being blown into that’s a conservative estimate) in the drink during a massive of whom hail from colonized cultures and thus have mediums ranging from opera to storm, Dorothy lands not in vastly different backgrounds from those of “classic” fan- amusement-park rides to video Oz but in a kingdom called the tasy authors, also warn us of the realities of societal strife. games, Disney’s 1951 animated Land of Ev, where she meets a The good guys don’t always win, the bad guys don’t al- feature has become a classic princess who keeps a closet of ways lose, and either way, the ones who suffer most will unto itself. interchangeable heads. be the people who were already struggling to get by. This is what both classic and modern fantasy teach us, however: that you have to fight anyway. That sometimes it is the journey, and not the final battle against some THE PANELISTS Dark Lord or another, that defines who we are. That our happy ending might very well depend on how loudly and powerfully we tell our stories along the way. Don’t think TIME recruited eight best-selling of fantasy as mere entertainment, then, but as a way to authors to help nominate top train for reality. It always has been, after all. works and rate the contenders and Christian proselytism, 1954 MY LIFE IN seamlessly weaves in aspects of THE BUSH OF GHOSTS the new West African modernity BY AMOS TUTUOLA with myth and oral storytelling. Tutuola’s second book tells the story of a West African child who 1952 THE VOYAGE is forced for 24 years to navigate OF THE DAWN TREADER an incomprehensible wilderness BY C.S. LEWIS filled with fantastical beings, No longer strangers to the land most of whom are some form of Narnia, the youngest Pevensie of ghost. It’s a striking work of children, Edmund and Lucy, get syncretism that went on to inspire whisked back there with their Talking Heads front man David irritating cousin Eustace Scrubb. Byrne and super producer Brian With more relaxed stakes, the Eno to record a 1981 album by book takes the children and the the same title. reader on a delightfully creative adventure, where each new stop 1954 THE TWO TOWERS along the way only deepens the BY J.R.R. TOLKIEN fantasy and mystery. The archetypal fantasy epic that is The Lord of the Rings continues in a second installment that masterfully ups the ante in Frodo’s quest to destroy the One Ring while simultaneously fleshing out the rich history and languages of Tolkien’s Middle-earth—and bypasses the dreaded middle-of-the-saga 1954 slump, a common problem for THE FELLOWSHIP fantasy series. OF THE RING 1955 BY J.R.R. TOLKIEN THE RETURN OF THE KING Tolkien’s epic was BY J.R.R. TOLKIEN heavily influenced by 1934 MARY POPPINS famous book of the seven-volume The powerful conclusion to the his experiences as a BY P.L. TRAVERS Chronicles of Narnia, its embers British soldier during Lord of the Rings adventure not Travers’ classic story introduces gleam in dozens of contemporary World War I. The Lord of only earned the three-part novel one of the most intriguing fantasies about the sudden the Rings, while a story the 1957 International Fantasy discovery of magical worlds, from protagonists in the history about wizards, elves Award and the top spot in a 2003 The Magicians to Harry Potter. of children’s literature: the and hobbits, is also a survey conducted by the BBC peculiar and magical nanny Mary to determine British readers’ 1952 THE PALM-WINE meditation on hope. Poppins—and the book is a That one so small as best-loved novel of all time; it captivating adventure that DRINKARD also cemented its present-day BY AMOS TUTUOLA Frodo Baggins should has inspired movies and music undertake a quest to standing as the gold standard At the time of its publication, for generations. carry the Ring to the of the fantasy genre. It’s both Nigerian writer Tutuola’s debut, realm of Mordor is one of triumphant and heartbreaking. 1950 about an alcoholic who sets off THE LION, THE WITCH Tolkien’s greatest marks on a mission to procure more AND THE WARDROBE on the high-fantasy 1957 A HERO BORN BY C.S. LEWIS palm wine, was unlike anything subgenre—of which BY JIN YONG Stuck in a lonely house, a band English-language readers had he’s widely considered The Chinese wuxia genre of children stumble upon a ever read; today it remains the father. The first typically follows martial artists’ door into a secret world behind bracingly original in its voice installment launches adventures while exploring the that most prosaic of furniture and ideas. Tutuola, writing at a the fellowship on their intersection between supernatural items: a wardrobe. This is the moment when the Yoruba culture treacherous quest. abilities, otherworldly creatures irresistible setup of Lewis’ he was born into was colliding and China’s long history. One children’s classic. The most with that of British colonialism of the greatest wuxia works

TOMI ADEYEMI CASSANDRA CLARE DIANA GABALDON NEIL GAIMAN Author of Children of Blood and Author of the Mortal Author of the Outlander series, Author of more than 40 Bone and Children of Virtue Instruments, Infernal Devices the inspiration for the hit books, including Neverwhere and Vengeance and Dark Artifices series Starz drama and American Gods Books

of the 20th century was the mysteriously appeared in the last of her kind in all the strange abilities, Myrddin Emrys Condor trilogy, the first book of his bedroom. world, a unicorn sets out from (or as he becomes known, Merlin) which is A Hero Born. Translated her enchanted lilac wood to must hone his skills in medicine, into English in 2018 by Anna 1962 A WRINKLE IN TIME discover what the monstrous engineering and, of course, Holmwood, the book takes place BY MADELEINE L’ENGLE Red Bull has done to her sorcery before finding his place during the 12th century Jin-Song Transformation is the subject immortal kin. In this cult classic, in the turbulent world of Wars and follows the sons of two of this classic YA novel, which written in lyrical prose and rife 5th century England. dedicated allies forced to go their fuses an imaginative fantasy plot, with both whimsical humor and separate ways. timeless coming-of-age themes philosophical ruminations on 1971 THE TOMBS OF ATUAN and mind- expanding ideas drawn what it means to be human, BY URSULA K. LE GUIN 1958 THE ONCE AND from scrupulous study of science, Beagle spins a quasi- medieval The second Earthsea novel FUTURE KING literature and spirituality. A fairy tale that remains timeless. follows Tenar, a girl taken as a BY T.H. WHITE titan of the genre, L’Engle gave child to become high priestess Widely considered the definitive precocious readers— especially to the ancient spirits of the modern retelling of the medieval girls, a chronically underserved titular tombs. She is the only saga of King Arthur and his demographic for fantasy lit—an one who can enter the tombs’ Knights of the Round Table, avatar in Meg Murry, a brilliant sacred underground labyrinth, White’s collection of tales brings but hapless preteen outcast who so when a stranger arrives to 20th century insight to the rise goes on a quest to find her father. steal an invaluable treasure, it’s and fall of Camelot. Beginning 1968 up to her to stop him. Tenar’s with the legend of “The Sword 1965 THE WANDERING A WIZARD OF inner struggle against the social in the Stone,” White offers a UNICORN EARTHSEA constructs that define her life comical yet deeply sad portrayal BY MANUEL MUJICA LÁINEZ BY URSULA K. LE GUIN carries this Newbery Medal– of Arthur’s life, from his childhood In El unicornio—titled The Long before Harry Potter winning novel. training with the wizard Merlyn up Wandering Unicorn in a 1982 went to Hogwarts, until his tragic final battle. English-language translation Le Guin pioneered the 1972 WATERSHIP DOWN by Mary Fitton—Mujica Láinez concept of a school BY RICHARD ADAMS 1961 JAMES AND THE expands the story of Melusine, for wizards. The first Adams’ classic tale of escape, GIANT PEACH a medieval fairy who has been installment in the adventure and survival follows BY ROALD DAHL depicted for centuries in prose acclaimed Earthsea Cycle a group of rabbits as they Enormous talking insects, evil and art. Mujica Láinez intertwines series sees a young Ged flee a warren doomed by the aunts and a larger-than-life historical and magical threads in sail to the heart of the encroachment of man. They head piece of fruit take the lead in a narrative that follows Melusine titular archipelago—one off in search of greener pastures Dahl’s fantastical tale of a lonely as she falls in love and witnesses of the most original and eventually settle on the young boy finding his place in many battles across Europe fantasy worlds of its hillside of Watership Down. Led the world. While Dahl’s reputed during the Crusades. time—to study at the by the reluctant rabbit-in-chief anti-Semitism has raised magical island of Roke’s Hazel, the budding colony must questions about his legacy as 1968 DRAGONFLIGHT school of wizardry. There, contend with various elil, the an author, James and the Giant BY ANNE MCCAFFREY he makes a terrible word in Adams’ inventive Lapine TIME FOR KANG SYLVIA SANGSUK TOLLBOOTH: PHANTOM THE HANIFIN; LAURA JEMISIN: IMAGES; GETTY TAHIR: MARTIN, JAMES, Peach remains a favorite among Territorial disputes among landed mistake that haunts him language for the thousand kids and parents alike nearly 60 gentry. Swords and sandals. And, on his path to becoming natural enemies of rabbits, as years after it was first published. most important, fire-breathing the greatest sorcerer in they seek a home where they can dragons—along with the elite the realm. finally live in peace. 1961 THE PHANTOM humans who can communicate TOLLBOOTH with them. McCaffrey takes these 1973 THE DARK IS RISING BY NORTON JUSTER classic tropes and subverts the 1970 THE CRYSTAL CAVE BY SUSAN COOPER Juster has described his debut fantasy genre by adding a science- BY MARY STEWART On his 11th birthday, a boy learns as an “accidental masterpiece” fiction twist: setting her story on a Another update on the Arthurian about his supernatural abilities inspired by his childhood ennui. far-flung planet colonized by Earth legend—this time from the point and the existence of magic, and Accidental or not, the book, and and then forgotten, and making of view of Camelot’s resident then has to search for powerful 1970 animated film, have helped the “dragons” genetically modified magician—the first installment objects in order to save the world. generations of kids keep the versions of a lizard-like species. in Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy follows No, it’s not Harry Potter—it’s Will doldrums at bay, with the story the sorcerer in the years before Stanton, who discovers that he of a bored young boy named 1968 THE LAST UNICORN he becomes King Arthur’s most is an Old One, an immortal being Milo who drives his toy car BY PETER S. BEAGLE trusted adviser. Ostracized for with a special role in the timeless through the tollbooth that has Upon learning that she may be his unknown parentage and struggle between Light and Dark.

MARLON JAMES N.K. JEMISIN GEORGE R.R. MARTIN SABAA TAHIR Booker Prize–winning author of Author of the Broken Earth, Author of the A Song of Ice and Author of An Ember in the Ashes, Black Leopard, Red Wolf, the first Dreamblood and Fire series, the basis for HBO’s A Torch Against the Night and book in a promised trilogy Inheritance series Game of Thrones A Reaper at the Gates Cooper was at Oxford when both of these texts from a feminist Lewis and Tolkien taught there, perspective. Whereas the and her work has been described traditional forms tend to portray as a bridge between their era female characters as objects and the YA fantasy epics of more whose sexuality is passive and recent decades. unspoken—a thing to be won by a prince, but always 1973 THE PRINCESS BRIDE repressed—Carter’s stories BY WILLIAM GOLDMAN insist on an active and visceral Buttercup, the most beautiful feminine sexuality. woman in the world, is betrothed to a malicious monarch. But she 1982 THE BFG finds a savior in her long-lost BY ROALD DAHL love Wesley, who teams with After an orphan named Sophie giant Fezzik and Inigo Montoya, is snatched from her bed by a swordsman bent on avenging a mysterious 24-ft.-tall figure his father’s death, for an epic who refers to himself as the showdown with the prince. BFG, or Big Friendly Giant, the Goldman presents himself pair form an unlikely friendship. in the narration as an author But when Sophie learns that excising the “boring bits” from the large-eared, sensitive and a (made-up) old fairy tale, and silly-speaking BFG is the lone pauses at the end of each vegetarian among his child-eating chapter to analyze the fantasy brethren, she determines to put a genre and reminisce about his stop to their murderous ways. own father telling him fantastical bedtime stories. 1983 ALANNA: THE FIRST ADVENTURE 1975 TUCK EVERLASTING BY TAMORA PIERCE BY NATALIE BABBITT We first meet Alanna of Trebond Young Winnie Foster comes to as she’s preparing to disguise know a family, the Tucks, who herself as a boy and take her were granted the seemingly twin brother’s place as a knight becoming his housekeeper. But 1988 THE LIVES OF enviable but actually burdensome in training. In many ways ahead not all is as it seems in the wizard CHRISTOPHER CHANT miracle of immortality when of its time, Pierce’s fantastical YA Howl’s castle. Doors open into BY DIANA WYNNE JONES they unknowingly drank from a story, part of a series, doesn’t shy parallel worlds, the hearth fire The Chrestomanci holds a magical spring on her family’s away from addressing issues of has an attitude, and Howl spends unique position: blessed property. Saddled with a secret feminism, diversity, gender and sexuality, and class politics. several hours a day primping with nine lives and powerful she must help to conceal as in the bathroom, letting his magic, he is tasked with the outsiders seek to profit off of apprentice do all the work. responsibility of overseeing the powerful elixir, Winnie learns 1986 HOWL’S MOVING CASTLE parallel worlds. But young that it is the fact of life’s ending REDWALL BY DIANA WYNNE JONES 1986 Christopher, destined to become that gives meaning to all that BY BRIAN JACQUES the Chrestomanci in later years, comes before. Rather than fight the curse that gives her the appearance When the peaceful woodland doesn’t know that yet. First, he creatures who make their home becomes a pawn in the illicit A SWIFTLY (and the aches and pains) of 1978 in a red sandstone abbey at the smuggling plots of his nefarious TILTING PLANET an old woman, 18-year-old Sophie chooses to protect her edge of Mossflower Woods find uncle, befriends a mysterious BY MADELEINE L’ENGLE themselves besieged by a rat child goddess and—eventually— In the third book in L’Engle’s sisters from the predations of a notorious lady-killing wizard by army, the brave mouse Matthias discovers his own formidable Time Quintet series, child genius seeks out the sword that can powers as an enchanter. Charles Wallace is now well into save the day. his teen years, and his older ‘Don’t think 1990 THE EYE sister, Meg, so often his protector 1987 SWORDSPOINT OF THE WORLD and companion, is beginning of fantasy BY ELLEN KUSHNER BY ROBERT JORDAN a family of her own. But when as mere Though there are many duels Jordan takes the reader to an an imminent threat of nuclear fought with swords in the world enormous world full of magic, war arises, Charles Wallace is entertainment ... of Riverside, the clashes simply monsters, wars, politics, once again thrust into a winding but as a way to spoken out loud are what define history and danger. While the journey through time to save the Kushner’s cult-favorite novel. setup is banal (unassuming planet and everyone on it. train for reality.’ Swordspoint is a defining work farm boy is the chosen one N.K. JEMISIN, in the fantasy of manners of prophecy), this epic tale THE BLOODY CHAMBER 1979 panelist subgenre, which forgoes a succeeds on how it subverts BY ANGELA CARTER kingdom in need of saving or expectations: the hero is Much of the European fairy-tale a world to protect and instead prophesied to kill everyone canon is either obviously or underlines the quieter dilemmas around him; magic is an ambiguously misogynistic. Carter characters face. In this instance, exceptionally political pursuit; addressed this issue when she the story follows the journey of and the history of every culture published her collection of short a swordsman and his tormented described in the book is put to stories that reimagine many love for a scholar named Alec. good use. Books

1990 GOOD OMENS realities of pain, torture and ‘At its heart, fateful 21st birthday approaches, BY NEIL GAIMAN AND pure evil. the magic of the curse reaches TERRY PRATCHETT great fantasy a boiling point. But it’s the power Good Omens, co-written by two 1995 THE GOLDEN COMPASS is about of selfless friendship, and not a titans of genre fiction, follows an BY PHILIP PULLMAN handsome stranger, that saves angel and a demon, both of whom After the kidnapping of her humanity— the day. have spent a long time on earth friend, clever orphan Lyra all that we are and have grown accustomed to Belacqua unwittingly finds 2000 A STORM OF SWORDS what the material world can offer. herself at the center of a power and all that BY GEORGE R.R. MARTIN When hell sets the Antichrist struggle involving a nefarious we could be.’ The third installment in Martin’s baby upon the world, marking the church, fearless scientists and A Song of Ice and Fire series beginning of the end of days, the a talking armored polar bear. SABAA TAHIR, is unflinchingly brutal: the angel and demon strike an unlikely Pullman’s fantasy classic— panelist so-called Red Wedding and the bargain to keep Revelations from the first in theHis Dark Materials Purple Wedding, both turning revealing itself. Little do they know trilogy—kicks off an epic that points, unfold here. The breadth that an accidental switcheroo wrestles with the fate of the 1998 BROWN GIRL of Martin’s vision comes fully left the infant Antichrist in the care universe, the definition of IN THE RING into focus, and if the first book of strangers. consciousness and the loss BY NALO HOPKINSON set the precedent for killing off of innocence. Set in a blighted Toronto where beloved characters, then A Storm 1990 HAROUN AND basic health care, working of Swords makes clear no one THE SEA OF STORIES 1996 NEVERWHERE vehicles and even running is safe. These are the scenes BY SALMAN RUSHDIE BY NEIL GAIMAN water are unaffordable luxuries, that became showstopping Drawing on classic fantasy tales After stopping to help an injured Hopkinson’s novel follows centerpieces in HBO’s Game as diverse as The Wizard of Oz girl on the sidewalk, London Ti-Jeanne, a young woman of of Thrones series and continue

and The Arabian Nights, Haroun businessman Richard Mayhew West Indian origin who possesses to set the high-water mark for TIME FOR KANG SYLVIA SANGSUK and the Sea of Stories follows is ripped from his perfectly the unsettling ability to foresee shocking plot twists. the titular 12-year-old boy—who average life: he is suddenly strangers’ deaths. A hybrid of resides in an ancient Eastern unrecognizable to everyone he sci-fi, fantasy, eye-popping horror 2001 AMERICAN GODS city “so ruinously sad that it had knows. Richard must track down and Afro-Caribbean lore, the BY NEIL GAIMAN forgotten its name”—on a the girl in London Below, the book is a true original—and the Odin (the Norse god of war, or quest to restore his storyteller menacing and magical city that savior at its center is a beacon of Mr. Wednesday, as he’s called father’s lost gift for narrative. exists underneath his own. His strength in the body of a young here) hires Shadow, a recently It’s an allegory for the relationship quest shines a light on the plight single mother. released convict, to drive him between art, tyranny and of those who fall through the censorship, and the kind cracks of society. 1999 HARRY POTTER of ageless adventure story that AND THE PRISONER appears only a few times in 1997 ELLA ENCHANTED OF AZKABAN a generation. BY GAIL CARSON LEVINE BY J.K. ROWLING Featuring a strong-willed Rowling’s anti trans comments 1990 TIGANA and unforgettable heroine in and writing have left readers to BY GUY GAVRIEL KAY place of her damsel-in-distress grapple with the legacy and future Wiped from the world’s memory namesake, this retelling of the of the Potterverse—a global by a tyrant sorcerer’s spell, the Cinderella fairy tale follows phenomenon since the release once prosperous province of 15-year-old Ella of Frell as she of her first novel. At the same Tigana is remembered only by struggles against a spell, placed time, her series is one of the the few survivors of a long-ago on her at birth, that forces her to most beloved and influential in battle. In this high-fantasy epic, obey any command she’s given. the history of fantasy. In the third Tolkien disciple Kay masterfully novel, Harry and friends grapple weaves an exploration of identity 1997 THE SUBTLE KNIFE with soul-sucking dementors, and morality into the story of a BY PHILIP PULLMAN time travel and the prison escape rebel faction’s plot to restore their The second installment in of mass murderer Sirius Black. homeland to its former glory. Pullman’s His Dark Materials They also begin to turn their gaze series follows Will Parry as outside the walls of Hogwarts 1991 OUTLANDER he finds his way into dangerous toward the larger battle against BY DIANA GABALDON parallel universes and joins injustice brewing in their world. Gabaldon’s debut novel is a forces with Lyra from The Golden romance epic, a time-hopping Compass; together, they track 2000 SPINDLE’S END fantasy and a war story in one, down Will’s missing father and BY ROBIN MCKINLEY tracing the journey of WW II run from enemies both human In her retelling of the Sleeping British combat nurse Claire and supernatural with the aid Beauty fairy tale, McKinley’s Randall, who accidentally of a knife that opens pathways twists are unexpected and the transports herself into the between different worlds. characters well defined and 18th century Scottish highlands Both children had to grow up quirky. Rosie, her princess, is one morning. Forced to marry too fast, but it’s their tenacity cursed at birth—but a friendly a young, virile Scotsman for and hunger for knowledge— fairy smuggles her away to a protection from a sadistic whether about their own village to grow up in safety, military leader, Claire discovers identities or the truth of oblivious to her royal identity the joys of romantic passion and consciousness itself—that and happy to get her hands dirty 1740s-era adventure—and the unites them. as an animal healer. As Rosie’s across the U.S. Throughout their in full swing, Harry Potter’s slow follows the harrowing early years the valley of Fruitless Mountain, travels, he rallies fellow deities march toward an inevitable final of the prodigy Kvothe, a musician, young Minli loves to listen to from ancient mythologies— confrontation with Lord Voldemort magician and hardscrabble her father share folktales about including manifestations of grows ever grimmer. Marked orphan making his way from the the Jade Dragon and the Old Anansi, Anubis and Loki—to his by magical journeys into the past, city streets to a university in a Man of the Moon. Determined cause: a battle for America’s long-awaited revelations and vaguely medieval world. Looming to change her family’s fate, soul against the rising gods a heartbreaking final twist, the above his daily struggles, Minli sets off on an adventure of technology, media and the penultimate installment however, is his quest to avenge to meet the Old Man of the stock market. in Rowling’s series expertly the death of his parents at the Moon, who she’s been told has sets the stage for the story’s hands of an ancient evil foe. the answers she’s looking for. 2003 THE WEE FREE MEN epic conclusion. Rothfuss’s attention to poverty Her journey is depicted with BY TERRY PRATCHETT and injustice grounds his story in joy and pockets of sadness, Tiffany Aching fights to save her 2006 MISTBORN: a world we know all too well. impressively blending Chinese little brother with ingenuity and THE FINAL EMPIRE folklore and fairy tales. daring in Pratchett’s first book BY BRANDON SANDERSON 2009 CITY OF GLASS about her, which exists in his With this book, Sanderson BY CASSANDRA CLARE 2010 THE HUNDRED massively popular Discworld popularized his approach to The third entry in Clare’s Mortal THOUSAND KINGDOMS series. The tale is well paced, crafting complex magic systems, Instruments continues to build BY N.K. JEMISIN uproarious and filled with in which the rules that govern the world of Shadowhunters, a As with a number of her later memorable monsters. But what the extraordinary have more in powerful line of human-angel works, Jemisin’s debut depicts pushes it into legendary territory common with a chemical equation hybrids secretly living alongside a society that oppresses those are the titular wee free men: than with a wave of a wand. The normal humans. The book who might otherwise wield 6-in.-tall pixies with Scottish epic fantasy follows a pair of dramatically raises the stakes of power: in this case, captive gods accents who, in Pratchett’s allomancers—individuals who its teen protagonists’ struggle made to serve the ethereal city words, “have seen Braveheart ingest small amounts of metal to prevent the rise of a dark new of Sky. They become the unlikely altogether too many times.” They to fuel magical abilities—as they order of otherworldly warriors, allies of Yeine Darr, an heir to swear, brawl, steal and unite to rebel against an immortal ruler’s all while enduring the pain of the very throne that subjugates aid Tiffany on her mission. thousand-year reign. young love. them. The novel, which blends fantasy with romance and social 2005 HARRY POTTER AND 2007 THE NAME 2009 WHERE THE MOUNTAIN critique, introduced Jemisin’s THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE OF THE WIND MEETS THE MOON talent for building complex BY J.K. ROWLING BY PATRICK ROTHFUSS BY GRACE LIN worlds filled with dangerously With his sixth year at Hogwarts In detailed flashbacks, Rothfuss Living with her poor parents in flawed people.

2010 WHO FEARS DEATH BY NNEDI OKORAFOR Okorafor imagines a grim, postapocalyptic Sudan where rape is employed as a weapon of war and violence can seem omnipresent. But in learning to wield magic, the protagonist, Onyesonwu, gains the ability to set her world on a new path. Okorafor, a prolific novelist who has written Wakanda-set comics for Marvel, is known for African- futurist stories that through their speculative settings hold a critical mirror to our world and offer sparks of hope.

2011 AKATA WITCH BY NNEDI OKORAFOR Born in New York to Nigerian parents, 12-year-old Sunny follows her family back to their home country, where she finds it hard to fit in. Not only is she treated like a foreigner, but she is albino and ostracized at school for her differences—until she falls in with a new group of friends who are descended from Leopard People, practitioners of old magic tied to ancient African religions. Okorafor creates a stunningly original world of African magic that draws on Nigerian folk beliefs and rituals. Books

2011 THE NIGHT CIRCUS ‘Fantasy is an Sir Gawain and an inscrutable 2015 GET IN TROUBLE BY ERIN MORGENSTERN Saxon warrior, the partners find BY KELLY LINK Two young students locked into epic visual their commitment tested. Nine stories make up this eclectic a magical competition, the rules sonnet for and dark collection, which was a of which neither understands, do 2015 AN EMBER finalist for the 2016 Pulitzer Prize. battle with feats of astounding all of life’s IN THE ASHES Not every story is typical fantasy imagination powered by their ill- triumphs and BY SABAA TAHIR fare—though Link makes many advised romance. Their stage is Laia’s powerless existence in mentions of ghost boyfriends the mysterious Cirque des Rêves, tribulations.’ the Martial Empire is made and demon lovers. Together a circus of dreams that appears TOMI ADEYEMI, even worse when her brother they challenge the boundaries only at night and travels the world panelist is arrested. In a deal to have of the genre and, like the best of with no set schedule. Peopled him rescued, she agrees to fantasy, push us to question the with clockwork ciphers, the real become a spy at the empire’s very notion of reality. heartbeat of Morgenstern’s debut the perspectives of a half-dozen military academy. It’s there THE GRACE OF KINGS is not in the love affair but in the characters, spans decades and that she meets Elias, a soldier 2015 BY KEN LIU circus itself. offers a formidably inventive who desperately wants to cosmology as its background escape. Tahir flips between their Informed by similarly sweeping THE SONG OF ACHILLES 2011 and connective tissue. In a plot perspectives, revealing a violent works, including The Iliad and War BY MADELINE MILLER that reads like a narrative maze, world fractured by class and and Peace, The Grace of Kings In her deeply emotional debut, Mitchell takes on big ideas, like haunted by forces both strange chronicles a rebellion that turns a Miller crafts a heartbreaking loyalty, transhumanism, free will and unsettling. bandit and the son of a nobleman backstory for two of the most and mortality, all seamlessly into friends, before they’re torn pivotal players in Homer’s Iliad. integrated into the story. 2015 THE FIFTH SEASON apart. The novel offers magical With their fates already written— BY N.K. JEMISIN books, intervening gods and and inexorably entwined—the 2015 THE BURIED GIANT The first entry in Jemisin’s Liu’s innovative “silkpunk” tragic love story follows exiled BY KAZUO ISHIGURO Broken Earth trilogy takes aesthetic—a reimagining of prince Patroclus and famed Nobel laureate Ishiguro’s foray place in the Stillness, a the technological landscape, warrior Achilles from their into fantasy takes place in a counterintuitively named complete with flying battle kites, childhood training with the mythical post-Arthurian England continent beset by cataclysm. that takes inspiration from East centaur Chiron through their years afflicted by a mysterious mist There, apocalypses are so Asian history. laying siege to Troy as soldiers in that clouds inhabitants’ long- regular and so devastating that Agamemnon’s army. By charting term memories. Its heroes, they more than earn their place 2015 SHADOWSHAPER a course that strays outside elderly Britons Axl and his on the calendar. Magic users BY DANIEL JOSÉ OLDER established myth, Miller brings beloved wife Beatrice, suddenly known as orogenes can quell the Sierra Santiago is a bold teen new life to legendary heroes. recall that they once had a Stillness’s deadly quakes, but artist living with her Afro- Boricua son—and embark on a quest that talent is rare, and those who family in Brooklyn when her ANGELFALL 2012 to find him. On a path littered have it are under constant threat summer mural project turns BY SUSAN EE with dragons, monks, a certain of violence. supernatural, entangling her in When angels of the apocalypse the world of immigrant artists invade California, Penryn’s sister known as shadowshapers, who Paige is abducted. At the same are facing a deadly threat. The time, a wounded angel is left unusually sophisticated YA book for dead. Penryn must nurse is an allegory that touches on him back to health in the hopes timely issues like gentrification, that he’ll be able to help recover cultural appropriation, sexism and Paige. Together, they travel to San colorism without feeling pedantic. Francisco on a rescue mission and risk everything to save her. 2015 SIX OF CROWS BY LEIGH BARDUGO 2013 A STRANGER In the magic-infused city of IN OLONDRIA Ketterdam, Kaz “Dirtyhands” BY SOFIA SAMATAR Brekker has made a name for Poet Samatar’s novel, with himself as a criminal wunderkind influences from South Asian, who’s willing to do any job—if Middle Eastern and African the price is right. So when he’s cultures, follows Jevick, a young offered a shot to pull off the heist writer who is obsessed with of a lifetime, he must choose his the fantastical, distant world of crew carefully. Bardugo returns to Olondria, where his father is a the Grishaverse, the expansive merchant. But when Jevick is setting of her Shadow and Bone

called there after he inherits the trilogy, in a best seller that TIME FOR KANG SYLVIA SANGSUK family business, he becomes infuses fantasy storytelling with haunted by a ghost—and is social commentary on classism, unwittingly pulled into Olondria’s oppression and human trafficking. power struggle. 2015 THE WRATH 2014 THE BONE CLOCKS & THE DAWN BY DAVID MITCHELL BY RENÉE AHDIEH Mitchell’s novel, told through Khalid is the Caliph of Khorasan, known for inviting a new bride of Kos, nobles are spared from Adebola is on a mission to bring into his home each evening just owning up to their sins by hiring the magic back to the kingdom to have her killed by sunrise. warriors to kill the monstrous of Orïsha, where years ago the When Shahrzad’s best friend falls physical manifestations of their maji people were wiped out by the victim to his murderous ways, she wrongdoings. Protagonist Taj is power-hungry monarchy. volunteers to marry the cruel king so skilled at killing these herself so she can seek revenge. monsters that he becomes 2018 CIRCE 2017 BY MADELINE MILLER But as they get to know each entangled in the mind games of THE STONE SKY other, and as magical secrets the palace’s upper echelons. BY N.K. JEMISIN In her second novel, Miller offers about the kingdom come to a fresh take on the sorceress light, Shahrzad realizes that 2017 THE BLACK The final installment of known for turning men into pigs Khalid may not be as evil as TIDES OF HEAVEN the Broken Earth series in Homer’s Odyssey and lends he seems. This inventive YA BY NEON YANG made Jemisin the first multitudes to Circe, something retelling of The Arabian Nights Twins Akeha and Mokoya are writer ever to win three rarely afforded to women in Greek puts the power in the hands of a sent by their mother, the leader consecutive Hugo Awards mythology. Over the course of courageous heroine. of the Protectorate, to be raised for Best Novel. The thousands of years, Circe evolves in a faraway monastery. Initially story digs deeper into from a young naif into a formidable 2016 ALL THE BIRDS inseparable, the twins begin the foundations of the yet compassionate goddess of IN THE SKY to take diverging paths as they trilogy’s catastrophe- magic who must choose once and BY CHARLIE JANE ANDERS grow into their abilities—both stricken landscape, for all: the immortal life she was Childhood friends—a witch and are gifted with magic that allows while its characters born into, or humanity. a tech genius—reconnect in them to manipulate the natural grapple with the question adulthood just as the planet world—and their individual of whether it is just to 2018 EMPIRE OF SAND seems to be tilting toward identities. Yang’s novella has all prevent worlds built on BY TASHA SURI self-destruction. They hold the weight of an epic without the structural oppression Empire of Sand opens up a rich opposing views on how to save page count. from toppling. new world in which magical power the world and fall in love as they is concentrated in one’s blood, fight against each other. The 2017 THE CHANGELING 2018 ARU SHAH AND heritage and class are carefully burgeoning romance brims with BY VICTOR LAVALLE THE END OF TIME monitored, and a young woman eccentricities, but the true fun Apollo is a new father in New York BY ROSHANI CHOKSHI named Mehr is caught between of Anders’ novel is its blend of City, dealing with racial profiling When 12-year-old Aru Shah tells the worlds of her father, an fantasy and science fiction. and professional tedium. But her classmates about a curse imperial governor, and her absent after his wife viciously attacks on the lamp at the museum mother, a magic-wielding nomad. 2016 A TORCH him and their baby boy and then where her mom works, they ask In a landscape rife with mystical AGAINST THE NIGHT disappears, his city turns into a her to prove it. Caught in one sandstorms, spirit-beings and BY SABAA TAHIR whirlwind of demon giants and of her many lies, she lights the superstition, Suri kicks off an The sequel to An Ember in the glowing witches—and Apollo lamp—and accidentally awakens adventure bent on keeping Mehr’s Ashes picks up with Elias and Laia must prove himself in a series an ancient demon with the ability identity—and potential—a secret on the run and in search of Laia’s of Olympian challenges. There to end the world. As the young from those who wish her harm. imprisoned brother. Tahir raises are few authors who could heroine embarks on a journey 2018 THE POPPY WAR the stakes with the introduction convincingly portray both New to make things right, Chokshi BY R.F. KUANG of a third point of view, that of York subway showtime dancers creates an exciting adventure, a woman working against the and glowing witches, much less interweaving Hindu mythology Rin, an orphan escaping an heroes in her saga of cruelty, fold them into the same story. with her snappy prose. arranged marriage, earns a spot perseverance and love. LaValle does so seamlessly at an elite military academy where in his update on the classic 2018 BLANCA & ROJA she and her peers prepare to 2016 THE WALL OF STORMS changeling myth. BY ANNA-MARIE MCLEMORE defend the Nikara Empire, should BY KEN LIU In this innovative retelling of Swan they ever be called upon. That day In the sequel to The Grace of 2017 JADE CITY Lake, teenage sisters Blanca and comes before they can graduate, Kings, the crafty emperor of Dara BY FONDA LEE Roja know that only one of them, setting Rin and her newly faces an unprecedented invasion. On the island of Kekon, jade is the “good” one, is destined to unleashed shamanic powers on a The existential threat comes everything. But it’s no normal live her full life as a human. The path toward destruction. as both his kingdom and his mineral in Lee’s fictional other, because of a curse on their family face infighting and internal universe: this jade enhances family, will be turned into a swan. 2018 SONG OF destruction. Through insidious the superhuman abilities of But when it appears that their time BLOOD & STONE scheming, intense action and the Green Bone warriors, who together as humans is coming BY L. PENELOPE heartbreaking tragedy, The Wall of have long protected the island to an end, they decide they’ll do For centuries, a magical veil has Storms maintains the thrilling pace from invaders. When the jade whatever it takes to outsmart the separated the lands of Elsira of the series and sets readers up market is thrown out of balance, curse. Departing from the original and Lagrimar. A healer named for the third installment. a struggle for power results in a tale’s tropes, the love story here is Jasminda lives in isolation on violent clan war. Lee’s novel is clearly between the sisters. the border, and when she meets 2017 BEASTS part fantasy, part mob thriller. Elsiran spy Jack, she learns MADE OF NIGHT 2018 CHILDREN OF that there are cracks in the veil, BY TOCHI ONYEBUCHI BLOOD AND BONE putting the control of Elsira at Sin springs to life in the form of BY TOMI ADEYEMI stake. Together, they embark on literal monsters in Onyebuchi’s This West African–inspired epic an engrossing and dangerous novel, which is inspired by kicks off a series that uses quest to save society—and folklore from his Nigerian fantasy to dissect systemic develop feelings for each other heritage. In the oligarchical city racism and oppression. In it, Zélie along the way. Books

2018 TRAIL OF LIGHTNING War, the citizens of the Nikara BY REBECCA ROANHORSE Empire’s southern provinces Roanhorse, who is of both are no longer battling for Indigenous and African- American survival against an invading descent, is known for centering force. Now, they set sail north characters of color in speculative to defeat their former leader settings. In Trail of Lightning, and build a new government. Maggie and her ally Kai wield And protagonist Rin is not fantastic abilities called “clan just a soldier—she’s also the powers” that allow them to provinces’ most powerful and battle monsters and contend unpredictable weapon. with gods. For both characters, the powers were awakened 2019 GODS OF JADE in moments of trauma—a AND SHADOW trope that takes on renewed BY SILVIA MORENO-GARCIA resonance in this thoughtfully While cleaning the home of her constructed world. cruel and wealthy grandfather, 18-year-old Casiopea Tun 2018 WITCHMARK accidentally sets free the spirit BY C.L. POLK of the Mayan god of death. He’s Miles Singer was born a healer seeking revenge on his brother in a world where nobles use and needs her help to get it—and, magic to advance their political in exchange, promises to free agendas. Seeking freedom Casiopea from her Cinderella-like and independence from his existence. With a plot reminiscent family, Miles becomes a doctor of the classics, Moreno-Garcia and hides his powers—until a seamlessly blends fairy tale poisoned witch shows up at his and folklore into an inspiring clinic. As Miles risks it all to solve quest narrative. this murder mystery, Polk pushes the boundaries of what period 2019 PET fantasy can achieve through BY AKWAEKE EMEZI descriptions of Witchmark’s Monsters have been eradicated social and political hierarchies. from the city of Lucille—at least, that’s what everyone is told. But 2019 BLACK LEOPARD, when a creature springs forth RED WOLF from a painting to befriend a so often a woman is born with cousin is mysteriously murdered. BY MARLON JAMES trans girl named Jam, the city’s “the Gift” to control dragons While many fantasy stories The fantasy genre has long illusions of stability begin to and their destructive power. The center on a character’s solo been saturated with the myths crumble. Emezi has said their book’s main character is Tau, a quest, Ellie’s is about others’. of Europe. James’ novel offers YA book is an allegory for the swordsman from an oppressed She’s buoyed by the support of a stunning corrective, drawing way the U.S. turns a blind eye class who is out for retribution her community, whose love for instead on African mythology and to its problems, specifically, after a terrible tragedy. her is a palpable undercurrent history for its character types the high rates of murders of throughout the novel. and narrative renderings in Black trans women. 2019 WE HUNT THE FLAME the story of a missing boy and BY HAFSAH FAIZAL 2020 WOVEN IN MOONLIGHT the fantastical crew sent to 2019 QUEEN OF Inspired by ancient Arabia, BY ISABEL IBAÑEZ retrieve him. THE CONQUERED Faizal’s dazzling YA novel follows BY KACEN CALLENDER Exiled and persecuted by a 17-year-old Zafira, who has been false king, a hidden queen and 2019 CHILDREN OF VIRTUE Set in a Caribbean-inspired traveling the cursed forests of her decoy attempt to lead their AND VENGEANCE world where slavery is the main Arawiya disguised as a man people to peace and power. BY TOMI ADEYEMI economic driver, Queen of the called the Hunter. In Arawiya, Blending references to Bolivian The second installment of Conquered follows Sigourney women aren’t allowed to live politics and history with Latin Adeyemi’s YA trilogy finds its Rose, a former noble who has as freely as men do, leaving American mythology, it’s a rich fierce protagonist Zélie facing been gifted with a peculiar Zafira to hide her identity on her tale of fierce independence, unexpected consequences “kraft” to read minds and dangerous journey. Faizal creates loyalty and friendship. potentially bend them to from restoring the magic to her a moving portrait of a heroine her will. After colonizing kingdom. It’s a narrative that growing into her power as Zafira marauders massacre her Writing and reporting by Aryn interrogates the cyclical nature fights against the oppression family, Sigourney strikes out Baker, Eliza Berman, Judy of oppression and the systems of women. on a quest for revenge. Berman, Raisa Bruner, Andrew

that enforce it. As Orïsha TIME FOR KANG SYLVIA SANGSUK 2020 begins to self-destruct in a civil 2019 ELATSOE R. Chow, Peter Allen Clark, Eliana THE RAGE OF DRAGONS BY DARCIE LITTLE BADGER war between the maji and the BY EVAN WINTER Dockterman, Mariah Espada, monarchy, Zélie must fight to Seventeen-year-old Ellie can Touted as a cross between Annabel Gutterman, Belinda save it. summon the ghosts of animals. Gladiator and Game of Thrones, Luscombe, Cate Matthews, Winter’s debut is set among the It’s a special skill that’s been 2019 THE DRAGON REPUBLIC Megan McCluskey, Lily Rothman, Omehi people, to whom every passed down for generations in BY R.F. KUANG her Lipan Apache family—and Simmone Shah, Elijah Wolfson In Kuang’s sequel to The Poppy one she has to rely on when her and Stephanie Zacharek