Reading and Caregiving during Covid with Robert Zaretsky

Robert Zaretsky (University of Houston) joins the Infectious Historians to reflect on his experiences during Covid as he read “plague literature” and volunteered as an aide at a nursing home. The interview begins with Robert reflecting on his thinking during Covid and how he moved from reading history to literature. The conversation continues by moving between Robert’s voluntary work at the nursing home and the books he read upon during Covid. Robert reflects on how he read Camus differently during Covid, drawing parallels between the novel and his own personal experiences. He proceeds to raise some of the existential questions from the book, and recounts how he left the nursing home and what happened afterwards.