Bill McKibben: Social Distancing Goes Against Our Human Nature

Hannah Uebele is a producer for Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and previously worked as associate producer for Boston Public Radio. She graduated from Tufts University with a B.S. in English and Environmental Studies. She's a proud Delawarean but has found herself saying "wicked" more and more often, so the Bostonian metamorphosis is well underway.Contact: hannah_uebele@wgbh.org

March 20, 2020

Updated August 07, 2023

Environmentalist and journalist Bill McKibben spoke with Boston Public Radio on Friday about the eeriness of social distancing, in the midst of the COVID-19 spread.

"Basically the best thing we can do for the rest of the world, unless we happen to be a nurse or doctor, is to kind of disappear and make ourselves scarce so as not to aid in the transmission of this virus," he said. "It's contrary to our instinct, since as socially evolved animals we want to go to each others aid, to help those in distress."

McKibben's New Yorker Article, "With the Coronavirus, Hell Is No Other People," published March 11, details the struggles of social distancing.