Exploring Quarantine w/ Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley - Atlas Obscura Experiences

Exploring Quarantine w/ Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley

1.5 hours
$20 per device
See Dates
$20 per device
$20 per person
See Dates
What We’ll Do

In this 90-minute event, take a virtual tour of some of the most extraordinary, important, but little-known sites of quarantine around the world.

Join Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley, authors of the forthcoming book Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine (July 20, 2021), for an introduction to quarantine’s past, present, and future. We’ll travel the globe virtually, taking a look at sites of quarantine from ruined lazarettos around the Mediterranean Sea to an experimental Ebola isolation unit in London, from a suburban greenhouse charged with safeguarding the world’s chocolate supply to a vast underground salt mine where the United States is burying nuclear waste.

Twilley and Manaugh, who spent years researching and exploring quarantine before COVID-19, are the perfect guides to make sense of this past year—and our new reality. While peeking inside the curious, typically off-limits spaces in which we keep people, plants, astronauts, and animals until proven safe, we'll explore how quarantine has shaped borders, passports, and mythology; how it’s been used to protect Earth from extraterrestrial life; and what quarantine might look like over scales longer than human civilization itself. This event will be interactive, with plenty of time for questions and conversation.

In addition to our basic ticket for the experience, we are also offering a ticket + book pre-order bundle. This includes a ticket to the Exploring Quarantine event on 06/24, as well as a copy of Geoff and Nicola's new book, Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine, which will be sent to you (shipping included) after its release on July 20, 2021. (Book pre-orders will be fulfilled by Brooklyn-based independent bookstore, Books Are Magic, and will be sent out via priority mail on or soon after the book's 7/20 release date. Price includes shipping. Book orders can only be sent to addresses in the U.S. and Canada. Unfortunately, we cannot ship overseas.)

Where We’ll Be

ZOOM!

About Your Host
Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley
Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley

Nicola Twilley is co-host of the award-winning Gastropod podcast and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. Her first book, Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine, is co-authored with Geoff Manaugh and will be published by MCD, a division of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, on July 20, 2021. She is currently writing a book on the topic of refrigeration for Penguin Press. In her spare time, she makes smog meringues as part of an ongoing exploration of the taste of "aeroir" with the Center for Genomic Gastronomy.


Twitter: @nicolatwilley


Instagram: @nicolatwilley


Geoff Manaugh is the author of the New York Times bestselling book A Burglar’s Guide to the City, as well as the architecture and technology website BLDGBLOG. His newest book, Until Proven Safe: The History and Future of Quarantine, written with Nicola Twilley, will be released in July 2021. Manaugh regularly writes for The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Wired, and many other publications.


Twitter: @geoffmanaugh


Instagram: @geoffmanaugh

What Else You Should Know

Once registered, you can access the Zoom room for this experience through your confirmation email or Eventbrite account. Atlas Obscura online experiences are recommended for attendees age 13+.


This Online Experience will be recorded. A temporary link to the recording will be provided in a follow-up email to all ticket holders within 72 hours after the event. Access to this recording will be available for seven days.


We provide closed captioning for all of our Online Experiences, as well as transcripts upon request. Please reach out to us at experiences@atlasobscura.com if you have any questions, requests, or access needs.


This event is one of Atlas Obscura’s Online Experiences. At Atlas Obscura, our mission has always been to inspire wonder and curiosity about the incredible world we all share. Now, more than ever, there’s a need to stay connected—not only to our sense of wonder, but to each other.


We encourage you to follow and share the hashtag #AOExperiences for more incredible online experiences and our newest addition of Online Courses with Atlas Obscura and our friends. And check out AtlasObscura.com, the definitive guide to the world’s hidden wonders, to keep virtually exploring the world through the website’s atlas of amazing places, unique stories, and videos.

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