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Grocery shopping is different in a global pandemic – how often we venture out, what we can buy, how we navigate the aisles.

“No one was talking to each other,” observes Maydianne Andrade, a professor at the University of Toronto Scarborough.  “It was almost like we were afraid that conversation would spread the virus. It was almost like we didn't know what to do or say in this strange new world.”

The New Normal is a weekly podcast created by Andrade in collaboration with a University of Toronto Communications team led by producer Lisa Lightbourn.

In the first episode, Andrade – who is a Canada Research Chair in Integrative Behavioural Ecology and U of T Scarborough’s vice-dean of faculty affairs and equity – brings listeners on a trip to her local grocery store.

“This works better if we all take only what we need, and leave what's necessary for others,” Andrade says. “It's a strange thing where every decision is a balance between what you and your family need, and what you know will be best for your neighbours.”

Over the coming weeks, listeners will meet members of Andrade’s family, her students and her faculty colleagues as she investigates how people are finding ways to connect despite the pandemic – and what kind of future we’re building in the process.

See a complete list of episodes