Genie Chance and the Great Alaska Earthquake: An Update

<p><em>This week, The Daily is revisiting some of our favorite episodes of the year and checking in on what has happened in the time since they first ran.</em></p><p>When Alaska was hit by a devastating earthquake in 1964, it was the voice of Genie Chance — a journalist, wife and mother — that held the state together in the aftermath.</p><p>In the episode, we heard about sociologists from Ohio State University’s Disaster Research Center rushing to Anchorage to study residents’ behavior.</p><p>Today, Jon Mooallem, who brought us Genie’s story in May, speaks to a sociologist from the University of Delaware to make sense of the current moment and how it compares with the fallout of the Great Alaska Earthquake.</p><p><br /></p><p>Guest: Jon Mooallem, writer at large for The New York Times Magazine and author of “This Is Chance!,” a book about the aftermath of the earthquake.</p><p><br /></p><p>For an exclusive look at how the biggest stories on our show come together, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/the-daily?module=inline" target="_blank">subscribe to our newsletter</a>. You can read the latest edition <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/column/the-daily-newsletter" target="_blank">here</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>Background Reading: </p><ul><li>For our Opinion section, Jon Mooallem <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/22/podcasts/the-daily/this-is-chance-alaska-earthquake.html?searchResultPosition=2" target="_blank">wrote about the lessons</a> of the 1964 earthquake.</li><li>Listen to Jon talk about his experience writing and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/books/review/podcast-this-is-chance-alaska-earthquake-jon-mooallem-boy-mole-fox-horse.html" target="_blank">researching for his book</a> about the aftermath of the disaster on an episode of The Times’s Book Review podcast.</li></ul><p><br /></p><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily" target="_blank">nytimes.com/thedaily </a></p><p><br /></p>