2 Time February 15/February 22, 2021
TIME (ISSN 0040-781X) is published TIME is published bi-weekly (except for last week of December) by TIME USA, LLC. PRINCIPAL OFFICE: 3 Br yant Park, New York, NY 10036. Periodicals postage paid at New York, N.Y.,
and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send all UAA to CFS (See DMM 507.1.5.2); Non-Postal and Military Facilities: Send address corrections to Time Magazine, PO BOX 37508 Boone, IA 50037-0508. Canada
Post Publications Mail Agreement # 40069223. BN# 704925882RT0001. © 2021 TIME USA, LLC. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. CUSTOMER SERVICE AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: For 24/7 service, please use our
website: http://www.time.com/myaccount. You can also call 1-800-843-8463 or write Time Magazine PO Box 37508 Boone, IA 50037-0508. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited.
Your bank may provide updates to the card information we have on file. You may opt out of this service at any time. uuuuuuu
Photograph by
Awol Erizku for
TIME
4 | From the Editor
6 | Conversation
8 | For the Record
The Brief
News from the U.S.
and around the world
11 | Making sense of
Myanmar
13 | Ian Bremmer on how
the coup helps China
16 | A tribute to Cicely
Tyson
18 | Bracing for a surge in
heart disease
20 | LightBox: scenic
collapse in Big Sur
The View
Ideas, opinion, innovations
23 | Michael D. Weiss on
Putin’s headache
25 | Beth Nguyen on a
singular Lunar New Year
26 | David Eagleman and
Don Vaughn on why we
dream
Time Off
What to watch, read,
see and do
107 | Country star T.J.
Osborne embraces his
whole self
110 | Television: treasure
hunting in a more global
stream; friendship on
Firefly Lane; beautiful
but inert Malcolm &
Marie
112 | 9 Questions for
the Chiefs’ Laurent
Duvernay-Tardif, who
traded football for the
COVID front line
Features
Your New Normal
Life when the virus recedes By Jamie Ducharme 2 8
Plus: NIH head Francis Collins preps for the next one
By Belinda Luscombe 34
The Plot to Save Democracy
Inside the secret alliance that protected the vote
By Molly Ball 42
A Silk Curtain
The China-U.S. contest for Latin America
By Ciara Nugent and Charlie Campbell 52
Essential Protection
COVID-19 has vulnerable workers looking to unions
By Abigail Abrams 62
The Black Renaissance
A profound cultural progression By Ibram X. Kendi 68
Plus: Michelle Obama with Amanda Gorman 74; Rebecca
Carroll with Brit Bennett, Jasmine Guillory and Jacqueline
Woodson 82; Josiah Bates and Andrew R. Chow on Black
history onscreen 84; Marcus J. Moore on the year that
changed music 88; the 25 defining creative works 9 0;
and Chad Sanders on the cost of opportunity 98
VOL. 197, NOS. 5–6 | 2021
△
A military
armored
vehicle patrols
Myitkyina in
Myanmar’s
Kachin State
on Feb. 2
Photograph
by AFP/Getty
Images
Illustration by
Brian Stauffer
for TIME