Jared Diamond, Author of Upheaval

Learn more about how we cultivate and harness world-class intellectual capital and expertise to solve our clients’ most complex challenges.

What We Do

We harness every resource, insight, relationship, and competitive advantage to drive superior results for our clients.

Serving Clients

Analysis and perspectives on the global economy and markets, from across Goldman Sachs

Insights

Our award-winning podcast features Goldman Sachs leaders on the key issues shaping the global economy.

Goldman Sachs Exchanges

We aspire to be the world’s most exceptional financial institution.

Our Firm

We help entrepreneurs create jobs and economic opportunity through rigorous business education programs, access to capital, and networking.

10,000 Small Businesses

There are many chapters in a career. There is only one Goldman Sachs.

Careers

Start with the best. Apply for an eight-to-10 week program for future analysts and associates.

2025 Summer Internship

"Jared Diamond, Author of **Upheaval**"

Jared Diamond, Author of **Upheaval**

"In this episode of&nbsp;Talks at GS, Jared Diamond discusses his latest book,&nbsp;Upheaval, in which he analyzes how nations have coped with challenges throughout history, and gives his perspective on how lessons from past challenges can apply today.\r\nOn confronting the coronavirus crisis:&nbsp;“So COVID-19 is a problem facing the world, but, of course, there are other problems facing the world of which a prime example is climate change, over-exploitation of limited resources, but the fact is that the world has not gathered together to face the enemy of climate change. And yet the world may be gathering together to face the enemy of COVID-19. Why the difference? I think it’s clear. COVID-19 kills you within a couple of days, and if you die there’s no doubt that you died of COVID-19 whereas climate change takes a long time to kill you, and it kills you more indirectly, for example, by air pollution or by flooding sea levels. So, COVID-19 is a visible enemy that perhaps for the first time in world history the whole world recognizes that every country&nbsp;— Bolivia, the United States, Mongolia&nbsp;— we all face the same enemy of COVID-19. It’s a more dramatic enemy than climate change.” \r\n \r\nOn confronting political polarization in the US:&nbsp;“I’ve been working in the jungles of New Guinea for the last 55 years. [For] New Guineans, all communication is or was face-to-face. You talk with a New Guinean, there’s no cell phone, there’s no computer, there’s no telephone. You are sitting two or three feet from the person and you’re looking them in the eyes, and you feel their body language and you smell them. It’s a real person. If you got a real person in front of you, you have some inhibitions about being insulting to a real person whereas if your communication is words on a screen, it’s easy to be insulting and disparaging to words on a screen. So my hunch is that the breakdown in civility, including political compromise, in the United States in the last couple of decades has been because of our decline in face-to-face communication; that we’re experiencing people not as people but as words on a screen.”\r\n"

In this episode of&nbsp;Talks at GS, Jared Diamond discusses his latest book,&nbsp;Upheaval, in which he analyzes how nations have coped with challenges throughout history, and gives his perspective on how lessons from past challenges can apply today.
On confronting the coronavirus crisis:&nbsp;“So COVID-19 is a problem facing the world, but, of course, there are other problems facing the world of which a prime example is climate change, over-exploitation of limited resources, but the fact is that the world has not gathered together to face the enemy of climate change. And yet the world may be gathering together to face the enemy of COVID-19. Why the difference? I think it’s clear. COVID-19 kills you within a couple of days, and if you die there’s no doubt that you died of COVID-19 whereas climate change takes a long time to kill you, and it kills you more indirectly, for example, by air pollution or by flooding sea levels. So, COVID-19 is a visible enemy that perhaps for the first time in world history the whole world recognizes that every country&nbsp;— Bolivia, the United States, Mongolia&nbsp;— we all face the same enemy of COVID-19. It’s a more dramatic enemy than climate change.” 
 
On confronting political polarization in the US:&nbsp;“I’ve been working in the jungles of New Guinea for the last 55 years. [For] New Guineans, all communication is or was face-to-face. You talk with a New Guinean, there’s no cell phone, there’s no computer, there’s no telephone. You are sitting two or three feet from the person and you’re looking them in the eyes, and you feel their body language and you smell them. It’s a real person. If you got a real person in front of you, you have some inhibitions about being insulting to a real person whereas if your communication is words on a screen, it’s easy to be insulting and disparaging to words on a screen. So my hunch is that the breakdown in civility, including political compromise, in the United States in the last couple of decades has been because of our decline in face-to-face communication; that we’re experiencing people not as people but as words on a screen.”

Accessibility Notice:&nbsp;A&nbsp;<a href="/transcript-requests">transcript is available&nbsp;</a>for any video on this page.