Author and former monk Jay Shetty has a message for those living alone during the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently leading a 20-day, live meditation series on Instagram, he says we should strive to do one thing each day that brings us joy -- and that despite social distancing, we can still nurture essential human connection. Shetty offers his Brief But Spectacular take on why we’re never really alone.

Medical student Choumika Simonis is sheltering in place in Harlem but will soon be a doctor on New York City's front lines. Her mother, Clemene Vertus, who emigrated from Haiti in the 1980s, lives in Queens and has been working as a certified nursing assistant at a VA home. Although the crisis has kept them apart, we bring them together to share their Brief But Spectacular take on each other.

California therapist Kat Zwick tested positive for COVID-19 in mid-March, about a week after returning from a New York City conference. Her symptoms worsened to an “almost unbearable” level of severity as she isolated in her bedroom. Now recovering, Zwick hopes her story will encourage others to take the illness seriously and stay home. This is her Brief But Spectacular take on surviving COVID-19.

Dr. Karen Kinsell is the only physician in Fort Gaines, Georgia, a town of 3,000 people, where 40 percent of residents live below the poverty line. Some of her patients can’t afford to pay her, but she says her office doesn’t turn anyone away, and there is no “bigger high” than that of saving lives. Dr. Kinsell offers her Brief But Spectacular take on being the only doctor in a poor rural area.