Crisis to Crisis

Dipali Mukhopadhyay (Columbia University) describes her journey between New York City, Kabul and back to NYC again in the early weeks of the pandemic, what similarities she found between the two cities, and how the pandemic solidarity spilled over into the anti-racism protests in the summer.

Omar Sharifi, the director of the American Institute of Afghanistan Studies in Kabul, describes how Kabul faced a constitutional crisis, a public health emergency, and delicate peace talks all at once in spring 2020. The pandemic also led to widespread economic hardship in the city, which was confronted by residents who organised food aid for the neediest neighbors through localised campaigns.

While the world has its attention fixated on the prospects of a vaccine other health crises lie waiting in the wings. So, on this week’s show we dump the Political Scientists and go in search of Pharmacist Jason Bower. We find him holed up, Skywalker style, on his ranch in Shropshire. Jason tells us to start focussing on the massive lag in pharmaceutical production and the whole range of other treatment problems looming as a result of the shortfall of supply, including pirate medicine, price gouging and nationalist hoarding.

As the United States lurches its way through the pandemic, protests against racial injustice emerged to reshape the political landscape even further. Last week we spoke to Shana Gadarian and Tom Pepinsky, two scholars who live and breathe crisis. They tell us how party affiliation now determines whether people wear masks or wash their hands in the US and warn of the dangers of constitutional disorder in the coming US elections.

25 May 2020 - What do Kangaroos and Sex buddies have in common? Almost nothing, but find the answer to that question that and a whole lot more about Australia's troubled COVID-19 response towards migrant workers on this week's episode. As Sanushka Mudaliar reveals, Australia may have flattened the curve on covid but it faces a steep climb if it is to reconcile itself with this core and neglected part of its workforce.

South Korea has been held up as the leading example of how to respond to COVID-19. Yet, recent flare-ups in night clubs have reminded us all that the virus is not going away any time soon. We check in with our former colleague, Sijeong Lim to hear about how the LGBTQ community is responding to the crisis, the use of electric bracelets to enforce quarantine, and why her students voted not to come back to class.

May 1 2020 - How do you enforce a lockdown when nobody trusts the government? That's the dilemma confronting the COVID-19 response in Chile, where the government entered the crisis with historically low approval ratings after introducing a 30 peso rate hike on public transport in the Spring. Abbey and Darshan chat with Carla Alberti of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica Chile about Santiago's diverse array of lockdown laws (one for every borough), the strangely enduring beef between Chile and Bolivia, and of course, the cacerolazo.

April 24 2020 - In countries like the Netherlands, stereotypes of 'authoritarian' and 'obedient' Asian societies have been used to explain why Europeans need more 'liberal' responses to COVID-19. In this podcast Kyohei Yamada helps us untangle some of these ideas, detailing Japan's peculiarly non-intrusive measures, and pointing to the unique historical and constitutional factors that explain their approach. In addition, Kyohei chats yakuza, pachinko- and of course: mascots!

10 April 2020 - Jia Ye - Singapore has been hailed as a 'model' response to COVID-19, but in recent days its cramped and crowded migrant worker dormitories, were been the site of a surge of cases. In this podcast we ask Jia Ye - Geographer at Nanyang Technical University - tells us about the impossibility of social distancing for workers - who remain in the dorms, in the trucks and on their work sites. She also gives us an insider's look into Singapore's state led response, and the unique codes of self-policing and 'civility' that hold it in place.

3 April 2020 - Francesca Grandi & Antonio Barroso - This week Abbey introduces us to two of her pals from London. Francesca has her fingers on the pulse of the UN response to COVID-19 and Antonio is a risk analyst guiding governments and businesses on how to address uncertainty in a time of 'assumptions undone'. Unsurprisingly, the conversation plumbs the depths of terror and shock that accompany the crisis, but at the same time reveals some surprises about different groups and actors advocating for and achieving progressive change in these odd days.