The Covid Conversation with John Elder

Historian Dale Blair gives some context to Captain Cook, and tells of the redemptive story of Confederate General who deserves to be well remembered.

Criminologist Emma Ryan says Australian police lack oversight in their use of tasers. She says we need a new plan for what minimum force actually means.

With the decline of religion and the rise of the individual, how do home-made notions of right and wrong make for a good society?

We first knew Stephen Curry as the loveable teenage optimist Dale Kerrigan from The Castle. Now, in the age of COVID-19, he has a family of his own.

The pandemic has seen many young people move home with their parents, some with their own children. The reliance on support from the older generation seems bound to get deeper.

COVID-19 put some doctors out of business. Now, says Dr Chris Moy, Australians need to see their GPs at the first sign of a sore throat or running noise as part of keeping the virus contained.

Are people inherently built for a privacy take-over by technology? Where did the idea of privacy come from and how can it be protected? As discussed by Professors of Law Jeannie Paterson and Megan Richardson.

Living National Treasure Tim Costello talks about the silver linings to be found in the pandemic and why Nick Cave has turned to prayer.

Facing up to the ethical challenges of who survives, and who keeps their jobs, Dr Simon Longstaff says there are no easy answers, or certainties, when looking to do the right thing.

An expert in public policy and innovation, Professor Kishore talks about the problem of loneliness, the use of technology to solve human frailties, and the need to boldly rethink about the way we plan our economy to make it more resilient ahead of future crises.

The famed Nobel Laureate talks about why we will get a vaccine and what happens if we don't. He teases apart why our immune system so often lets us down and explains some of the complicating factors of a virus that he says isn't so mysterious. He also lets fly with what's making him angry.

For more than twenty years, David Chalke has taken the pulse of Australia's cultural attitudes and what we have faith in. COVID-19 has both upended and confirmed some of our prejudices. He says we're now living more in the 18th century. But what does the future hold when the plague is over?

Respected psychologist and social commentator Lyn Bender talks about how the radical change we’re experiencing in our world mirrors the challenge facing clients who lie on her couch. Everyone wants to know when their world will be fixed. But the world has changed. And the way we see it needs to change too, so we can emotionally survive life with the virus. And then, says Lyn Bender, we can make a workable peace with our new situation.

Professor of Public Health Rob Moodie talks about the need for strong messaging in the age of COVID-19, and draws on his experiences as a Medicin sans Frontieres doctor to offer lessons in community resilience and what it takes for people to survive a long-term crisis. Will anti-virals be the key to stemming the pandemic as was the case in the age of AIDS? And how does meditation help him get by in these stressful times?