In this interview, Nick and Dr. Paul Monk discuss:

Background on epidemiology, virology and global transmission as they relate to COVID-19

Major plagues throughout history, and literary representations of pestilence and plague

The context of wet markets, corruption, totalitarianism and secrecy in China

The divergence in global reactions to the outbreak of COVID-19

The emergence of conspiracy theories about the virus

Silver linings from the current crisis, such as the need for global coordination and cooperation to respond to similarly global problems

Dr Paul Monk is a poet, polymath and highly regarded Australian public intellectual. He has written an extraordinary range of books, from Sonnets to a Promiscuous Beauty (which resides in former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s library), to reflective essays on the riches of Western civilization in The West in a Nutshell, to a prescient 2005 treatise on the rise of China in Thunder from the Silent Zone: Rethinking China.