Global Strain

Around the globe, the coronavirus pandemic has both exposed and widened existing inequalities in a brutal fashion. At the center of the turmoil are the world’s cities. No where is this disparity more evident than in urban spaces, where living conditions and historic contexts magnify the pandemic’s far-reaching impact. In the wake of the virus, city experts are confronted with the destruction caused by high population density levels, an overwhelmed healthcare system, inadequate housing, and sinking sanitation levels in urban areas. In the midst of the chaos caused by the current coronavirus outbreak, city residents are starting to question whether urban life holds the appeal it once had, and if cities are equipped to handle such abrupt disruptions in the future.

In this episode, we explore the pandemic responses in favelas in Brazil, informal settlements in India and so called “cage houses” in Hong Kong. We also discuss the traits that make cities resilient to crises, how cities may change after the COVID-19 outbreak and what lessons city leaders can learn from the current pandemic.

Guests: Michele Acuto (professor of global urban politics at the Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne), Carolina Guimaraes (project manager at Sustainable Cities Institute in Sao Paulo, Brazil), Yamini Aiyar (president of the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi, India), Tze-wei Ng (corporate lawyer in Hong Kong), Max Bouchet (research analyst at the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program).

In this episode of the Global Strain podcast, Joel Sandhu meets with Jessica Berlin to talk about the notion of strategic empathy, and how it can help individuals as well as institutions bring about change in times of crises like the current COVID-19 outbreak and in our everyday life.

Jessica Berlin is a security and foreign policy expert turned sustainable business and strategy innovator. As the founder and managing director of CoStruct, she helps public, private and nonprofit organizations tackle global challenges with sustainable, scalable solutions. She is a member of the Advisory Board of the Paris-based think tank Europa Nova and a GGF 2035 fellow. In 2018, Jessica gave a TEDx talk about dehumanization and empathy in policy, business, and society. Jessica's TEDx talk has been highly praised. 

Global Strain Podcast is produced by the team from the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin and supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung.

In this episode, we focus on Taiwan, which has been praised for its effective response to the coronavirus outbreak. How did Taiwan handle the outbreak so effectively? And what was its approach to combating disinformation around the virus and educating its population on best practices? Allister Chang discussed these and other questions with Taiwan’s Digital Minister, Audrey Tang. Audrey Tang is a software programmer who has been described as one of the "ten greats of Taiwanese computing personalities." She took office as Digital Minister on October 1, 2016 and was placed in charge of aiding government agencies to communicate policy goals and manage information, both via digital means. At the age of 35, Audrey Tang became Taiwan’s youngest ever government minister.

Allister is a a Robert Bosch Stiftung Fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin, where he researches on media literacy and disinformation. We have also conducted an interview with him about media literacy on our other podcast, Global Futures.

The Global Strain Podcast is produced by the team at Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin and supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung.

The COVID-19 outbreak in Brazil is turning from bad to worse. According to some scientific models, more people may be infected with COVID-19 in Brazil than in the US. While politicians in Brasilia are divided about what to do, experts say none has an effective strategy. In this episode Joel Sandhu speaks to Oliver Stuenkel, a non-resident fellow at the Global Public Policy Institute and an associate professor of international relations at Gétulio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo, Brazil. They discuss the impact COVID-19 is having on Brazil’s politics, economy, and most importantly on its people. 

The Global Strain Podcast is produced by the team at Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin and supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung.

While the ongoing global medical emergency deepens inequalities between and within societies, and further entrenches gender inequality, public health experts are aware of inequality itself acting as a multiplier on virus’s spread. While it is impossible to explore all relevant dimensions of inequality in this podcast, in this episode Joel Sandhu speaks to four guests about who suffers disproportionately from the current pandemic. And asks: What can be done?

The Global Strain Podcast is produced by the team at Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi) in Berlin and supported by the Robert Bosch Stiftung. 

The Coronavirus pandemic has forced many people to work and school from home, to self-quarantine, and to maintain social distance. As more of our lives have gone online, Western governments are considering to follow South Korean and Chinese approaches and embrace sophisticated surveillance tools that can track even individual population movements in order to try and stop the spread of COVID-19. So, will the move towards increasing levels of surveillance, especially in Western liberal democracies, hollow out after the Coronavirus pandemic ends, or are we on the cusp of a new normal, one where governments embrace surveillance? In this episode Joel Sandhu talks to Steven Feldstein, Jan-David Franke, Allie Funk, Ulrike Franke, and Xiao Qiang.

2020 will be remembered as the year when a novel strain of coronavirus spread around the globe, leaving a trail of death, despair and disruption in its wake.

In this podcast, we explore the ways in which the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting lives worldwide. We ask how it will change the world as we know it - from the global economy and geopolitics to the long-term consequences for people, societies and cultures. And we want to know: What can we learn from this pandemic and our responses to it?

Global Strain is produced by the team behind Global Governance Futures (GGF), an international fellowship program for young professionals who seek better ways to address global challenges. In each episode, we will draw on a diverse community of current and former GGF fellows as well as a range of experts that have contributed to the program over the years.

Join us for the ride!