When is a health crisis not just a health crisis? When it’s a global pandemic and it shows up the weak points that already existed in society. But could COVID19, for all its problems, be part of a much-needed reset for Australia’s health and other systems? Former Australian of the Year, Professor Fiona Stanley explores the opportunity to build a better future in this episode of the Seriously Social podcast.

Useful links

Wicked Problems: Understanding and Responding to Complex Challenges by Brian W. Head

Why do CEOs get paid so much? Why are we so discriminatory about mental illness? And where would the Federal Government’s dollars be best spent in our efforts to reset the economy? Economist, lawyer and former chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, Professor Allan Fels AO has spent much of his career fighting for the battler. In this engaging conversation between Fels and journalist Ginger Gorman, we find out why fighting the good fight matters.

Useful Links

Tough Customer: Chasing a Better Deal for Battlers Allan Fels

7-Eleven: Former ACCC chairman Allan Fels hits out after wages panel dropped ABC News

Road to recovery: employment opportunities post-pandemic Sydney Ideas podcast

Australian Bureau of Statistics: Mental Health

As Australia reels from the catastrophic bushfires and deals with COVID-19, these moments have revealed the fragility of our infrastructure including supply chains and telecommunications. This episode of the Seriously Social podcast explores Artificial Intelligence and what it means for humanity. Join host Ginger Gorman with cultural anthropologist, technologist and futurist Professor Genevieve Bell as they dissect the fears and realities of technology.

Useful Links

3A Institute ANU

6 Big Ethical Questions about the Future of AI: Genevieve Bell TED

Seriously Social helps you understand your world. Each week listen to indepth, intelligent insights from Australia’s best social scientists. We talk human society, our social relationships and the world in transition. Hosted by journalist Ginger Gorman and brought to you by the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

Pre-pandemic Australia was seen as an epicentre of hope – that despite high rates of loneliness and suicidality, we were getting buy-in on the important work to be done in mental health.  Mental illness is costing Australia thousands of lives each year, as well as counting for 35% loss of GDP from health problems.  So why, despite the daily reminder from COVID that prevention is better than a cure, are we not doing more? Join Professor Pat McGorry and journalist Ginger Gorman in this compelling discussion, the second half of our mental health special.

Useful Links

Coronavirus will likely lead to more mental health issues in young adults, Patrick McGorry warns ABC Health and Wellbeing

Australian Government Productivity Commission: Mental Health Report

How do you build the mental wealth of a nation? Mental ill health is costing us about 4% of GDP, a figure that one of Australia’s best-known researchers in the field, Professor Ian Hickie says holds its own meaning:“It clearly points a chaotic system, that’s poorly funded and was never designed to deliver mental health for those who are in trouble or mental wealth for the nation in the 21st century.”As Australians wax and wane between life under lockdown and learning to manage our ‘new normal’, what’s happening with our mental health? Join Ian for the first of our two-part mental health special as he talks with journalist Ginger Gorman on mental wealth, the need for public debate on mental ill health, and some potential solutions to a ‘frog boiling’ problem.

Useful Links

Brain and Mind Centre University of Sydney

Australian Government Productivity Commission: Mental Health Report

The Drum, September 3 2020

Modelling shows path to suicide prevention in covid-recovery University of Sydney

How is the domestic load shared in your household? Would you say it’s more or less equal, or, as in so many Aussie households, is the division of domestic labour and childcare a battleground? The pandemic created what experts describe as an unprecedented external shock, forcing homes to temporarily become our primary workplaces as well as the locations where all the care was happening.So how did dual earning couples with kids share this load? What happened to men’s and women’s dissatisfaction levels?On this episode of Seriously Social (the last for Season 1) journalist Ginger Gorman speaks with Melbourne University Sociology Professor Lyn Craig about her brand new research…do not miss this episode!

See you in a couple of weeks for Season 2.

Useful Links

Coronavirus, domestic labour and care: Gendered role locked down Lyn Craig

Game Changers: Economic Reform Priorities for Australia Grattan Institute

Women's Work: The impact of the COVID crisis on Australian women Grattan Institute

Have you been using your phone and your computer more in pandemic? The paradox is that tech can make us more connected, but also more isolated. But are there circumstances in which tech actually brings us closer together?

What lessons can we learn from this crisis as humans? What will this teach us about community, compassion and kindness? This week journalist Ginger Gorman chats with one of Australia’s best known psychologists and social researchers, Hugh Mackay, about loneliness and the digital age.

Useful Links

Australian Loneliness Report: a survey exploring the loneliness levels of Australians and the impact on their health and wellbeing Michelle Lim

How to help older people in coronavirus isolation not feel lonely Ginger Gorman

How will widespread social isolation change us? Hugh Mackay

The Covid-19 pandemic transformed Australian society and the world seemingly overnight. But suddenly politics looks very different too.

The virus effectively wiped the political slate and took all kinds of pressing issues off the agenda. At the same, time major Government messages displayed a kind of bipartisanship perhaps reserved only for times of true crisis.

On this episode of Seriously Social renowned political journalist and academic Michelle Grattan shares how the virus has changed Australian politics and industrial relations and how it might change the landscape into the future.

Useful Links

When Christian met Sally: The match made by a pandemic Michelle Grattan

When the Government’s public health warnings came out at the start of the Covid-19 lockdown they were both factual and political, according to Indigenous academic and filmmaker Professor Larissa Behrendt. Why? Find out on this episode of the Seriously Social podcast with journalist Ginger Gorman.

You’ll also discover how indigenous health professionals were well ahead of the game when it came to helping prevent the virus spreading into their communities, and delve into Larissa’s moving new documentary, Maralinga-Jaritza, about the 1950s atomic testing in South Australia.

 

Useful Links

Maralinga Tjarutja

Speaking Out with Larissa Behrendt