We Go Way Back

This week Alex interviews Dr. Charlie Hall, Lecturer in Modern European History at the University of Kent to see how true our memory of the Blitz really is and compare its relevance to our isolated lives today.

Dr. Charlie Hall teaches classes at Kent University on modern British history and his research includes specific topics on Britain during the Second World War. He is just the person to speak to about the Blitz and its value to British life today.

Kit Heren chats with the author Susan Campbell Bartoletti about the fascinating and heartbreaking story of Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary.

Alive between 1869 and 1938, Mary Mallon, was an asymptomatic carrier of typhoid fever and it is believed she may have infected as many as 50 people with the disease, three of whom died.

Her story of accusation, isolation and forced quarantine is as equally harrowing as it is entertaining. It has total relevance to today, not least because of the lack of civil liberties afforded to those during a pandemic.

Susan Campbell Bartoletti is an American author who has written a book about the story of Typhoid Mary, titled, 'Terrible Typhoid Mary'.

Tom Gordon-Martin interviews Dr. Dave Brydan, a history lecturer at King's College London, to help clear up where the W.H.O. came from, why it has guided our response to COVID-19 and whether it deserves the criticism it has received.

Dr. Brydan is a historian of modern international relations. His research has focused on the history of international health cooperation in the twentieth century, particularly in modern Europe.

Alex Jones speaks with Dr. Owen Miller, a lecturer in Korean Studies at SOAS, London, to find out why South Korea has dealt with the coronavirus so much better than states in the West. As of 26th April 2020, the virus has killed 242 people in South Korea (population 51m) and 20,319 in the UK (population 66m).

Does the country's history breed a culture of civic engagement? Do South Koreans accept technological surveillance better than citizens in the West? Or, were they just better prepared?

Dr. Miller has lived in South Korea, where he studied Korean language at Yonsei University.

His current research interests include:

- the social and economic history of 19th and 20th century Korea.

- Korean nationalist and Marxist historiographies

- the economic history of North Korea

- state formation in Northeast Asia.

Kit Heren interviews social historian John Boughton to discuss Britain's long relationship with housing and explore whether a link exists between Thatcher's popular Right To Buy policy of 1980 and the crisis of unpaid rents under lockdown today.

John Boughton is a historian who in his book, Municipal Dreams, traced Britain's problematic history with social housing. With over 1 million people on the waiting list for social housing and plenty more not able to pay rents in lockdown, John is the best person to speak to about housing issues in Britain today.

Tom Gordon-Martin interviews Lord Chris Smith about creativity, isolation and what we can do to protect the Arts today.

Lord Smith has supported and shaped the arts in this country throughout his career.

In this episode, he touches on the solitude of poets like Wordsworth, his time in the Government in the 90s and finally, his work as the Chairman of the Art Fund.

What does Art teach us about isolation and what can we do to protect it?

Alex Jones speaks with historian Catherine Arnold to see what we can take from the last global pandemic, the Spanish Flu in 1918.

Catherine is an expert on this topic. In 2018, she published 'Pandemic 1918: The Story of the Deadliest Influenza in History' and in the same year she featured in the BBC's fantastic documentary, "The Flu That Killed 50 Million".

It's well worth a watch, we were warned: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0blmn5l

Kit Heren interviews black plague expert Emeritus Professor Tom James as we try to apply history's lessons to the current crisis.