Spanish flu to social distancing: how history can help us understand how to live through a pandemic

04/30/20 • 22 min

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In this launch episode of the Seriously Social podcast, historian Frank Bongiorno shares what history can teach us about living through the current COVID-19 pandemic. Frank is a Australian National University history professor and fellow of both the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia and the Australian Academy of the Humanities, and in this episode he takes us back in time to the Peloponnesian War, the 1918-19 Spanish Flu outbreak, the World Wars and Great Depression to see how other generations have dealt with global catastrophic events (and it’s not all bad news!).

Useful Links

How Australia's response to the Spanish Flu of 1919 sounds warnings on dealing with coronavirus The Conversation

S1 Episode 1:

Useful Links

How Australia's response to the Spanish Flu of 1919 sounds warnings on dealing with coronavirus The Conversation

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What is the social impact of the COVID-19 crisis? Seriously Social is a new podcast addressing this question.

The country’s best social scientists will help you understand human society, social relationship and the systems that govern our daily lives. Brought to you by the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia.

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Gender and the pandemic

With the #metoo movement, Harvey Weinstein’s conviction and subsequent sentencing – it finally seemed that gender equality issues were gaining traction, at least in the public’s mind. But what has the COVID-19 crisis taught us about gender, diversity and the very notion of citizenship? On this episode of Seriously Social journalist Ginger Gorman talks to legal scholar Professor Kim Rubenstein about gender and the pandemic, leadership and what it means to be an active citizen.

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