So Now What? with Waleed Aly

Covid-19 has impacted all aspects of all our lives and global politics is no exception. Like all nations, the two superpowers have had their 2020 shaped by the virus. 

For the US, the mishandling of the pandemic has cost hundreds of thousands of lives, while China is widely seen as the source.

But as the first vaccines begin their rollout just what will the world stage look like once the virus passes? Will how count...

When Covid-19 hit almost a million Australians lost their jobs, millions more were forced to work from home, and at the height of the crisis it seemed even our most hardened industrial warriors were ready to find a middle-ground.

Now with life after the virus beginning to emerge just what kind of work and workplaces will we find on the other side?

Will we see better opportunities or worse for workers?

Will there be more work, or will ...

When Covid-19 sent the world into lockdown in March, global carbon emissions plummeted - an almost 10 per cent fall in the first half of the year. 

But as we start thinking of a world beyond the virus, can we expect things to bounce back to where they were, or worse, will emissions rise even higher as people and industries rush to make up for lost time? Or can we capitalise on the global upheaval for some good? 

With o...

When Covid-19 took off, the arts and entertainment industries were the among the first to be hit, and the hardest.

Across Australia and the world, theatres and cinemas were shuttered, concerts and festivals cancelled.

But as the lights slowly start to flicker back on for show and gigs and we make our first tentative steps back to socially distant stands, just what will entertainment look like? Will we still want to be entertained lik...

Australia has always been a nation of immigrants with an incredible one in ten of us arriving in just the last decade. 

However, thanks to Covid-19 our migration rate has gone from near record levels to almost zero. Combined with a falling birth rate, for the first time in a century, Australia's population is set to fall. The economic and cultural fallout will be profound. 

In this episode we explore just what chall...

Even before Covid-19 the patterns of human interaction were changing. More of us were living alone than ever before with lives increasingly lived online contributing to record rates of loneliness.

Then the pandemic and with it forced isolation and separation. The most basic of human experiences and contacts ripped from our lives. Handshakes became elbow bumps, workplaces reduced to zoom meetings, many of us forced to lock oursel...

After a summer of devastating bushfires, the economy was already battered when the pandemic hit. Then, the combination of closed borders, closed businesses and social distancing made recession inevitable.

More than one million Australians are out of work and the economy has been thrown into reverse. But even with Victoria’s second wave, Australia is navigating through the pandemic in better shape than most countries.

So as we...

At the start of 2020 Australian sport was in great shape and for the biggest games in town there was limitless passion and cash.

For the AFL the records kept tumbling. Membership, crowd attendance, participation rates, all hitting new records and the clubs were coming off a billion dollar year.

The NRL had also had a great year. Half a billion dollars in revenue and for the second year in a row, the league posted a surplus.

And across...

The Covid-19 pandemic has strained the cohesiveness of our society. People are becoming more and more divergent in their views, and more and more distrusting of opposing views. A lot of people feel more marginalised and categorised while some seek strongly to find someone to blame for this crisis.

What will the effect of this be for society in the future? Joining Waleed to discuss this is Professor Michele Grossman, Research Cha...