Wait, don't leave!
I know a lot of people have had it up to here with the news and are finding that a lot of bulletins, broadcasts, newspapers, radio and internet journalism is not massively helpful at the moment, but my take has always been to focus on the aspects of the pandemic that I find interesting and search out coverage of those aspects.
For example, I've found the whole debate around food sustainability and the impact of coronavirus on global and national food chains, as well as the restaurant industry, to be fascinating. Two ongoing BBC food series - The Food Programme and The Food Chain - have covered this whole area from multiple angles in recent weeks, and the results have made for compulsive and riveting listening.
Another facet of the pandemic I've found interesting has been the public health aspect, which is well covered by the BBC's Inside Health and Health Check.
The BBC has also recently completed a series recorded by doctors inside Bradford Royal Infirmary, which is specifically a fly on the wall account of primary care at a time of Covid-19. They've also recently run a podcast formatted series, Viral Exposure, which looked at five different countries affected by Covid-19 and zoomed in on a specific flaw in that country that may have led to greater exposure.
If you find, like me, that you can no longer listen to the UK government daily briefings without mentally zoning out about a minute and a half in, you might find BBC World Service's Coronavirus Global Update to be more helpful. It provides a daily global breakdown of all the coronavirus headlines that day, and comes in at just under ten minutes. In a related note, if you want a calm, accessible fact checking take on statistics, More or Less is well worth a listen.
More or Less, The Food Programme, The Food Chain, Inside Health and Health Check are all ongoing BBC programmes that were not set up to specifically cover coronavirus but which have found themselves increasingly focusing on it.
Examples of ongoing current affairs podcasts that have recently had to re-orientate their programming increasingly towards Covid-19, and have risen to the occasion in various magnificent ways, would include Skyline: The CityMetric podcast, which is coming towards the end of its run as Jonn Elledge moves on to pastures new. Recent episodes have included an interview with a journalist locked down in Italy, and a delightful two hander in which Jonn interviews his partner and housemate Agnes Frimston, who co-presents the Chatham House podcast Undercurrents. They talk about what it's like to be locked down together in a one bedroom flat in London.
BBC youth and current affairs podcast The Next Episode also recently released a very moving episode about young people and grief.
In a classic case of saving the best for last, may I draw your attention to the most recent episode of the Private Eye podcast, Page 94, which is all about Covid-19. Page 94 has a simple but effective format: Andrew Hunter Murrey, the podcast host, provides an introduction to a story in the news that The Eye has been covering, and talks to the journalists on the paper who've been covering it. In the case of Covid, pretty much every section of the magazine has been impacted by it in some way but, as in recent issues of the magazine, the lead is given to Dr Phil Hammond, aka MD, who talks about medical journalism and the things he got wrong and got right about Covid-19. It is a very stimulating and thought provoking listen.
Image of desk with headphones by Sigmund on Unsplash
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