Coronavirus: Supplemental Podcast Listening List

In late January 2020, as hundreds of millions of Chinese people were setting off on their annual journeys back to their hometowns to celebrate the Spring Festival/Lunar New Year holiday, word of a new deadly coronavirus in Hubei province was just starting to emerge. The month since the start of the outbreak has seen a historically unprecedented response from the Chinese government, with tens of millions of people in Wuhan and surrounding cities being put into quarantine. Airlines have cancelled flights into China and countries are closing their borders to its citizens. But is this a rational response? What is this new coronavirus? What are the fatality rates? Is it really worse than the common flu that kills tens of thousands of people every year? This PBC Supplemental Listening List covers what we know about the disease, why governments respond the ways that they do, and what life is like for people who’ve been trapped by it.

(This playlist was curated by Mike Shaw, chapter leader of our Beijing chapter and CEO of Migration Media)

Podcast Listening List on CORONAVIRUS

Get the listening list on your podcast player of choice using these platforms:

Podcast: Science Vs.
Episode: Coronavirus Outbreak: How Scared Should You Be? (Jan 2020, 27 mins)
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Other apps (via Podchaser or Podyssey)
A new virus showed up in China late last year, and it’s making its way to other countries too. So what do scientists know about the virus so far? And how worried should we be? To find out we talk to infectious disease researchers Dr. Kristian Andersen and Dr. Catharine Paules, physician Dr. Hui, and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Podcast: Sawbones
Episode: Coronavirus (February, 2020, 42 mins)
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Other apps (via Podchaser or Podyssey)
It’s a no-panic-allowed history of coronavirus along with a guide to the current strain that has held the headlines in a stranglehold in the past weeks. Even if you don’t listen to the episode, take heart: If you’re outside of China, it’s likely you’re more scared than you need to be at the moment.
Podcast: Fresh Air
Episode: Coronavirus, Animal Infections & The Next Pandemic (Feb 2020, 49 mins)
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Other apps (via Podchaser or Podyssey)
Science writer David Quammen talks about the new virus in China, what we learned from SARS, and how viruses travel from animal to animal to humans. “When there’s an animal host, then it becomes much, much more difficult to eradicate or even control an infectious virus,” Quammen says.
Podcast: Today Explained
Episode: How Will Coronavirus End? (Feb 2020, 21 mins)
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Other apps (via Podchaser or Podyssey)
In 2015, Dr. Vineet Menachery said a SARS-like virus could spread to humans more easily than previously believed. Now he explains what we can do to stop it.
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Podcast: Migratory Patterns
Episode: #057 – Emergency Pod with Coronavirus Expats (February 2020, 35 mins)
Listen: Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Spotify | Other apps (via Podchaser or Podyssey)
There are close to 1 million foreigners living in China, and while those who have been evacuated from, or who are still in, Wuhan and the surrounding area rightly get lots of attention, there are hundreds of thousands more folks who are either stuck somewhere, or grappling with the decision to leave or return. We’ve gathered 3 of these expats to talk about what it feels like to be “between homes,” neither able to be where they live, nor in their place of origin, in a time of crisis. How are they dealing with their isolation? Do they feel guilty about not being in their host cities? Are they glad to have escaped? There are lots of complex emotions to deal with and we’re diving right in.

Bonus Episodes:

• “Life Goes On In Wuhan” from PRI’s The World (Jan 2020)
• “Coronavirus: Fighting the ‘Contagion of Misinformation’” from Press Play (Feb 2020)
• “PANDEMIC!” from Science Vs. (Oct 2019)
• “Vaccination” from Throughline (Feb 2020)
• “Ep 43 M-m-m-my Coronavirus” from This Podcast Will Kill You (Feb 2020)
• “Coronavirus: What We Need to Know. Kylie Carville” from How Do We Fix It? (Feb 2020)

Conversation Starter Questions

1. How afraid of the coronavirus are you?
2. If you lived in China, do you think that you would want to stay, or would you try to leave?
3. Are your regular news sources providing enough scientific data in their reporting?
4. Do you think that your goverment is doing enough to protect people? Are they doing too much?
5. How do we protect ourselves without spreading panic or hysteria?
6. Are you prepared for a pandemic? If not, what do you need to do to get ready?
7. Is it xenophobic to ban all Chinese people from entering your country?
8. Where is the line between personal freedom and wider society’s right to protect itself from the spread of disease?