Introduction to Life in a Pandemic

Jeremy Wagstaff, a journalist based in Singapore, introduces a new podcast where he plans to talk to friends new and old around the world about their experiences as they live through the Coronavirus pandemic. He'll talk to friends from Canada to Timor Leste, China to Afghanistan, northern England to rural Australia, all of them caught up in various stages of the greatest shift in people's lives since World War II.

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Life in a Pandemic is produced by Jeremy Wagstaff and Sari Sudarsono for CleftStick.com.  Email us at pandemic@cleftstick.com

Transcript

Jeremy:   0:00
My name is Jeremy Wagstaff.  Like a lot of people, my friends have spread all over the world, and I realized each of them was going through a different version of the same experience... living through a pandemic.  

Jeremy:   0:16
How are they coping? I wondered. So I called them up.  

Random Guest:   0:21
Everyone's trying to put a brave face on it.  

Random Guest:   0:24
Obviously, during that period, I was just reading the news.  

Random Guest:   0:26
And I keep six feet away from your friend.  

Random Guest:   0:29
We have to start off, be optimistic and count on each other and hopeful and reliable.

Random Guest:   0:36
Most people loved the masks, not talking to each other.

Random Guest:   0:41
People are coughing.  Always coughing and spit. But now I think this stopped.  

Jeremy:   0:49
I'm a journalist. But I'm not trying here to find the most dramatic stories.  

Jeremy:   0:54
Just wanted to eavesdrop on the normal life of my friends behind closed doors. And it won't just be one call. I plan to go back to them every few days a week later and see how things are because life in a pandemic can change quickly.  

Jeremy:   1:15
I hope you join me, Jeremy Wagstaff with my co-producer, Sari Sudarsono.