A State of Fear by Laura Dodsworth

Did the government manipulate us through fear to shore up its power during Covid? Are we dupes of a mass conspiracy between media, state and private enterprise? Was the threat of Covid amped up just to make us compliant because...well, why? Here Zoe and Tom pick apart Dodsworth's scary and silly Sunday Times bestseller, worth our time mainly as it encapsulates quite a big vein of anti-lockdown sentiment and Covid suspicion. We talk about her use of stats, her own manipulation of fear, and the way she lumps things together, from the War on Terror to the closure of nonessential businesses in the height of Covid uncertainty. 

Om Podcasten

A podcast for the culturally curious that turns a critical eye on some of the most-hyped plays, books, films and music in recent years and asks where they came from and what they tell us about culture today. Zoe Strimpel is a historian of gender and intimacy, Sunday Telegraph columnist and sincere contrarian. Tom Stammers is a fair-minded historian of 19th century France and a lecturer in European history at Durham University - who nonetheless knows how to turn the screw when necessary. They've been yammering about culture together since university.