The Inquiry

Latest Episodes:

How will Hollywood respond to the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements? Jun 18, 2020

Show notes

Why is the movie business having trouble representing the world’s population on and behind the big screen? A rising share of the U.S. population are black, more than half of the demographic are female – so why is it so difficult to translate this into cinema?

Hollywood has found itself red-faced in an era of Black Lives Matter and MeToo movements. From #OscarsSoWhite to criticism of who’s behind the films we see, the pressure to change is stacking up.

Charmaine Cozier discovers the issues within the industry and what movie bosses prioritise over diversity. But will activists, actors and data be enough to convince big studios that the revolution is here – or will it just be business as usual?

Guests: April Reign, Diversity and Inclusion Advocate and creator of the #OscarsSoWhite movement Naomi McDougall-Jones, a film producer, writer and women in film activist Darnell Hunt, Dean of Social Sciences at UCLA and Professor of Sociology in African American Studies. He is co-author of the UCLA Hollywood Diversity report Bonnie Greer, a writer and critic

Presenter: Charmaine Cozier/ Producer: Bethan Head

(Actor John Boyega raises his fist in protest at a Black Lives Matter march in London, UK (Credit: Daniel Leal-Olivas /Getty Images)

Will Covid-19 change cities? Jun 11, 2020

Show notes

From the bubonic plague and cholera to tuberculosis, pandemics have changed the ways cities have been designed and built. The coronavirus has been no different: with cities all over the world on lockdown, our cities have changed to become quieter, greener, with wildlife returning on an unprecedented scale. Now, with the lockdowns beginning to ease, Kavita Puri asks: what is the future of our cities? Will they return to the way they were - and do we want them to?

Producer: Eleanor Biggs Presenter: Kavita Puri

(Parisians cycle through the streets of Paris on the Rue de Rivoli, which has been made almost entirely cycleable. Photo:Samuel Boivin/Getty Images)

Why do US cops keep killing unarmed black men? Jun 03, 2020

Show notes

Why is George Floyd the latest in a long line of unarmed black men killed by US police? Studies show black men are three times more likely to be killed by police in America than white people.

With Helena Merriman.

(A man speaks into a bullhorn as demonstrators march in Los Angeles, California. 2 June 2020. Brent Stirton/Getty Images)

How far can the Chinese government be blamed for Covid-19? May 28, 2020

Show notes

Ever since a mysterious virus was reported in December 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the world has been watching China.

Silenced whistleblowers, unregulated wildlife trade in wet markets, limited international cooperation, and even a local biosafety lab have been held up as examples of how China mishandled the crisis. But how far can it be blamed for Covid-19 becoming a pandemic?

This week on The Inquiry, Kavita Puri asks what the Chinese government could, or should, have done differently to prevent a global catastrophe.

Producer: Eleanor Biggs Presenter: Kavita Puri

(A man drags a handcart across an emptied road on February 5, 2020 during lockdown in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. Getty Images)

How will the world pay for Covid-19? May 21, 2020

Show notes

As governments spend huge sums to get through the coronavirus crisis, how will they fund it all? Slash spending, raise taxes or just accept debt is here to stay?

With Tanya Beckett.

(Photo: Variety of world currency notes: Credit: Getty images)

Why does Germany have such a low number of deaths from Covid-19? May 14, 2020

Show notes

To date, 7500 people have lost their lives in Germany in a population of 80 million. Other comparably sized European countries like the UK, France, Italy and Spain – some with smaller populations have deaths far exceeding Germany several times over. In this week’s Inquiry Kavita Puri tries to find out why.

Producer Jim Frank

(People walk at Kurfürstendamm, Berlin's popular shopping area during the coronavirus crisis May 2020 Germany. Credit: Maja Hitij /Getty Images)

Why are so many ethnic minorities dying in the UK and US? May 07, 2020

Show notes

In news reports and newspapers, pictures of British healthcare workers who have lost their lives to Covid-19 sit side by side.

And if you look at those faces one thing stands out clearly. Of the 119 cases of NHS deaths more than two thirds are black or an ethnic minority - yet they only make up 20% of the workforce. Figures from the National Health Service in England show a disproportionate number of Covid-19 deaths are amongst these groups. And it’s not just in the UK.

In the United States on available data – it’s a similar story with African Americans accounting for many more deaths in a community that make up 13% of the population.

So what’s going on?

Kavita Puri speaks with: Dr Kamlesh Khunti, Professor of Primary Care Diabetes and Vascular Medicine at the University of Leicester Professor Kathy Rowan, Director of the Intensive Care National Audit and Research Centre Dr Consuelo Wilkins, Vice President for Health Equity at Vanderbilt University Medical Center Prof John Watkins, Professor Epidemiology, Cardiff University/Public Health Wales

(Ambulance workers transport patients to St Thomas' Hospital in Westminster, London, UK. Photo credit: Ollie Millington/Getty Images)

Why are people attacking 5G mobile phone masts? Apr 30, 2020

Show notes

Tanya Beckett looks at 5G and examines why it’s become the centre of conspiracy theories linking it to the coronavirus and others. What is it about the latest mobile technology which some find so alarming that it drives them to attack and burn down this infrastructure? And what draws people to conspiracy theories - even when all available evidence says they’re wrong.

Reporter Tanya Beckett Producer Jim Frank

How do we come out of the lockdown? Apr 23, 2020

Show notes

As some nations begin to tentatively lift their lockdowns, Tanya Beckett asks how best this can be done. What lessons, if any, can we learn from past pandemics? How do states make the decision, juggling the increasing demands of economic and social factors against public health concerns, amid worries of a new wave of infections from the disease? And what will our lives look like in a post-lockdown world? We hear from contributors based in France, the United States, South Korea and Denmark - one of the first countries to begin to lift its lockdown.

Reporter Tanya Beckett Producer Jim Frank

Image: A woman wearing a mask runs through a deserted Central Park in Manhattan, April 16, 2020 during lockdown in New York City, USA (Credit: Johannes Eisele/ Getty Images)

How do you help people stay rational in a pandemic? Apr 16, 2020

Show notes

Last month, everyday supermarket items turned into valuable and vanishing commodities overnight – none more so than toilet paper. There are now billions of us around the world living in lockdown conditions, a situation we’ve not been prepared for. And we seem to be in this for the long haul. In this week’s Inquiry, we’ll be asking how we can help people stay rational in a pandemic.

Presenter/Producer: Sandra Kanthal

(Empty shelves in the aisles of a CO-OP store in Kent, UK March 14, 2020 due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Photo credit: Robin Pope/ Getty Images)

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