“I don't even think it was fair to be punishing anyone. That's not why government should exist. They serve us.”
Ross is a TV producer living in Los Angeles who grew increasingly concerned at the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on his children. In response to his two teenagers being kept out of school for almost a year-and-a-half he founded an organisation called LA Uprising to campaign on their behalf. This podcast explores how political polarisation and groupthink led to the imposition of some of the United States’ most stringent controls in the state of California, and how a ‘priestly’ caste of experts were deferred to throughout the period, as politicians relied on fear to engineer consent
@frankarmstrong2
Watch and listen to the podcast ‘ LA Uprising: How Fear Shaped California’s Covid Response’ here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/la-uprising-how-fear-shaped-californias-covid-response/
“I know people who've taken their own lives”
“It's almost an unspoken epidemic. Many of us know people who've been horrendously affected in psychic terms. When you're facing a medical crisis, that's instantly what society will turn to address. But it doesn't take long for the other aspects of health to move from the background into the foreground.”
Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu – the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the Djabakós - traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties.
Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm.
Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/heretical-ideas-on-health-in-african-history-and-beyond/
“The evidence suggests that the vaccine was the one bright spot of the covid response, not so much vaccine mandates, but the quick development of that vaccine and the quick roll out of it, does seem to have made a significant difference.”
“There's some irony that the main focal point of criticism has been around vaccines, as opposed to any other kinds of criticism that one could raise.”
In this episode of CG Podcasts, Professor Toby Green (King’s College, London) discusses the new book ‘In Covid’s Wake’ with authors Stephen Macedo and Frances E. Lee of the Politics Department of Princeton University. They discuss the economic and political fallout, the connections between the Covid policies and Trump’s election in 2024, and the future for academic and public discussions around the impacts of the Covid years.
Watch ‘In Covid’s Wake: A Discussion of Covid Policies in the US’ here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/in-covids-wake-a-discussion-of-covid-policies-in-the-us/
“It really was extraordinary, during covid, that in what we might call the liberal press, there was this narrative about vaccine apartheid, that Western medical interventions were going to be the saviour of not only of the West, but also of Africa. That this was something we should all get behind, without any kind of sense of the history of how Western medicine is perceived in Africa.”
Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu – the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the Djabakós - traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties.
Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm.
@toby00green
@frankarmstrong2
Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/heretical-ideas-on-health-in-african-history-and-beyond/
"You would think parents would speak out, but they don't, and they don't, because groupthink is a very powerful thing."
Ross is a TV producer living in Los Angeles who grew increasingly concerned at the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on his children. In response to his two teenagers being kept out of school for almost a year-and-a-half he founded an organisation called LA Uprising to campaign on their behalf. This podcast explores how political polarisation and groupthink led to the imposition of some of the United States’ most stringent controls in the state of California, and how a ‘priestly’ caste of experts were deferred to throughout the period, as politicians relied on fear to engineer consent
@frankarmstrong2
Watch and listen to the podcast ‘ LA Uprising: How Fear Shaped California’s Covid Response’ here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/la-uprising-how-fear-shaped-californias-covid-response/
“We had colonialism in the 20th century controlling bodies of African subjects.”
“There were various examples of that you could give. Oral polio vaccine trials in Congo Burundi and Rwanda in the 1950s where literally millions of Africans were given trial vaccinations without any kind of consent or ethics being taken. Various examples that you could give of various projects which are completely authoritarian, top down and often actually quite counterproductive.”
Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu – the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the Djabakós - traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties.
Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm.
@toby00green
@frankarmstrong2
Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/heretical-ideas-on-health-in-african-history-and-beyond/
Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu – the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the Djabakós - traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties.
Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm.
Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/heretical-ideas-on-health-in-african-history-and-beyond/
Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu – the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the Djabakós - traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties.
Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm.
Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/heretical-ideas-on-health-in-african-history-and-beyond/
“One of the reviews that I'm most proud of is a review of a book I wrote in 2004 which was absolutely pilloried in the The Times Literary Supplement (TLS). I remember thinking at the time, if I've really annoyed this person so much, there must be something to it, or there must be something of interest there.”
Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu – the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the Djabakós - traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties.
Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm.
Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/heretical-ideas-on-health-in-african-history-and-beyond/
On 19 November 2025, the Committee for Academic Freedom hosted an expert panel discussion at Worcester College, Oxford, examining how Britain handled the pandemic and what might have been done differently. Bringing together perspectives from science, medicine, history and economics, the discussion explored questions including: Could more lives have been saved through earlier and longer lockdowns? What have been the global ramifications of the pandemic and the pandemic response? Could the Great Barrington Declaration’s “focused protection” strategy inform future pandemic preparedness? And what lessons can history teach us about balancing public health, personal freedom, and societal impact?
Speakers: Professor Sunetra Gupta, Professor of Theoretical Epidemiology, University of Oxford (signatory of the Great Barrington Declaration); Professor Hugh Montgomery, Chair of Intensive Care Medicine, University College London; Dr Toby Green, Historian, King’s College London; and Dr Mark Honigsbaum, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, City St George’s, University of London (author, The Pandemic Century).
@ComAcFreedom
@toby00green
Watch the podcast here: https://collateralglobal.org/article/covid-lockdowns-and-liberty-what-did-britain-get-right-and-wrong/
“My relationship with the field of African Studies in the West has become somewhat semi detached, not entirely, but, I think somebody who works in the field of African history, if they're working with a lot of people on the continent of Africa, that must be a good thing.”
Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu – the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the Djabakós - traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties.
Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm.
Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/heretical-ideas-on-health-in-african-history-and-beyond/
“Not only on the African continent, but around the world, there is very much a disconnect between what is happening at an institutional level in procedure and process and what is happening in people's experience of daily life.”
Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu - the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the Djabakós -traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties.
Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm.
@toby00green
@frankarmstrong2
Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/heretical-ideas-on-health-in-african-history-and-beyond/
“The lockdown had changed their mindset and they were now convinced, that life meant hard labour.”
This film, ‘The children of Nowhere’ by Kunal Purohit and Abeer Khan (biographies below) for Collateral Global, cuts to the heart of CG’s research agenda: understanding the enormity of the harms which lockdowns brought about among vulnerable populations in the Global South.
Watch ‘The Children of Nowhere’ here: https://collateralglobal.org/article/the-children-of-nowhere/
“We have a very intense workplace, there's a lot of people in a closed environment for long hours. We have multi billion dollar studios, who don't want to be sued. So we went back and retrained.”
“We had not just masks and face shields, but we also had testing five days a week, everybody on the set, everybody on the cast, to make sure that no one was infected.”
“We were declared essential workers by the state of California. I work in TV comedy. I don't know how essential that truly is.”
Ross is a TV producer living in Los Angeles who grew increasingly concerned at the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on his children. In response to his two teenagers being kept out of school for almost a year-and-a-half he founded an organisation called LA Uprising to campaign on their behalf. This podcast explores how political polarisation and groupthink led to the imposition of some of the United States’ most stringent controls in the state of California, and how a ‘priestly’ caste of experts were deferred to throughout the period, as politicians relied on fear to engineer consent
Watch and listen to the podcast ‘ LA Uprising: How Fear Shaped California’s Covid Response’ here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/la-uprising-how-fear-shaped-californias-covid-response/
“The education system here was rather weak but the 2 years of Covid lockdowns have broken it completely.”
This film, ‘The children of Nowhere’ by Kunal Purohit and Abeer Khan (biographies below) for Collateral Global, cuts to the heart of CG’s research agenda: understanding the enormity of the harms which lockdowns brought about among vulnerable populations in the Global South.
Watch ‘The Children of Nowhere’ here: https://collateralglobal.org/article/the-children-of-nowhere/
“It was a US election year, when a giant crisis happened on Trump's watch, Democrats had enormous incentive to lay at Trump's feet every single Covid death, and to attribute the scale of the pandemic in the US to Trump's mismanagement.”
In this episode of CG Podcasts, Professor Toby Green (King’s College, London) discusses the new book ‘In Covid’s Wake’ with authors Stephen Macedo and Frances E. Lee of the Politics Department of Princeton University. They discuss the economic and political fallout, the connections between the Covid policies and Trump’s election in 2024, and the future for academic and public discussions around the impacts of the Covid years.
Watch ‘In Covid’s Wake: A Discussion of Covid Policies in the US’ here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/in-covids-wake-a-discussion-of-covid-policies-in-the-us/
“Now, after the lockdown, even parents tell us that the government is not creating jobs, anyway, so what is the point of studying?”
This film, ‘The children of Nowhere’ by Kunal Purohit and Abeer Khan (biographies below) for Collateral Global, cuts to the heart of CG’s research agenda: understanding the enormity of the harms which lockdowns brought about among vulnerable populations in the Global South.
Watch ‘The Children of Nowhere’ here: https://collateralglobal.org/article/the-children-of-nowhere/
"I'm not a daredevil, but I'm very good at calculated risks."
Ross is a TV producer living in Los Angeles who grew increasingly concerned at the impacts of COVID-19 restrictions on his children. In response to his two teenagers being kept out of school for almost a year-and-a-half he founded an organisation called LA Uprising to campaign on their behalf. This podcast explores how political polarisation and groupthink led to the imposition of some of the United States’ most stringent controls in the state of California, and how a ‘priestly’ caste of experts were deferred to throughout the period, as politicians relied on fear to engineer consent
Watch and listen to the podcast ‘ LA Uprising: How Fear Shaped California’s Covid Response’ here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/la-uprising-how-fear-shaped-californias-covid-response/
“Francis Collins said, we wanted to motivate people to do what the right thing was in case it was the right thing, but we weren't really sure. And he says, in retrospect, we should have admitted that, we lost a lot of trust along the way.”
“I think there were various factors going on here, an almost perfect storm, unraveling the why is going to take further historical forensic work. Getting the whole picture is certainly complex.”
Professor Stephen Macedo of the Politics Department of Princeton University talks about the global consensus around COVID-19 response strategies in early 2020, including widespread testing, contact tracing, and isolation methods and how these approaches became a national strategy, creating a 'wartime footing' against the virus, with little tolerance for alternative perspectives.
Watch ‘In Covid’s Wake: A Discussion of Covid Policies in the US’ here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/in-covids-wake-a-discussion-of-covid-policies-in-the-us/
“Today, the result of schools being shut during the lockdowns are clear before us. Children’s progress has gone back by years.”
This film, ‘The children of Nowhere’ by Kunal Purohit and Abeer Khan (biographies below) for Collateral Global, cuts to the heart of CG’s research agenda: understanding the enormity of the harms which lockdowns brought about among vulnerable populations in the Global South.
Watch ‘The Children of Nowhere’ here: https://collateralglobal.org/article/the-children-of-nowhere/
“Certainly working on Covid was an extremely difficult thing to do.”
Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu – the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the djabakós – traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties.
Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm.
@toby00green
@frankarmstrong2
Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/heretical-ideas-on-health-in-african-history-and-beyond/
New CG Podcast 📢
Toby Green joins Frank Armstrong for a wide-ranging discussion based on his new book The Heretic of Cacheu: Struggles Over Life in a Seventeenth-Century West African Port. The book exhumes the records of a Portuguese Inquisitorial trial from 1665 into apparently deviant conduct of a half-African, female slave-trader Cacheu - the first African region to be drawn by the Portuguese systematically into the transatlantic slave trade. It also explores the role of the djabakós – traditional healers with knowledge of local herbs and their properties.
Frank and Toby discuss parallels between what occurred during this colonial period and what happened on the African continent during the Covid-19 pandemic, where a range of inappropriate policies have caused lasting harm. They also discuss heretical ideas about the health of the body and the spirit being integrated that have an application to our own time, especially in the context of excess deaths in many countries increasing since 2021; and the ongoing relevance of the idea that those who diagnose any condition are generally empowered to claim the authority to heal it.
Watch ‘Heretical Ideas on Health in African History and Beyond’ using the link here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/heretical-ideas-on-health-in-african-history-and-beyond/
@toby00green
@frankarmstrong2
@VoicesCassandra
“In parts of India, schools reopened per usual only by January 2022, nearly 2 years after being asked to shut down.”
“In Wardha, the damage caused by such prolonged shutdown is visible and, often, irreversible.”
This film, ‘The children of Nowhere’ by Kunal Purohit and Abeer Khan (biographies below) for Collateral Global, cuts to the heart of CG’s research agenda: understanding the enormity of the harms which lockdowns brought about among vulnerable populations in the Global South.
Watch ‘The Children of Nowhere’ here: https://collateralglobal.org/article/the-children-of-nowhere/
“In parts of India, schools reopened per usual only by January 2022, nearly 2 years after being asked to shut down.”
“In Wardha, the damage caused by such prolonged shutdown is visible and, often, irreversible.”
This film, ‘The children of Nowhere’ by Kunal Purohit and Abeer Khan (biographies below) for Collateral Global, cuts to the heart of CG’s research agenda: understanding the enormity of the harms which lockdowns brought about among vulnerable populations in the Global South.
Watch ‘The Children of Nowhere’ here: https://collateralglobal.org/article/the-children-of-nowhere/
Ross Novie explains how political polarisation made constructive dialogue difficult, with schools remaining closed.
Watch and listen to the podcast ‘ LA Uprising: How Fear Shaped California’s Covid Response’ here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/la-uprising-how-fear-shaped-californias-covid-response/
“Let the kids suffer”
Ross Novie explains the challenges faced by students during the pandemic, particularly highlighting the lack of preparation for school reopening and the disproportionate impact on underserved communities. His personal experience as a parent of a high school daughter and son motivated him to create a local organisation called LA Uprising to advocate for children’s right to attend school.
To watch the full discussion click here:
https://collateralglobal.org/article/la-uprising-how-fear-shaped-californias-covid-response/