Hi, it's Fraser Myers here, deputy editor of Spiked. Before we kick off this week's

Brendan O'Neill show, I have something very exciting to announce. Spiked is launching

an internship program. We're offering paid placements to aspiring writers, podcasters

and video makers who want to cut their teeth at the best political magazine in the world.

You'll work with us full time for six months in London, starting this July, and there's

the possibility of more work at the end of it. You can apply for an editorial internship

where you'll help us to produce our articles, features and essays, or an audiovisual internship

where you'll help us to produce our videos and podcasts like this one. To find out more

and to apply, just go to spikedhyphenonline.com forward slash interns. That's spikedhyphenonline.com

forward slash interns.

What happened in the pandemic was a small group of scientists who unfortunately led a

controlled, incredible amounts of policy and funding. Decided they knew the right thing,

and that any opposition was itself a factor of danger. You have a situation where there

really is, we really do need every single mind focused on this. At that single moment,

a small group of people decide they know best that they can organize all of society around

their wisdom, their knowledge, and that anyone that opposes them is dangerous, and they

got their way with the policy, they got their lockdowns.

Hello, and welcome to the Brendan O'Neill show with me, Brendan O'Neill. This is a podcast

in which an esteemed guest joins me to talk about the big ideas, the bad ideas, the problems

and the controversies of life in the early 21st century. In this episode, I am delighted

to be joined by Jay Batacharya. Jay is a professor of medicine at Stanford University and

a research associate at the National Bureau of Economics Research. He is also director of

...