Coronavirus: Surviving isolation
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2021
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The pandemic has caused many people to feel lonely and isolated. For three women, the isolation is as a result of travelling and having to quarantine in hotels on arrival - Michelle in Australia, Amanda in Indonesia and Charlotte in New Zealand. They tell host Nuala McGovern how they are passing the time and share recommendations.
It’s not just people living alone who can feel isolated, of course, and three single parents from the Philippines, the United States and the UK share their experiences - both the highs and lows - of living with their children 24/7. For theatre artist Floyd in Manila, it has resulted in singing regularly with his ten year old son.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From the BBC World Service. |
| 0:03.0 | These attackers have no fear. |
| 0:04.5 | They would have killed me had they found out. |
| 0:06.5 | It was really intense. |
| 0:08.5 | I just saw the entire financial markets grinding to a halt. |
| 0:12.6 | This is what they've stolen. |
| 0:14.1 | So many millions of dollars. |
| 0:15.3 | Oh, it's got to be North Korea. |
| 0:16.4 | There was chaos. |
| 0:17.4 | What do you mean they've disappeared? |
| 0:18.4 | It was almost like a perfect crime. |
| 0:19.8 | Where did they get the money? |
| 0:20.8 | How in the world did this happen? The Lazarus Hice from the BBC World Service, coming soon. |
| 0:29.0 | Hello, I'm Nula McGovrin on the BBC World Service and this is BBC OS, Conversations on Corona virus, |
| 0:37.4 | Surviving isolation. |
| 0:40.4 | Single parents in the Philippines, the US and the UK shared their experiences of |
| 0:49.7 | loneliness, both the positives and the challenges of constantly being with your children during a pandemic. |
| 0:58.0 | Working was a huge issue. I try and organise calls outside of my daughter's lessons but on a couple of occasions she |
| 1:06.1 | pushed angry notes onto the door. I don't like it when you're on the phone. I don't like |
| 1:10.1 | it when you want to work. The outbreak of COVID-19 has changed all our lives, |
| 1:19.0 | especially the ease with which money were able to travel, not just locally in the form of lockdowns but also around the world. |
| 1:27.0 | Some countries have closed their borders, others have restricted international travel or brought in a quarantine system where people arriving |
... |
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