Ronnie & Abi come together in this week’s episode to discuss Abi’s research in the context of Liverpool’s current circumstances: including having now entered tier 3 lockdown restrictions. Our conversation explores the relationship between central and local government, amid calls that this is a second round of ‘managed decline’, also the geographical inequalities which have come to characterise Britain, and how Abi’s work speaks to the consequences of the current political and social climate on Liverpool.

The latter half of the episode then moves to a conversation about what’s next for the podcast. Where we’ll be thinking about what ‘Doing a PhD in a pandemic’ really means. We touch upon topics we'll be discussing in ‘Series 2’, including our experiences of changing research methods, writing during lockdown and our lives beyond the PhD – amongst many other issues!

You can read more of Abi’s work here https://theconversation.com/liverpool-close-to-bankruptcy-how-decades-of-stigma-have-pushed-the-city-into-financial-ruin-138742. You can get in touch via email: aoconnor@liverpool.ac.uk, or Twitter @abioconnor_

Plus, we’d love to hear from you if you're interested in doing an episode on the podcast or if you have any ideas topics you’d like to suggest for us to discuss, do please drop us a message.