Darren is the first to do a second Nostalgia Interview!

In a "lockdown special" interview we talked about the implications of lockdown on the work of the lab and how lockdown has enabled a productive year, publishing 43 manuscripts. We talked about the adoption of different work practices and why recording your own lectures can be the worst of all worlds.

We discussed synchronous and asynchronous modes of delivery and what shape teaching will take post-lockdown. We learned about Darren's musical passions and the way radio can improve mood. We talked about resurrecting old tech including ad record deck and a home cinema.

GriffinLab does a review of the year, and we talk about the lack of possibility for closure brought about by the pandemic and what the ‘new normal’ will be. We talk about taking teaching to the Middle East, the absence of fact-based decision making, and how the likes of Donald Trump can influence people in ways that cannot be right.

Darren discusses the different successes of Track and Trace vs. the vaccine, ‘designer babies’, disingenuous politicians, Brexit, whether academics live in their ivory towers, and the role of the university going forward.

Following Covid, we were saved by science – and Darren discusses how it is amazing that the vaccines were rolled out within a year of the virus being discovered, and we talk about the tabloid and social media backlash and what ‘research’ is in this context. Then, at the end of the interview, we discover, once again, that Darren is a forward thinking person.