Author Talk: Andrew Wear

Humanity has recovered from many crises in the past: war, depression, pandemic, natural disaster. Often, we’ve bounced back to create a better future. The Spanish flu was followed by the economic prosperity of the Roaring Twenties. After World War II, the German economy grew to become the world’s most advanced. Following the 2010 earthquakes, Christchurch shook off its conservative reputation to become a city ‘where everything is possible.’

As we emerge from the COVID-19 health and economic crisis, it’s important we draw on the lessons of the past to shape a recovery that future generations will be proud of. We need to carefully consider the dimensions of recovery that will set us up for success over years and decades, not just months.

What can we learn from other recoveries? And how can we draw on these insights to create an ethical recovery? Drawing on the research in his recent book, Andrew Wear will examine past recoveries, explore what went well, what we should do differently and what the lessons might be for the recovery ahead of us. While the COVID-19 pandemic has been the biggest crisis in a generation, our recovery also represents an enormous opportunity. Examples from history show that with the right choices, we will go on to create a better, brighter future.

Andrew Wear is a policy expert, author and speaker who is passionate about searching the world for policy solutions that work. He is the author of Solved!: How other countries cracked the world’s biggest problems (and we can too) (2020) which has since been translated into multiple languages. His latest book is Recovery: How we can create a better, brighter future after a crisis, which was published in September 2021. A senior public servant, he is currently City Economist and Director, Economic Development at the City of Melbourne, where he is playing a key role in Melbourne’s response to the pandemic.