The Beers, Burgers + Bleach Podcast: Exploring hygiene, toilets and hospitality during Covid-19

What’s on offer?

This podcast explores the experiences of people working within the hospitality sector throughout the pandemic, drawing on research findings from ‘Beers, Burgers and Bleach: Hygiene, Toilets and Hospitality during Covid-19’. Through three short episodes, we consider what it’s been like to work within the restrictions of the pandemic and government guidance; discuss some of the demands and wins made by workers over the past year; and ask what might be done to achieve better conditions for hospitality workers in the future. Each podcast episode will include guest speakers with knowledge and experience of the hospitality sector right now, including workers, trade union organisers, and campaigners.

What’s it about?

How have hospitality workers’ roles changed in the pandemic? How are they keeping the venues and their toilets clean? And do new safety regulations come at any cost to the workers themselves? Since the UK government began to ease the first national lockdown in July 2020, there have been concerns about the COVID-19 transmission risks involved in visiting public venues. With a status that continues to be debated, safely preparing and maintaining these spaces has required significant additional work. Whilst hospitality remains a place of community for many of us, we ask how those working within the sector have experienced such changes within their working and personal lives. 

Who’s leading the event?

This event is based upon research funded by the University of Exeter’s Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health (WCCEH) and led by Dr Charlotte Jones (PI), Dr Lauren White, Dr Jen Slater and Dr Jill Pluquailec, in close collaboration with hospitality workers, trade unions and local campaigns. Please contact Charlotte Jones (charlotte.jones@exeter.ac.uk) for more details.

Open to

The podcasts are freely available to the public.

Of particular interest to

This event should be of interest to everyone, but we particularly encourage those who like going out to eat and drink to listen, as well as those working within hospitality and the key organisations and trade unions that represent them