Episodes

March 19, 2021

Ep.53 - Beverly Bergman - Military Public Health from the Crimea to World War One

Explores how the development of an understanding of the principles of public health in wartime during the late nineteenth century helped to protect troops exposed to the challenging conditions of the First World War.
March 5, 2021

Ep.52 - John Crichton - Forensic Psychiatry From Plato to the Modern ‘Insanity’ Defence

John Crichton considers the origins of Scotland’s ‘insanity’ law and what ancient themes are still relevant today.
Feb. 19, 2021

Ep.51 - Mark Strachan - Sugar and Spikes - Current Approaches to Diabetes Treatment

Dr Mark Strachan discusses the latest, cutting-edge research currently being undertaken in Edinburgh.
Feb. 5, 2021

Ep.50 - Richard Barnett - The Theatre of Anatomy

Drawing on the images collected in his award-winning book, Richard Barnett explores a corpus of art that is beautiful and morbid, singular and sublime.
Jan. 22, 2021

Ep.49 - Sarah Wise - Gaslight Stories - Women In White, Eccentric Heirs, Inconvenient People

Sarah Wise examines a number of disputed lunacy cases, ranging from the 1820s to the 1890s - including the unsavoury incident that Sir Alexander Morison himself became embroiled in.
Jan. 8, 2021

Ep.48 - Ian Burney - The House Of Murder: The Emergence Of The Forensic Team

Dr Burney uses the notorious case of the serial murderer John Christie (1953) to explore the contours of English homicide investigation at mid-century and detail the broader ‘forensic culture’ within which the case unfolded.
Dec. 25, 2020

Ep.47 - Anna Maerker - Gendering Artificial Anatomies: Practices and Materials

Explores two aspects of gendering in the production and deployment of, not only the Auzoux papier-mâché anatomical models, but other contemporaneous artificial anatomies also.
Dec. 11, 2020

Ep.46 - Tom Scotland - The Changing Management of Abdominal Wounds During the Great War

Explores the experiences of surgeons and nurses during the 3rd Battle of Ypres in 1917, from casualty clearing stations positioned within 5 miles of the front line.
Nov. 27, 2020

Ep.45 - Noelle Gallagher - Syphilitic Noses In Eighteenth Century British Literature And Art

Dr Noelle Gallagher explores the weird and wonderful cultural life of deformed noses in eighteenth-century British literature and art.
Nov. 13, 2020

Ep.44 - Jane Stevens - Books and Beaks: Doctors’ Fight Against the Plague in Early Modern Europe

Considers continuity and change in the attitudes and advice given by doctors between 1500 and 1700 regarding the plague.
Oct. 30, 2020

Ep.43 - Tracey Jolliffe - Syphilis In The 21st Century

Tracey Jolliffe discusses the science of syphilis in the 21st century.
Oct. 16, 2020

Ep.42 - Vivian Nutton - An Urge to Correct: Andreas Vesalius Revised

Professor Vivian Nutton discusses Vesalius’ activities as reviser and corrector over his career as a Galenic anatomist.
Oct. 2, 2020

Ep.41 - Lisa Smith - Fragments from an Eighteenth-Century Family Scandal

Lisa Smith discusses the tumultuous relationships of the Newdigates and attempts to piece together a shadowy family scandal from the perspectives of father, daughter and son.
Sept. 18, 2020

Ep.40 - Janet Philp - Burke, Now and Then

Janet Philp explores the history around the tale of Edinburgh’s infamous body-snatchers Burke and Hare, and Dr. Knox, the recipient of their shady undertakings.
Sept. 4, 2020

Ep.39 - Sophie Goggins - Prosthetics: From Maker to User

Reviews the history of prosthetics in Edinburgh and emerging technologies that are shaping the field.
Aug. 21, 2020

Ep.38 - John Henderson - Coping With Plague - Public Health And Epidemics

Professor John Henderson argues that it is time to re-examine and reassess early modern Italian policies dealing with plague.
Aug. 7, 2020

Ep.37 - Jim Mills - Substance Abuse: Past and Present

Considers the changing public perception of drugs such as cannabis and the factors which have influenced its longevity, including immigration, diplomacy, medical science, and politics.
July 24, 2020

Ep.36 - Chris Philo - The Wild and Tranquil Geographies of Animals and Madness

Prof. Chris Philo explores the ‘madness’ of both human and animals.
July 10, 2020

Ep.35 - Anna Dhody - Looking To The Past To Improve Our Future

Anna Dhody talks about the ways scientists are looking to the past to improve our future.
June 26, 2020

Ep.34 - Kristin Hussey - William Harvey, College of Physicians and the Discovery of Circulation

Dr Kristin Hussey discusses William Harvey, one of Britain’s foremost anatomists and discoverer of the circulation of blood.
June 14, 2020

Ep.33 - Gavin Hardy - The Uses of Plants in Medicine in Ancient Greece and Rome

Dr Gavin Hardy discusses the history of plants in medicine during the time of the Ancient Greeks and Romans.
June 10, 2020

Ep.31 - Katie Birkwood - John Dee: Magic, Medicine And The Tudor World

Katie Birkwood explores John Dee’s life story, thoughts and personality, which survive in the personally annotated collection of his books, now residing at the library of the Royal College of Physicians, London.
June 10, 2020

Ep.32 - Martin Willis - Medical Tourism in Victorian Edinburgh

Focuses on an under-represented area of medical history: the depiction of places of medicine in 19th-century travel guides.
June 10, 2020

Ep.30 - Emma Spary - Knowing and Selling Exotic Drugs in Paris c.1700

Considers some of the ways in which lay consumers, merchants and medical experts appropriated and ‘domesticated’ exotic foods and drugs within the French metropolitan world.