Season 1
Ep.85 - Michael Cholbi - Grief And The Pandemic
June 10, 2022
Prof Michael Cholbi explores the medical and emotional understanding of grief in times of global pandemic.
Ep.84 - Ally Zlatar - The Starving Artist
May 27, 2022
Ally Zlatar uncovers the history of medical recipes and the historical relationship between food and medicine.
Ep.83 - Charlotte Holmes - Early Modern Scottish Recipe Books
May 13, 2022
Charlotte Holmes uncovers the history of medical recipes and the historical relationship between food and medicine.
Ep.82 - Iain Milne - Physicians, Plants And Poisons
April 29, 2022
Explores botany and medicine in Edinburgh since the 16th Century.
Ep.81 - Thomas Dixon - Thomas Brown - Inventor Of The Emotions
April 15, 2022
Dr Thomas Brown - considered to have been the “inventor of the emotions”.
Ep.80 - Natasha McEnroe - Collecting COVID For The Future
April 1, 2022
Natasha McEnroe explores how both presences and absences in the museum record can shed light on the challenges and dynamics of collecting around pandemic and infectious diseases.
Ep.79 - Maureen Park - Patient art at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital
March 18, 2022
Dr Maureen Park uses the archive of the Royal Edinburgh Hospital to examine the reasons why, and the extent to which, drawing was promoted as a ‘therapeutic’ activity in the hospital.
Ep.78 - Iain Milne - The History Of Clinical Trials And James Lind
March 4, 2022
Iain Milne discusses some key figures from the history of medicine and clinical trials, including James Lind.
Ep.77 - Ericka Johnson - Cultural Biography Of Prostate
Feb. 18, 2022
Ericka Johnson discusses what we think the prostate is and what we use the prostate to think about, examining it in historical, cultural, social, and medical contexts.
Ep.76 - Stephanie Allen - Counterfeiting the Loss of Virginity
Feb. 4, 2022
Dr Stephanie Allen examines an element of female sexual fraud; counterfeit maidenheads.
Ep.75 - Gavin Francis - Intensive Care
Jan. 21, 2022
Dr Gavin Francis discusses his experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic in Edinburgh and the islands of Orkney, and its impact on intensive care.
Ep.74 - Patricia Whatley - Caring For The Poor In The Highlands
Jan. 7, 2022
Dr Patricia Whatley discusses the changing issues relating to the work of the GP in the second half of the 19th century in the remote and isolated regions of the Highlands.
Ep.73 - Charlotte Holmes - Medical Recipes And Overindulgence
Dec. 24, 2021
Charlotte Holmes examines the history of early recipe books and their use to treat a wide range of complaints.
Ep.72 - Sam Alberti - Watercolour, woodcut and wax - Medical illustration around 1900
Dec. 10, 2021
Anatomy and surgery have strong extra-textual elements. The development and transmission of these crafts rely heavily on visual communication in a range of media, whether by practitioners or (other) illustrators.
Ep.71 - Lauren Barnett - Alienation and Beauty in Medical Photography
Nov. 26, 2021
Explores the role of alienation and beauty in medical photography, and the evocative questions each raised for doctors.
Ep.70 - Ambrose Parry - The Art Of Dying And The History Of Chloroform
Nov. 12, 2021
Authors Ambrose Parry (Dr Marisa Haetzman & Chris Brookmyre) discuss their new historical novel of medicine & murder, The Art of Dying.
Ep.69 - Derek Sloan - Spitting Blood - Current Approaches To Tuberculosis Treatment
Oct. 29, 2021
Dr Derek Sloan, who has worked in both high and low-income countries, considers why tuberculosis (TB) still remains a threat and what can be done to combat this disease.
Ep.68 - Paul Keeley - The Rise and Fall of the Liverpool Care Pathway
Oct. 15, 2021
A historical study and analysis of the events surrounding the emergence of the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), an integrated care pathway for dying patients, developed in the late 1990s.
Ep.67 - Ciarán McCabe - Humane Societies and the International Exchange of Medical Knowledge
Oct. 1, 2021
Examines the context in which British and Irish humane societies were founded and operated - delving deep into this fascinating and, historically, relatively neglected movement.
Ep.66 - Mona O'Brien - Essential but Suspect Medical Practitioners in Nuremberg, 1495–1560
Sept. 17, 2021
Essential but Suspect Medical Practitioners in Nuremberg, 1495–1560, by Dr Mona O'Brien.
Ep.65 - Anna Dhody - The Mütter Research Institute
Sept. 3, 2021
Anna Dhody talks about the ways scientists are looking to the past to improve our future.
Ep.64 - Iain Donaldson - Some tests of universal remedies for poison in the 16th century
Aug. 20, 2021
In renaissance Europe the great feared poisoning and relied on universal remedies against all poisons. This discusses some contemporary tests of the efficacy of such remedies.
Ep.63 - Jennifer Evans - Men's Sexual Health In Early Modern England
Aug. 6, 2021
How did men cope with sexual health issues in early modern England? How did they feel when their bodies failed them? This talk investigates how sexual, reproductive, and genitourinary conditions were understood.
Ep.62 - Graham Mooney - From Casualty Room To A&E, History Of A Hospital Space
July 23, 2021
Explores how and why the casualty department was transformed over the course of the 20th century.
Ep.61 - Peter Hobbins - Edinburgh's Forgotten Contribution To Antivenoms
July 9, 2021
Reveals how a President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh collaborated with a former student in the colony of Queensland to develop the theory and practice of applied immunology.
Ep.60 - Martin Moore - Sugar and Spikes - Historical Approaches to Diabetes Treatment
June 25, 2021
Dr Martin Moore explores how medical thought, patient experience and everyday practice of self-management of diabetes were influenced by broader structures in British politics, culture, and society.
Ep.59 - Sachiko Kusukawa - Vesalius And The Canon Of The Human Body
June 11, 2021
Dr Sachiko Kusukawa examines the different - and often ingenious - ways in which Andreas Vesalius used anatomical images in his book, De humani corporis fabrica.
Ep.58 - Glen O'Hara - ‘Inadmissable and Cruel’ Fear and Risk in Britain’s Post-War Fluoride Debate
May 28, 2021
‘Inadmissable and Cruel': Fear and Risk in Britain’s Post War Fluoride Debate, by Professor Glen O'Hara.
Ep.57 - Mona O’Brien - Controlling An Angry Dog - Understanding And Managing The French Disease
May 14, 2021
Mona O’Brien explores how Europeans came to understand syphilis and some of the measures that they enacted in an attempt to control it during the period from the first pandemic outbreak (c.1495) until the 17th century.
Ep.56 - Allan Beveridge - Sir Alexander Morison and The Physiognomy of Mental Diseases
April 30, 2021
Dr Allan Beveridge discusses the 19th century Scottish pioneer of psychiatric medicine Sir Alexander Morison and the collection of illustrations of asylum patients which he commissioned.
Ep.55 - Alex Mold - Placing the public in public health: Public health in Britain, 1948-2010
April 16, 2021
Explores and explains the changing place of the public within public health in post-war Britain.
Ep.54 - Keren Hammerschlag - William Orpen: looking at bodies in medicine and art
April 2, 2021
William Orpen: Looking at Bodies in Medicine and Art, by Dr Keren Hammerschlag.
Ep.53 - Beverly Bergman - Military Public Health from the Crimea to World War One
March 19, 2021
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.
Ep.52 - John Crichton - Forensic Psychiatry From Plato to the Modern ‘Insanity’ Defence
March 5, 2021
John Crichton considers the origins of Scotland’s ‘insanity’ law and what ancient themes are still relevant today.
Ep.51 - Mark Strachan - Sugar and Spikes - Current Approaches to Diabetes Treatment
Feb. 19, 2021
Dr Mark Strachan discusses the latest, cutting-edge research currently being undertaken in Edinburgh.
Ep.50 - Richard Barnett - The Theatre of Anatomy
Feb. 5, 2021
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.
Ep.49 - Sarah Wise - Gaslight Stories - Women In White, Eccentric Heirs, Inconvenient People
Jan. 22, 2021
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.
Ep.48 - Ian Burney - The House Of Murder: The Emergence Of The Forensic Team
Jan. 8, 2021
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.
Ep.47 - Anna Maerker - Gendering Artificial Anatomies: Practices and Materials
Dec. 25, 2020
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.
Ep.46 - Tom Scotland - The Changing Management of Abdominal Wounds During the Great War
Dec. 11, 2020
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.
Ep.45 - Noelle Gallagher - Syphilitic Noses In Eighteenth Century British Literature And Art
Nov. 27, 2020
Dr Noelle Gallagher explores the weird and wonderful cultural life of deformed noses in eighteenth-century British literature and art.
Ep.44 - Jane Stevens - Books and Beaks: Doctors’ Fight Against the Plague in Early Modern Europe
Nov. 13, 2020
Considers continuity and change in the attitudes and advice given by doctors between 1500 and 1700 regarding the plague.
Ep.43 - Tracey Jolliffe - Syphilis In The 21st Century
Oct. 30, 2020
Tracey Jolliffe discusses the science of syphilis in the 21st century.
Ep.42 - Vivian Nutton - An Urge to Correct: Andreas Vesalius Revised
Oct. 16, 2020
Professor Vivian Nutton discusses Vesalius’ activities as reviser and corrector over his career as a Galenic anatomist.
Ep.41 - Lisa Smith - Fragments from an Eighteenth-Century Family Scandal
Oct. 2, 2020
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.
Ep.40 - Janet Philp - Burke, Now and Then
Sept. 18, 2020
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.
Ep.39 - Sophie Goggins - Prosthetics: From Maker to User
Sept. 4, 2020
Reviews the history of prosthetics in Edinburgh and emerging technologies that are shaping the field.
Ep.38 - John Henderson - Coping With Plague - Public Health And Epidemics
Aug. 21, 2020
Professor John Henderson argues that it is time to re-examine and reassess early modern Italian policies dealing with plague.
Ep.37 - Jim Mills - Substance Abuse: Past and Present
Aug. 7, 2020
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.
Ep.36 - Chris Philo - The Wild and Tranquil Geographies of Animals and Madness
July 24, 2020
Prof. Chris Philo explores the ‘madness’ of both human and animals.