Medicine

episodes

Interviews with doctors and scholars of medicine about their new books.

John P. Davis, "Russia in the Time of Cholera: Disease under Romanovs and Soviets" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018)

September 4, 2024

Russia in the Time of Cholera

John P. Davis
Hosted by Aaron Weinacht

The idea of “backwardness” often plagues historical writing on Russia. In Russia in the Time of Cholera: Disease under Romanovs and Soviets (Bloomsbur…

Elizabeth A. Williams, "Appetite and Its Discontents: Science, Medicine, and the Urge to Eat, 1750-1950" (U Chicago Press, 2020)

September 2, 2024

Appetite and Its Discontents

Elizabeth A. Williams
Hosted by Claire Clark

Why do we eat? Is it instinct? Despite the necessity of food, anxieties about what and how to eat are widespread and persistent. In Appetite and Its D…

Ellen Hampton, "Doctors at War: The Clandestine Battle Against the Nazi Occupation of France" (LSU Press, 2023)

August 28, 2024

Doctors at War

Ellen Hampton
Hosted by Ari Barbalat

Ellen Hampton's Doctors at War: The Clandestine Battle Against the Nazi Occupation of France (LSU Press, 2023) tells the stories of physicians in Fran…

Regina G. Kunzel, "In the Shadow of Diagnosis: Psychiatric Power and Queer Life" (U Chicago Press, 2024)

August 25, 2024

In the Shadow of Diagnosis

Regina G. Kunzel
Hosted by Daniela Valdes

In the mid-twentieth century, American psychiatrists proclaimed homosexuality a mental disorder, one that was treatable and amenable to cure. Drawing…

Heather Murray, "Asylum Ways of Seeing: Psychiatric Patients, American Thought and Culture" (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022)

August 13, 2024

Asylum Ways of Seeing

Heather Murray
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Asylum Ways of Seeing: Psychiatric Patients, American Thought and Culture (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2021) by Dr. Heather Murray is a cultura…

Aimee Louise Middlemiss, "Invisible Labours: The Reproductive Politics of Second Trimester Pregnancy Loss in England" (Berghahn Books, 2024)

August 12, 2024

Invisible Labours

Aimee Louise Middlemiss
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Tracing women’s experiences of miscarriage and termination for foetal anomaly in the second trimester, before legal viability, shows how such events a…

Anna Bonnell Freidin, "Birthing Romans: Childbearing and Its Risks in Imperial Rome" (Princeton UP, 2024)

August 5, 2024

Birthing Romans

Anna Bonnell Freidin
Hosted by Michael Motia

Across the vast expanse of the Roman Empire, anxieties about childbirth tied individuals to one another, to the highest levels of imperial politics, e…

Robert Baker, "Making Modern Medical Ethics: How African Americans, Anti-Nazis, Bureaucrats, Feminists, Veterans, and Whistleblowing Moralists Created Bioethics" (MIT Press, 2024)

August 2, 2024

Making Modern Medical Ethics

Robert Baker
Hosted by Claire Clark

The little-known stories of the people responsible for what we know today as modern medical ethics. In Making Modern Medical Ethics: How African Ameri…

Fella Benabed, "Applied Global Health Humanities: Readings in the Global Anglophone Novel" (de Gruyter, 2024)

July 27, 2024

Applied Global Health Humanities

Fella Benabed
Hosted by Shu Wan

Fella Benabed's book Applied Global Health Humanities: Readings in the Global Anglophone Novel (de Gruyter, 2024) highlights the importance of global …

Justin B. Stein, "Alternate Currents: Reiki’s Circulation in the Twentieth-Century North Pacific" (U Hawaii Press, 2023)

July 27, 2024

Alternate Currents

Justin B. Stein
Hosted by Jingyi Li

In the second half of the twentieth century, Reiki went from an obscure therapy practiced by a few thousand Japanese and Japanese Americans to a globa…

Bishnupriya Ghosh, "The Virus Touch: Theorizing Epidemic Media" (Duke UP, 2023)

July 26, 2024

The Virus Touch

Welcome to the Global Media & Communication podcast series. This podcast is a multimodal project powered by the Center for Advanced Research in Global…

Kirsten Moore-Sheeley, "Nothing But Nets: A Biography of Global Health Science and Its Objects" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2023)

July 24, 2024

Nothing But Nets

Kirsten Moore-Sheeley
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Distributed to millions of people annually across Africa and the global south, insecticide-treated bed nets have become a cornerstone of malaria contr…

Suzanne Scanlon, "Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen" (Vintage, 2024)

July 23, 2024

Committed

Suzanne Scanlon
Hosted by Rachel Pafe

Committed: On Meaning and Madwomen (Vintage, 2024) is a critical memoir about women, reading, and mental illness. When Suzanne Scanlon was a student a…

Seth A. Berkowitz, "Equal Care: Health Equity, Social Democracy, and the Egalitarian State" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2024)

July 18, 2024

Equal Care

Seth A. Berkowitz
Hosted by Stephen Pimpare

Health inequity is one of the defining problems of our time. But current efforts to address the problem focus on mitigating the harms of injustice rat…

Stefanie Coché, "Psychiatric Institutions and Society: The Practice of Psychiatric Committal in the "Third Reich," the Democratic Republic of Germany, and the Federal Republic of Germany, 1941-1963" (Routledge, 2024)

July 16, 2024

Psychiatric Institutions and Society

Stefanie Coché
Hosted by Paul Lerner

Stefanie Coché's Psychiatric Institutions and Society: the Practice of Psychiatric Commital in the “Third Reich,” the Democratic Republic of Germany, …

Jill A. Fisher, "Adverse Events: Race, Inequality, and the Testing of New Pharmaceuticals" (NYU Press, 2020)

July 15, 2024

Adverse Events

Jill A. Fisher
Hosted by Claire Clark

Imagine that you volunteer for the clinical trial of an experimental drug. The only direct benefit of participating is that you will receive up to $5,…

Sasha Warren, "Storming Bedlam: Madness, Mental Health, and Revolt" (Common Notions, 2024)

July 10, 2024

Storming Bedlam

Sasha Warren
Hosted by Clayton Jarrard

Mental health care and its radical possibilities reimagined in the context of its global development under capitalism. The contemporary world is over…

Angela Garcia, "The Way That Leads Among the Lost: Life, Death, and Hope in Mexico City's Anexos" (FSG, 2024)

July 9, 2024

The Way That Leads Among the Lost

Angela Garcia
Hosted by Claire Clark

Based on over a decade of research, a powerful, moving work of narrative nonfiction that illuminates the little-known world of the anexos of Mexico Ci…

Donna Drucker, "Contraception: A Concise History" (MIT Press, 2020)

July 8, 2024

Contraception

Donna Drucker

The beginning of the modern contraceptive era began in 1882, when Dr. Aletta Jacobs opened the first birth control clinic in Amsterdam. The founding o…

Catherine Tan, "Spaces on the Spectrum: How Autism Movements Resist Experts and Create Knowledge" (Columbia UP, 2024)

July 6, 2024

Spaces on the Spectrum

Catherine Tan
Hosted by Miranda Melcher

Movements that take issue with conventional understandings of autism spectrum disorder, a developmental disability, have become increasingly visible. …