About Rachel Pagones

I am a licensed acupuncturist, educator and author with a background in journalism. My greatest clinical interests are older adults and cancer patients, and my primary academic interest is how Chinese medicine and acupuncture can benefit underserved populations. My book, Acupuncture as Revolution: Suffering, Liberation, and Love (Brevis Press) was published in 2021.

Rachel Pagones is an acupuncturist, educator, and author based in Cambridge, England.

NBN Episodes hosted by Rachel:

Han Yu, "The Curious Human Knee" (Columbia UP, 2023)

June 9, 2023

The Curious Human Knee

Han Yu
Hosted by Rachel Pagones
Listen:

Where would we be without the knee? This down-to-earth joint connecting the thigh and the lower leg doesn’t receive the attention it deserves. Yet, as…

Deborah Carr, "Aging in America" (U California Press, 2023)

April 2, 2023

Aging in America

Deborah Carr
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

The aging of America will reshape how we live and will transform nearly every aspect of contemporary society. Renowned life course sociologist Deborah…

Mary Crossley, "Embodied Injustice: Race, Disability, and Health" (Cambridge UP, 2022)

February 26, 2023

Embodied Injustice

Mary Crossley
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

Black people and people with disabilities in the United States are distinctively disadvantaged in their encounters with the health care system. These …

Victor Roy, "Capitalizing a Cure: How Finance Controls the Price and Value of Medicines" (U California Press, 2023)

February 17, 2023

Capitalizing a Cure

Victor Roy
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

Capitalizing a Cure: How Finance Controls the Price and Value of Medicines (U California Press, 2023) takes readers into the struggle over a medical b…

Elizabeth Kelly Gray, "Habit Forming: Drug Addiction in America, 1776-1914" (Oxford UP, 2023)

January 27, 2023

Habit Forming

Elizabeth Kelly Gray
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

Habitual drug use in the United States is at least as old as the nation itself. Elizabeth Kelly Gray's book Habit Forming: Drug Addiction in America, …

Char Miller, "Natural Consequences: Intimate Essays for a Planet in Peril" (Chin Music, 2022)

January 7, 2023

Natural Consequences

Char Miller
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

A collection of 42 essays meditating on both California’s natural gifts and its natural disasters, Natural Consequences: Intimate Essays for a Planet …

Pierre Minn, "Where They Need Me: Local Clinicians and the Workings of Global Health in Haiti" (Cornell UP, 2022)

November 28, 2022

Where They Need Me

Pierre Minn
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

Haiti is the target of an overwhelming number of internationally funded health projects. While religious institutions sponsor a number of these initia…

Michael Stein, "Accidental Kindness: A Doctor’s Notes on Empathy" (UNC Press, 2022)

November 22, 2022

Accidental Kindness

Michael Stein
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

We will all be patients sooner or later. And when we go to the doctor, when we're hurting, we tend to think in terms of cause and condemnation. We oft…

Alan Shuback, "Hollywood at the Races: Film's Love Affair with the Turf" (UP of Kentucky, 2019)

November 15, 2022

Hollywood at the Races

Alan Shuback
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

Today I talked to Alan Shuback about his book Hollywood at the Races: Film's Love Affair with the Turf (UP of Kentucky, 2019) A love of the slapstick…

Mackenzie Cooley, "The Perfection of Nature: Animals, Breeding, and Race in the Renaissance" (U Chicago Press, 2022)

October 31, 2022

The Perfection of Nature

Mackenzie Cooley
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

The Renaissance is celebrated for the belief that individuals could fashion themselves to greatness, but there is a dark undercurrent to this fêted er…

Gwen Shuni D'Arcangelis, "Bio-Imperialism: Disease, Terror, and the Construction of National Fragility" (Rutgers UP, 2020)

October 21, 2022

Bio-Imperialism

Gwen Shuni D'Arcangelis
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

Gwen Shuni D'Arcangelis's book Bio-Imperialism: Disease, Terror, and the Construction of National Fragility (Rutgers UP, 2020) focuses on an understud…

John Richens, "Tik Merauke: An Epidemic Like No Other" (Melbourne UP, 2022)

September 21, 2022

Tik Merauke

John Richens
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

A medical doctor with an inquisitive mind and a traveling spirit, John Richens thought he had hit upon an exemplary public health case study – the sto…

Sarah Lamb, "Successful Aging as a Contemporary Obsession" (Rutgers UP, 2017)

September 9, 2022

Successful Aging as a Contemporary Obsession

Sarah Lamb
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

In recent decades, the North American public has pursued an inspirational vision of successful aging—striving through medical technique and individual…

Georg Striedter, "Model Systems in Biology: History, Philosophy, and Practical Concerns" (MIT Press, 2022)

September 7, 2022

Model Systems in Biology

Georg Striedter
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

Biomedical research using various animal species and in vitro cellular systems has resulted in both major successes and translational failure. In Mode…

Katherine L. Carroll, "Building Schools, Making Doctors: Architecture and the Modern American Physician" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2022)

August 9, 2022

Building Schools, Making Doctors

Katherine L. Carroll
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

In the late nineteenth century, medical educators intent on transforming American physicians into scientifically trained, elite professionals recogniz…

Lisa Jean Moore, "Our Transgenic Future: Spider Goats, Genetic Modification, and the Will to Change Nature" (NYU Press, 2022)

July 20, 2022

Our Transgenic Future

Lisa Jean Moore
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

The process of manipulating the genetic material of one animal to include the DNA of another creates a new transgenic organism. Several animals, notab…

Claire L. Wendland, "Partial Stories: Maternal Death from Six Angles" (U Chicago Press, 2022)

June 29, 2022

Partial Stories

Claire L. Wendland
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

A close look at stories of maternal death in Malawi that considers their implications in the broader arena of medical knowledge. By the early twent…

Jason Sion Mokhtarian, "Medicine in the Talmud: Natural and Supernatural Therapies Between Magic and Science" (U California Press, 2022)

June 2, 2022

Medicine in the Talmud

Jason Sion Mokhtarian
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

Despite the Talmud being the richest repository of medical remedies in ancient Judaism, this important strain of Jewish thought has been largely ignor…

Steven G. Epstein, "The Quest for Sexual Health: How an Elusive Ideal Has Transformed Science, Politics, and Everyday Life" (U Chicago Press, 2022)

May 30, 2022

The Quest for Sexual Health

Steven G. Epstein
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

Since the 1970s, health professionals, researchers, governments, advocacy groups, and commercial interests have invested in the pursuit of something c…

Suman Seth, "Difference and Disease: Medicine, Race, and the Eighteenth-Century British Empire" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

May 13, 2022

Difference and Disease

Suman Seth
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

Before the nineteenth century, travelers who left Britain for the Americas, West Africa, India and elsewhere encountered a medical conundrum: why did …

Michael G. Flaherty and K. C. Carceral, "The Cage of Days: Time and Temporal Experience in Prison" (Columbia UP, 2022)

May 12, 2022

The Cage of Days

Michael G. Flaherty and K. C. Carceral
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

Prisons operate according to the clockwork logic of our criminal justice system: we punish people by making them “serve” time. The Cage of Days: Time …

Rod Tanchanco, "First Patients: The Incredible True Stories of Pioneer Patients" (First Hawk, 2022)

April 20, 2022

First Patients

Rod Tanchanco
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

When Dr. Rod Tanchanco, a busy internist and clinical researcher, began digging into old journals looking for a deeper history of renowned medical inn…

Jessie Singer, "There Are No Accidents: The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster—Who Profits and Who Pays the Price" (Simon and Schuster, 2022)

March 2, 2022

There Are No Accidents

Jessie Singer
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

We hear it all the time: “Sorry, it was just an accident.” And we’ve been deeply conditioned to just accept that explanation and move on. But, as Jess…

Marissa Mika, "Africanizing Oncology: Creativity, Crisis, and Cancer in Uganda" (Ohio UP, 2021)

February 18, 2022

Africanizing Oncology

Marissa Mika
Hosted by Rachel Pagones

Thousands of stories are given voice by Marissa Mika in Africanizing Oncology: Creativity, Crisis, and Cancer in Uganda (Ohio UP, 2021), a fearless, w…