Medical Humanities' Editor-in-Chief, Brandy Schillace, talks to Dr. Eleanor Janega, a medieval historian, about comparisons between COVID-19 and the Black Death. Read the blog post, which includes the transcript of the podcast, here: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/07/15/going-medieval-historical-comparisons-of-plague-and-pandemic/

Editor-in-Chief of Medical Humanities, Brandy Schillace, speaks to Brian Sims, an openly gay LGBTQ activist, Pennsylvania State Representative, and civil rights attorney about the power of representation, and what minority groups offer to better governance. Read the related blog with this podcast's transcript: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/06/10/celebrating-pride-month-with-brian-sims

Sarah Gavron talks to our film and media correspondent, Khalid Ali, about her passion for telling stories about marginalised women from diverse backgrounds in her films. Read the blog post, which includes the transcript of the podcast, here: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/05/27/the-female-gaze-in-film-as-seen-by-sarah-gavron

David Perry is a freelance journalist covering politics, history, education, and disability rights with bylines at CNN, NYT, Atlantic, Guardian and many more. He and his food-scientist wife live in the Twin Cities with their children, one of whom has Down syndrome, and Perry also plays in an Irish rock band. Today on the podcast, David talks about access and education under COVID-19. What does it mean to really provide free and fair education to all? Read the related blog post, which...

Editor-in-Chief of Medical Humanities, Brandy Schillace, speaks to Arabella Proffer, an artist whose work combines the history of medicine with biomorphic abstraction about life, art, and cancer. Read the related blog post, which includes the transcript of this podcast: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/04/21/life-art-cancer-living-to-the-fullest

In this podcast, Editor-in-Chief of Medical Humanities, Brandy Schillace, speaks to Natalie Kerres, designer of SCALED and a recent graduate of Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art. SCALED is wearable technology designed for sports, medicine, and disability. Read the transcript of this podcast in the Medical Humanities blog: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/04/07/designing-for-the-body-scaled-wearable-technology

Rita Colwell is one of the top scientists in America: the groundbreaking microbiologist who discovered how cholera survives between epidemics and the former head of the National Science Foundation. She joins us for International Women’s Day, discussing the trials and successes of being a woman in science and her new book A Lab of One’s Own. Read the related blog post with the transcript of this podcast:...

In this podcast, Brandy Schillace, Medical Humanities Editor-in-Chief, interviews Dr. Oni Blackstock, physician and Director of Health Justice Dr. Blackstock speaks about the influence of her mother, the fight against health inequality, and her own struggles as a Black woman physician for social justice. Read the related blog post: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/02/24/the-power-of-equity-interview-with-oni-blackstock/

Dr. Josh Mugele, a disaster and emergency medicine physician, speaks about health disparity during crises like the current COVID pandemic. Read the blog post containing the transcript of this podcast: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/02/04/what-becomes-of-us-health-disparity-in-pandemic/

Jaipreet Virdi’s latest book, Hearing Happiness raises pivotal questions about deafness in American society and the endless quest for a cure. Read the blog post: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/01/05/hearing-happiness-jaipreet-virdi-on-deafness-accessibility-and-her-latest-book/

Therese Feiler, a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, describes the interdisciplinary Medical Humanities special issue, bringing together cardiac surgeons, cultural historians and theologians on matters of the heart (https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2020/12/10/podcast-heart-in-medicine-history-and-culture). Please read: - the editorial: https://mh.bmj.com/content/46/4/350 - the full issue: https://mh.bmj.com/content/46/4 Please subscribe to the Medical...

What would it mean if, instead of being “add-ons,” accessibility tools like captions and transcripts were built into a project from the ground up? What if instead of thinking about accessibility as “mere” additions only, we realized their incredible creative power? Read the related blog post: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2020/11/19/accessibility-creation-community-an-interview-with-cheryl-green/

In today’s podcast, Dr. Henry Ng, MD MPH, Cleveland Clinic, speaks with Editor-in-Chief of Medical Humanities, Brandy Schillace, about issues of LGBTQ+ and health accessibility. Already a difficult prospect, access to care for this population has become increasingly precarious during the COVID epidemic. Read the blog post: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2020/10/27/accessing-the-future-ways-forward-for-lgbtq-health-access/ Please subscribe to the Medical Humanities podcast on Apple...

Sarah Hendren’s book, What Can A Body Do? How We Meet the Built World, looks at design and disability at all scales: prosthetics, furniture, architecture, urban planning, and more, to examine critically the definition of the good life. Read the related blog post: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2020/09/25/the-dignity-of-help-sara-hendrens-what-a-body-can-do/

How do we make something really and truly accessible? Chris Higgins talks about what led to his 2019 short film Access, and the fact that accessibility isn’t about making a different product for those with disabilities; it’s about making the product with all people in mind. To find out more about the film: https://accessmovie.org/

Dr. Oni Blackstock joins us to speak about social justice, Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ rights and the way the COVID-19 crisis has unequally affected marginalized communities. Dr. Blackstock is Assistant Commissioner for the NYC Health Department's Bureau of HIV. Link to the blog post: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2020/07/03/where-race-disparity-and-pandemic-collide-covid-19-usa

In this podcast, we discuss the June Special issue, "Beyond the Battlefield" and the impact of medical crisis and treatment on non-combatant bodies - still so relevant in today’s COVID-19 crises. Medical Humanities Editor, Brandy Schillace, speaks to Dr Hannah Simpson, a postdoctoral scholar at St Anne's College, University of Oxford, specialising in modern and contemporary theatre and performance, and Dr Megan Girdwood, who is an Early Career Fellow in English at the University of Edinburgh,...

Medical Humanities Editor Brandy Schillace speaks to Alice Wong, a disabled activist, media maker, and consultant based in San Francisco. She is the Founder and Director of the Disability Visibility Project® and speaks about increasing disability access in the face of coronavirus pandemic. Read the blog post and the transcript of this podcast: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2020/04/30/disability-visibility-and-the-covid-19-crisis. The Disability Visibility Project link:...

How do diseases like coronavirus get their start? How does pollution affect the microbiome? Dr. Annamaria Carusi, who was as an academic in medical humanities for several years and is now a private consultant doing social studies of science for policy formation, addresses the way humans and environments interact. In this conversation with Medical Humanities Editor-in-Chief Brandy Schillace, she also discusses our need to take a wider view of disease vectors.

In this podcast Mr Matt Jackson, director of the UK, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) talks about current health inequalities that still face girls and women on a global scale. He revists the vision and programme of action of the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) set out in 1994 in Cairo, Egypt and ongoing efforts by his organisation to complete the ICPD unfinished business. He explains how the UNFPA uses arts and humanities to reach out to international...

Audrey Shafer, MD, directs Medicine & the Muse at Stanford Center for Biomedical Ethics. She joins Brandy to talk about the use of Frankenstein to trouble the boundaries between science, medicine, and what it means to be human.

In this podcast Dr Khalid Ali talks to acclaimed Canadian director Atom Egoyan at the 41st edition of the Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) where Egoyan's latest film 'Guest of honour' screened. Egoyan reflects on prominent themes in his films such as isolation, estrangement and alienation of human beings, and how communication or lack of communication can result in long-term trauma and suffering. Story-telling and narrative are key elements in Egoyna's films through which his...

In this podcast, award-winning Australian film maker, Damon Gameau talks about his new film '2040' which explores what the future could look like by the year 2040 if we embraced solutions that are currently available to improve the planet focusing on climate, economics, technology, civil society, agriculture, and sustainability. Damon also talks about his first documentary 'That Sugar Film' where he followed a strict low-fat, high sugar diet and the negative effects that diet had on his...

Nahid Toubia is a Sudanese surgeon and women's health rights activist, specialising in research into female genital mutilation (FGM). In this podcast, she talks about her career as a woman surgeon in Khartoum, Sudan in the 1970's. Ms Toubia describes how she got involved in championing the fight against harmful practices such as FGM, domestic and gender-based violence at the UN and several other international platforms. She also elaborates on her role as a pioneer in utilising art, film and...

Ciara Breathnach (@CiaraBreath) is a Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Limerick, Ireland. She is a current Irish research Council Laureate holder and her research focuses on Irish social history of medicine and health. In this conversation with Brandy Schillace, she also talks about the upcoming Association of Medical Humanities meeting MAKING SPACE, which will take place in Limerick in June 2020. The conference website is https://www.amh2020ireland.com/. Email address: The...