Dive into the complete episode list for Bedside Reading . Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.
It's Valentines Day this week and in celebration we have a love story on the podcast today. This isn't a traditional schmaltzy love story though, The Salt Path is a stunning love letter, the record of a long walk and features the sort of love story most of us will never be lucky enough to experience. Tara is joined by Pim Dahan to talk about love, homelessness, the power of nature and the importance of slowing down.
When Raynor Winn and her husband became homeless and he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, they packed their rucksacks and began walking the South West Coast Path. She tells her extraordinary story of prejudice, hidden communities and finding home
What a treat it was to talk to Ani Gavrilovic about what must be one of the most moving, and thought provoking novels I have ever read. Maylis de Kerangal's Mend the Living is the story of 24 hours in the heart of 19 year old Simon Limbeau. It is a story of death and life, of organ transplants and human stories, of a day from many different perspectives. It is a story of love and hope as well as loss and darkness.
Organ Donation UK https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/
https://orgamites.com/ this is a brilliant resource for assisting with conversations with primary school aged children about organ donation
It's the end of series 1 and today's episode is a flipped one where Ed Pooley is interviewing me about Malcolm Gladwell's talking to strangers. This audio recording was originally a videocast as part of Ed's phenomenal Facebook educational group "Difficult Conversations: Understanding Communication & Psychology in Health" which can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/237884610488751
Ed and I talk about connection, the TV show Friends, historical events, assumptions, fallacies and what it is to be human.
This conversation was the final push I needed to start Bedside Reading and it is so lovely to be able to share this with you, my listeners as we close the first series for a little Easter Break
Tara was excited this week to talk to another Tara who loves books almost as much as she does! Tara McCormack is an Emergency Department Nurse in Sydney and part of the https://dontforgetthebubbles.com community.
We discovered our shared enjoyment of this book as part of an online book group and there's literally so much to talk about. We talked about carers, about narratives, effective communication and so much more. Some resources below may help if you want to know more.
Another pandemic, 104 years before I met Jenny Slough to talk about it but the parallels with 1918 Dublin and 2020/21 London are uncannily familiar. We talk about Emma Donoghue's brilliant Novel The Pull of the Stars and find shared comfort in remembering that pandemics whilst usually once in a lifetime are events which have happened before and history allows us to start to feel reassured there will be an after.
Welcome back and welcome to Season 2. It is o exciting to have you back listening to us. I absolutely loved recording this episode with Emma Pickett IBCLC talking about Room by Emma Donoghue. We talk about attachment, infant feeding, breastfeeding older children, toddler manners and more. If you want to follow Emma on Twitter find her here: https://twitter.com/makesmilk
We offer breastfeeding support on the phone, every day of the year, 9.30am to 9.30pm. Call Charges to all helplines apply. Calls to 0300 numbers cost no more than calls to UK numbers starting 01 and 02 and will be part of any inclusive minutes that apply to your provider and call package.
National Breastfeeding Helpline: 0300 100 0212 The National Breastfeeding Helpline is a helpline run in collaboration with the Breastfeeding Network (BfN) and the Association of Breastfeeding Mothers (ABM). All the volunteers answering calls are mums who have breastfed, and all have received extensive training in breastfeeding support. Calls are diverted to the next available ABM or BfN volunteer. The Helpline is funded by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and the Scottish Government.
Support is also available in Welsh and Polish via the National Breastfeeding Helpline – call 0300 100 0212 and press 1 for Welsh and 2 for Polish.
I'm delighted to be joined by London GP and podcast fanatic James Thambirajah to discuss Dean Burnett's book Psychological. James and I explore the importance of being able to explain complex medical concepts in lay language and think about the power of bibliography to help patients and especially relatives to gain an understanding of mental illness.
I'm not sure that GPs are the natural designed audience for this book but that doesn't mean we didn't both gain a lot from it and it's certainly one I'll be adding to my list of resources for patients and relatives.
What a treat to be joined by a member of #medtwitter royalty. Ben Lovell and I had such a great discussion starting from Kristen Johnston's memoir Guts. We talk about whether being nosy is a prerequisite for being a good doctor (yes), how we treat addicts in the NHS (often badly), why as HCPs working in a visibly flawed system we are so conditioned to be defensive of the NHS even when it is failing.
This book is a fantastic, raw and open insight into the lies people tell themselves when they are functioning addicts, what it might take to mean they may make a decision to change (top tip, it's not what doctors say to them) and a observational portrait of the NHS from the perspective of an American. It is funny, tough and insightful and I can guarantee reading it will make you a better clincian
Brilliant to be joined again by Naren Senthil Nathan this time to talk about Lucy Kellaway's wonderful story of " how I changed by job, my home, my husband and my hair". We talk about life stages, expectations, the power of education and the fact that retiring at 60 does not work well with the life expectancy and lifestyles of the 21 century.
As a GP trainer I found the ideas around "unlearning" old career habits before being able to learn new skills a really powerful concept.
This week I'm joined by Ralph Emmerson, a GP, GP trainer and self confessed "Shackleton nerd" to talk about Alfred Lansing's 1950s record of the ill fated expedition to the pole led by Shackleton Endurance. It's a story that transcends time and has so much to offer when you reflect on the attributes of leadership that we need in crisis. When we reflect on the Covid 19 pandemic, the loss of the traditional roles and rules and the ethics and morality of "doing what seems right in the circumstances" and how simply surviving is often the greatest miracle this book really comes into its own. It's an adventure story, there's an ending we perhaps all know already but undoubtedly there's a human miracle story in there for us all.
What a joy to be back talking to Ed Pooley again, this time about the wonderful Counselling for Toads. We talk about anthropomorphised animals as a safe way to explore feelings, transactional analysis, the role of therapy and so much more.
What a treat this week to welcome author and retired GP Malcolm Alexander to Beside Reading to talk about his wonderful book Close to where the heart gives out which is one of my top reads of 2022 so far.
We talk about his experiences as a remote and rural GP, the ultimate arch nemesis that was a pair of Wrigley's forceps, the process of writing, doctors as patient, confidentiality and so much more
TRIGGER WARNING: early in the episode we talk about a termination for medical reasons of a much wanted pregnancy and there is discussion of another bereavement.
Susan Mathew and I discuss Mo Gawdat's Solve for Happy and explore the happiness equation. Among other things we explore whether the right self help book at the wrong time can be a thing, lessons we have both learned from this book and whether recommending bibliotherapy books to patients is something we should be doing more often.
We talk about totems, happy lists, time out and little strategies we can implement in our day to day lives to boost happiness
John Boyne's novel The Heart's Invisible Furies has one of the most powerful opening chapters of anything I've ever read. It has stayed with me and is an extract I've used in teaching a variety of times always with excellent results. It was a joy to find someone else who'd loved the book too in the form of Bedside Reading's first pharmacist guest, Kerry Parry https://twitter.com/kerryparry8
We talk about snapshots into peoples lives, the changes of the 20th and 21st centuries, the AIDS crisis, shame, stigma and so much more.
Paediatrician Natalie Francis and I had a great time discussing Jo Browning-Wroe's wonderful novel A Terrible Kindness. We talk about stigma, PTSD, defence mechanisms, love, jealousy, homophobia and so much more. Find Natalie on twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/natalie_francis
This novel starts with the story of a young embalmer who travels to Aberfan, following the call to attend to assist with the rescue and preparation of the bodies of children after the disaster. Jo Browning-Wroe's article in the Nw Statesman here https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2016/10/unsung-heroes-aberfan is an introduction and background to the work they did and what William may have experienced.
This is a sensational debut novel but one which did have me weeping in places
Bolsover GP Dr Selina Flinders joins Tara this week to talk about Sir Michael Marmot's brilliant The Health Gap. We talk about health inequalities, the effect of the pandemic and how much more relevant this book sadly is in our post-Covid world. We go on to talk about poverty, intergenerational medicine, the role of the GP as a listener and how the Beveridge report remains just as relevant 80 years later.
This is such an important book, it's also readable, accessible and thought provoking without being hard work or boring. It's relevant to anyone working in healthcare and to be honest we think it's relevant to anyone who is interested in anything.
Selina also recommended Kristin Hannah's novel The Four Winds and how the themes in that fit with everything Marmot has to say. We also mentioned Cecil Helman's classic book The Suburban Shaman
Sheffield GP Jo Maher and I know so many people in common that it felt only right that we should finally meet in person in order to record today's episode where we explore Helen Macdonald's essay collection Vesper Flights as well as talking a bit about her earlier book H is for Hawk.
Jo and I explore the power of nature, why being outside is so good for the soul and think about the risks of the countryside and the natural world becoming the preserve of the wealthy rather than something for us all.
I am so thrilled to welcome Rema Jyothirmayi back to Bedside Reading to talk about Kathryn Mannix's wonderful second book Listen.
We loved exploring the etymology of the word "tender" and why Dr Mannix might have chosen this to describe tender conversations. Rema and I loved this book and it was wonderful to share a conversation about it in which we realised that some of the same stories had leaped out for both of us. We explore the power of stories to change our behaviour.
This is truly a book for everyone, regardless of whether they are a healthcare professional. If you listen better, especially if you can listen well you will never regret it in any scenario.
A very very special episode this week as Nicola Davis and I explore our best bits from the incredible dotMD festival in Galway which we attended this weekend. This episode was recorded live at dotMD after a phenomenal 2 days of listening, thinking, reflecting, dancing and eating.
We discussed many wonderful people and their talks and books, sorry to anyone we have missed mentioning by name here, we only had 33 minutes but we could have talked for hours!!!
Here's our combined post conference reading list (to be honest we had to hold back but this is the list we discuss in the episode):
Understanding the path to mastery by Roger Kneebone. He also has a wonderful related podcast called "Countercurrent" which can be found here https://rogerkneebone.libsyn.com/
Monica Lalanda was the incredible artist in residence her cartons can be seen on the dotMD social media pages, follow her here https://twitter.com/mlalanda
Benji Waterhouse's book will be out in 2023 and is very much on my list his website is here so you can keep a look out for it when it's released https://www.benjiwaterstones.com/about
What an absolute treat and privilege it was to speak to Dr Suzanne Koven http://suzannekoven.com/ about her incredible book Letter to a Young Female Physician.
I thought we would talk about imposter syndrome and women in medicine but actually we had a truly fantastic conversation about all sorts of other topics especially the power of stories to connect, the fact that doctors must be human first and then medical. We explore honesty, coming to writing later in life and the value of acknowledging our own doubts, foibles and vulnerabilities.
This book is an absolute gem. Undoubtedly one I shall recommend and pass on to multiple other (particularly but not exclusively female) doctors .
It was a huge pleasure to welcome Dave Hindmarsh to Bedside Reading to discuss The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle. Dave is the brains behind GP Templates: https://www.gptemplates.co.uk/
A warm welcome to Manchester based GP registrar Lava Yuki who grew up in Ireland and is an almost exact contemporary of the writer of this week's book. Evanna Lynch is best known for playing Luna Lovegood in the Harry Potter film series and her memoir The Opposite of Butterfly Hunting is a compelling story of what happens when you lose your creativity and how Anorexia Nervosa can erode someone's identity so profoundly that they lose sight of themselves. It is also moving, funny, engaging and full of life and hope.
Lava very generously shares some of her own lived experience of Anorexia as well as of being a Harry Potter mad teenager and growing up in Ireland in the early 2000s.
Locally to where I work we have the superb charity First Steps whose website is a mine of resources even if you aren't fortunate enough to be in Derbyshire https://firststepsed.co.uk/
An episode with a difference this week as we celebrate changeover week for doctors in training in the UK.
I've asked 12 GPs across the UK all with different backgrounds and interests each to recommend one book they think every GP should read. I'd argue they are all books any healthcare professional will benefit from reading. A huge thank you to each and every one of them for being a part of this episode. You may recognise some voices as previous guests, you may recognise some names as big faces from medtwitter or the wider world of GP
My guest today is MedTwitter royalty in the form of Bethan John. Follow her brilliant twitter self here: https://twitter.com/msbethanj
We talk about Kristen Neff's brilliant book Self Compassion and why doctors seem somehow so hardwired to be perfectionists who put themselves down at every opportunity.
Watching Brene Brown's "power of vulnerability" TED talk was a life changing moment for me as a clinician and when I started reading more of her work I was blown away. I didn't think there could be a book of hers as good as "Daring Greatly", I was wrong. Atlas of the Heart is such a beautiful book in the way it looks, it feels, the illustrations and oh my word the content within.
It was such a treat to discover that Anna Baverstock had loved it as much as I had. We talk about language, meaning, connection, empathy and so much more. Something to reflect on in terms of interactions with patients as well as colleagues.
Follow Anna on twitter here: https://twitter.com/anna_annabav especially her amazing doodles and pictoral representations of the books she's been reading
Sam Guglani's novella Histories captivated me from the moment I picked it up and having reread it more than once has compelled me and made me think so much. It was a huge treat to welcome him onto the podcast to talk about the book and especially how it came to be and to share some of our favourite moments.
Medicine Unboxed Sam's incredible festival is back in May 2023, have a look at the website for some brilliant audio and video recordings from previous events https://voices.medicineunboxed.org/
It was a huge honour to have this book and this guest to launch series 3. I was approached by Ru's publicist to ask if I might consider speaking to him and was sent my first ever pre-publication copy of a book. What an absolute treat the book was, I absolutely adored it and speaking to Ru himself was just a delight.
When he became an undertaker, Rupert Callender undertook to deal with the dead for the sake of the living. What Remains? is the brilliant, unforgettable story of the life and work of the world's first punk undertaker - but it is also a book about ordinary, everyday humanity and our capacity to face death with courage and compassion. To say goodbye to the people we love in our own way.
And in becoming the world's first 'punk undertaker' and establishing the Green Funeral Company in Devon, Ru Callender and his partner Claire challenged the stilted, traditional, structured world of the funeral industry: fusing what he had learned from his own deeply personal experiences with death, with the surprising and profound answers and raw emotion he discovered in rave culture and ritual magick.
I really loved my conversation with Associate Professor of mental health and self confessed "book pusher" Charley Baker about Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine Gail Honeyman's wonderful novel about loneliness, friendship, belonging and acceptance.
We explore Charley's opinion that novels are by far the best way for everyone to explore feelings and opinions and I left our conversation with lots of other books to add to me to-read list.
Absolutely brilliant to talk to Jay Baruch about his fabulous book Tornado of Life. We talk about making time for stories, narrative arcs and why uncertainty is the most fascinating part of everything we do. Exploring the concept of creativity as a clinical skill and discussing the anatomy of stories was all part of our fabulous conversation, I hope you'll enjoy it
Naveen Jayadev is a GP in North Derbyshire and a Training Programme Director for the Chesterfield and Derbyshire Dales GP Training Programme with a specialist interest in Differential Attainment. He was born and educated in India. We got together to talk about How India Works a book which might not initially seem relevant to medicine, written by a corporate trainer from an Indian financial services background.... Listen on, it's totally relevant.
This is a fascinating window into Indian Culture and has very much helped me to think more about Differential Attainment, cultural competence and why it's not good enough as a trainer/educator to assume we can help IMG doctors to understand British Culture and nuance without making an effort to understand where they are coming from.
Naveen also mentioned: Watching the English by Kate Fox which is often recommended by NHS England
Could this be one of the most devastatingly beautiful books I've ever read? A rollercoaster of emotions from hope to despair and back again. A love story about a woman who is fatally flawed, doing her best, loving and losing and a small boy whose world in 1980s Glasgow is bright vividly to life in Douglas Stuart's wonderful first novel.
Helen Blomfield was the perfect guest to explore this novel with. An Occupational Therapist ACP (my first OT guest) working in Primary Care with a deep interest in health inequalities Helen also has the family connection of being the daughter in law of photographer Robert Blomfield who captured many images reminiscent of the cover photo and scenes within this novel. We talked a little about the exhibition of his photos which you can see here: https://www.robertblomfield.co.uk/
If you are interested in health inequalities the charity Fairhealth have some superb resources and learning modules here https://www.fairhealth.org.uk/
It was an honour and a pleasure to record today's episode with one of the most engaging, gracious and thoughtful people I've met. Liz O'Riordan, writer, speaker, campaigner, breast cancer patient and breast surgeon. When I joined Twitter Liz O'Riordan quickly became someone I was aware of and fascinated to follow. She is a #medtwitter hero and an incredible role model.
We talk about her breast cancer, and its effect on her and on her career. How no matter how good a breast cancer doctor she was, she had little clue what it would actually be like to have breast cancer. We discuss the book she wrote with fellow doctor/breast cancer patient Prof Trish Greenhalgh, how academic writing bears little resemblance to the writing people/patients would actually want to read.
We also talk about her new book, mental health stigma in medicine and so much more.
She has incredibly generously offered podcast listeners a discount on her new book using the code BEDSIDE10 for 10% off until midnight 19 Dec 2022 https://unbound.com/books/under-the-knife
Rebecca Schiller's memoir Earthed was described by today's guest, Anna Young, as "like a car crash told in prose poetry". This is a beautiful book, in places not an easy read and one in which we both acknowledge that we "missed" the (in retrospect obvious) diagnosis in spite of thinking we were pretty good at our jobs in primary care.
We talk about the healing power of nature, the importance of support and networks, and neurodiversity in a neurotypical world.
October is ADHD awareness month https://www.adhdawarenessmonth.org/ so it was lovely to be able to mark that on the podcast with this episode
This novel by Elif Shafak is undoubtedly my top read of 2022 and so it was a delight to be approached by Sabina Dosani to discuss it. We talk about intergenerational trauma, adolescent norms, loss, escapism and much more.
There's a theme of roots, of secrets, things buried and things left unsaid. It's a sensational novel and one I am so glad to have read.
This week's book choice is the newest novel by prolific American writer Kristin Hannah. Set in the dust bowl of the USA in the 1930s it's historical fiction covering a time period my guest, Kathryn Oliver, and I knew little of before we picked it up. We'd initially read this novel as part of a HEE educator book club and I admit that having been blown away by earlier novels by Kristin Hannah (most particularly The Great Alone and The Nightingale this wasn't right up there as a favourite of her books for me.
Then we got chatting.... There is SO much in this story. Poverty, hope, aspiration, expectations, the role of women in the early 20th century, putting your children first, moving for a better life (refugees vs economic migrants anyone?)
**SPOILER ALERT** We tried hard to keep the twist a secret here but then Rahhiel got a bit carried away and mentioned a little part of it and then we kept talking and it was too hard to go back and decide to record this all over again. So if you've not read this incredible book and are adamant you'd want absolutely no spoilers at all, you might need to read it first. If you've read it already or if you hate surprises anyway keep listening.
Christy Lefteri's bestselling novel The Beekeeper of Aleppo captivated me from the moment i picked it up. I was transported to Syria, through Turkey, Greece to the south coast of England. It is a beautiful story told in the voice of Nuri the beekeeper and narrates the journey he takes with his wife Afra to leave their beloved home to find a safer life.
"It’s the summer of 1935, and young Briony sees her older sister Cecilia plunge nearly naked into the fountain of their country house, while Robbie Turner, the housekeeper’s son, is watching. From that moment, their lives will never be the same. Atonement is the tragically compelling story of two lovers fallen victims of a young girl’s scheming imagination, and a dreadful crime for which Briony will attempt to atone for the rest of her life."
I loved talking to Orthopaedic Surgeon Derek Ochiai about Ian McEwan's haunting novel Atonement.
We had a wonderful conversation around class, time, trusting narrators, the impossibility of truth, why we rather wish social media could be wiped clean on reaching the age of 18 and how in war the rules all disappear.
Ingrid Persaud's debut novel Love After Love blew me away the first time I read it in 2020 shortly after it was published. Re-reading it recently for this podcast has made me love it even more.
The title of this novel is from the Derek Walcott poem Love After Love - find it here https://allpoetry.com/love-after-love it is also so moving and thought provoking.
Anita and I talk about the importance of loving reading, of escaping via the pages of a novel. Love After Love, set in Trinidad and following a very unconventional family is a brilliant book in which to escape the winter blues and find yourself in the Caribbean.
Among other things there are themes of secrets, unconventional families, different types of love, migration, belonging, self harm, homophobia and expectations.
I'm delighted to welcome back an old friend of the podcast, Catriona Davis to talk about a real classic ghost story - Henry James' The Turn of the Screw which starts on Christmas Eve and is the ideal short novella if you want a creepy, dark, ghost story for a cold dark night.
We talk about unreliable narrators, "spider sense" and how we get into trouble because we don't listen to the little voice telling us it's all going to go horribly wrong. We also think about how to talk to children in an age appropriate way about sex and why learning correct anatomical terms is really important.
Maggie O'Farrell is one of my favourite writers and it was such a pleasure to reread her memoir I am I am I am for todays episode when I'm discussing it with Sally Davies.
We talk about where we read (in the lift at work anyone?!), what we read and why reading is so valuable to us both. We also explore the risk-taking decisions of young brains, how common near death experiences are, how experiences shape the person we are now and how defensive we are primed to be about the NHS when sometimes care is indefensible.
Set Boundaries, Find Peace had a title which both intrigued and slightly scared me. The author Nedra Glover Tawab is something of an instagram sensation, for very good reason. It was brilliant to connect with Aukland Nurse Educator, Erin Carn-Bennett to discuss boundaries and why health professionals are often so bad at them. If you are thinking about a New Year new you type of an approach this book might just be what you need.
It's a funny time of year, one of endings and beginnings and what better way to mark the end of 2022 than to have some friends of the podcast, old and new to review their favourite books of 2022 and think about some to-read ideas for 2023. Nine healthcare professional guests and I share some highlights and anticipated reads.
A huge thank you to
Pim Dhahan https://twitter.com/DrPimPim who recommended Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo and is looking forward to some new Stephen King
Becky Platt https://twitter.com/BeckyPlatt3 who recommended The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman and is looking forward to reading Tornado of Life by Jay Baruch
Austin O'Carroll https://twitter.com/austinoc_austin who recommended Tresspasses by Louise Kennedy and is looking forward to reading The Unfit Heiress by Audrey Farley
Anna Young https://twitter.com/annanursesheff who recommended Mayflies by Andrew O'Hagan and is looking forward to Raynor Wynn's third book Landlines
Sabina Dosani https://twitter.com/DrSabinaDosani who recommended a collection of poems called Ovarium by Joanna Ingham and is looking forward to Getting Better by Michael Rosen in 2023
Dave Hindmarsh https://twitter.com/gp_templates who recommended The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle and is anticipating The Second Mountain by David Brooks
Rema Jyothirmayi https://twitter.com/remajyothirmayi who recommended Cutting For Stone by Abraham Verghese and is looking forward to reading Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
Nicola Davis https://twitter.com/drnicoladavis who recommended Still Life by Sarah Winman her most anticipated read for 2023 is Getting Better by Michael Rosen
It was a really pleasure to talk to GP and writer Sophie Harrison about her book The Cure for Good Intentions which was a BBC Radio 4 book of the week back in May 2022 and which is a fabulous insight into the storytelling world of medicine. We talk about crossing over from arts to sciences and how the art of medicine and the storytelling is the most joyous part of what we do.
I'm so delighted that Kathleen Wenaden asked to come and talk about the beautiful, gentle evocative book with me because this has been one of my reading highlights in the past few weeks.
This is a wonderful gentle record of a small world, centred around a small terraced house in the West Midlands and the diary of a year in the life of an invisible illness.
A young man has stopped breathing in a supermarket toilet. A pedestrian with a nasty head injury won’t let the crew near him on a busy road. A newborn baby is worryingly silent. An addict urinates on the ambulance floor when denied a fix.This is the life of an NHS ambulance paramedic.
Jake Jones has worked in the UK ambulance service for ten years: every day, he sees a dozen of the scenes we hope to see only once in a lifetime. Can You Hear Me? – the first thing he says when he arrives on the scene – is a memoir of the chaos, intensity and occasional beauty of life on the front-lines of medicine in the UK.
As well as a look into dozens of extraordinary scenes – the hoarder who won’t move his collection to let his ailing father leave the house, the blood-soaked man who tries to escape from the ambulance, the life saved by a lucky crew who had been called to see someone else entirely – Can You Hear Me? is an honest examination of the strains and challenges of one of the most demanding and important jobs anyone can do.
It was such a pleasure and privilege to meet Jake and talk to him as a guest and writer on the podcast
Joanna Nadin's The Queen of Bloody Everything, is about mothers, daughters and how we can make many choices in life but can't choose where we come from.
As Edie Jones lies in a bed on the fourteenth floor of a Cambridge hospital, her adult daughter Dido tells their story, starting with the day that changed everything. That was the day Dido - aged exactly six years and twenty-seven days old - met the next door neighbours and fell in love. Because the Trevelyans were exactly the kind of family Dido dreamed of. Normal.
This book sucked me in from the start and it was so brilliant to talk to Lizz Lidbury about it. There's so much in this book: young carers, alcoholism, coercive control, what is a family? and so so much more.
Today's episode, the final one of series 3, is all about a topic which doesn't get spoken about enough: coercive control. We've specifically chosen to release it today, Valentine's Day, because we know that underneath the public face of all too many "happy" relationships there's a darker story at play.
Victoria Cilliers' chilling memoir I survived is the story of what many of us will remember from the press as "the parachute jump attempted murder". It is the story of a physio, a mum, a wife whose husband charmed everyone, tried to kill her and her children and did it in such a way that she, a professional, capable, intelligent woman, had no real awareness of what was happening to her.
SOME USEFUL RESOURCES IF SUPPORTING PATIENTS IN A SIMILAR CONTEXT
It is a pleasure and a privilege to welcome the one and only Dr Kathryn Mannix to talk about her phenomenal book With the End in Mind which may well be the book I've most ever recommended to registrars, colleagues and students.
I tried hard not to end up going all fan girl on her but it was hard work to hold it all in, she really is one of my professional idols and it was a joy to record with her and listen to her wisdom.
I admit that when neonatologist Helen Chitty https://twitter.com/helenchitty4 got in touch to recommend The Well Gardened Mind by Sue Stuart Smith and to ask if she could join me on Bedside Reading I approached the book with some initial scepticism. Isn't gardening just outdoor housework? It turns out my initial apathy was matched by the author's when she had begun her journey into gardens, plants, nature and the power of growing to heal.
This is a stunningly good book, made all the better for me by the fact that my expectations were surpassed a hundredfold. I imagine if listeners like plants to begin with, this book would immediately leap out as a must read.
Rebecca Wait's fourth novel I'm sorry you feel that way is out in paperback on March 2nd. Described by i-news as "one of the richest explorations of family dysfunction I’ve read", this is a fabulously funny and moving story of a family in all its shades of dysfunctionality. It made me laugh, it made me cry, it made me think.
It's a brilliant read and there's just so much in here to reflect on and discuss. I loved the characters and the non chronological timeline which reveals just a little bit more of the story as we go.
Rebecca and I talk about the idea that every sibling grows up in a different family and we consider intergenerational trauma and whether holding onto the phrase that "difficulty makes people difficult" enables us to feel empathy for characters we might consider repugnant. I was especially engaged by Rebecca's portrayals of mental illness vs wellness in several characters and the discussions around "labels" and whether they are helpful or at times horribly stigmatising and reductionist. Her scenes of the "unravelling of Hanna" and way she writes about the fine liminal space between sanity and madness is some of the most effective fictionalisation of psychosis I have ever read.
This week contains International Women's Day on March 8th and when I started talking to Benjamin Black about hsi stunning book about his time working for Medecins sans frontiers (MSF) in Sierra Leone it was clear this was going to be the right conversation to mark today.
I was blown away by Benjamin's writing, the insight into a medical world I'd never encountered and by his kindness, compassion and warmth which comes across just as much in his writing as it did when I spoke to him.
Tuesday 28th March 2023 marks the third anniversary of poet, writer, broadcaster and all round national treasure Michael Rosen's admission to hospital with Covid-19. It felt only right therefore to release this episode today.
I'm talking to GP Kirsty Shires about Michael Rosen's wonderful Many Different Kinds of Love which documents his experiences of that time. It is such a moving and engaging book and one I'm sure I'll come back to repeatedly for teaching, for reflection and for enjoyment.
It's a celebration of love in some familiar different forms: Eros – Romantic love, Philia – Affectionate love. Storge – Familiar love, Pragma – Enduring love, Agape – Universal love. At the heart of the book is Michael Rosen's story told in his own voice and in the recollections of so many others from so many walks of healthcare who looked after him during that terrifying time.
Kirsty and I do talk about illness, about uncertainty and fear and of course Covid-19 itself, we hope we are celebrating the wonderful diversity of those NHS teams who worked together to care for (and love in the sense of agape and pragma) so many patients and we remember those who didn't make it too.
This episode is dedicated to the memory of those healthcare professionals who didn't make it through the pandemic. The WHO estimate there are 180 000 of you, we want to say thank you, and we remember you.
Imagine being a household name, a sporting hero and a member of England's world cup winning rugby team from 2003. Imagine having no recollection at all of the tournament of all tournaments in your sparkling career. Imagine being unable to remember the names of your children or the name of your dog. Imagine realising this was preventable and that the game you loved, to which you gave your career has harmed you irreparably. Welcome to the world of Steve Thompson.
I'm joined today by Gary Turner to discuss Unforgettable Steve Thompson's powerful and heartbreaking memoir of rugby and dementia.
Barrington Jedidiah Walker is seventy-four and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's lived in Hackney since the sixties. A flamboyant, wise-cracking local character with a dapper taste in retro suits and a fondness for quoting Shakespeare, Barrington is a husband, father and grandfather - but he is also secretly homosexual, lovers with his great childhood friend, Morris.
His deeply religious and disappointed wife, Carmel, thinks he sleeps with other women. When their marriage goes into meltdown, Barrington wants to divorce Carmel and live with Morris, but after a lifetime of fear and deception, will he manage to break away?
This is a book like no other, funny, moving, warm, fristrarting. The full spectrum of humanity. And a protagonist who is 74 and loving sex, lots of sex, just not with his wife.
I loved it. And thoroughtly enjoyed exploring themes in it with Pim Dhahan
Illiyin Morrison is a midwife by background and now well known on instagram as @mixing-up-motherhood and working as a birth debrief facilitator https://mixingupmotherhood.com/
We got together to discuss Bessel van der Kolk's book "The Body Keeps the Score" as well as Illy's fabulous new book The Birth Debrief.
We talk about the lack of teaching about trauma informed care in medical and midwifery training, about the subjective nature of what trauma might be, why The Body Keeps the Score is a book for everyone and much more
How many times have we consoled ourselves with the truism "this too shall pass"? In the world of change which we all currently inhabit there's so much uncertainty and I was hugely reassured to read Julia Samuel's gorgeous book and realise that the experiences of my patients, my friends and I are not actually all that weird after all.
I absolutely loved talking to Kate Wharton about her take on Julia's wisdom as well as discussing the similarities between our jobs (she's a vicar, I'm a GP) and the importance of community, congregation and connection.
We had a brilliant conversation about Half the Sky a book which is sadly just as relevant and current now as it was in 2009 when it was first published. A review in the New York Times explains that “Half the Sky” tackles atrocities and indignities from sex trafficking to maternal mortality, from obstetric fistulas to acid attacks, and absorbing the fusillade of horrors can feel like an assault of its own. But the poignant portraits of survivors humanize the issues, divulging facts that moral outrage might otherwise eclipse.
It does this and so much more, illustrating with individual human stories big issues across the world and twins them with solutions and calls to activism. It's an important book and a deep one but also a book full of hope and opportunity.
I'm joined this week by counsellor Bridget Hargreave https://www.cayatherapy.co.uk/bridget-hargreave to talk about Cariad Llloyd's https://twitter.com/ladycariad wonderful book You are not alone which builds on her superb podcast The Griefcast and is described by Phillipa Pearce on the cover as "the friend you need when you are grieving"
This book is moving, practical, funny. So many things and explores so many feelings and ideas in such a brilliant and accessible way.
This week I'm joined by Belfast GP Susan Buchanan to discuss Bruce Parry and Oprah Winfrey's bestselling book What Happened to You.
This is an accessible and engaging book written in the format of stories and conversations between Dr Parry and Oprah which means that a lot of complex and deep information is made really clear and easy to follow.
This is a book all about ACEs and why they matter but is also full of hope and kindness. It's one that has made me a better doctor and one I would absolutely recommend to some patients too
This week a massive thank you and well done to Lewi Gee my amazing sound editor who tackled a recording which had been horribly messed up by a combination of technology failure and terrible Islay weather and my guest using a not very good satellite link!
It's a huge pleasure to welcome back remote and rural GP Catriona Davis to talk about Barbara Kingsolver's newest novel, a retelling of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield set in Appalachia in the opiate epidemic of the early 21st Century.
It's a brilliant book with such a huge amount to discuss. It's dark, it's deep, it's thought provoking and also filled with light.
We tend to surround ourselves with people we identify with, in appearance, beliefs and perspective. This subconscious habit, known as homophily, occurs because it’s validating to have our own ideas reflected back to us by the people around us, whether it’s friends, family or colleagues. But the truth is that homophily significantly inhibits the success of a team.
It was a treat to get to discuss Matthew Syed's brilliant book with James Thambyrajah and to think about why it's so relevant to us in healthcare working in a VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) environment so much of the time
Nancy Kline's Time to Think is probably the non fiction book which has most changed my clinical and teaching/mentoring practice ever. It was a huge treat to discuss it with Martin Billington and to discover it had had a similar effect on him.
Focussing on the principles that "The quality of everything we do depends on the quality of the thinking we do first. The quality of our thinking depends on the way we treat each other while we are thinking" has change both of us for the better (though we did acknowledge that if we both listened intently and didn't say anything the podcast wouldn't be the most interesting thing to listen to!)
Described in a review as: 'An honest, brave and much needed account of what it feels like to live with severe social anxiety. Having a male writer dealing so openly with topics like social anxiety, shyness, introversion and sensitivity is sadly all too rare and makes this book all the more of a triumph.' by Tom Falkenstein, Cognitive Behavioural Psychotherapist & author of The Highly Sensitive Man, Redface is Russell Norris'account of how he learned to live with his social anxiety and extreme blushing. Shining a light into the deeper, darker corners of someone's brain as they reflect honestly on some very difficult times, maladaptive coping mechanisms and searches for cures Redface takes us along Russell's journey with him.
I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Russell and am sure his book will be a regular bibliotherapy title for me to share with others. Follow Russell on twitter: https://twitter.com/Ruzz_Norris
This episode was planned anyway but it feels only right to share during Pride Month as part of the importance of us all reflecting on LGBTQI+ themes and health
This Child of Ours by Sadie Pearce was suggested to us by the parent of a trans child who had found the novel really reflective of their own experiences. Sadly this medical parent felt unable to breach their child's confidentiality by discussing it themselves. Ana and I were really honoured to have the recommender's thoughts and reflections based on their lived experiences to consider as we read the novel.
The Netflix adaptation of Alice Oseman's Heartstopper graphic novels was the highlight of my TV watching year last year and I was so delighted to realise they were based on a wonderful series of graphic novels.
This winter is a tiny novella which packs a punch and has some of the most powerful "voice of the young person" writing I've encountered in a long while. In a special episode for Pride month I'm delighted to welcome GP ST3 Ellie Corso to talk about adolescents, eating disorders, scaffolding and so much more.
I hope you'll enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it.
Locally to where I work we have the superb charity First Steps whose website is a mine of resources even if you aren't fortunate enough to be in Derbyshire https://firststepsed.co.uk/
It's a big "welcome back!!" this week to Charley Baker, Associate Professor of Mental Health at The University of Nottingham and self confessed "book pusher".
We're talking about a fabulous collection of short stories titled Cat Brushing written by retired Psychotherapist Jane Campbell.
We talk about the invisibility of older women, taboo subjects, the darkness of imagination and why short stories are the perfect way to get back into reading if for some reason your concentration isn't what it might be
A cracking novel to finish season 4. This is a book about community, about values, ambition, and also about hockey (but do not let that put you off if you aren't into sport). It's the first in a trilogy by the brilliant Fredrik Backman and is pretty much unputdownable.
Francesca Boffey and I have incredibly overlapping taste in books and it's taken us such a long time to pick which book would be "the one" to discuss on Bedside Reading. I'm hoping she might come back again to discuss another one in future.
We talk about community, small town mentality, toxic masculinity, what defines success, who we believe, control, friendship, what people give up for others, retirement, identity, doing the right thing... There's an almost endless source of CPD discussion here and we struggled not to talk for hours.
A lone astronaut. An impossible mission. An ally he never imagined.
Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it's up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery-and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he's got to do it all alone.
Or does he?
It was great fun this week to record with Mark Shapiro, host of the pheomenonally successful podcast Explore the Space https://www.explorethespaceshow.com/ which has a mission of "Examining the interface between healthcare & society, with thought leaders from across the spectrum."
This was one of the first Sci-Fi genre novels I've ever picked up and I admit I was well out of my comfort zone with a lot of the theoretical physics (which Mark tells me I don't need to understand, just believe). Project Hail Mary is at its heart a book about connection and about the value of saving our planet, and humanity. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation about the amazing community of practice that is #MedTwitter, the joy of reading, accidental CPD, equity, climate change and so much more.
Welcome to Season 5 - I'm so excited!! 85 episodes, 4 seasons complete and now it's time for season 5.
I'm joined today by `Nuthana Bhayankaram, Vice President of the Medical Women's Federation and host of their podcast. We are talking about Nuthana's favourite novel: Pride and Prejudice and I have to confess it's the very first time on this podcast that I've not managed to finish the book before the interview (I did finish it the next week actually!)
We talk about "failure" to finish a novel, whether Pride and Prejudice is like Marmite (or Center Parcs) sexism, aspiration, ambition and why Elizabeth Bennett is a trail blazing hero...
I loved talking to London GP Eugenia Lee about Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon,
In this fabulous YA novel we meet Madeline Whitter who spends her whole life inside a bubble, with her mother. Madeline has a rare immune deficiency and cannot remember ever leaving her home. Shortly after Madeleine’s 18th birthday, a new family moves in next door. A young and seemingly depressed teenage girl, a violent and alcoholic father, a weak and incapable mother but most importantly a boy who is wild, clever and very good looking. A few weeks pass and Madeline starts to learn more and more about the family as she watches them from her bedroom window. Ollie, the boy next door, starts to talk too Madeline over IM. They grow closer and closer but the fact that Madeline is severely ill prevents them from being together.
We talk about adolescent health, fabricated and induced illness, communicating with teenagers.
This is a wonderful short novel, easy to read, immediately engaging which really packs a punch.
The RCPCH guidelines on perplexing presentations and FII can be found here:
Bonnie Garmus' debut novel about chemist Elizabeth Zott, co-narrated by Six-Thirty the dog who must be one of the most fabulous anthrpomomorphised animals in a novel continues to be THE book club book of the moment. Found on every bookshops bestseller shelf, impossible to miss in the supermarket or in airport bookshops it sold 220, 000 copies in hardback in the UK and appears beside sunloungers the world over as the perfect holiday read. What better book to discuss in the first week of August therefore as we all plan our summer reading?
I'm delighted to welcome back Kathleen Wenaden, GP and poet from London to discuss this book which I will admit, I raced through, enjoyed but do not love.....
We mentioned the brilliant Oncology Book Club on Twitter, find them here https://twitter.com/BookOncology (you don't need to be an oncologist to join in)
Delia Owens' 2018 coming of age novel Where the Crawdads Sing has sold an incredible 18 million copies and was released as a film in 2022. I'm joined this week by GP Rosemary Hickman to discuss ACEs, being transported to another world, illiteracy, secrets and so much more.
If you've not already read the novel it would be a great pick for a summer holiday read. The film adaptation is utterly beautiful too.
The Lost Properties of Love by Sophie Ratcliffe defies classification. This is a gorgeous book, part memoir, part journey with links and musings on many other books, themes and ideas. GP Sue Potter joined me to talk about it.
We talk about heroes, being a fangirl, journeys, reflections on life, motherhood, success and so much more.
‘Ultimately, my experiences as a mental health nurse have taught me that we should judge less and open our hearts more.’ Belinda Black was just seventeen years old when she began working as a nursing assistant at the large and foreboding ‘madhouse’, as it was then known to the villagers of her hometown in the north of England. Following in the footsteps of her mother, she went on to spend a decade caring for patients with widely varying mental health problems, all locked up together and out of view of society. Some had suffered unimaginable trauma, several had violent and volatile tendencies, but amongst this Belinda found moments of joy and even friendship with her patients.
Together, against a backdrop of rattling keys, clanging iron doors, and wards that smelled of disinfectant and stale smoke, these people came together to get through another day. Until the hospital, along with many others, had its doors closed in 1991 – the biggest change to mental healthcare in NHS history.
The result is a moving, shocking but ultimately life-affirming account of a unique and noble profession, told from the frontlines.
I really enjoyed my conversation with Belinda about her accidental career, the stories she has collected, the relationships and camaraderie of her career and the value if keeping compassion at the heart of everything we do.
There are few people on #MedTwitter as passionate about children's books as I am but today I have completely met my match in the utterly fabulous Bipolar Doc. If you follow her already she will need no introduction as one of the most thoughtful, thought provoking, kind and reflective accounts to follow. If not, find her here:
We are talking about Onjali K Rauf's masterful children's novel The Star Outside my Window which follows the adventures of 10 year old Aniyah and her little brother Noah as they navigate the foster care system after the death of their mum, and go on a big old adventure to try and name a new star in her memory.
It's a wonderful novel and Onjali Rauf is not just a great writer but an wonderful human who runs the charity https://makingherstory.org.uk/
Queenie Jenkins is a twenty-five-year-old Jamaican British woman living in London, straddling two cultures and slotting neatly into neither. She works at a national newspaper, where she’s constantly forced to compare herself to her white middle class peers. After a messy break up from her long-term white boyfriend, Queenie seeks comfort in all the wrong places…including several hazardous men who do a good job of occupying brain space and a bad job of affirming self-worth.
As Queenie careens from one questionable decision to another, she finds herself wondering, “What are you doing? Why are you doing it? Who do you want to be?”—all of the questions today’s woman must face in a world trying to answer them for her.
It was a great pleasure to welcome Sabina Dosani back to Bedside reading this week to talk about Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams.
We discuss sex, bodies, intersectionality, expectations and how we make sense of narratives when we dislike the protagonists (much like how we connect with patients we don't like)
Today's episode was made possible by the power of the platform formerly known as Twitter (which I can't bear to refer to by its new name and logo but that's a whole other story)
I was blown away by Tim Ewins' novel Tiny Pieces of Enid which I was given by a friend a few weeks ago. As the excessive extrovert that I am, I NEEEDED to talk about it and turned to twitter and a "has anyone read this? Who can I talk about it with?" post was responded to in moments by none other than Tim himself!!!
Tiny Pieces of Enid is primarily a love story with at it's heart Enid and Roy, an elderly couple whose world is about to be torn in two by the realisation that they cannot stay living in their home together. Theirs is a story familiar to many of us who work in the community, but hearing their voices and seeing their responses through their eyes is so important.
Among other things we mention how well this book would fit in a trio with Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey and Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon, the ideas of allowing acceptable risks to be taken by older adults as explored in Being Mortal by Atul Gawande.
You can buy Tiny Pieces of Enid (and the other three slightly related books!) here from my favourite bookshop or from any other bookshop you choose: https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/scarthinbooks
Hollie McNish https://holliepoetry.com/ is a poet, performer and writer. Her collection Slug (and other things I've been told to hate) made me laugh, cry, rage and so much more.
I loved talking to Sarah Goulding about it and talking about life, relationships, parenting, growing up, swearing, being female, death, puberty, masturbation, owning words and so much more.
What a book! Anna Kent's Frontline Midwife blew me away. Getting to meet her to record this conversation was just phenomenal.
Her publishers blurb reads: "At twenty-six years old, Anna Kent helped a woman deliver her baby in a tropical storm by the light of a headtorch. At age thirty she would be responsible for the female health of 30,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. But returning to work for the NHS in the UK, she soon learned that even at home the right to a safe birth was impossible to take for granted. Frontline Midwife is Kent's compassionate testament to the critical work of healthcare professionals around the world." and if that wasn't enough to suck you in.
This conversation does cover some triggering themes - we talk about maternal and child mortality, about healthcare worker trauma, burnout, moral injury and PTSD.
Ash Bainbridge is an agender parent, student midwife, and advocate for language as safety, progress, and glue. They join me today to discuss Dr Meera Shah's phenomenal book "you're the only one I've told - stories of abortion".
We talk about the potential taboos that still abound in maternity care, the importance of hearing intersectional stories from a range of people, the way we both believe passionately that you cannot dissociate termination of pregnancy from maternity and so much more.
When Claire McKie recommended Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Remen to me I realised she wasn't the first person who'd suggested it and somehow it had drifted down my to-read pile. I'm actually embarrassed it took me so long to realise it was almost everything I'd been looking at in a book to dip in and out of and to recommend endlessly to others.
There's a global flavour to today - me in the UK, Claire in Australia discussing a book written by a physician from the USA.
Claire and I had a fabulous conversation about conversations and stories. We explore the power of listening and of stories to help us make sense of the world as well as talking about the way that revisiting old favourites often shows us different perspectives on something that seems familiar.
we also thought about the other books with which we'd file this on a helf: Listen by Kathryn Mannix, Self Compassion by Kristen Neff, Time to Think by Nancy Kline and Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown - all of which have been covered as previous episodes of this podcast and might eb worth going back to.
It was an honour when paeditrician Cristina approached me on Instagram to tell me how much Loveless had meant to her when she listened to it by accident on a long commute and suddenly jigsaw pieces of her own life fell into place.
We talk about the importance of representation in fiction, the spectrum of sexuality and gender identity and what it means to be asexual (which includes busting myths around asexuality and celibacy)
It's Ace week from 22-28th October 2023 have a look here for more info https://aceweek.org/
A confession, I don't like Greek mythology. AT ALL. I did however love this book both when I first read it 10 years ago and on re-reading for this podcast.
Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath. They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.
Ellie Hothersall and I had such a brilliant conversation about expectations, life scripts, stubbornness, the need to say sorry (and mean it!) and why some stories never ever grow old.
It was a huge privilige to meet Rowena Christmas aka "the doctor" from Polly Moreland's wonderful book A Fortunate Woman.
Among other things we talk about John Berger's original book A Fortunate Man, living and working locally to your practice, the joys of continuity, community and the wonderful weird world of being a GP.
Oliver Sacks classic book The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat is one of the absolute classic texts in the genre of stories from the humanity of medicine. It's fascinating to go back to it with the mind of someone working in 2023.
It was lovely to connect with Neurologist Louisa Kent to think about our responses to it and our perceptions of the way the book is written and the huge changes that have occurred in the last 20 years.
Andy is a gamer, I am not. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was a bit of a hit on instagram early in 2023 with the main critics complaining it's all about gaming. I loved it! It was fascinating to discuss with Andy from his perspective of having truly connected with some of the characters' own experiences.
It's such a treat to welcome back Ana Sampson for a dive into ideas for your Jolabokaflod. As happens every time I speak to Ana we set out to think about a few books - the brief today was 5 - and end up side tracked and delighted to talk about more.
Ana's own poetry collection Gods and Monsters is definitely up there for me as a book to buy (or request...)
You can buy your Christmas Books wherever you most enjoy shopping but here's a link to my favourite independent bookshop's storefront on the fabulous bookshop.org platform https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/scarthinbooks
We talked about:
Gods and Monsters curated by Ana Sampson
The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
The Beasts of Paris by Stef Penny Skip to the End by Molly James
What a treat to welcome Maddy Hover (aka the best read zombie fiction fan known to facebook) to Bedside Reading at long last.
We are talking about The Good People by Hannah Kent and the challenges of raising children with a difference, the effects of poverty and judgement and why we want society to be so much better, kinder, less harsh than 1830s Ireland and how we fear this is not always the case.
Happy New Year and welcome to season 6 of Bedside Reading!!
I so enjoyed meeting John Quin in 2022 at the DotMD festival. Our paths have crossed repeatedly on Twitter and then in person at Medicine Unboxed so it was a real treat to sit down together to record this episode about his memoir Medicine Man. John is a retired endocrinologist with a second career as an arts writer. Find him on Twitter https://twitter.com/JDMQuin
I loved talking about careers, changes, storytelling, opportunities and so much more.
John also has a new book out in the Arts for Health Series which is called Video
My Grandmother Sends Her Regards and Apologises by Fredrick Backman was, on first reading, my least favourite Backman novel. Is that because the others I've read are so very brilliant indeed? Or because I was missing something?
I'm delighted to welcome Sara from https://intensivegassingaboutbooksblog.wordpress.com/ to bedside reading to the podcast this week. Sara is possibly the definition of a bookworm, reading 4-5 novels a week and blogging about the majority of them. She's also a intensivist and a parent - the bibliophile superwoman maybe......
Dr Jen Gunter OBGYN has got to be one of my favourite social media doctors. Straight talking, easy to understand and full of wisdom and evidence based advice. Her book The Vagina Bible had been recommended repeatedly and it was great to have the push to read it when Catie Nagel contacted me to suggest we discussed it today.
Catie is a GP with a medical education research interest in Persistent Physical Symptoms. We had a great conversation about why we should not be using the phrase Medically Unexplained Symptoms, about anatomy, having good conversations, shame, explanations for patients and much more. The whole book is brilliant though Catie and I particularly enjoyed the sections on vulvodynia and vaginismus.
What a treat to welcome Catherine Bell and Stephanie Farrell Moore to Bedside Reading to talk about their wonderful small anthology of poetry by neurodivergent women Kaleidoscopic Minds. Follow them on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/kaleidoscopic_minds_poetry/
A reflective look back over 2023 and some thoughts for 2024 as I'm joined by friends of the podcast to think about their tops reads of the year and their most anticipated reads for 2023.
Huge thank you to Claire McKie, Dani Hall, Anna Baverstock, Nik Kendrew, Nicola Davis, Selina Flinders, Alan Coss, Fran Boffey, Charley Baker and Derek Ochiai and Ellie Hothersall
A warm welcome this week to plastic surgeon Sindhoo Rangarajan who suggested to me a fascinating book which I would absolutely not have ever come across without her recommendation.
It's Valentine's Day this week and so what better way to celebrate than with a podcast that's all about sex! I'm delighted to be joined by Dr Naomi Sutton Consultant in Sexual Health and HIV at Rotherham, star of series 1 and 2 of the E4’s ‘The Sex Clinic’ which “helps young people get their sex lives back on track” and ambassador for The Eve Appeal, a charity that raises awareness of the five gynaecological cancers, and for the FPA. In her other other media roles, she has talked frankly about vulvas, sex in old age, HIV and other sexual health subjects, on C4’s ‘Steph’s Packed Lunch’.
We are talking about Kate Lister's brilliant book A Curious History of Sex.
Today's book is a slightly different type of book to actually almost anything that I've ever read before Kinder scout the people's mountain by Ed Douglas and John Beattie looks like a coffee table book. It is big. It is full of absolutely beautiful photography but also some incredibly accessible and interesting prose about the social history and the environmental history of the area around kinder scout in the Peak District. It was a real joy today to talk to Nicola Fisher about this book, what the book has meant to her, what Kinder Scout and the outdoors mean to her and how we could all do with considering these areas a lot more in our own lives.
Ian Walsh is a Surgeon, psychosexual therapist, academic, musician and an alcoholic. We are talking about Ian's phenomenal book. The Belly of the Whale. It's quite hard to describe this book other than as the rawest most honest warts and all account of his recovery from addiction. There is so much to think about and I'm almost embarrassed to say how much I enjoyed reading it because it takes you to some very very dark places but it's a book I think I will come back to again and again. It is a book I have recommended endlessly to people I really hope that it ends up on reading lists for medical students, for nursing students, for doctors, for nurses, for anybody who is working with anyone who is an addict and recognising how common addiction is that's probably all of us.
Ian and I talked about the work of the Institute of Psychosexual Medicine https://www.ipm.org.uk/
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