The Poor Historians: Medical History Misadventures

Dr. Joseph Lister revolutionized the practice of medicine. He used the scientific method to make medicine and surgery safer. Set against a backdrop of Victorian-era surgical practice, as grim as tha...

2 Juni 202254min

Every so often we let Mike choose topics without supervision. This episode is an example of this. We started with an examination of a famous case of early colorectal surgery and found ourselves in t...

19 Maj 202245min

This episode reveals how long mental health care has come over the centuries. Part asylum, part zoo, Bedlam Hospitals history is a fascinating story about a famous institution carrying a name that c...

5 Maj 202241min

In this episode we'll discuss the various uses of mercury--yes, the liquidy metal that your parents told you not to touch--as a medicine. It was used for colic in babies as well as to treat syphilis ...

21 Apr 202240min

Her name is synonymous with excellence in nursing for good reason. Here we'll talk about one of the most famous nurses ever to take up the charge of giving good practical advice to doctors who did th...

7 Apr 202236min

The feature of this episode is a remarkable survival story, one which occured within the past 30 years. The other side of this coin is a discussion of the awful origins of much of the research on hyp...

24 Mars 202239min

Marie Curie and her husband discovered radium and radioactivity in 1898. Soon thereafter everything has radium in it, from beauty products to glow in the dark timepieces. Who would have thought the...

10 Mars 202232min

There have certainly been many things tried over the ages in the name of medicine. At some point, there was a person who thought, "Have we considered putting all these corpses to use?" Believe it or...

24 Feb 202255min