Bedside Reading – Détails, épisodes et analyse

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A warm welcome back today to James Thambirajah, who is here to talk to me about a book called Heart, a History by Sandip Jauhar. This is, I will confess, a book that I probably might not have picked up voluntarily but James is very persuasive, and I'm really glad I did pick it up, because once I had  I was absolutely compelled to keep reading.  Sandip Jawa is a wonderful writer. He's a cardiologist based in the USA. And this interweaves stories, stories of people, stories of Sandeep's own life, story of patients, stories of his family, with the history of cardiology. The history of cardiology. I didn't really know a huge amount about the history of cardiology it is just fascinating to realise how far we've come over the last 50 or 100 years. I'm really thinking about the bravery of the people who chose to give up everything to explore what they thought might be going on. We've got stories of young doctors passing wires into their own arms and legs in the earliest angiograms. We've got prototype bypass machines being built. We've got people making cardiac pacemakers in their kitchens. It's absolutely incredible, really, really exciting. And I would say I'm not even particularly interested in cardiology, but this is holistic cardiology. This is the history of medicine with some cardiology and some humanity and thinking about hearts in the sense of the heart and soul of a person. It's a cracking read and I've loved talking to James about it.

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It's a warm welcome back to a guest today. I'm delighted to be talking to Susan Matthew about Strange Sally Diamond by Liz Nugent. Susan came on the podcast a couple of years ago and I got an email from her out of the blue recently saying, "I've just read this book, it's absolutely brilliant, I think you'd really like it and I really need to talk about it on the podcast" and I was really quite intrigued. I picked it up and it said on the cover that it was a crime novel and my heart slightly sank because I'm not a huge crime fan. But actually, I'm not convinced that this book is a crime novel. It's just a brilliant, brilliant novel with some twists and turns along the way. Maybe that's how you define what crime is.... 

There are loads of themes in here. It's a great book. Lots and lots of things to think about: adverse childhood experiences, the power of community, the importance of transitional objects, how we learn, whether labels matter. There is so much to talk about and so much to think about, and I really enjoyed talking to Susan.

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It's a welcome back for my guest this week! I'm delighted to have Jo Maher  GP and active travel enthusiast from Sheffield one the podcast to talk about Selena Goddon's fabulous collection Pessimism is for Lightweights.  Jo and I had a great conversation about how much we love these poems. We talk about activism. We talk about the tension that there sometimes is as a healthcare professional around "are we allowed to be activists" (the answer to that question is very definitely Yes) we talk about whether it is better to seek forgiveness than permission. We talk about using humour. We talk about agency. Talk about the frustrations of the world that we both currently live and practice in and how quiet activism might be the way forwards for people as they are building up their courage muscles.

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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/


Follow Sam on Twitter https://twitter.com/samirguglani

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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.

Follow Lava on twitter: https://twitter.com/lava_yuki

If you are looking for some resources to support a patient, a friend, a relative or yourself with an eating disorder the RCPsych have a great section here https://www.rcpsych.ac.uk/members/your-faculties/eating-disorders-psychiatry

There's also NICE CKS https://cks.nice.org.uk/topics/eating-disorders/

The RCGP have an elearning module here: https://elearning.rcgp.org.uk/course/info.php?id=173

we also recommend the national eating disorders charity BEAT  https://www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/

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/

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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. 

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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/

Follow him on twitter here: https://twitter.com/gp_templates

We talked about healthy vs unhealthy cultures, why it's sometimes easier to recognise bad leadership than practise or teach good leadership.

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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.

Follow Jo on twitter http://www.twitter.com/jomaher8

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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

A huge thanks to:

Pim Dhahan GP, Trainer and TPD  from North Birmingham Follow Pim on twitter here: https://twitter.com/DrPimPim 

Margaret Ikpoh GP Trainer East Yorkshire and Vice Chair of the RCGP. Follow her on twitter: https://twitter.com/docmagsy 

Hussain Ghandi GP Partner, trainer and the brains behind https://egplearning.co.uk/ Follow him on twitter https://twitter.com/drgandalf

Francesca Boffey First 5 GP from North Derbyshire. Follow her on twitter https://twitter.com/fboff7

Dom Patterson GP, educator and founder of https://www.fairhealth.org.uk . Follow him on twitter https://twitter.com/DocDomP

Selina Flinders GP and safeguarding lead in Bolsover.

Catriona Davis a remote and rural GP who works on Islay. Follow her on twitter here https://twitter.com/catrionadavis 

Naveen Jayadev GP partner, trainer and TPD with a lead role for Differential Attainment in Derbyshire.

Emma Cunliffe a freelance GP from North Yorkshire.

Zuhriya Muazu salaried GP from Doncaster. 

James Thambyrajah GP, Vice-Chair RCGP South West Thames faculty.  Follow James on twitter https://twitter.com/JThambyrajah

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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.

Follow Rema on twitter: https://twitter.com/RemaJyothirmayi

We also talk briefly about the poem "Night Sister" by Elizabeth Jennings which can be found here  https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/night-sister/