The 1984 Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, India, is recognised as the world’s worst industrial disaster. 

The Wellcome-funded LivingBodiesObjects project has been working with the Bhopal Medical Appeal (referred to as BMA), a charity funding free healthcare for disaster survivors and water-affected communities. In this podcast episode, LivingBodiesObjects team members Clare Barker and Lynn Wray, and the Bhopal Medical Appeal’s Jared Stoughton introduce their collaborative work to produce new digital resources emerging from the stories of survivors and activists in water-affected areas of Bhopal. 

To learn more about the Union Carbide disasters and the work of the Bhopal Medical Appeal, please visit www.bhopal.org. You can also find them on Facebook and Instagram. 

Please read the related blog post and transcript: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2024/07/11/livingbodiesobjects-and-the-tragedy-at-bhopal

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities Podcast in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a 5-star rating on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204. Thank you for listening!

Teun Toebes, humanitarian activist, in conversation with Khalid Ali. In this podcast, Teun talks about his book 'The Housemates' (The Housemates by Teun Toebes, Laura Vroomen | Waterstones) and documentary film 'Human Forever' (Human Forever The Film (human-forever.com) describing his quest to understand better the experience of older people living with dementia in care in the Netherlands and globally. 

Read the related blog post, including a transcript of this podcast: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2024/05/30/humanising-care-for-older-people-living-with-dementia-teun-toebes-in-conversation-with-khalid-ali

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities Podcast in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a 5-star rating on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204). Thank you for listening!

Dr Khalid Ali, film and media correspondent, interviews British documentary filmmaker, Edward Lovelace. They discuss his film ‘’Name me Lawand’’, a rapturous portrait of a deaf Kurdish boy’s emotional journey towards discovering how to express himself. A love letter to the power of communication and community. Edward describes how he bonded with Lawand and how together they created a poignant film amplifying the voices of the Deaf community and their fight for passing the BSL act in 2022. Related blog with the transcript of this podcast: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2022/12/15/lawand-from-voiceless-to-a-voice-representing-the-deaf-community-and-british-sign-language-bsl Other related links: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/10/27/listen-without-prejudice/ https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2016/04/08/the-reading-room-deaf-gain/ https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2018/08/09/deafhearing-family-life-in-the-silent-child-an-unsympathetic-portrayal/ https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/01/05/hearing-happiness-jaipreet-virdi-on-deafness-accessibility-and-her-latest-book/ https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/01/21/book-review-hearing-happiness-deafness-cures-in-history/

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities Podcast in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a 5-star rating on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204). Thank you for listening!

The moving story of an English professor studying neurology in order to understand and come to terms with her father's death from Alzheimer's. Brandy Schillace (Medical Humanities' Editor-in-Chief) interviews Cindy Weinstein, Vice Provost and Professor of English at California Institute of Technology. Related blog including the transcription of the podcast: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2022/11/08/cindy-weinstein/

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities Podcast in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a 5-star rating on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204). Thank you for listening!

Join us for a fascinating discussion about the ethics of care, and most especially the way structural racism and impediments to access heightened existing inequalities during both outbreak and lockdown. Brandy Schillace speaks to epidemiologist Professor John Wright, Bradford Institute for Health Research and Wolfson Centre for Applied Health Research. A blog post containing the transcript of this podcast is available here: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2022/09/15/infectious-disease-epidemics-and-inequality

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities Podcast in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a 5-star rating on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204). Thank you for listening!

In this month's podcast, Brandy Schillace talks to Dr Sally Waite and Dr Olivia Turner, of Newcastle University. They discuss "corporeal pedagogy", a form of learning and teaching that suspends conventional modes of Western education, particularly within a university setting, to facilitate embodied and haptic learning and production of knowledge. A blog post containing the transcript of this podcast is available here: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2022/08/18/body-talk-corporeal-pedagogies-with-dr-sally-waite-and-dr-olivia-turner.

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities Podcast in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a 5-star rating on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204). Thank you for listening!

LivingBodiesObjects is a 3-year project funded by the Wellcome Trust designed to test and extend the boundaries of Medical Humanities research. Today we talk to Stuart Murray and Amelia DeFalco, University of Leeds, about the value of de-centering structures and opening diversity. Link to the blog post with more information about the project, and transcription of the podcast: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2022/07/21/posthumanism-and-the-livingbodiesobject-project

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities Podcast in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a 5-star rating on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204). Thank you for listening!

Editor-in-chief of Medical Humanities, Brandy Schillace, interviews Narin Hassan and Jessica Howell about their innovative and interdisciplinary approach to health humanities. Narin Hassan is Associate Professor and Director of Global Media and Cultures (MS-GMC) in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech. Jessica Howell is Professor of English and Associate Director of the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research at Texas A&M University. Read the blog with the transcription of this podcast: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2022/07/07/global-health-humanities-a-june-special-issue The special issue is available: https://mh.bmj.com/content/48/2

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities Podcast in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a 5-star rating on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204). Thank you for listening!

Clio Barnard is multi-award winning British Film writer, director and producer. In this conversation with Medical Humanities' film and media correspondent, Khalid Ali, she revisits her 'Bradford Film Trilogy'; 'The Arbor' (2010), 'The Selfish Giant' (2013), and 'Ali & Ava' (2021). The uniqueness and diversity of Bradford community portrayed as a love story between two unlikely characters made 'Ali and Ava' a film celebrating love, friendship, forgiveness, and hope. Read more about Clio Barnard's work - including a transcript of the podcast on our blog: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2022/06/23/bradford-tales-authentically-and-poetically-portrayed-in-film-by-clio-barnard.

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities Podcast in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a 5-star rating on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204). Thank you for listening!

LivingBodiesObjects is a 3-year project funded by the Wellcome Trust designed to test and extend the boundaries of Medical Humanities research. Editor-in-chief of Medical Humanities, Brandy Schillace, interviews Stuart Murray, Professor of Contemporary Literatures and Film and Director of the Centre of Medical Humanities at the University of Leeds, in the UK. Read the blog with the transcription of this podcast here: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2022/03/17/livingbodiesobjects-with-stuart-murray.

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities Podcast in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a 5-star rating on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204). Thank you for listening!

We are excited to present Riva Lehrer, artist and author, and her book GOLEM GIRL, about disability, embodiment, joy, and becoming herself. Read the blog with the transcription of this podcast here: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2023/03/04/podcast-with-riva-lehrer-author-of-golem-girl-a-memoir.

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities Podcast in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a 5-star rating on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204). Thank you for listening!

J. Rick Castañeda is a writer, director and producer (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1479268/?ref_=tt_ov_dr). His works have been around the world to festivals in London, Canada, Japan, and Romania, as well as festivals in the US such as SXSW. He made over 30 short films, earning recognition from YouTube, Crackle, and Funny or Die. Rick uses humour to explore stress, anxiety and disenfranchisement in the office space. In this podcast, Rick reflects on his childhood and time spent as an office worker, and how these experiences inspired his creative writing and film career. He stresses the importance of portraying human beings from different backgrounds in his films to encourage a dialogue between cultures. Related links: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2022/01/21/loneliness-friendship-and-love-in-the-office-space https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2019/07/30/christina-lee-mindlessness-book-review/ https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2016/12/14/film-review-dear-zindagi/

https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2016/07/13/film-review-notes-on-blindness/

Introducing their forthcoming special issue of Medical Humanities, Drs. Whitney Wood, Heather Love, Jerika Sanderson, and Karen Weingarten discuss the political significance of “making” our “modern maternity” with Editor-in-Chief Brandy Schillace.

Whitney Wood is Canada Research Chair in the Historical Dimensions of Women’s Health at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, British Columbia.

Heather A. Love is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada).

Jerika Sanderson is a PhD candidate in English at the University of Waterloo. Her research investigates 21 st-century biotechnologies across the media, literature, and popular culture.

Karen Weingarten is Professor of English at Queens College, City University of New York and the author of “Pregnancy Test” and “Abortion in the American Imagination: Before Life and Choice 1880-1940”.

The issue is due in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, please read the related blog post: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2024/05/08/making-modern-maternity/

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities Podcast in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a 5-star rating on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204). Thank you for listening!

 

Brandy interviews Donna McCormack about the December Special Issue, Transplant and its Imaginaries. Donna McCormack, Chancellor'S Fellow and Senior Lecturer (with co-editor Magrit Shildrick) proposes new understandings of the limits and possible extensions of organ and tissue transplantation. The Special Issue of Medical Humanities is available here: https://mh.bmj.com/content/47/4 Read the related blog post (with the transcription of this podcast) here: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/12/09/december-special-issue-podcast-transplantation-and-its-imaginaries

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities Podcast in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a 5-star rating on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204). Thank you for listening!

Join us on this episode of the Medical Humanities Podcast as Brandy Schillace speaks with Eric Garcia, author of WE’RE NOT BROKEN: Changing the Autism Conversation (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, August 3, 2021). Eric Garcia is a journalist based in Washington, D.C.

Read the related blog post (with the transcription of the whole podcast) here: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/11/05/eric-garcia/

In this podcast, Kristina Lindström and Kristian Petri (Swedish film makers) reflect on their documentary film 'The most beautiful boy in the world' (2021) and their professional relationship with the film's protagonist, Björn Andrésen. Björn came to international fame at the age of 15 when Italian director Luchino Visconti cast him as Tadzio, the young boy in his film 'Death in Venice' (1971). Kristina and Kristian comment on the long-term impact of childhood trauma on the mental well-being of Swedish artists such as Björn Andrésen and Astrid Lindgren. They comment on the need for clear rules of engagement and professional boundaries between artists and executive managers to avoid physical and psychological exploitation of those artists. Related blog post with transcript: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/10/14/reflections-on-childhood-trauma-creativity-and-mental-well-being/ Other related links: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2019/08/20/healing-by-art-almodovar-champions-arts-for-health-and-well-being/ https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2018/02/13/two-sides-coin/ https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2020/10/23/a-woman-on-the-verge-of-suicide/ https://mh.bmj.com/content/45/3/235 https://mh.bmj.com/content/43/1/30

https://mh.bmj.com/content/34/2/110 https://mh.bmj.com/content/43/2/86

This podcast features Clare Barker, Associate Professor in English Literature, University of Leeds, and guest editor of our Medical Humanities June Special Issue for 2021: Global Genetic Fictions. Read more on the Medical Humanities website: https://mh.bmj.com/content/47/2

Read the transcript of this podcast in the Medical Humanities blog (https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/09/02/clare-barker-global-genetic-fictions).

An outlook at how disabled lives have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and, in particular, by the current vaccine roll-out. Alice Wong, a disabled activist, and Alyssa Burgart, an anesthesiologist and ethicist at Stanford University, tell Medical Humanities' Editor-in-Chief, Brandy Schillace, how disabled lives have been overlooked in this crisis, as the very systems and designs of medicine cater to the able-bodied. Read the transcript on the Medical Humanities blog (https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/08/12/medicines-disability-blind-spot-privilege-access-and-the-continued-vaccine-roll-out).

You can subscribe to the Medical Humanities podcast on any of the main platforms to get the latest episodes. If you enjoy the show, please consider leaving us a review or a comment on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204). Thank you.

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 includes the transcript of this podcast:

https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/05/12/generation-covid-education-access-and-the-long-shadow-of-pandemic-trauma

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, our Editor-in-chief Brandy Schillace sits down with Matimba Swana and Kumeri Bandara of Black and Brown in Bioethics to discuss how they started, why it is important to build community when challenging disparities in academia, and how Medical Humanities and Black and Brown in Bioethics are joining forces to transform the academic publishing landscape to cater to more diverse voices, knowledge, and audiences.  

Read more: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2024/03/28/research-forum-black-and-brown-in-bioethics

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities Podcast in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a 5-star rating on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204). Thank you for listening!

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: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2021/03/08/the-fight-against-sexism-in-science-international-womens-day-featuring-scientist-rita-colwell

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify.

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 Humanities podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify to get episodes automatically downloaded to your mobile device and computer. Also, please consider leaving us a review or a comment on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204

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 Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify to get episodes automatically downloaded to your mobile device and computer. Also, please consider leaving us a review or a comment on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204

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/

In this podcast, Brandy Schillace (EIC) and Cristina Hanganu-Bresch (Blog and Associate Editor) talk to Matt Finch and Matthew Molineux about how scenario planning can help inform decisions about healthcare and the role of narrative in building scenarios that teach and humanize the health professions.

Read more: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2024/03/08/scenario-planning-healthcare-and-the-humanities

Subscribe to the Medical Humanities Podcast in all podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify. If you enjoy our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a 5-star rating on the Medical Humanities Podcast iTunes page (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/medical-humanities-podcast/id961667204). Thank you for listening!

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, working on modernist literature and dance.

Please visit the Medical Humanities blog to read the June 2020 issue: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2019/07/05/june-2019-special-issue-psychosomatics/

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: https://disabilityvisibilityproject.com/

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 audience in its attempt to raise awareness of women's rights and implement change. This interview was recorded in June 2019.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Conference_on_Population_and_Development

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 characters can absolve their guilt and achieve redemption particularly at end of life situations.

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 health. Damon uses his films as tools for education and raising awareness around universal health challenges.

2040 was released in the UK on 8 November.

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 theatre as tools for education, health campaigns and women empowerment.

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 email is amh2020Ireland@gmail.com

Making connections through poetry, disability, and medical humanities. Brandy Schillace, Medical Humanities' Editor-in-Chief, interviews Kimberly Campanello, Associate Professor of Creative Writing at Leeds University, UK.

Read the related blog including the transcription of this podcast: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2023/10/26/on-poetry-disability-and-the-power-of-medical-humanities

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In this podcast, Clinical Psychiatrist and poet Owen Lewis (Columbia) and Sue Spencer, Associate Editor at Medical Humanities, discuss both the power and “disruption” of poetry in and out of healthcare curriculum.

In this podcast, film maker Hana Makki revisits her memories of making the documentary film ‘As one: The Autism Project’ working with ten children with Autism and their families. The film project was supported by Sheikha Shamsa bint Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the daughter of the crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, in an effort to raise awareness about ‘Autism Spectrum Disorder’ in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Over the course of ten weeks, these children made a musical show working alongside a specialist team of musicians, and performance artists, with the guidance of an Applied Behaviour Analysis therapist. The children come from various nationalities including the United Arab Emirates, Philippines, U.S.A, Palestine, UK, Ghana, India, and Ethiopia. Hana captured the journey of these children while rehearsing, till the night of the musical show, and also shares with the audience what happened to them afterward.

Read the accompanying blog post: https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2016/09/13/film-review-x-y/

In this podcast, Tom and his son Frankie discuss how their experience of making short films together supported their relationship as a father and son. Tom talks about the films ‘Bokx’, ‘Beyond’, and ‘Aston Gorilla’, and reflects on how watching the films after many years can say a lot about his two boys, George and Frankie; how different they have become and yet how similar they have remained! ‘Aston Gorilla’ was a direct response to a phase in George’s life when he was suffering from nightmares and Tom’s insecurity about his role as a father. ‘Bokx’ and ‘Beyond’ were responses to Frankie’s world of imagination; at times he seemed to completely disappear into his fantasies, perhaps as a reaction to the fact that he was born blind with glaucoma. Whilst his sight was restored, he was not able to participate in the world as other children do. These films were a way of trying to feel what life was like within Frankie’s imagination, and the cruelty of having vivid fantasy replaced with mundane normality. Frankie participated in making the films when he was ‘seven’, and was oblivious to their sub-plot, darker themes. Tom talks about his fascination by the way in which films can create a community of collaboration and an intensity of endeavour. He wanted his sons to share his fascination, to witness the hard work undertaken by a film team and to gain different invigorating perspectives. Frankie now makes short films independently whilst George runs a film club at school. Tom believes that they both look back at the experience with pride and pleasure.

In this podcast, Dr El Beih, Egypt’s country director of Drosos Foundation talks about her journey from a hospital doctor to becoming a pioneer in the use of art and creativity in healing. She was behind the making of the Egyptian film ‘Asmaa’ which highlighted the stigma and discrimination faced by women living with HIV in Egypt (https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-humanities/2011/11/03/khalid-ali-film-review-asmaa-directed-by-amr-salama-star-rating/). The film was inspired by the real life story of a woman living with HIV that Dr El Beih met as a patient while working as the UNAIDS Country Director in Egypt. Dr El Beih continued to support the human rights of socially-disadvantaged children and people with physical disability in national raising-awareness campaigns using short films with eminent Egyptian film makers. She explains her vision in engaging with several charitable organisations such as ‘Banati (My daughters) Foundation’ to support homeless girls (https://en-gb.facebook.com/Banati.Foundation/) With an extensive experience of more than 25 years in managing development projects in Health, Gender and Education in the Middle East, in North and East Africa and the United States, Dr El Beih led several joint health and social projects supporting the sectors of entrepreneurship, economic empowerment and creativity for youth and women.