Bedside Reading

It's a real honour today to welcome Professor Chloe Orkin to Bedside Reading . Chloe  is a researcher, an HIV specialist, a doctor, and an unwell woman and we talk about what that means in the context of Eleanor Cleghorn's brilliant book Unwell Women: a journey through medicine and myth in a man-made world. We talk about feminism, we talk about medical heroes,  we talk about epistemic, testimonial and hermaneutic injustice . I've had a brilliant time talking to Chloe and she has really really made me think even more than I have done after reading Unwell Women. I really hope you'll enjoy our conversation today.Follow Chloe on Twitter: https://twitter.com/profchloeorkinChloe is the immediate past president of https://www.medicalwomensfederation.org.uk/We mention an article Chloe wrote which had a big impact on my thinking, read it here: https://bmjleader.bmj.com/content/7/2/88

A warm welcome today to Ben Allen, a GP from Sheffield who is here to talk to me about Amy Edmondson's second book The Right Kind of Wrong which is all about celebrating and learning from failure. Failure is something that health care professionals are not particularly good at.  It's something that we are so often afraid of. So frequently people talk about airline safety and the lessons that can be learned from aviation and those that can be translated into health care and then we wonder why aren't we doing this? What's holding us back? What do we need to know to do this better? It's such an accessible and really good book and I love Amy Edmondson anyway so it was really interesting talking to Ben who has really embraced the idea of "Intelligent failure" in trying new new things,  not being afraid to try and to fail and always to see life as a learning experience. It was a delight to talk to him. It's a great book and I really hope you're going to enjoy listening.Follow Ben on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/BenAllenGP

As many regular listeners may know I absolutely love talking to authors about their books, especially healthcare professional authors and today is one of those episodes.I am so delighted to welcome Leah Hazard to the podcast to talk about her book Womb: the inside story of where we all began which is a phenomenal book literally for anybody. If only we could get this book into the PHSE curriculum for all young people,  if only we could get all adults to read it. It is phenomenally accessible. It is scientifically so accurate and so brilliant.  Follow Leah on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/hazard_leah or on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/leahhazard

It's a joy today to welcome back Kirsty Shires to Bedside Reading. Kirsty and I first connected last year over Michael Rosen's Many Different Kinds of Love and she emailed me a few weeks ago to tell me about a book that she thought I ought to read which actually I had read before many years ago!  I've absolutely loved coming back to it.  Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down  is the story of a Hmong refugee family and their daughter Lia set in California in the early nineties and some of the culture clash and culture shock that exists between their understanding of their daughter's condition, epilepsy, which in their language means "the spirit catches you and you fall down" and her American doctors. It is a phenomenal read. It was wonderful to talk to Kirsty today about some of the themes from it and what we've both learned and what we've changed in our practice as a result of having read it.One of the really big practice changing aspects for us both was discovering Arthur Klienman's eight questions which Kirsty decribes as "like ICE on steroids" and which make a HUGE difference in practice when used appropriately: https://thinkculturalhealth.hhs.gov/assets/pdfs/resource-library/arthur-kleinmans-eight-questions.pdfKirsty also recommended A Smell of Burning  by Colin Granthttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/19/a-smell-of-burning-the-story-of-epilepsy-colin-grant-review

 I'm delighted to welcome Ellen Welch, GP and writer to today's epsiode of Bedside Reading. Ellen's book Why Can't I see my GP: the past present and future of General Practice came out in February this year and feels such a topical read with everything that's been going on at the moment with the GP contract referendum.  If you are a GP you might well enjoy it, recognise a lot of it and then hand it on to family and friends. But if you don't really understand how primary care works if you don't know why GPs always seem to be moaning about something as we are so frequently accused if you want to understand the health service better I would absolutely recommend it. It's quite a small book. It's very very accessible. And it's certainly one that I'm going to be recommending to medical students and to new GP registrars to give them a bit more context about the system in which they're training and working.

A warm welcome today to Alan Shirley GP and Medical Educator to talk about A Fortunate Man: The story of a country doctor. The seminal John Berger and Jean Mohr book which has to a certain extent stood the test of time and has very much been the classic book mentioned when people talk about medical humanities or about books that relate to GP training. It's not a book just for GPs though and and I really enjoyed my conversation with Alan about the elements of this book that are problematic as well as the elements which have stood the test of time and also how beautifully it sits with Polly Morland's more recent book A Fortunate Woman.Alan and I mention a number of models/theories of the consultation and if you want to know more or have forgotten what you once knew this is a great overview https://www.essentialgptrainingbook.com/wp-content/online-resources/04%20consultation%20models.pdfWe mentioned Darren Garvey's superb book Poverty Safari  as well as Bridget Christie's comedy series "The Change" which is available on Channel 4.As ever if you want to buy books I'd always recommend an independent bookshop, my favourite is Scarthin in Cromford and they are amazing online/by phone too:  https://scarthinbooksonline.com/

Dr Lucy Pollock's The Book About Getting Older has got to be one of the most compassionate, wise and useful books I have read. It was a delight to be joined by Lauren Wallis, a GPST2 who has moved from being a gynaecologist with a single system focus to a most excellent generalist with a newfound enthusiasm for frailty.

Imagine you could be rid of your sadness, your anxiety, your heartache, your fear.Imagine you could take those feelings from others and turn them into something beautiful.Lynx is a Grief Nurse. Kept by the Asters, a wealthy, influential family, to ensure they’re never troubled by negative emotions, she knows no other life.When news arrives that the Asters’ eldest son is dead, Lynx does what she can to alleviate their Sorrow. As guests flock to the Asters’ private island for the wake, bringing their own secrets, lies and grief, tensions rise.Then the bodies start to pile up.With romance, intrigue and spectacular gothic world-building, this spellbinding debut novel is immersive and unforgettable.I'm joined by Anna Young to discuss Angie Spoto's debut novel

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/Buy your copy of Ian's book here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Belly-Whale-Mr-Ian-Walsh/dp/1722187344

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.Follow Nicola on Twitter here https://twitter.com/NicolaFisherRN

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.Follow Naomi on Twitter  https://twitter.com/DrNaomiSuttonFind Kate Lister's brilliant twitter account "The Whores of Yore" here: https://twitter.com/whoresofyorewe also mentioned the brilliant bbc series "Men Up" https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001twgs

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.https://www.elle.com/culture/books/a37976150/exclusive-excerpt-zara-stone-killer-looks/ Sindhoo's hero/role model was Dr Elsie Inglis who is someone I think we could all do with knowing more about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elsie_Inglisand we briefly mentioned the fabulous book Endell Street https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/apr/17/endell-street-by-wendy-moore-review-the-suffragette-surgeons and also mentioned Chris Atkins' second bookhttps://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/time-after-time-repeat-offenders-the-inside-stories-chris-atkins/7522206?ean=9781838954666We talk about lookism, vulnerable patients, judgement and the line between cosmetic and plastic surgery.

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.Kent took as inspiration for her novel the story of the death of Michael Leahy and the trial of Anne Roche who  advised for him to be bathed in the river Flesk every morning to drive out the fairies who had replaced him with a changling, sadly he died by drowning. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Michael_Leahy#:~:text=Ann%20Roche%20was%20indicted%20for,the%20river%20Flesk%20every%20morning.Follow Maddy on twitter here: https://twitter.com/I_am_spottacus

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.Follow Jen Gunter on instagram https://www.instagram.com/drjengunter/?hl=en and on Twitter https://twitter.com/DrJenGunterFind Catie on linked in https://uk.linkedin.com/in/catie-nagel-58b18452

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......

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/JDMQuinI 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

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

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/Buy your copy here https://kaleidoscopicmindsuk.etsy.com/listing/1606941954All proceeds go to Autistic Girls Network https://autisticgirlsnetwork.org/Huge thank you to https://twitter.com/Cathersbell for producing this resource listNeurodiversity resources for patients, parents and professionals:AutismSIGN patient information booklets - https://www.sign.ac.uk/patient-and-public-involvement/patient-publications/autism/ Neurotribes by Steve Silberman – Book/AudiobookWhat I want to talk about: How autistic special interests shape a life & Untypical by Pete Wharmby – Book/AudiobookChris Packham Inside our autistic minds - BBC documentary Autism in women and girls:https://autisticgirlsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Keeping-it-all-inside.pdfOdd Girl Out: An autistic woman in a neurotypical world by Laura James – Book/AudiobookStrong female character by Fern Brady – Book/AudiobookChristine McGuinness: Unmasking my autism – BBC documentary ADHD:Driven to Distraction by Ed Hallowell MD and John Ratey MD – Book/AudiobookTaking charge of adult ADHD by Russell Barkley – Book/AudiobookADHD Aha! by Understood – Podcast The Disruptors – Documentary filmADDitude magazine - https://www.additudemag.com ADHD in women and girls:ADHD As Females – PodcastADHD for smart ass women by Tracy Otsuka – PodcastEarthed by Rebecca Schiller – Book/AudiobookMoodswings, Meds and Mared – Documentary (Welsh with subtitles) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4aDWG-AXCo Dyslexia/Dyspraxia/Specific learning differences:Everything is going to be K.O. by Kaiya Stone – Book/AudiobookBritish Dyslexia Association https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk Dyspraxia Foundation https://dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk Tourettes:https://www.tourettes-action.org.uk Lewis Capaldi: How I’m feeling now – Netflix documentaryParenting/School:Your child is not broken by Heidi Mavir – Book/AudiobookCan't Not Won't: A Story About A Child Who Couldn't Go To School by Eliza Fricker - BookIn It: Supporting kids who think and learn differently by Understood - Podcast

I'm delighted to welcome the wonderful Andy Tagg, ED consultant (and part of the DFTB team who ate lego heads and calculated their FART score as the sieved their poo to work out how long it takes to pass a swallowed plastic toy https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/nov/27/shit-a-brick-doctors-swallow-lego-to-allay-parents-fears) to Bedside Reading this week.Follow Andy on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/andrewjtaggAndy 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/scarthinbooksWe talked about:Gods and Monsters curated by Ana SampsonThe Whalebone Theatre  by Joanna QuinnThe Beasts of Paris by Stef PennySkip to the End by Molly JamesImpossible Creatures by Katherine RundellStoryland for Children by Amy JeffsFemina by Jamina RamirezDominion by Tom HollandEngland on Fire by Stephen Elcock and Matt OsmanThe Ghost Theatre by Matt OsmanLost and Never Found by Simon MasonDead Rich and The Conspirators by William Shaw