5 Podcasts You Should Listen To This Month

About a month after I handed my thesis in, I bought a new car. It was a very exciting day – it’s the same car that I had before, but with 100,000 miles less on the clock, and the addition of a USB port that means I can listen to stuff on my phone, through my car radio. I KNOW. It’s been a mind-blowing few weeks of discovery. I’ve listened to some absolutely brilliant podcasts, so I thought I’d start #Blogtober by sharing them; they’re all science/healthcare related, but with topics communicated in such personal and accessible ways that one of them genuinely made me cry.

Healthcare is HILARIOUS

What’s it about? Casey Quinlan describes her podcast as ‘Snark about Healthcare’ which covers things pretty well. She’s a ‘Comedy Health Analyst’ who advises people to stop screaming because laughing hurts less. A lot of her content focusses on the American healthcare system and the frankly laughable systems that it is made up of. It’s frustrating, upsetting, but with a brilliantly hopeful and rebellious streak.

Any standout episodes? The most recent one! #CochraneForAll – Bagpipes, science and crisis comms. My friend Lyuba Lytvyn is interviewed on this podcast, and she mentions me! Obviously, that’s not the only reason why this is a fantastic episode, but it helps. Aside from that though, the episode covers the need for healthcare consumers to be involved in research (#100in100), the importance of capacity building in patient and public involvement, and more from the Cochrane Colloquium that was held in Edinburgh in September. Also, the episode with Victor Montori as a guest is brilliant – listen to it, he’s calling for a revolution in healthcare, and he’s talking a lot of sense.

Links: Listen here | Support on Patreon here

Science Talk

What’s it about? This is a much more standard podcast than ‘Healthcare is HILARIOUS!’ – it’s an interview format that features various guests joining host Steve Mirsky each week to talk about the latest advances in science and technology. As well as podcasting, Steve is also an Editor and columnist at Scientific American.

Any standout episodes? The episode that first got me listening to this podcast was ‘Out with the Bad Science’, where Richard Harris (Science Correspondent for NPR) joined host Steve Mirsky to talk about the problem of poor quality science in the Biomedical Research community. He also discusses his book, ‘Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, and Wastes Billions‘ – I bought that book whilst I was still listening to this episode of the podcast, and I’ll be reading (and hopefully reviewing it on the blog) later this month. Going on what Richard Harris was saying during the podcast, I suspect it’s going to be brilliant.

Links: Listen here

The Story Collider

What’s it about? This podcast is probably my favourite of this entire list, because it’s so personal, so emotional and yet it’s still communicating science and stories from scientists. The show is presented by Erin Barker, a writer and storyteller, and Liz Neeley, a marine biologist and science communicator – the partnership between the two makes for an incredibly powerful podcast full of important stories that I’m very glad are being shared.

Any standout episodes? There are three episodes that have stood out to me whilst listening to the Story Collider back catalogue, one of which made me cry:

1. Science Saved My Life – Stories About Life-Saving Passion
2. Abortion – Stories From Doctors and Patients (Part 1)
3. Abortion – Stories From Doctors and Patients (Part 2)

‘Science Saved My Life’ is the episode that had me in tears – particularly Rose DF‘s story; listen to it, please.

Links: Listen here

The Recommended Dose

What’s it about? The Recommended Dose is a podcast produced by Cochrane Australia and presented by Ray Moynihan – a multi-award winning journalist and health researcher. ‘This new series tackles the big questions in health and offers new insights, evidence, and ideas from some of the world’s most fascinating and prolific researchers, writers and thinkers,’ says Ray. ‘Its aim is to promote a more questioning approach to health care.’

Any standout episodes? Again, the standout episode has been the episode that first drew me in and pushed me to start listening to the rest of the series; in this case, it was episode 14 that featured Gordon Guyatt as Ray’s guest. Professor Gordon Guyatt is known as the ‘Godfather of Evidence Based Medicine (EBM)’, and this podcast is a brilliant look at his career, his beliefs in terms of why he coined the phrase, what evidence-based medicine really means in the current healthcare climate, and what the future might hold for EBM. I’ll be doing an ‘Inspiring People’ blog post on Gordon Guyatt later on this month, so keep an eye out for that if you’d like to know more about him and how he’s impacted my views on medicine and healthcare too.

Links: Listen here

Strange Bird

What’s it about? Strange Bird is hosted by Mona Chalabi, the Data Editor of the Guardian US, and it focusses on the use of numbers to help answer questions on difficult topics. The aim of this is ultimately to make people feel less lonely – to show that the birds that seem like strange outliers often aren’t.

Any standout episodes? Strange Bird only has one episode at the moment, so clearly that’s what I’m basing my entire recommendation on. That episode, ‘Miscarriage’, sees Mona Chalabi (who I’ve fan-girled over in the past) talk about this sensitive subject using numbers to help her answer questions on the topic. The conversations and thoughts can be uncomfortable – in this episode Mona discovers that her Mum had a miscarriage – but it’s presented in a really gentle and caring way.

Links: Listen here

What podcasts have you been listening to recently? Leave a comment with your recommendations and I’ll be sure to check them out 🙂

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