Healthy Discussions

Lord Nigel Crisp is the expert when it comes to our health service: because he was Chief Executive of NHS England and Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health simultaneously, during Tony Blair's government.

A graduate in philosophy from Cambridge, he released his book "Health Is Made At Home: Hospitals are for Repairs." This insightful book calls for a rethink of healthcare, and highlights the local organisations that mean people won't need expensive healthcare in future.

In this episode, Nigel brings warmth and positivity to the conversation. He and Zack discuss how health creation is promoted by community groups, the importance of a sense of control, how perverse incentives prevent health creation in our system, and how to realign government, politics and healthcare to build a truly health society.

Professor Andrew Elder is a doctor, first and foremost. He is a Consultant in Medicine of the Elderly at NHS Fife, and President of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. He was previously Medical Director of the world-standard membership exam, MRCP, and is a Visiting Professor at Stanford University.

In this episode, we discuss if Medical AI can live up to the hype, what humans still do better, the ideal division of labour between AI and humans, the problem of black boxes, how education of physicians may need to change. We also think about policy, about who is driving these changes, and who will be liable when, rather than if, mistakes happen.

Shaykh Sohaib Saeed is an Islamic scholar raised in Glasgow Scotland. He has studied at Edinburgh University, SOAS and Cairo's prestigious Al-Azhar University. He is a traditional Islamic scholar who founded the Ibn Ashur Centre, is Head of Research for the Bayyinah Institute, an organisation teaching Arabic and Qu'ranic studies with global reach.

We get into the complexities of being a Western Muslim, how Islam has adapted to different cultures, the difference between shaykhs and imams, diversity within British Islam, whether Muslims have to follow practices that aren't part of their culture like polygamy, if Muslims are experiencing an intellectual crisis, the birth of home-grown scholarly institutions, the impact of 9/11 and counter-extremism efforts, whether the government should support moderates, the impact of social media shaykhs, and at the end, a surprising method for countering extremism from a religious perspective.

The NHS is the biggest issue of the 2024 General Election. But is the campaign discussing the real issues? Britain can't fix the NHS without fixing the NHS workforce, and Dr Billy Palmer is the expert.

Can healthcare workers make more of an impact away from the front-line? How can they get involved? And what's the story of one GP trying to make a difference?

Dr Devina Maru is a GP Registrar and a previous National Medical Directors' Clinical Fellow. She is working on several national projects involving the Department of Health and social care and NHS England, including the Big GP Consultation which aims to discuss the future direction of general practice. She is also an NHS Clinical Entrepreneur, founder of Health Pioneers Charity and a previous Scholar at the Healthcare Leadership Academy.

How often do Doctors make mistakes? What's the proper way to respond to them? How can we reduce error in the busy, chaotic environment of healthcare? And how do we tell whether our systems are improving or not?

Dr Sarah Keir is a Consultant Stroke Physician at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, Scotland. She is also the Quality Improvement Lead of the Department of Medicine of the Elderly. Over her career, her publications have been cited over 1000 times, on topics related to stroke. In this episode, Dr Keir argues that consistent measuring of data needs to take priority over doctors' own beliefs about their performance.

Guen Bradbury an Innovation Consultant for Inovia, using science to answer the questions businesses have about environment and biology. She teaches veterinary medicine at Jesus College Cambridge. She also runs a vet tele-consultancy and is the author of the textbook "Behavioural Problems in Rabbits"

We talked about her overarching interest is in how modern, articificial environments shape our development and Physiology and the science behind her work

Why is the Church's attitude to homosexuality so outdated? Do the arguments against gay marriage seem logical? How are gay priests living in the Church today? And can understanding human biology help us reconcile sexuality and faith?

The Revd Dr Charlie Bell is a Cambridge-trained psychiatrist and priest in the Church of England. He is also openly gay, a rarity in Church circles. As an academic he teaches biochemistry to undergraduates while pursuing his research interest in biological markers that help us identify psychopaths. He has written a book called Queer Holiness, in which he examines the Church of England's attitudes towards homosexuality, arguing that the Church must embrace all non-heterosexuals if it is to realise the Christian ideals of universal love and opposing injustice.

Johann Malawana is a legend amongst doctors. He was the chair of the BMA during the Junior Doctors' Strike in 2016, and was the face of the campaign. He is the founder of Medics.Academy and the Healthcare Leadership Academy, which help doctors develop leadership skills. 

Johann and Zack discuss why doctors aren't able to develop leadership skills in their current role, how best to make a difference, and what exactly makes a good leader in healthcare.

How much of a problem is fake news for Western democracy? Can people learn to think critically to promote open debate? Can the left respond to Jordan Peterson's critiques of critical theory and critical race theory? And are there liberal thinkers who actually support free speech?  

// Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/3AD4RHXiy6Q

// Nolan and Mickey's Links

// About the host

// Socials

// Credits Music - Overriding Concern by Kevin MacLeod Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4187-overriding-concern License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/