In this episode of “In the Same Vein,” we chat to historian of medieval medicine Nichola Harris about her subfield: lapidary medicine, or, the use of stones and minerals for medicinal purposes. Harris talks us through how objects like coral, pearls, diamonds, amber, loadstones, and eaglestones were utilized in the medieval period (and ancient and early modern periods) as cures and for general health and wellness. Our questions for Nichola Harris are inspired by two of her recent pieces of writing: “Loadstones are a Girl’s Best Friend: Lapidary Cures, Midwives, and Manuals of Popular Healing in Medieval and Early Modern England” from the book The Sacred and the Secular in Medieval Healing: Sites, Objects, and Texts and “The Protection of Innocents: Red Coral as a Lapidary Cure for the ‘Children’s Disease’ and Conditions Related to Childbirth in Medieval and Early Modern England” from Death and Disease in the Medieval and Early Modern World. 

MENTIONED IN THE EPISODE:

Rudolph Bell, How to Do It: Guides to Good Living for Renaissance Italians (1999)

Hildred S. Geertz

Patrick Wallis

Erin Connolly

In this episode, second-year medical student Spencer Mehdizadeh chose to speak to the historian of medicine Michael Brown, PhD about his 2022 book Emotions and Surgery in Britain, 1793-1912. We discuss anesthesia, pain, emotions, surgery, history, and the experiences of both patients and surgeons in the nineteenth century and today.

Joanna Bourke, The Story of Pain: From Prayer to Painkillers (2014)

Rob Boddice, Knowing Pain: A History of Sensation, Emotion, and Experience (2023) 

Martin Pernick, A Calculus of Suffering: Pain, Professionalism, and Anesthesia in Nineteenth-Century America (1985)

Stephanie J. Snow, Blessed Days of Anaesthesia: How Anaesthetics Changed the World (2008)

James Kennaway, “Celts Under the Knife: Surgical Fortitude, Racial Theory and the British Army” (2020)

Rob Boddice, Humane Professions: The Defence of Experimental Medicine, 1876-1914 (2021)

M. Anne Crowther and Marguerite W. Dupree, Medical Lives in the Age of Surgical Revolution (2007)

Welcome to the first episode of our new podcast “In the Same Vein”! In this premiere, our student co-host is the second-year medical student Isabella Cantor, whose personal experiences as a reader and as a healthcare provider led her to want to chat with the remarkable Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD. In this episode, we primarily talk about Dr. Ofri’s 2020 book When We Do Harm: A Doctor Confronts Medical Error. But in addition to discussing the complexities of medical error and how to process it, we also chat about emotions in medicine, the role of art and music in taking care of yourself as a doctor, and medical education. Enjoy listening and please do subscribe so that you don’t miss any of the other episodes in Season 1!

UPCOMING EVENTS WITH DR. OFRI’S BELLEVUE LITERARY REVIEW

October 17, 2024 (online) - BLR Fall Reading: Body Politic 

November 16, 2024 (in person, NYC) – Body Politic: An Evening of Live Storytelling

Welcome to In the Same Vein! Full episodes coming soon!