This podcast showcases the medical developments in occupational health in Sheffield which paved the way for broader changes in legislation in the UK and beyond. In 19th-century Sheffield, Grinders were the backbone of the city's world-famous cutlery industry, hunched over water-powered sandstone wheels in damp workshops to sharpen steel blades. Arnold Knight, one of the founders of the Sheffield Medical School, was the first physician to investigate high death rates from lung disease in Grinders. 

Host: Allan Pacey

Contributors: Julia Moses (Professor of Modern History) and Professor David FIshwick (Retired Prof of Occupational and Respiratory Medicine)

Producers: Professor Sheila Francis and Andrew Metcalfe

Music: The Longbeards Beneath The Mountains by Justin Allan Arnold | https://www.ifnessfreemusic.com. Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com. ⁠Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)⁠.

Pulmonary hypertension is a potentially life-threatening condition caused by high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs, which leads to damage to the right side of the heart. The condition can lead to death from heart failure within a few years. Research has increased the survival and quality of life of people with pulmonary hypertension. This podcast describes the work of mid-19th century creative physicians and engineers who led Sheffield’s research on pulmonary hypertension, including the pathologist, Dr Donald Heath. Independent thinking and a shared ambition to find solutions for this life limiting condition continue today leading to major medical advances.

Heart and circulatory diseases account for over 40% of deaths in Europe. This podcast describes the work of mid-19th century creative physicians and engineers who led Sheffield’s fight against circulatory diseases. The Steel City ‘engineering for heart health’ approach still continues today leading to major medical advances.

Host: Professor Allan Pacey

Contributors: Dr Will Parker and Dr Abdul Hameed

Producers: Professor Sheila Francis and Andrew Tattersall

Music: The Longbeards Beneath The Mountains by Justin Allan Arnold | https://www.ifnessfreemusic.com. Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com. ⁠Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)⁠.

This episode explores the transformation of mental healthcare in Sheffield during the twentieth century to address the stigma of mental illness. Such changes were led by prominent local figures like physician Sir Arthur Hall and psychiatrist Professor F.A. Jenner but also by ‘service-users’ themselves. It is important to consider how such changes were experienced by patients to understand the extent to which they addressed stigma in practice. Telling this story helps to open up future conversations about the relationship between mental healthcare, mental illness and stigma in the past. It also shows why history remains vital in helping us engage with ongoing public and policy debates in the present.

Host: Professor Allan Pacey

Contributors: Andrew Tattersall, Kate McAllister, Chris Millard, Josie Soutar, Helen Crimlisk

Producers: Professor Sheila Francis and Andrew Tattersall

Music: The Longbeards Beneath The Mountains by Justin Allan Arnold | https://www.ifnessfreemusic.com. Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com. ⁠Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)⁠.

Bonus content: To enhance the historical perspective, our colleague Dr. Chris Blackmore from the School of Medicine and Population Health explores the evolving language of mental health in his podcast, Middlewood of the Mind. Inspired by Sheffield's Middlewood Hospital, the podcast features insightful discussions with guests Amanda Crawley Jackson, Ian McMillan, Patrick Murphy, and Brendan Stone, as well as collaborators from Sheffield Flourish. Together, they examine how the language surrounding mental health has shifted over time and continues to evolve.

The podcast emerged from the ‘Mind: Your Language’ project, a creative exploration of the conversation between past and present. This project, which included an exhibition, a public talk, and a book by Patrick Murphy and Ian McMillan, was part of the 2024 Festival of the Mind, organised by the University of Sheffield.

In 1923, Sheffield industrialist Sir Stuart Goodwin became one of the first diabetes patients in the UK to be treated successfully with insulin. The first episode of the Overend-Knight Medical History Podcast explains the prospects for diabetes patients in the 1920s, how the University of Sheffield was chosen by the Medical Research Council to run Britain's first clinical trials of insulin, and the innovative diabetes research that continues to this day.

Stuart Goodwin before and after insulin – reproduced with permission of Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Host: Professor Allan Pacey

Contributors: Jackie Elliott (Senior Lecturer in Diabetes, The University of Sheffield), Solomon Tesfaye (Professor of Diabetes Medicine, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) and Mike Collins (medical historian)

Producers: Professor Sheila Francis and Andrew Tattersall

Music: The Longbeards Beneath The Mountains by Justin Allan Arnold | https://www.ifnessfreemusic.com. Music promoted by https://www.free-stock-music.com. Creative Commons / Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).

What were the medical firsts in Sheffield over the last 200 years? We set out to find these in the Overend-Knight Medical History Podcast – named after two founding figures of medical education in Sheffield. As the University of Sheffield's medical school approaches its bicentenary in 2028, each episode will feature medical discoveries discussed by scientists, medical experts and historians. Find out about the personalities involved, life in Sheffield over the past 200 years, scientific research discoveries and where some of the medical treatments we take for granted today actually came from.