Michael Bresalier (Swansea University) discusses his work on the modern flu with Merle and Lee. Michael begins with talking about influenza in general and how the virus is constantly changing. The conversation then moves to focus on the annual flu shot - including its composition and how it is manufactured. Michael answers questions about a few other topics - including the impact of the 1918 pandemic on the knowledge of the flu in medical thinking, and the classic story of how the flu virus was discovered - where he highlights the invisible institutional framework that enabled the discovery to happen. The interview concludes with a reflection on the work needed to control a disease and the necessary multi-species approach required to do so.
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1:11:11
Episode 128 - Medieval Recipes with Claire Burridge
Claire Burridge (University of Oslo) comes on the podcast to discuss her work on “medical minitexts” such as recipe added to medieval manuscripts otherwise unrelated to medicine. The conversation begins with a broad framing of the period of and the genre of medical manuscripts before zooming into some of the recipes that address a variety of health issues. Claire reflects on the ingredients for the recipes, the ways in which they changed over time, whether or not they work, and the extent to which they circulated in and beyond regions. She also draws some of the new connections between some recipes and osteological research.
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1:05:24
Episode 127 - Infectious Diseases and Podcasting with Erin Welsh and Erin Allmann Updyke
Erin Welsh and Erin Allmann Updyke, hosts of This Podcast Will Kill You, probably the first podcast on diseases - join Merle and Lee to reflect on podcasting and infectious diseases over the past several years. The conversation traces the beginnings of Erin and Erin’s podcast and the reason why they decided to launch it. Erin and Erin talk about how things changed since the beginning of their podcast, their listeners and their expectations, and academia and science communication. They reflect about what worked (and what didn’t) in their podcast, and about keeping a balance between the podcast and their life. Throughout the conversation, Merle and Lee point to the similarities and differences between the two podcasts their formation, and their development.
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1:10:14
Episode 126 - South Asian Medicine with Anthony Cerulli
Anthony Cerulli (University of Wisconsin - Madison) joins the podcast to discuss his work on medicine in South Asia, focusing on ayurvedic medicine in premodernity. After some basic background contextualizing south Asian medicine, Anthony provides an overview of the three foundational texts for it. The conversations touches upon subjects such as the role of the patients, how healing is achieved in south Asian medicine, and similarities between south Asian medicine and Greek/Arabic medicine. Although most of the conversation focuses on the premodern past, Anthony also draws connections with the present, including with Covid. The interview ends with some reflections on the broader theme of health and the humanities in academia.
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1:05:54
Episode 125 - Pandemic Politics during Covid-19 with Shana Gadarian
Shana Gadarian (Syracuse University) joins the infectious historians to discuss her book on politics and their influence on behavior during Covid-19. The conversation begins with Shana’s decision to work on the behavior of Americans during Covid-19 early in the pandemic and she reflects on the process of writing the book as events were still unfolding. She explains the methodology she and her co-authors used for their analysis, and talks about their findings - a key one being that partisanship was a major determinant in Americans’ risk-taking and Covid-related behavior. Things changed after Biden won the 2020 election. Shana continues by discussing other potential avenues she could have expanded her research to, and concludes with a reflection about whether Americans have learned from Covid.
New Zealand