October 1, 2008 by Elizabeth
Wondering where episode 15 (for September 2008) is? If you haven’t heard the last few minutes of episode 14, then you missed my explaining that I need to put this podcast on indefinite hiatus.
I have enjoyed producing this podcast immensely, and I’m sorry to let it go, even if this does end up being a temporary separation.
I had hoped that the 40-60 hours that I spent producing each episode would dwindle as I became more adept with the audio technology. However, I found that even with some experience, the audio took considerable time, as did the research for each episode. I’m finding I cannot sustain that chunk of time each month, what with my other personal and professional commitments. And I’m not willing to sacrifice quality just to keep things going in skeletal form.
As I said at the end of episode 14, I hope that you will continue to enjoy the existing episodes, which are still available here and on iTunes. If you’re looking for related programming, you can find some of my favorite podcasts linked in the sidebar at right.
Perhaps one of you will even pick up the torch and begin a podcast of your own on the history of science. Please feel free to get in touch if you do. I’ll be happy to talk over your plans with you.
Best wishes,
Elizabeth
Posted in announcements | 1 Comment »
August 30, 2008 by Elizabeth
Listen to this episode.
This month, guest Daniel Goldberg gives a provocative look into the world of pain without lesion. How do – and should – doctors handle patients’ pain when there’s no visible cause?
Guest essay – Daniel S. Goldberg, “Where Does It Hurt?”
for further reading:
- Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, Objectivity (Zone Books, 2007).
- Michel Foucault, The Birth of the Clinic: An Archaeology of Medical Perception, trans. A.M. Sheridan Smith (Vintage Books, 1994).
- Daniel S. Goldberg, The Sole Indexicality of Pain: How Attitudes Towards the Elderly Erect Barriers to Adequate Pain Management, 13(1) MICH. STATE J. MED. & LAW 51 (2008).
- Andrew Hodgkiss, From Lesion to Metaphor: Chronic Pain in British, French and German Medical Writings, 1800-1914 (Rodopi, 2000).
- Jean E. Jackson, Camp Pain: Talking with Chronic Pain Patients (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000).
- Jean E. Jackson, “Stigma, Liminality, and Chronic Pain: Mind-Body Borderlands,” American Ethnologist 32, no. 3 (2005).
- David B. Morris, “An Invisible History of Pain: Early 19th Century Britain and America,” The Clinical Journal of Pain 14, no. 3 (1998): 191-196.
- David B. Morris, The Culture of Pain (University of California Press, 1993).
- Martin J. Pernick, A Calculus of Suffering: Pain, Professionalism, and Analgesia in Nineteenth-Century America (Columbia UP, 1985).
- David B. Resnik, Marsha Rehm, and Raymond B. Minard, “The Undertreatment of Pain: Scientific, Clinical, Cultural, and Philosophical Factors,” Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy 4 (2001): 277-288.
- Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (Oxford UP, 1987).
- Edward Shorter, From Paralysis to Fatigue: A History of Psychosomatic Illness in the Modern Era (Free Press, 1993).
- Mark Sullivan, “Finding Pain Between Minds and Bodies,” The Clinical Journal of Pain 17 (2001): 146-156.
Daniel S. Goldberg received his B.A. with honors in philosophy from Wesleyan University, his J.D. magna cum laude from the University of Houston Law Center, and is currently a Ph.D student in the medical humanities at University of Texas Medical Branch. He is also a health policy fellow at Baylor College of Medicine’s Chronic Disease Prevention & Control Research Center, and a Research Professor at Baylor College of Medicine’s Initiative on Law, Brains, and Behavior. His work focuses on a variety of issues, including conflicts of interest, neuroethics, disabilities, and the social determinants of health. His forthcoming dissertation will use the lenses of the medical humanities to address the root causes of the widespread under-treatment of pain in the U.S. He is also interested in assessing the role of the medical humanities for health policy.
On the Shelf:
Audio credits:
All music on this program courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network, except where noted.
Posted in podcasts | Tagged fibromyalgia, history, history of medicine, medicine, pain, podcast | 2 Comments »
July 31, 2008 by Elizabeth
Dartmouth today
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Today we alight in Devonshire, England. The beaches in this gorgeous, southwestern coastal county have long been a major summer tourist destination. In this episode, we’ll learn about how Devon’s seaside resorts transformed from health spas into centers of epidemic disease. We’ll also discover just what kinds of behaviors could land you in the insane asylums of Victorian Devonshire.
This episode is the second in our periodic “On Location” series. (Click here for the first episode in this series, on Berlin.)
For further reading:
- S. Baring-Gould, Devonshire Characters and Strange Events (John Lane, 1908).
- Bridget Franklin, “Hospital – Heritage – Home: Reconstructing the Nineteenth Century Lunatic Asylum,” Housing, Theory, and Society 19 (2002): 170-184.
- Philip Henry Gosse, A Handbook to the Marine Aquarium; containing Practical Instructions for Constructing, Stocking, and Maintaining a Tank, and for Collecting Plants and Animals (John Van Voorst, 1855).
- W. G. Hoskins, Devon and Its People (Augustus M. Kelley, 1968).
- Joseph Melling, Richard Adair, and Bill Forsythe, “‘A Proper Lunatic for Two Years’: Pauper Lunatic Children in Victorian and Edwardian England; Child Admissions to the Devon County Asylum, 1845-1914,” Journal of Social History 31 (1997): 371-405.
- David Pearce, “Family, Gender and Class in Psychiatric Patient Care during the 1930s: The 1930 Mental Treatment Act and the Devon Mental Hospital,” in Mental Illness and Learning Disability since 1850, ed. Pamela Dale and Joseph Melling (Routledge, 2006).
- Roy Porter, Madness: A Brief History (Oxford UP, 2002).
- Martin J. S. Rudwick, The Great Devonian Controversy: The Shaping of Scientific Knowledge among Gentlemanly Specialists (University of Chicago Press, 1988).
- Andrew T. Scull, Charlotte MacKenzie, and Nicholas Hervey, Masters of Bedlam: The Transformation of the Mad-Doctoring Trade (Princeton UP, 1996).
- Ann Thwaite, Glimpses of the Wonderful: The Life of Philip Henry Gosse, 1810-1888 (Faber & Faber, 2002).
- John Travis, The Rise of Devon Seaside Resorts, 1750-1900 (University of Exeter Press, 1993).
On the shelf:
Other links:
- I can recommend very highly the B&B where we stayed in Devon: The Old Rectory in Diptford. Gorgeous. Delicious. Friendly. Give their dog, Danny, a pat from me.
Philip Gosse's aquarium
Audio credits:
All music on this program courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network, except where noted.
Posted in podcasts | Tagged asylums, britain, children, China, devon, england, gosse, health, history, history of medicine, history of technology, insanity, madness, medicine, on location, technology | 1 Comment »
June 27, 2008 by Elizabeth
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Warning: This episode contains frank discussions of human anatomy and some violence.
Ever wondered why wonder is so important in science? We’re taught from an early edge that science is a world of wonder, and encouraged to indulge our natural curiosity as a first step to achieving scientific rationality. Today, we’ll investigate the fascinating history of wonder, including times when wonder was not in fashion and times when it led grown men to kick old women in the stomach. (Yes, you will need to listen to find what that refers to.)
Guest voice: Many thanks to Tim Ralphs of the Room Behind the Bookcase podcast for playing Ambroise Paré.
For further reading:
- Believer magazine (May 2006) interview with philosopher Arnold Davidson on monsters and monstrosities. (Thanks to Ben Cohen at the World’s Fair blog for the link.)
- Mary Baine Campbell, Wonder and Science: Imagining Worlds in Early Modern Europe (Cornell UP, 2004).
- Lorraine Daston and Katharine Park, Wonder and the Orders of Nature, 1150-1750 (Zone Books, 2001).
- Stephen Greenblatt, Marvelous Possessions: The Wonder of the New World (University of Chicago Press, 1992).
- G. E. R. Lloyd, The Ambitions of Curiosity: Understanding the World in Ancient Greece and China (Cambridge UP, 2002).
- Fred Nadis, Wonder Shows: Performing Science, Magic, and Religion in America (Rutgers UP, 2005).
- Ambroise Paré, On Monsters and Marvels, trans. Janis L. Pallister (originally published ; University of Chicago Press, 1982).
- Susan Scott Parrish, American Curiosity: Cultures of Natural History in the Colonial British Atlantic World (University of North Carolina Press, 2006).
- Brian Regal, “Amateur vs. Professional: The Search for Bigfoot,” Endeavour 32, no. 2 (2008): 53-57.
- Pamela Smith and Paula Findlen, eds., Merchants and Marvels: Commerce, Science, and Art in Early Modern Europe (Routledge, 2001).
- Roger Shattuck, Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography (St. Martin’s Press, 1996).
- Lawrence Weschler, Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder: Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology (Vintage, 1996).
On the shelf:
Other links:
Audio credits:
All music on this program courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network, except where noted.
Posted in podcasts | Tagged ambroise pare, China, curiosity, early modern, Greece, history of science, marvels, monsters, science, wonder | 1 Comment »
May 31, 2008 by Elizabeth
Listen to this episode.
Most of us encounter science through the the world of popular science: the books, TV shows, museum exhibits, kits, and toys that are packaged for general consumption. Today, we explore the early days of mass-produced popular science, particularly the books written for women and children.
Guest essay – Michal Meyer, “No Place for a Lady”
- Michal Meyer is a graduate student in the history of science at the University of Florida. She is writing her dissertation on Mary Somerville, focusing on the influences of empire and Romanticism on Somerville’s books aimed at a general audience. In a previous life she worked as a journalist in Israel and a meteorologist in New Zealand. You can contact her at michal AT hssonline DOT org.
Host essay – “Fun for the Whole Family”
For further reading:
- Pnina Abir-Am and Dorinda Outram, eds., Uneasy Careers and Intimate Lives: Women in Science 1789-1979 (Rutgers UP, 1987).
- Richard Lovell Edgeworth and Maria Edgeworth, Harry and Lucy; with Other Tales (Harper & Bros., 1842). The original edition of this book was published in 1801.
- Aileen Fyfe, “Reading Children’s Books in Late Eighteenth-Century Dissenting Families,” The Historical Journal 43 (2000): 453-473.
- Aileen Fyfe and Bernard Lightman, eds., Science in the Marketplace: Nineteenth-Century Sites and Experiences (University of Chicago Press, 2007).
- Judith Yaross Lee, “The Feminization of Technology: Mechanical Characters in Picture Books,” in Literature and Technology, ed. Mark L. Greenberg and Lance Schachterle, pp. 206-224 (Lehigh UP, 1992).
- Bernard Lightman, Victorian Popularizers of Science: Designing Nature for New Audiences (University of Chicago Press, 2007).
- Greg Myers, “Science for Women and Children: The Dialogue of Popular Science in the Nineteenth Century,” in Nature Transfigured: Science and Literature, 1700-1900, ed. John Christie and Sally Shuttleworth, pp. 171-200 (Manchester UP, 1989).
- Kathryn A. Neeley, Mary Somerville: Science, Illumination, and the Female Mind (Cambridge UP, 2001).
- James A. Secord, “Newton in the Nursery: Tom Telescope and the Philosophy of Tops and Balls, 1761-1838,” History of Science 23, no. 2 (1985): 127-151.
- Elizabeth Chambers Patterson, Mary Somerville and the Cultivation of Science, 1815-1840 (Martinus Nijhoff, 1983).
- Mary Fairfax Somerville, Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age of Mary Somerville: With Selections from her Correspondence, ed. Martha Charters Somerville (Adamant Media Corporation, 2001).
- Ruth Watts, Women in Science: A Social and Cultural History (Routledge, 2007).
On the shelf:
Audio credits:
All music on this program courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network, except where noted.
Posted in podcasts | Tagged children, education, gender, history, literature, popular science, popularization, science, Somerville, Victorian, women | Leave a Comment »
April 30, 2008 by Elizabeth
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Creationism and intelligent design are widely understood as the province of American Protestants. Today’s episode explores how people in some of the world’s other religious traditions – particularly Jews, Catholics, and Muslims – have positioned themselves in the evolution-intelligent design debate.
First guest essay – Emily Jenkins, “Why Genesis Doesn’t Mean Creationism for (Most) Jews”
Second guest essay – David Squires, “The Jesuits: Between Science and Faith”
- This segment includes an interview with Father George Coyne, an astrophysicist and former director of the Vatican Observatory.
- David Squires is a junior majoring in history and philosophy at Southwestern University. After graduation, he plans to attend law school.
For further reading
- Geoffrey Cantor and Marc Swetlitz, eds., Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism (University of Chicago Press, 2006).
- Counterbalance Foundation, interview with George Coyne.
- George V. Coyne, “God’s Chance Creation,” The Tablet (6 Aug 2005).
- —–, “Infinite Wonder of the Divine,” The Tablet (10 Dec 2005).
- —– and Alessandro Omizzolo, Wayfarers in the Cosmos: The Human Quest for Meaning (Crossroad General Interest, 2002).
- Dalai Lama, The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality (Broadway, 2006).
- Taner Edis, “Islamic Creationism: A Short History,” History of Science Society Newsletter 37 (2008).
- —–, An Illusion of Harmony: Science and Religion in Islam (Prometheus Books, 2007).
- Noah J. Efron, Judaism and Science: A Historical Introduction (Greenwood Press, 2006).
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- John F. Haught, God after Darwin: A Theology of Evolution (Westview, 2007).
- B. Alan Wallace, ed., Buddhism and Science: Breaking New Ground (Columbia UP, 2003).
On the shelf:
Audio credits:
All music on this program courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network, except where noted.
Posted in podcasts | Tagged astronomy, astrophysics, catholicism, catholics, coyne, creationism, evolution, intelligent design, islam, jews, judaism, muslims, religion, vatican | Leave a Comment »
March 31, 2008 by Elizabeth
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How did the Civil War and the Cold War affect the acceptance of evolution in the United States? Tune in to today’s program to find out. This is the second episode in a three-part series on the history behind the evolution-intelligent design controversy.
First guest essay – Caitlin McShea, “Atomic Bombs and Evolutionary Mushroom Clouds“
- Caitlin McShea is a sophomore majoring in biology and philosophy at Southwestern University. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a career in bioethical law.
Second guest essay – Kate Peteet, “Evolution Is Not a Dirty Word”
- Kate Peteet is a sophomore studying art history, architecture, and design at Southwestern University. She plans to attend graduate school as well, perhaps to study pre-Columbian South American art.
- Additional voices in the essay provided by fellow students Jennifer Pitzen and Marco Duran.
For further reading:
- Vannevar Bush, Science, the Endless Frontier (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1945).
- CBS News, “Poll: Majority Reject Evolution” (22 October 2005).
- Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch, The Golem: What You Should Know about Science, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1998).
- Ian Hacking, The Social Construction of What? (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2000).
- Harris Poll, “Nearly Two-thirds of U.S. Adults Believe Human Beings Were Created by God,” Harris Interactive (6 July 2005).
- M. Paul Holsinger, War and American Popular Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1999).
- Karl Kautsky, Social Democracy vs Communism (New York: The Rand School Press, 1946).
- Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 3rd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996).
- Edward J. Larson, Trial and Error: The American Controversy over Creation and Evolution (New York: Oxford UP, 2003).
- Chris Mooney, “Polling for ID,” Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (11 September 2003).
- Nathan Reingold, Science in America: A Documentary History, 1900-1939 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982).
- John L. Rudolph, Scientists in the Classroom: The Cold War Reconstruction of American Science Education (New York: Palgrave, 2002).
- Michael Ruse, The Evolution-Creation Struggle (Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2006).
On the Shelf:
Audio credits:
All music on this program courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network, except where noted.
- Sunburn in Cyprus, History (intro & outro)
- Happy Gemini 3, Pondering the 10th Planet (transitions)
- music and audio during first segment
- background music: Maylon Clark Sextette, Atomic Did It (Howard Records, 1945). Courtesy of the Authentic History Center.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt, Message to Congress Requesting War Declarations with Germany and Italy (White House, Washington, DC, 11 December 1941). Courtesy of the American Presidency Project.
- Jackie Doll and His Pickled Peppers, When They Drop the Atomic Bomb (Mercury Records, 1951). Courtesy of the Authentic History Center.
- Billy Rose and Clarence Gaskill, You Can’t Make a Monkey of Me (1925). Courtesy of PBS’ American Experience series, Monkey Trial.
- during second segment: excerpts from Andrew Bird, Banking on a Myth.
- Sound effects courtesy of the FreeSound Project:
Posted in podcasts | Tagged biology, cold war, creationism, education, evolution, history of biology, history of science, intelligent design, religion, second world war, ussr | Leave a Comment »
February 27, 2008 by Elizabeth
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This episode inaugurates our series on the history behind the evolution-intelligent design controversy. Today, we examine the deep history of scientific method, and how the rules evolved to the point where intelligent design cannot follow them.
Guest essay – John Burchfield and Shalane Giles, “The Evolution of Scientific Method”
- for further reading:
- A. J. Ayer, Logical Positivism (Free Press, 1959).
- William A. Dembski, Design Revolution: Answering the Toughest Questions about Intelligent Design (InterVarsity Press, 2004).
- William A. Dembski and Michael Ruse, eds., Debating Design: From Darwin to DNA (Cambridge UP, 2004).
- Barry Gower, Scientific Method: A Historical and Philosophical Introduction (Routledge, 2002).
- Malachi Haim Hacohen, Karl Popper, the Formative Years, 1902-1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna (Cambridge UP, 2000).
- David C. Lindberg and Ronald L. Numbers, eds., When Science and Christianity Meet (University of Chicago Press, 2003).
- Ronald L. Numbers, The Creationists: From Scientific Creationism to Intelligent Design (Harvard UP, 2006).
- Michael Ruse, The Evolution-Creation Struggle (Harvard UP, 2006).
- Sergio Sismondo, Introduction to Science and Technology Studies (Blackwell, 2004).
- The TalkOrigins Archive: an online collection of articles on the evolution-intelligent design controversy, including documents from the McLean v. Arkansas case.
- John Burchfield and Shalane Giles are both seniors at Southwestern University. John is studying political science and has ambitions of becoming a writer. Shalane is studying religion and biology; after graduation, she plans to travel and may attend graduate school.
On the Shelf:
Audio credits:
All music on this program courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network, except where noted.
Posted in podcasts | Tagged creationism, evolution, intelligent design, mclean v. arkansas, philosophy of science, popper, scientific method | 1 Comment »
February 6, 2008 by Elizabeth
(To some of you, the subject line of this post and what I am about to say will be complete gibberish. If it is, then what follows probably doesn’t affect you, so fret not.)
I have changed the RSS feed for the podcast. This is only an issue if you have subscribed to the podcast using a podcatcher that is not iTunes.
- If you subscribe via iTunes, then your subscription should have shifted over automatically.
- If you subscribe using another podcatcher, you will need to resubscribe using the RSS feed listed at the right. (Look for the orange icon.)
- If you listen to the podcast directly from the website (that is, if you click on “Listen to this episode”), then this change will not affect you.
My apologies for the inconvenience. If you must know, I got fed up with Libsyn’s poor excuse for a statistics generator.
Right. Let’s all get back to something more interesting.
Posted in announcements | Leave a Comment »
January 31, 2008 by Elizabeth
Listen to this episode.
This month, guest essayist Scott Lough concludes his exploration of time’s strange behavior, this time focusing on how early human societies understood and measured it.
Guest essay – Scott Lough, “The Weirdness of Time” (part 2)
- for further reading:
- Abel, K. Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History. Montreal and Kingston: McGill and Queen’s UP, 2005.
- Aveni, A. F. “Old and new world naked eye astronomy.” In Brecher, K., Feirtag, M., (eds.), Astronomy of the Ancients (pp. 61-89). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1979.
- Aveni, A. F. Empires of Time: Calendars, Clocks, and Culture. New York: Basic Books, 1989.
- Aveni, A. F. Conversing with the Planets: How Science and Myth Invented the Cosmos. New York: Times Books, 1992.
- Barbour, J. B. The End of Time. New York: Oxford UP, 1999.
- Cobo, Bernabé. Inca Religion and Customs. Hamilton, R. (ed. and trans.), Austin: University of Texas Press, 1990.
- Ferris, T. Coming of Age in the Milky Way. New York: Doubleday, 1988.
- Galison, P. L. Einstein’s Clocks, Poincaré’s Maps: Empires of Time. New York: W. W. Norton, 2003.
- Gleick, J. Faster. New York: Vintage, 2000.
- Hawking, S. W. A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes. New York: Bantam, 1998.
- Hesiod. Works and Days. Tandy, D. W., Neale, W. C. (eds. and trans.). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996.
- Krupp, E. C. In Search of Ancient Astronomies. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978.
- Krupp, E. C. Echoes of the Ancient Skies. New York: Meridian, 1983.
- Krupp, E. C. Beyond the Blue Horizon: Myths and Legends of the Sun, Moon, Stars, and Planets. New York: Harper Collins, 1991.
- MacDonald, J. The Arctic Sky: Inuit Astronomy, Star Lore, and Legend. Toronto: Royal Ontario Museum/Nunavut Research Institute, 2000.
- Massie, P. “Time and Contingency in Duns Scotus.” The Saint Anselm Journal 3, no. 2 (2006): 17-31.
- Smith, A. A., II. “Time and the Medieval World.” Philosophy Now Magazine 62 (July/Aug. 2007): 18-20.
- Smolin, L. The Life of the Cosmos. New York: Oxford UP, 1997.
- Staley, K. M. “Omniscience, Time, Eternity: Is Aquinas Inconsistent?” The Saint Anselm Journal 3, no. 2 (2006): 9-16.
- Urton, G. At the Crossroads of the Earth and the Sky: An Andean Cosmology. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981.
- Scott Lough is a husband, father, Montessori teacher trainer, educational consultant, science writer, lay preacher and resident of Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, in Canada.
On the Shelf:
Audio credits:
All music on this program courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network, except where noted.
Posted in podcasts | Tagged ancient, astronomy, cosmology, greeks, history of science, inca, inuit, maya, physics, prehistory, south america, time | 2 Comments »
