Episode 14: Where Does It Hurt?

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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:

• Christine Garwood, Flat Earth: The History of an Infamous Idea (Thomas Dunne Books, 2008).

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 10^th Planet (transitions)
• during main essay (all courtesy of Magnatune):
  • Edward Martin, Haulberroys (Attaignant)
  • Elizabeth Wolff, Moritz Moszkowski – 3 Moments Musicaux Op. 7 – Tranquillo e semplice
  • Seth Carlin, Sonata 15 in C minor – Allegro ma non troppo (Georg Benda)
  • Ehren Starks, One Big Hope
    
• after main essay: Peter Greenstone, The Pain Game
• Sound effects courtesy of the FreeSound Project:
  • Book pages turning

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Episode 13: On Location in Devon

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:

• T. H. Barrett, The Woman Who Discovered Printing (Yale University Press, 2008).

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.

• Sunburn in Cyprus, History (intro & outro)
• Happy Gemini 3, Pondering the 10^th Planet (transitions)
• other music on this episode:
  • Three Airs from the Dancing Master by Da Camera (courtesy of Magnatune)
  • Flora and White Tribes by Show of Hands (played with permission; also see the band’s MySpace page)
  • Sonata in G major – Allegro (Juliane Reichardt) by Seth Carlin (courtesy of Magnatune)
• sound clip from Rebecca recorded from this YouTube video clip
• sound effects courtesy of the FreeSound Project:
  • Welsh country lane
  • Ocean
  • Creaking ship
  • Seaside
  • Splash
  • Screaming
  • Steam train
  • Book pages turning

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Episode 4: Constant Companions

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This episode considers some of the animals – big and small, welcome and unwelcome – that have accompanied us humans on our journeys through the history of scientific and medical discovery. Of course animals have been the subject of scientific study for centuries, but what we often forget is that they aren’t simply passive subjects. Animals have their own agenda, which sometimes does and sometimes doesn’t harmonize with the agendas of the people they live with.

(You also get to hear what the host sounds like when microbes’ agendas get the better of her immune system.)

Host essay: “The Dog Who Would Be Naturalist”

• for further reading:
  • Burchell, William John, Travels in the Interior of Southern Africa (1822-24; reprint, Cape Town: C. Struik, 1967).
  • Gallant, Johan, The Story of the African Dog (University of Natal Press, 2003).
  • Ritvo, Harriet, Animal Estate: The English and Other Creatures in the Victorian Age (Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1989).
  • Van Sittert, Lance, and Sandra Swart, eds., Canis Africanis: A Dog History of Southern Africa (Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2007).

Host essay: “No Flies on Me”

• for further reading:
  • Cirillo, Vincent J., “‘Winged Sponges’: Houseflies as Carriers of Typhoid Fever in 19th- and Early 20th-Century Military Camps,” Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 49 (2006): 52-63.
  • Kohler, Robert E., Lords of the Fly: Drosophila Genetics and the Experimental Life (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994).
  • Latour, Bruno, Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory (Oxford and New York: Oxford UP, 2007).
  • Leavitt, Judith Walzer, Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public’s Health (Boston: Beacon Press, 1997).
    
  • Morgan, Nigel, “Infant Mortality, Flies and Horses in Later Nineteenth-Century Towns: A Case Study of Preston,” Continuity and Change 17 (2002): 97-132.

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 10^th Planet (transitions)
• Dejunair, Walkin the Dogg; Freddie Wong, Dog Day Afternoon; Pops Mohammed, Ambient Africa (during first essay)
• Debbie Cassell, The Boatman’s White Dog (following first essay)
• dt king, Ladybug Labs (during second essay)
• Scarlatti Tilt, The Insects Party (following second essay)
• Sound effects courtesy of the FreeSound Project:
  • scream

Other links:

• Open Culture blog

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Episode 3: On Location in Berlin

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On today’s show, we embark on the first of what I hope will be many virtual excursions together. This time we visit Berlin, Germany. This beautiful city is famous for its political and cultural past, but also has a fascinating history in science and medicine.

There is so much to examine, but this episode will focus on Charité — an institution founded as a plague hospital that ended up treating soldiers, training medical students, hosting the founding work of modern pathology, and most recently housing a history of medicine museum — and the Berlin Phonogram Archive, a founding institution for ethnomusicology and a key voice in early twentieth century evolutionary arguments about race.

Host essays: “I Feel Your Pain” and “Evolution in Four-Part Harmony”

• for further reading/viewing/listening:
  • Eric Ames, “The Sound of Evolution,” Modernism/Modernity 10 (2003): 297-325.
  • Lazare Benaroyo, “Rudolf Virchow and the Scientific Approach to Medicine,” Endeavour 22, no. 3 (1998): 114-116.
  • Der Himmel über Berlin, aka Wings of Desire, dir. Wim Wenders (1987)
  • Arthur E. Imhof, “The Hospital in the 18th Century: For Whom?” Journal of Social History 10 (1977): 448-470.
  • Music! The Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv, 1900-2000 (Wergo, 2000).
  • Konrad Obermann, “Materialised Medical History,” The Lancet 359 (2002): 361-362.
  • Alexandra Richie, Faust’s Metropolis: A History of Berlin (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1998).
  • Londa Schiebinger, “Maria Winkelmann at the Berlin Academy: A Turning Point for Women in Science,” Isis 78 (1987): 174-200.

Audio credits:

All music on this program courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network except where noted.

• Sunburn in Cyprus, History (intro & outro)
• Telemann Trio Berlin, Concerto in D-Dur – Allegro (Vivaldi), Triosonate in D-Dur – Largo (Bach) (courtesy of Magnatune; during historical intro and first essay)
• Happy Gemini 3, Pondering the 10^th Planet (transitions)
• RZ-1, Cuckoo-Berliner Remix (courtesy of CC Mixter; following first essay)
• Music! The Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv, 1900-2000 (Wergo, 2000; during second essay)
  • “Kham hom,” performed by a theater ensemble from Bangkok in Berlin, 1900
  • Eagle song of the Hopi Indians of Arizona, performed in Berlin, 1906
  • Xylophone piece of the Bondei, played on the “vilangwi” xylophone, Tanga, Tanganyika, 1903
  • Sorbian spinning room song, sung by Christine Marrak, Burg, Germany, 1907
  • “Tangiboa,” a death lament sung by Dawidi Anam, German New Guinea, 1928
• Electrix, Berlin am Meer (following second essay)
• Sound effects courtesy of the FreeSound Project:
  • Berlin Markt
  • Door opening and closing
  • Deep breath
  • Staedel Museum

Other links:

• Berliner Medizinhistoriches Museum (Berlin Medical History Museum)
• Mütter Museum, Philadelphia (pathology collection in the U.S.)
  
• Bill Squires’ Biology 131 course web site at Texas Lutheran, which includes video projects by his students with their views on the colonization of Mars.

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Episode 2: Opposites Attract

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On today’s show, we look at the seemingly obvious idea that women and men are opposites. So many cultures historically have assumed this to be so, and so many of these cultures have argued that differences between men and women had a natural basis. We will see how difficult that argument has been to maintain as science has probed deeper into the human body.

Guest essay: Amber Hoerauf, “The Hormone Revolution”

• for further reading:
  • Anne Fausto-Sterling, “The Five Sexes: Why Male and Female Are Not Enough,” The Sciences (March/April 1993): 20-25; and “The Five Sexes Revisited,” The Sciences (July/August 2000): 18-23.
  • Thomas Laqueur, Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1990).
  • Eva Moore, Amy Wisniewski, and Adrian Dobs, “Endocrine Treatment of Transsexual People: A Review of Treatment Regimens, Outcomes, and Adverse Effects,” Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 88 (2003): 3467-3473.
  • Nelly Oudshoorn, Beyond the Natural Body: An Archaeology of Sex Hormones (New York and London: Routledge, 1994).
• Amber Hoerauf will graduate in December from Southwestern University with a degree in biochemistry. Katy Nichols, a fellow student at Southwestern, narrated the essay.

Host essay: “Yin to His Yang”

• for further reading:
  • Charlotte Furth, A Flourishing Yin: Gender in China’s Medical History, 960-1665 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999).
  • Charlotte Furth, “Androgynous Males and Deficient Females: Biology and Gender Boundaries in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century China,” Late Imperial China 9, no. 2 (1988): 1-31.
  • Emma Donoghue, The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits: Stories (New York: Harvest Books, 2003).
  • Alice Domurat Dreger, Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998).
  • Will Roscoe, Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1998).

Audio credits:

All music on this program courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network except where noted.

• Sunburn in Cyprus, History (intro & outro)
• Music in guest essay:
  • Glenn Miller, Moonlight Serenade (1939 recording)
  • Maestross, Orchestral
  • Brunswick Duo, Carmen Fantasie 1 by Borne
  • Francisco Drum, Coffeesong
  • Derek K. Miller, Cold Cloth and an Ice Pack
  • Alan Renkl, Lemonade
• Music in host essay
  • Guardian Mind Mix, Worldly Composer
  • Tilopa, Chinese Princess (courtesy of Magnatune)
• Edie Carey, Chemistry (following guest essay)
• Lil Ed and the Blues Imperials, Natural Man (following host essay)
• Happy Gemini 3, Pondering the 10^th Planet (transitions)
• Sound effects courtesy of the FreeSound Project
  • Medieval fanfare
  • Applause

Contest: Leave a substantive comment here on the website or on iTunes by September 25, and your name will entered into a drawing to win two books on the history of science fiction. Be sure to leave your e-mail address so that I know how to contact you.

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