S2 Ep4: Alisha Rankin (Colloquium Mini Episode) - on surgical expertise in Renaissance manuscripts
In this (not-so-mini) episode, Richard and Mia chat with Tufts University history professor, Alisha Rankin, about the paper she presented for the 29th Hideyo Ngouchi Lecture and as part of the Johns Hopkins Program in the History of Science, Medicine & Technology's colloquium series. Her paper was about these manuscripts made by Renaissance-era surgeons that illustrated surgical procedures. This is a bit of a longer mini episode -- we had so much fun chatting we simply could not cut it down!
The Wellcome Collection has digital scans of some of manuscripts discussed:
Caspar Stromayr
Georg BartischThe Franciscan copy of Bartisch's manuscript is here.
The Wellcome Collection also has a short blog post on Bartisch's manuscripts.
Other works mentions:
Stephanie Leitch, Early Modern Print Media and the Art of Observation: Training the Literate Eye
Susanna Berger, "Georg Bartisch’s Ophthalmodouleia and His Theory of Painting and Drawing"
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For the Medical Record is a podcast from Johns Hopkins University's Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine, hosted by Research Associate Richard Del Rio and Postdoctoral Fellow Mia Levenson. New episodes are released biweekly.
In these episodes, we talk to people affiliated with the Center to discuss their research within the history of medicine and the medical humanities. We ask them why their work matters, and how history and the humanities can help us to better understand debates and practices within medicine and care today.
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31:52
S2 Ep3: Lan Li - on body maps, meridians, and improvisation
In this episode, Richard and Mia are joined by Lan Li, professor of the history of medicine at Johns Hopkins University and director of the Online Program in the History of Medicine, to talk about her new book, Body Maps: Improvising Meridians and Nerves in Global Chinese Medicine.
Works referenced in the episode:
Sean Hsiang-lin Lei, Neither Donkey nor Horse: Medicine in the Struggle over China’s Modernity
Lorraine Daston and Peter L. Galison, Objectivity
Shigehisa Kuriyama, The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine
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For the Medical Record is a podcast from Johns Hopkins University's Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine, hosted by Research Associate Richard Del Rio and Postdoctoral Fellow Mia Levenson. New episodes are released biweekly.
In these episodes, we talk to people affiliated with the Center to discuss their research within the history of medicine and the medical humanities. We ask them why their work matters, and how history and the humanities can help us to better understand debates and practices within medicine and care today.
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36:26
S2 Ep2: Julia Cummiskey - on virus research in Uganda
In this episode, Richard and Mia talk to Julia Cummiskey, a professor of the history of medicine right here at Johns Hopkins University. She chats with us about her new book, Virus Research in 20th-Century Uganda: Between Local and Global.
For more about the Uganda Virus Research Institute, visit https://www.uvri.go.ug/
For more about the Rakai Health Sciences Program, visit https://www.rhsp.org/
A note from Julia: "I wish I had mentioned how important their work is and how much it means when they get donations to help support that work!"
Works referenced in the episode:
Marissa Mika, Africanizing Oncology: Creativity, Crisis, and Cancer in Uganda
Adriana Petryna, When Experiments Travel: Clinical Trials and the Global Search for Human Subjects
Johanna Crane, Scrambling for Africa: AIDS, Expertise, and the Rise of American Global Health Science
Robin Wolffe Scheffler, A Contagious Cause: The American Hunt for Cancer Viruses and the Rise of Molecular Medicine (not referenced in the episode but a great book about the race to discover oncoviruses!)
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For the Medical Record is a podcast from Johns Hopkins University's Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine, hosted by Research Associated Richard Del Rio and Postdoctoral Fellow Mia Levenson. New episodes are released biweekly.
In these episodes, we talk to people affiliated with the Center to discuss their research within the history of medicine and the medical humanities. We ask them why their work matters, and how history and the humanities can help us to better understand debates and practices within medicine and care today.
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40:46
S2 Ep1: Bharat Venkat (Colloquium Mini Episode) - on thermal inequality
In this mini episode, Richard and Mia talk to Bharat Venkat, a professor of anthropology at UCLA, about the research he presented at the Johns Hopkins Program in the History of Science, Medicine & Technology's colloquium series and his upcoming book project, "Swelter: A History of Our Bodies in a Warming World."
Related links for Bharat's work:
UCLA Heat Lab
"Carceral heat exposure as harmful design: An integrative model for understanding the health impacts of heat on incarcerated people in the United States" (Social Science & Medicine, 2025)
"Through a glass darkly: race, thermal sensation and the nervous body in late colonial India" (British Journal of the History of Science, 2022)
"What Not to Wear" (LA Review of Books, 2023)
"California will finally have indoor heat standards for workplaces — with a cruel exception" (LA Times, 2024)
“L.A. loves food trucks. With more heat waves, they can be dangerous for people working in them” (LA Times, 2023)
"How historic redlining led to extreme heat in the Watts community" (LA Times, 2022)
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For the Medical Record is a Podcast from Johns Hopkins University's Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine, hosted by Research Associated Richard Del Rio and Postdoctoral Fellow Mia Levenson. New episodes are released biweekly.
In these episodes, we talk to people affiliated with the Center to discuss their research within the history of medicine and the medical humanities. We ask them why their work matters, and how history and the humanities can help us to better understand debates and practices within medicine and care today.
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17:37
S2: "For the Medical Record" Season 2 Trailer
We are SO back!!
After a brief hiatus, For the Medical Record is back with new hosts, Richard Del Rio and Mia Levenson.
For the Medical Record is a Podcast from Johns Hopkins University's Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine, hosted by Research Associated Richard Del Rio and Postdoctoral Fellow Mia Levenson. First episode drops on March 31 and new episodes will be out every two weeks.
In these episodes, we talk to people affiliated with the Center to discuss their research within the history of medicine and the medical humanities. We ask them why their work matters, and how history and the humanities can help us to better understand debates and practices within medicine and care today.
For the Medical Record is a podcast from Johns Hopkins University's Center for Medical Humanities and Social Medicine, hosted by Postdoctoral Fellow Mia Levenson and Research Associate Richard Del Rio.
In these episodes, we talk to people affiliated with the Center to discuss their research within the history of medicine and the medical humanities. We ask them why their work matters, and how history and the humanities can help us to better understand debates and practices within medicine and care today.
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Logo:
We would like to thank Karen Klinedinst (Art Director, Graphic Arts) and Courtney Weber (Graphic Designer), based in the Johns Hopkins Department of Art as Applied to Medicine, for creating this logo for our podcast. The background image is a drawing by Max Brödel (1870-1941), the first director of the Department of Art as Applied to Medicine. It shows the interior of an ear, making it a perfect image to illustrate our auditory output.
Music:
From Uppbeat:
https://uppbeat.io/t/sensho/coffee-break
License code: QHALB6CTD8DSD3FP
Production:
Audio and overall production by Christy Slobogin
UK