Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone

Thomas Schlich's career spans clinical medicine and the history of medicine. In this conversation we explore similarities and differences between these two approaches, including how the idea of 'taking a history' plays out in different contexts. We discuss how the perspectives of clinical practice and historical scholarship complement one another before talking about Thomas's seminal work documenting the Swiss 'osteosynthesis' movement (fixing broken bones with screws and plates) in the mid twentieth century. https://www.mcgill.ca/ssom/staff/schlich

Fabrice Ringuet has been a hair stylist for 35 years. Initially trained in France, he has made his career in the UK, first as a stylist and then as a teacher and hair styling coach. In this podcast we explore unexpected parallels between hair styling and medicine, where technical expertise must be matched by sensitivity, performance and interpersonal skill.

Richard Jones is one of the UK's most well-known directors of theatre and opera. His productions have been staged all over the world and he has a reputation for challenging expectations and disrupting traditional boundaries. In this conversation we compare the dramatic theatre and the operating theatre, discuss where theatre and opera intersect and explore our experiences of success and failure.

Bridget Bailey is a leading textile artist and designer who co-founded the Bailey Tomlin brand, creating and producing millinery for major labels. In this conversation we explore ideas around inspiration, precision and perfectionism. Over the years Bridget has moved from creating 'trim' for hats to more abstracted work which has echoes of the natural world. bridgetbailey.co.uk

In this conversation the distinguished medical artist Phil Wilson and I explore how expertise in illustration allows medical artists to convey the essence of a clinical procedure or anatomical idea. We dissect the notion of visual narrative and discuss how Phil's perspectives as an artist and my perspectives as a clinician intersect and overlap. Phil describes how the shift from pen and watercolour to working in the digital arena entails radical new techniques, but how the essentials of close observation remain unchanged. http://www.medart.co.uk

Jeremy Herbert's career has taken many unexpected swerves. He is fascinated by the aesthetics and the practicalities of design, both in theatre and outside. An expert maker with a strong sense of the mechanical, he creates imaginative landscapes for a wide range of productions. In this conversation we discuss how our different perspectives on practicality overlap and intersect.

Jane Dorner's first career was in publishing. From art editor for Longman's and then as fiction reader for Penguin. After thirty years she fell in love with glass-making and developed a parallel career designing and making art works in glass. In this conversation we discuss the similarities and differences between our worlds of medicine, publishing and the arts.

In this conversation Chris Peters and I discuss the fast-moving world of robot-assisted surgery and explore new developments that are changing how surgeons operate. We talk about the shifting balance between vision and touch as surgery has evolved from 'open' procedures to keyhole surgery and now to robot-assisted operating supported by augmented reality and artificial intelligence.

Roberto di Napoli graduated in modern languages and linguistics in Italy before developing a career in education which has taken him to many institutions. A gifted teacher, he is passionate about making complex educational concepts accessible to people with expertise in a wide range of domains. In this conversation we explore the roles of performance and human interaction in teaching and learning.

Heather Mayfield joined the London Science Museum in 1979 as a museum assistant. By the time she left in 2014 she was its Deputy Director. In this podcast she describes her excitement in being part of the team unpacking and cataloguing Sir Henry Wellcome's extraordinary collection for the first time since his death. She maps her career within the world of museums and her passion for engaging with people around the ideas and controversies of science. Now CEO of Nottingham Castle Trust, Heather is back in the city where she grew up.