S2 Ep6: Bonus Episode: Michael Seminara - on curating the historical collection at the Institute of the History of Medicine

Welcome back to another episode of For the Medical Record! This week, Richard and Mia talk with Bryan Doerries, artistic director of Theater of War Productions. They discuss Bryan's recent production of A Refutation, where actors dramatically read documents related to the 1793 yellow fever epidemic in Philadelphia, which was performed at several locations around the DC/Baltimore area, including Johns Hopkins Hospital. For more information about A Refutation, you can visit Theater of War Productions' website. For a full recording of the performance at the Union Memorial United Methodist Church in West Baltimore, click here. --- 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.

It's summer, which means scholars are heading to the archives! Looking down the barrel at their own upcoming research trips, Richard and Mia talk with Michael Seminara, the curator for the historical collection at the Institute of the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins. They chat with him about curating the collection, putting up exhibitions, and what he wished scholars knew about working with archivists.  Recent Articles about the Collection: New to the Historical Collection Filming at the Institute Hearing History: The Robert J. Ruben Collection of Otolaryngological Instruments --- 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.

In this episode, Richard and Mia talk with Mary Fissell, the Inaugural J. Mario Molina Professor of the History of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, about her new book, "Pushback: The 2,500-Year Fight to Thwart Women by Restricting Abortion." This is a great book and Mary is such a wealth of knowledge about this history. Related Works: Jennifer Wright, Madame Restell: The Life, Death, and Resurrection of Old New York's Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist Nicholas L. Syrett, The Trials of Madame Restell Nineteenth-Century America’s Most Infamous Female Physician and the Campaign to Make Abortion a Crime "‘Drama of Life Before Birth’: Lennart Nilsson’s Landmark 1965 Photo Essay," Life Magazine. Kathleen Crowther, Policing Pregnant Bodies: From Ancient Greece to Post-Roe America Johanna Schoen, Abortion after Roe --- 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.

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, "The Skillful Surgeon: Surgical Expertise and Contested Authority in Early Modern Europe," 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" --- 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.

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 their 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 --- 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.

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!) --- 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.

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) --- 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.

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.

Join us in our conversation with Nicole Labruto, anthropologist and director of the Medicine, Science, and the Humanities undergraduate major here at Johns Hopkins. In this episode, we discuss both Dr. Labruto’s own anthropological research – on sugar cane, science, the environment, and society – as well as the importance of offering an interdisciplinary education in the medical humanities and science, technology, and society to undergraduate students. In addition to speaking about her fascinating research, Dr. Labruto also shares several of her pedagogical tools and tips for teaching students in STS and the medical humanities.  As always, we hope you enjoy listening! But we especially hope that you enjoy this episode, as it is Antoine and Christy’s last one as co-hosts. “For the Medical Record” will take a break before re-starting with new co-hosts from the Center for Medical Humanities & Social Medicine community. Thank you for the engagement, listens, and encouragement!  PEOPLE AND RESOURCES MENTIONED   Johns Hopkins COVID-19 Map Kamna Balhara (you can listen to our “For the Medical Record” episode with Kamna Balhara and Nate Irvin here)  Franz Boas  Immanuel Wallerstein  Slum Dwellers International  Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA)  Mary Poovey, A History of the Modern Fact: Problems of Knowledge in the Sciences of Wealth and Society (1998)  Lorraine Daston and Peter Galison, Objectivity (2007)  Howard Zinn  Sidney W. Mintz, Sweetness in Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (1986)  Stuart B. Schwartz, Sugar Plantations in the Formation of Brazilian Society: Bahia, 1550-1835 (1986) Londa Schiebinger, "Exotic abortifacients: the global politics of plants in the 18th century” (2000)  Jerry Burgess  Baltimore Compost Collective The South Baltimore Community Land Trust  Black Yield Institute  Marvin Hayes  Shashawnda Campbell  Meleny Thomas  Greg Sawtell  Eric Jackson  Nicole Fabricant 

In this mini episode, we speak with Matthew Klingle about the paper that he presented at the Johns Hopkins Program in the History of Science, Medicine & Technology's colloquium series, titled "'Wear and Tear': An Ecology of Diabetes, Stress, and Discrimination."