Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone

Flora Smyth-Zahra trained as a dentist and has a special interest in periodontology. In this podcast we explore the nature of clinical care, whether in dentistry and medicine, sharing our perspectives and experiences of surgery in different domains. Alongside her clinical practice, Flora has expertise in education, literature and the arts and has pioneered dental humanities as an emerging part of...

David Owen QC has developed parallel careers as a barrister (now specialising in mediation and arbitration for complex business disputes) and a magician and member of the Magic Circle. In this podcast we explore similarities and differences between our worlds of medicine and the law, and explore performative aspects of our work and interests.

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 document...

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 watercolou...

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...

David Nott trained as a trauma surgeon and has worked in war-torn areas all over the world. At the same time he trained as an airline pilot, gaining his airline transport pilot's licence and flying corporate jets in parallel with his surgical career. In this podcast we discuss the challenges, excitements and downsides of living and working in some of the most extreme environments on the globe. Dav...

Phil Bayman is a combat pilot and instructor with over 4,500 flying hours experience. Alongside an active career flying combat missions in Hawks and Tornadoes, Phil is passionate about education. Six of the 2018 intake of Red Arrows pilots are his former students. In this podcast Phil describes the extraordinary world of combat flying, where pilots steer along the edge of what is physiologically p...

James Peto's interests range from art history and contemporary design to the creation of ground-breaking exhibitions at the Wellcome Trust. Our discussion explores how these interests have helped to form the Wellcome Collection's identity as an intersection between medicine, science and the arts.

Angela Barrett is one of the UK's leading illustrators of children's books. Her much-loved works include Beauty and the Beast, Snow White, The Emperor's New Clothes and The Diary of Anne Frank. Her illustrations combine an inspired imagination with detail and humour, resulting in imaginary worlds of extraordinary power. In this conversation we explore the relationship between words and images and...

Professor Alan Spivey designs and creates biologically important molecules. In this conversation we discuss the differences between 'following a recipe' in chemistry and   'designing an experiment', exploring our perspectives from science and medicine. We discuss the concept of 'performance' in a science laboratory and how this resonates with other areas of expert practice.

A taxidermist for over 45 years, Derek Frampton is one of the leading experts in his field. His work is in many museums and scientific collections, and he has worked in film and television too. In this podcast he describes how his work stands at the intersection of science, craftsmanship and art. From voles to giraffes, from crocodiles to dinosaurs, Derek's range is extraordinarily diverse. Each d...

The artist Rebecca Salter RA was elected Keeper of the Royal Academy in 2017. In this podcast we discuss her fascination with drawing, her time as a Leverhulme Scholar in Japan, the differences between Eastern and Western artistic cultures and her role at the Royal Academy of Arts

Sir Terence English carried out the UK's first successful heart transplant in 1979 and established the transplant programme at Papworth Hospital which revolutionised clinical care. In this podcast we discuss the events of that extraordinary time, looking back to the world's first heart transplant in 1967 by Christiaan Barnard and forward to new horizons for cardiac transplantation today.

One of the UK's leading close-up magicians, with a international reputation as performer and teacher, Will Houstoun was Magic Circle Magician of the Year in 2015. Will is renowned for his extraordinary skill in manipulating coins and cards. Alongside his career in magic, Will studied mechanical engineering before completing a PhD in Victorian conjuring. In this podcast we discuss parallels and dif...

Roger Highfield is Director of External Affairs at the Science Museum Group. A physical chemist by training, he honed his journalistic skills while a postdoctoral researcher before becoming Science Editor of the Daily Telegraph for the next 20 years. After a spell as Editor of the New Scientist he joined the Science Museum, where he works at an intersection between scientists, historians, curators...

Sarah Angliss defies conventional definition. A multitalented creator of musical scores and an expert performer, she describes herself as a composer. With degrees in electroacoustics and robotics and a fascination with musical automata, Sarah's interests cut across orthodox categories.

Malcolm Love's career has included being a Baptist minister in London's Battersea, a freelance journalist in Nicaragua and El Salvador, a producer and presenter for the BBC, a leading science communicator and a mentor and coach in the changing landscape of public engagement. In this conversation we explore how our varied paths intersect, and discuss our shared fascination with making connections....

Andrea Sella is well known as a chemist, a teacher, a science communicator and broadcaster. In this podcast we discuss the nature of contemporary chemistry, talk about its development over the last couple of decades and explore issues of uncertainty and risk.