Podcasts by Bedside Rounds
Bedside Rounds is a storytelling podcast about medical history and medicine’s intersections with society and culture. Host Adam Rodman seeks to tell a few of these weird, wonderful, and intensely human stories that have made modern medicine.
Further podcasts by Adam Rodman, MD, MPH, FACP
Podcast on the topic Medizin
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73 - Seadragon from 2023-06-26T00:00
What happens when a patient far from surgical care – say, at the bottom of the Pacific ocean on a submarine, or at a research base in Antarctica in the middle of the winter – develops a surgical...
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72 - Problems from 2023-03-20T03:00
American doctors spend the majority of their time during the day on the computer, either writing or reading notes about their patients; only a small fraction is spent with the human beings in th...
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71 - A Doctor's Work, part 2 from 2023-01-16T01:00
In the past episode, cultural and medical historians Lakshmi Krishnan and Mike Neuss discussed the history of the actual work of the doctor – Holmesian detective,...
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70 - A Doctor's Work from 2022-12-19T01:00
What do doctors actually do? Are they Sherlockian detectives, hunting down obscure clues to solve intractable cases? Are they virtuosic experts, training for half...
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69 - The Database from 2022-10-31T00:00
How do doctors actually think? And if we can answer that, can we train a computer to do a better job? In the post-WW2 period, a group of iconoclastic physicians s...
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68 - The History from 2022-07-25T00:00:25
Internal medicine physicians like to pride ourselves on our clinical reasoning – the ability to talk to any patient, pluck out seemingly random bits of informatio...
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The Facemaker with Dr. Lindsey Fitzharris (#histmedconsultservice) from 2022-06-07T00:00:43
Modern plastic surgery was born out of the horrors of trench warfare in World War I. In this episode, Adam interviews historian Lindsey Fitzharris about her new book The Facemaker, about the lif...
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67 - Fever on the Frontier from 2022-03-21T00:00:49
In the early 19th century, a strange new illness, seemingly unknown to medicine, ravaged settler communities in the American Middle West. As fierce debates about ...
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66 - Burnout from 2022-01-08T01:00
Burnout seems to stalk healthcare workers; between a third and a half of doctors and nurses had symptoms of burnout BEFORE the COVID-19 pandemic. Major medical as...
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65 - The Last Breath from 2021-11-05T00:00
How can we medically tell whether or not someone is alive or dead? The answer is much more complicated than you'd think. In this episode, which is a live podcast ...
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64 - A Vicious Circle from 2021-10-04T00:00
During World War II, the US Army launched a seemingly routine experiment to find the ideal way to screen soldiers for tuberculosis. Jacob Yerushalmy, the statisti...
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63 - Signals from 2021-08-23T00:00
What does it mean when different physicians disagree about a diagnosis? I am joined by Dr. Shani Herzig as we explore this issue in the second part of my series o...
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62 - The Sisters Blackwell from 2021-05-10T00:00
Elizabeth Blackwell -- the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States -- and her sister Emily Blackwell are some of the most important physicians o...
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61 - Etymologies from 2021-03-29T00:00
Words matter. At its best, etymology gives us insight not only into the origins of words, but why they remain so important today, especially in medicine, where we...
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60 - Santa's Salmonella from 2020-12-24T01:00
For a special holiday treat, we’re going to explore two tales of salmonella disease detectives -- the first about Mary Mallon (“Typhoid Mary”) and the birth of th...
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59 - Cry of the Suffering Organs from 2020-11-30T01:00
Diagnosis is arguably the most important job of a physician. But what does it actually mean to make a diagnosis? In this episode, we’ll explore this question by t...
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The House of Pod: How medical podcasting made me a better doctor and educator … and how it might change the future of medical education for everyone from 2020-11-23T16:49:03
In this episode, I talk about my podcasting journey -- how I started Bedside Rounds for inspiration during a low period in residency, how it changed me as a physician, and how it has changed my ...
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58 - The Original (Antigenic) Sin from 2020-10-26T00:00
The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare the racial health disparities in the United States, with markedly increased mortality especially among Blacks and Native Americans...
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57 - The Second Wave from 2020-08-31T00:00
In August of 1918, a horrific second wave of the Spanish Flu crashed across the world. In this episode, the third of a four-part series exploring hydroxychloroqui...
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56 - La Grippe from 2020-07-13T00:00
The 1889 Russian Flu was the first influenza pandemic in an increasingly globalized world. In this episode, the second of a two-parter on how hydroxychloroquine b...
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Introducing the Curious Clinicians! from 2020-07-09T04:00
This bonus episode introduces episode four of the Curious Clinicians, about Vincent Van Gogh and digitalis. The Curious Clinicians is a new medical podcast produced by Hannah Abrams, Avi Cooper,...
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55 - The Fever Tree from 2020-06-08T00:00
Where did cinchona, the first medication to cure malaria, come from? This episode explores the murky history of the bark of the fever tree and its derivative chlo...
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54 - 1918 (guest episode with Hannah Abrams and Gaby Mayer) from 2020-05-18T00:00
The 1918 influenza pandemic, or the Spanish Flu, is the obvious parallel to the COVID-19 pandemic -- a worldwide plague attacking a scientific and global society ...
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53 - The Antonine Plague (guest episode with Liam Conway-Pearson) from 2020-04-27T00:10:28
Plagues have fascinated us since antiquity, but the Antonine Plague stands out because one of the most famous physicians in Western history was present to make detailed observations. In this epi...
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A short message from Adam from 2020-03-25T16:11:44
As the COVID-19 pandemic increasingly spreads across the globe, Bedside Rounds is going on hiatus. This short message explains why and gives some historical context. Stay in touch on Twitter in ...
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52 - The Rebuff from 2020-03-02T01:00
Over the past several centuries, the medical field has established a firm graph on the domain of the human body, with one very notable exception -- the teeth. Listen
Winter Shorts #4 - The Backlog from 2020-02-04T01:00
Did Hippocrates call consults for chest pain? Were there specialists in black bile? Where does our poetic terminology for heart and lung sounds come from? Is ther...
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51 - Hero Worship from 2019-12-16T01:00
At the end of 2019, William Osler’s legacy is stronger than ever; he has been called the “Father of Modern Medicine” and held up as the paragon of the modern phys...
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50 - I Know Nothing from 2019-10-28T00:00
What does it mean to know something in medicine? In this episode, we’ll explore this question by developing a historical framework of medical epistemologies in a ...
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49 - The Ether Dome from 2019-09-30T00:00
The world before anesthesia was brutal -- surgeons inflicted torture on largely conscious patients, hoping to finish an operation as quickly as possible. But all ...
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48 - Micrographia (FIXED AUDIO) from 2019-08-29T11:51:57
Because of dad brain, the original musical tracks for episode 48 were offset by almost 30 seconds (even more embarrassing, because I actually LISTENED to it before uploading). I've fixed the aud...
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48 - Micrographia from 2019-08-28T00:00
Germs are regarded today with a combination of fear and disgust. But mankind’s first introduction to the microbial world started off on a very different foot. In ...
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Summer Shorts #3 - Insulin Drama from 2019-07-26T00:00
Bedside Rounds is on a summer vacation! In the meantime, I'm joined by journalist Dan Weissmann of the podcast An Arm and a Leg to talk about the tawdry history of the discovery of insulin.
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47 - The Criteria from 2019-06-24T00:00
Can we ever know what causes a chronic disease? In this episode, I’m joined again by Dr. Shoshana Herzig to finish a three-part miniseries on Bradford Hill and Do...
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46 - Cause and Effect from 2019-05-20T00:00
Does smoking cause lung cancer? How could you ever know? The second in a three-part series on causality, I’m joined by Dr. Shoshana Herzig to discuss how Austin B...
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45 - The French Disease at 500 from 2019-04-22T00:00
In 1495, a mysterious and deadly plague struck the city of Naples. Over the next 500 years, the medical attempts to understand and treat this new disease -- syphi...
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44 - The Great Smog from 2019-03-25T00:00
What was behind the mysterious increase in lung cancer deaths at the turn of the 20th century? The first of a three-parter investigating the cigarette-smoking lin...
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43 - The Cursed from 2019-02-18T01:00
What killed Charles II of Spain, the inbred monarch whose autopsy famously showed a heart the size of a peppercorn, a head full of water, and a bloodless body? Th...
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42 - The Lady with the Lamp from 2019-01-14T01:00
Florence Nightingale stands as one of the most important reformers of 19th century medicine -- a woman whose belief in the power of reason and statistical thinkin...
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41 - Animal Magnetism from 2018-12-17T01:00
Mesmerism has had an outsize influence on medicine, despite the rapid rise and fall of its inventor Dr. Franz Mesmer and hostility from the medical establishment....
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40 - Phage from 2018-11-12T01:00
Bacteriophages -- viruses that target and kill bacteria -- were one of the most promising medical treatments of the early 20th century, and were used to treat all...
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39 - The White Plague from 2018-10-08T00:00
Tuberculosis has been humanity’s oldest and greatest killer. Starting at the turn of the nineteenth century, the White Plague was decimating entire generations in...
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0 - Introduction from 2018-09-10T00:00
Many podcasts start with an “Episode 0”, basically a mission statement for the podcast. Well, better late than never! This episode explores why I make Bedside Rou...
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38 - Blood on the Tracks (PopMed #2) from 2018-09-10T00:00
The first population study in history was born out of a dramatic debate involving leeches, “medical vampires,” professional rivalries, murder accusations, and, of...
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37 - Let It Bleed (PopMed #1) from 2018-08-06T00:00
For thousands of years, bloodletting was the standard of care for any number of medical conditions, but at the turn of the nineteenth century, often acrimonious d...
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36 - Filth Parties from 2018-07-05T00:00
The southern United States was hit by a dramatic epidemic of a mysterious disease called pellagra in the early twentieth century. This episode discusses the cultu...
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The Adventure of the Speckled Band by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from 2018-06-04T00:00
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle considered The Adventure of the Speckled Band to be his best Holmes story, and Adam does too. Meant to be a companion to Episode 35 (Sherlock), this is the story in its en...
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35 - Sherlock from 2018-06-04T00:00
Why do doctors love Sherlock Holmes so much? In this episode, we’ll explore this endearing, nerdy obsession with the good detective, from Holmes’ medical origins ...
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34 - The Physical from 2018-05-04T00:00
The physical exam has become a ritual of the modern doctor’s appointment, with pokes, prods, and strange tools. How did this become a normal thing to do? In this ...
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33 - Alexis and William from 2018-04-04T00:00
Alexis St. Martin and William Beaumont have one of the strangest relationships in the history of medicine -- a young French-Canadian fur trapper with a hole in hi...
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32 - The Humors from 2018-03-03T21:02:07
The Four Humors are probably the longest-lasting idea in the history of medicine, even though they’ve been more or less completely abandoned for the past century ...
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31 - Malariotherapy from 2018-02-02T23:30:42
Malariotherapy -- infecting comatose syphilis patients with malaria to cure them of the disease -- was once the cutting edge of medicine, and earned its inventor ...
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30 - The Orphan Vaccine from 2018-01-05T20:18:01
Two hundred years ago, a few doctors, a matron, and 22 orphans set sail in a gutsy attempt to spread the new invention of vaccination across three continents in t...
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29 - Curse of the Ninth from 2017-12-13T04:26:07
Did the famous composer Gustav Mahler work his fatal heart murmur into his final ninth symphony? To try and answer this question, I’m joined by Dr. Kevin Nordstro...
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28 - Smallpox Blankets from 2017-11-09T04:02:09
The story of smallpox blankets offered as gifts to indigenous peoples as a weapon of war is ubiquitous -- but is it based in truth? And did our increased medical ...
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27 - The First Opiate Epidemic from 2017-10-06T01:47:17
The United States is in the midst of an epidemic of addiction and overdose deaths due to opiate painkillers. Its causes are varied, but there’s no question that p...
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Summer Shorts #2 - Corrupted Blood from 2017-09-09T20:52:41
In 2005, a mysterious plague called Corrupted Blood hit the online denizens of World of Warcraft, ripping through cities and decimating player characters. After t...
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26 - The God Squad from 2017-08-31T02:43:33
The invention of dialysis -- essentially artificial kidneys for people with kidney failure -- revolutionized medicine. It also started a debate about medical rati...
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Summer Shorts #1 - The Eclipse from 2017-08-18T22:07:38
The eclipse is coming! Get out your eclipse glasses (or your camera obscura, if you didn't prepare like me), and enjoy a review of the medical literature on eclipses with our guest Dr. Avi O'Gla...
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25 - Salt Water from 2017-08-01T17:56:48
Intravenous or IV fluids are a ubiquitous treatment in medicine, and one of the most cost-effective treatments that we have, costing less than a cup of coffee in ...
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#TipsforNewInterns and Introducing Summer Shorts (NOT AN EPISODE) from 2017-06-28T04:00
In this month's #AdamAnswers, he discusses his #TipsforNewInterns (seriously, it's trending on Twitter). And we introduce the Summer Shorts for this summer -- and discuss how you can contribute ...
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24 - W56.22xA (The Making of A Disease) from 2017-06-22T04:00
What makes a disease? And who gets to decide? Producer Cam Steele brings us a story that spans migrating uteruses in ancient Egypt, a disease that makes slaves wa...
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23 - Bone Portraits from 2017-05-31T20:15:13
A darkened laboratory with an eerie green glow; a photograph of the bones of a woman’s hand published on the front pages of newspapers throughout the globe; myste...
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22 - The Assassination from 2017-04-24T04:01
A mortally wounded American president and the quest to find his assassin’s bullet unexpectedly opened up a potentially new era of medical diagnostics in the late nineteenth century. In this epis...
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21 - Renegades from 2017-03-25T04:01
Does medicine have a place for renegades who play by their own rules? Producer Cam Steele brings us a story about medical mavericks drinking toxic cocktails of their own creation, threading rubb...
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20 - Buried Alive from 2017-02-21T20:21:24
The nineteenth century was struck by a collective panic about being buried alive, leading to a bevy of new laws, regulations, and inventions like the safety coffi...
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19 - Of Madness and Moons from 2017-01-19T05:01
Can the moon make you crazy? The superstition is rampant in medicine, but the idea that a full moon awakens psychiatric pathologies traces back thousands of years...
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18 - Dr. Livingstone, I presume? from 2016-12-30T05:01
By the time that David Livingstone died on the banks of Lake Bangweulu, his name was already legend -- first, as a great explorer, becoming the first European to lay eyes on Victoria Falls and L...
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17 - The Iceman from 2016-11-25T14:43:32
In 1991, two hikers near the Austrian-Italian border discovered the 5,000 year-old mummified body of Otzi the Iceman buried in a glacier. What have we learned about medicine from the Iceman? Fro...
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16 - Phineas from 2016-10-26T14:50:53
Everyone knows the story of Phineas Gage, the young man who had a tamping iron shot through his brain in a freak accident and miraculously survived, only to have extreme personality changes. But...
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15 - Innumeracy from 2016-09-04T01:18:39
Understanding statistics has never been more important for the practice of medicine. Unfortunately, innumeracy plagues the medical field. Listen to Episode 15 of Bedside Rounds to learn more, an...
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14 - The First Trial from 2016-01-23T06:27:55
The Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) is the gold standard for how we know something works in the world of medicine. But how did we get to this point? The answer involves vegetarians and orange ...
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13 - The Oath from 2015-06-30T05:18:31
Doctors recite an oath, often the Hippocratic Oath, when they graduate medical school, swearing to serve their patients and to do no harm. The common perception is that physicians have sworn an ...
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12 - P.I.M.P. from 2015-03-31T03:12:53
Pimping ain't easy, especially when it happens on rounds. Where did the peculiar medical tradition of "pimping" come from? How did it get its name? Is it even effective? And does it still have a...
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11 - Frank's Sign Redux from 2015-03-12T05:13:40
Celebrate ten episodes of Bedside Rounds with a rerecording (with new material) of the first episode, Frank's Sign! The most powerful man in the world, the Roman Emperor Hadrian, dies of a myste...
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10 - Car Talk from 2015-01-28T07:34:55
On episode 10, I discuss one of the best public radio shows of all time, Car Talk, and how it's an awesome example of clinical reasoning. I also talk a little bit about how doctors learn to thin...
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9 - Laennec's Cylinder from 2015-01-18T05:37:22
In the beginning of a string of podcasts about sound in medicine, Bedside Rounds goes back to the beginning, with the invention of the stethoscope by Rene Laennec. How was the stethoscope invent...
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8 - I will harm from 2014-12-29T06:04:20
In Episode 8 of Bedside Rounds, we explore the mysterious world of the nocebo effect, where words can literally hurt -- or kill. It's all in the mind, right?
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7 - The Medicine of the Empire Strikes Back from 2014-09-26T05:21:13
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6 - The Number Needed to Treat from 2014-09-19T03:07:03
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5 - Beachside Rounds from 2014-09-16T15:27:36
In Episode 5, I present Beachside Rounds, a fun activity for the whole...
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4 - Happy Birthday from 2014-09-16T15:24:21
In Episode 4, I wish a hearty 202nd birthday to the New England Journa...
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3 - Dark Winter from 2014-09-16T15:17:14
In episode 3 of Bedside Rounds, I talk about the human triumph of smal...
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2 - Full Code from 2014-09-16T05:30:31
In episode 2 of Bedside Rounds (though still technically untitled), Listen
1 - Frank's Sign from 2014-09-16T05:08:33
A re-recording of the very first episode of Bedside Rounds! Learn how we can use the physical exam to help solve the mysterious, 2000 year-old death of the Roman Emperor Hadrian! Learn about how...
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