About this podcast
Award-winning comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean is joined by funny and fascinating comedians, doctors, scientists, and historians to celebrate medicine's inspiring past, present and future.
In each programme, Kiri challenges her guests to make a case for what they think is 'the best medicine', and each of them champions anything from world-changing science to an obscure invention, an every-day treatment, an uplifting worldview, an unsung hero or a futuristic cure.
Whether it's micro-robotic surgery, virtual reality syringes, Victorian clockwork surgical saws, more than a few ingenious cures for cancer, world-first lifesaving heart operations, epidurals, therapy, dancing, faith or laughter - it's always something worth celebrating.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 26 episodes
- 6 - Team Sports, Making Sense, Pet Dog Blood Donors, Board Games · 28 minJoining Kiri Pritchard-McLean this week is comedian Josh Pugh who makes the case for the life lessons learnt in Team Sports. Professor Julia Simner explores how our senses shape…
- 5 - Seaweed Underwear, Bubbles, Saunas · 29 minJoining Kiri Pritchard-McLean this week is entrepreneur Alex Perry who champions seaweed underwear inspired by a personal mission to improve women's health. Professor Eleanor…
- 4 - Fighting, Gene Therapy for Huntington’s Disease, Plants · 29 minJoining Kiri Pritchard-McLean this week is comedian Stephen Bailey who explains how fighting transformed his confidence. Professor Ed Wild shares a groundbreaking gene therapy…
- 3 - Horses, Breaking Bad News, Reels · 29 minJoining Kiri Pritchard-McLean this week is CEO and Founder of Devon Healing Horsemanship Louise Broadway, who champions how horses can help people for whom talking therapies…
- 2 - Reformer Pilates, Persistence, Free Flaps · 29 minJoining Kiri Pritchard-McLean this week is comedian Jamie MacDonald who stretches the limits with Reformer Pilates, married couple Dr Lindsey Fitzharris and Adrian Teal who pitch…
- 1 - Rubbish, Home Births, Collaboration · 29 minJoining Kiri Pritchard-McLean this week is comedian Michelle Wolf who reflects on home births, Professor Stephen Wallace explains how old plastic bottles can be transformed into…
- 7. Bonus Episode - Extra Dose · 41 minRight, roll up your sleeve, it’s time for an extra dose of Best Medicine! This is a special episode of unheard bits that couldn’t be squeezed into Series 2, featuring more…
- 6. Pain Management, Organoids, Prosthetic Leg Covers · 29 minJoining Kiri this week is comedian Desiree Burch who explains the best ways to cope with pain following surgery. Dr Abdullah Khan engineers mini versions of human organs in a…
- 5. Books, Poetry, Scandal, Writing · 29 minJoining Kiri this week in a literary special recorded at the Hay Festival is comedian Ignacio Lopez who heals family wounds through writing. Dr Paul Craddock explains how one of…
- 4. CAR T-cells, Ritual, Water, Crying · 29 minJoining Kiri this week are Dr Claire Roddie who retrains cells to fight cancer using revolutionary, game-changing CAR T-cell therapy, and comedian Fatiha El-Ghorri who finds…
- 3. Sleep, FMTs, Dr Charles Drew, Stem Cell Transplantation · 29 minJoining Kiri this week is comedian Laura Smyth who discovered the importance of sleep as she underwent cancer treatment. Historian Subhadra Das celebrates the incredible medical…
- 2. Sweating In Nature, Animals, Transplantation, Horticulture · 29 minJoining Kiri this week at the Hay Festival is comedian Zoe Lyons who tells Kiri how running helps with the stress associated with her alopecia - and how she survived getting…
- 1. MV140, Origami Surgical Capsules, Denial, Defibrillators · 29 minJoining Kiri Pritchard-McLean this week is comedian Daliso Chaponda who champions Denial as the best medicine (or does he?). Urology Consultant Mr Bob Yang explains how a…
- Best Medicine: Series 2 - time for your second dose! · 1 minIt's time for your second dose of Best Medicine! Award-winning comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean is joined by a funny and fascinating panel of comedians, doctors, scientists, and…
- 10. Epidurals, Embroidery, Play, Death · 29 minJoining Kiri this week are historian Dr Paul Craddock who unravels how vascular surgery owes a debt to 19th century Parisian embroiderer Marie-Anne Leroudier, historian Subhadra…
- 9. Autopsies, Light, Escapism, Henrietta Lacks · 29 minJoining Kiri this week is a druid, a drag queen and a mortician...it's one man, Kristoffer Hughes, who puts forward the autopsy as the best medicine. Professor Olivette Otele…
- 8. Doing Less, Gardening, The Smartphone, Expertise · 29 minJoining Kiri are historian Dr Paul Craddock who talks about what gardening and skin grafting have in common, comedian Shaparak Khorsandi who tells us how doing less helps manage…
- 7. Failure, Detection, Herpes, Climate Change · 29 minJoining Kiri this week are Dr Lindsey Fitzharris who brings with her a Victorian clockwork surgical saw to demonstrate why failure can sometimes be the best medicine, while…
- 6. CT Scans, Inhalation, Faith, Attention · 29 minJoining Kiri this week are Reverend Kate Bottley who offers up faith as the Best Medicine, Dr Subarna Chakravorty and John James OBE who team up to talk about sickle cell…
- 5. Laughter, Other People, Inclusion, Tissue Engineering · 28 minThis week comedian Nabil Abdulrashid tells us how laughter and comedy reduced the levels of violence in prison, heart surgeon Professor Massimo Caputo describes how he used…
