Bedside Reading

Send us Fan MailWhat a treat to welcome Catherine Bell and Stephanie Farrell Moore to Bedside Reading to talk about their wonderful small anthology of poetry by neurodivergent women Kaleidoscopic Minds. Follow them on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/kaleidoscopic_minds_poetry/Buy your copy here https://kaleidoscopicmindsuk.etsy.com/listing/1606941954All proceeds go to Autistic Girls Network https://autisticgirlsnetwork.org/Huge thank you to https://twitter.com/Cathersbell for producing this resource listNeurodiversity resources for patients, parents and professionals:AutismSIGN patient information booklets - https://www.sign.ac.uk/patient-and-public-involvement/patient-publications/autism/ Neurotribes by Steve Silberman – Book/AudiobookWhat I want to talk about: How autistic special interests shape a life & Untypical by Pete Wharmby – Book/AudiobookChris Packham Inside our autistic minds - BBC documentary Autism in women and girls:https://autisticgirlsnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Keeping-it-all-inside.pdfOdd Girl Out: An autistic woman in a neurotypical world by Laura James – Book/AudiobookStrong female character by Fern Brady – Book/AudiobookChristine McGuinness: Unmasking my autism – BBC documentary ADHD:Driven to Distraction by Ed Hallowell MD and John Ratey MD – Book/AudiobookTaking charge of adult ADHD by Russell Barkley – Book/AudiobookADHD Aha! by Understood – Podcast The Disruptors – Documentary filmADDitude magazine - https://www.additudemag.com ADHD in women and girls:ADHD As Females – PodcastADHD for smart ass women by Tracy Otsuka – PodcastEarthed by Rebecca Schiller – Book/AudiobookMoodswings, Meds and Mared – Documentary (Welsh with subtitles) https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4aDWG-AXCo Dyslexia/Dyspraxia/Specific learning differences:Everything is going to be K.O. by Kaiya Stone – Book/AudiobookBritish Dyslexia Association https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk Dyspraxia Foundation https://dyspraxiafoundation.org.uk Tourettes:https://www.tourettes-action.org.uk Lewis Capaldi: How I’m feeling now – Netflix documentaryParenting/School:Your child is not broken by Heidi Mavir – Book/AudiobookCan't Not Won't: A Story About A Child Who Couldn't Go To School by Eliza Fricker - BookIn It: Supporting kids who think and learn differently by Understood - Podcast

Send us Fan MailI'm delighted to welcome the wonderful Andy Tagg, ED consultant (and part of the DFTB team who ate lego heads and calculated their FART score as the sieved their poo to work out how long it takes to pass a swallowed plastic toy https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/nov/27/shit-a-brick-doctors-swallow-lego-to-allay-parents-fears) to Bedside Reading this week.Follow Andy on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/andrewjtaggAndy is a gamer, I am not. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow was a bit of a hit on instagram early in 2023 with the main critics complaining it's all about gaming. I loved it! It was fascinating to discuss with Andy from his perspective of having truly connected with some of the characters' own experiences.

Send us Fan MailIt's such a treat to welcome back Ana Sampson for a dive into ideas for your Jolabokaflod.  As happens every time I speak to Ana we set out to think about a few books - the brief today was 5 - and end up side tracked and delighted to talk about more.Ana's own poetry collection Gods and Monsters is definitely up there for me as a book to buy (or request...)You can buy your Christmas Books wherever you most enjoy shopping but here's a link to my favourite independent bookshop's storefront on the fabulous bookshop.org platform https://uk.bookshop.org/shop/scarthinbooksWe talked about:Gods and Monsters curated by Ana SampsonThe Whalebone Theatre  by Joanna QuinnThe Beasts of Paris by Stef PennySkip to the End by Molly JamesImpossible Creatures by Katherine RundellStoryland for Children by Amy JeffsFemina by Jamina RamirezDominion by Tom HollandEngland on Fire by Stephen Elcock and Matt OsmanThe Ghost Theatre by Matt OsmanLost and Never Found by Simon MasonDead Rich and The Conspirators by William Shaw

Send us Fan MailOliver Sacks classic book The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat is one of the absolute classic texts in the genre of stories from the humanity of medicine. It's fascinating to go back to it with the mind of someone working in 2023.It was lovely to connect with Neurologist Louisa Kent to think about our responses to it and our perceptions of the way the book is written and the huge changes that have occurred in the last 20 years.

Send us Fan MailA confession, I don't like Greek mythology. AT ALL. I did however love this book both when I first read it 10 years ago and on re-reading for this podcast.Achilles, "the best of all the Greeks," son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods' wrath. They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.Ellie Hothersall and I had such a brilliant conversation about expectations, life scripts, stubbornness, the need to say sorry (and mean it!) and why some stories never ever grow old.Follow Ellie on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/DundeePublicH

Send us Fan Mail"It took 20 years,” writes Fergal Keane in The Madness, “before I came to the point of accepting I was addicted to war.”This extraordinary book by War Journalist Fergal Keane is an exploration of his journey, generational trauma, PTSD, addiction and so much more.It seems right to release this episode this week, with Armistice Day at the weekend and so much conflict and horror in the world around us currentlyI loved talking to Forensic Psychiatrist Emily Ramsay about it.https://twitter.com/drerpsych

Send us Fan MailIt was a huge privilige to meet Rowena Christmas aka "the doctor" from Polly Moreland's wonderful book A Fortunate Woman.Among other things we talk about John Berger's original book A Fortunate Man, living and working locally to your practice, the joys of continuity, community and the wonderful weird world of being a GP.Follow Rowena on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/ChristmasRowena

Send us Fan MailIt was an honour when paeditrician Cristina approached me on Instagram to tell me how much Loveless had meant to her when she listened to it by accident on a long commute and suddenly jigsaw pieces of her own life fell into place.We talk about the importance of representation in fiction, the spectrum of sexuality and gender identity and what it means to be asexual (which includes busting myths around asexuality and celibacy)It's Ace week from 22-28th October 2023 have a look here for more info https://aceweek.org/Cristina recommends https://www.asexuality.org/ as a great starting point if you want to know more.Obviously follow brilliant author Alice Oseman on instagram https://www.instagram.com/aliceoseman/?hl=en and find Cristina here: https://twitter.com/munchkindr on Twitter or https://www.instagram.com/jarofmeows on instagram

Send us Fan MailWhen Claire McKie recommended Kitchen Table Wisdom by Rachel Remen to me I realised she wasn't the first person who'd suggested it and somehow it had drifted down my to-read pile.  I'm actually embarrassed it took me so long to realise it was almost everything I'd been looking at in a book to dip in and out of and to recommend endlessly to others.There's a global flavour to today - me in the UK, Claire in Australia discussing a book written by a physician from the USA.Claire and I had a fabulous conversation about conversations and stories. We explore the power of listening and of stories to help us make sense of the world as well as talking about the way that revisiting old favourites often shows us different perspectives on something that seems familiar.If you don't have a copy of it yet, get yours here: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/kitchen-table-wisdom-stories-that-inspire-rachel-naomi-remen/5024712?ean=9781529045864we also thought about the other books with which we'd file this on a helf: Listen by Kathryn Mannix, Self Compassion by Kristen Neff, Time to Think by Nancy Kline and Atlas of the Heart by Brene Brown - all of which have been covered as  previous episodes of this podcast and might eb worth going back to.We talked about the Civility Saves Lives movement https://www.civilitysaveslives.com/

Send us Fan MailWhat a book! Anna Kent's Frontline Midwife blew me away.  Getting to meet her to record this conversation was just phenomenal.  Her publishers blurb reads: "At twenty-six years old, Anna Kent helped a woman deliver her baby in a tropical storm by the light of a headtorch. At age thirty she would be responsible for the female health of 30,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. But returning to work for the NHS in the UK, she soon learned that even at home the right to a safe birth was impossible to take for granted. Frontline Midwife is Kent's compassionate testament to the critical work of healthcare professionals around the world." and if that wasn't enough to suck you in.This conversation does cover some triggering themes - we talk about maternal and child mortality, about healthcare worker trauma, burnout, moral injury and PTSD.