Bedside Reading

Send us Fan MailA very warm welcome today to midwife and educator Suzanne Crozier. We are talking about a book called The Midwife by Tricia Cresswell, which is an absolutely brilliant historical fiction novel, which Suzanne and I both enjoyed enormously for some similar and some different reasons.The Midwife is set in rural Northumberland and in Victorian London. And it's one of those brilliant books with dual narratives, with two wonderful protagonists. It keeps you guessing, and makes you think. There are so many themes in here around public health, gender, health, status, community, poverty. It's an absolutely cracking read and I have thoroughly enjoyed talking to Suzanne.

Send us Fan MailI'm really pleased today to be welcoming Georgia Vine to Bedside Reading. Georgia is an OT and is the author of Occupational Therapy, Disability Activism and Me, Challenging Ableism in Healthcare, which is a bit of a mouthful of a title for a very slim and absolutely brilliant, brilliant book.Georgia is an OT, she is an educator at the University of Huddersfield and she also is disabled. She has cerebral palsy and this book is based on her own experiences through the education system, higher education, occupational therapy training, and the enormous hurdles which she had to leap over in order to become registered with the health professionals regulatory body, and which absolutely astonished me because I thought that the health service might have moved on somewhat in its ableist attitudes. Georgia's blog is here https://notsoterriblepalsy.com/Georgia reassures me during the course of the podcast that perhaps things have got better. I really hope they have. and with activists like her flying the flag, perhaps the world of healthcare is going to become even better at supporting students and staff who have disabilities, but also have so much to offer and so much insight into the system.Georgia is obviously incredibly talented. She is so, so wise and insightful drawing on her own experiences and experiences beyond what you might expect somebody in their 20s to have experienced, presumably as a result of her own disability. I absolutely love the book. It's really challenged me as an educator. It's really challenged me as a doctor and in a good way and to really, really think about what people can do and to start adopting a much, much more strengths-based framework in everything that I do in supporting my learners. So I'm hugely grateful to Georgia for writing it, and it was a real pleasure to talk to her about it.Find Georgia on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/notsoterriblepalsy

Send us Fan MailI'm here today with Laura Spells to talk about a book called The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt. And we are thinking about Gen Z in particular and the generation behind that, the younger children. We're thinking about smartphone use. We're thinking about the effect that phones and social media have on developing brains. The move that has happened in the world from play-based to a phone-based childhood and what we're losing in that and what we're gaining in terms of anxiety, anxiety, alterations in social social skills, children being less able to take physical risks, less able to resolve conflict.I felt quite conflicted about reading the book because I thought that Jonathan Haidt was going to be very anti-technology and was going to be telling everybody to get rid of their phones. And actually the message is incredibly compelling, but much more nuanced than that. It is a really good read and I have absolutely loved exploring some of the themes with Laura.Resources for parents: Smartphone free childhood;  https://smartphonefreechildhood.org; the campaign hub! Provides links to all the evidence to all the harms there are linked with phone use. SFC parent pact; https://parentpact.smartphonefreechildhood.org/The anxious Generation; https://www.anxiousgeneration.com/; Lots of further information from the book - all the graphs, resources and additional material. Jonathan Haidt You tube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOf0v_ZYfU9_KlGn77h49; Tons of brilliant videos of him talking on hereFeel better, live more Dr Ranjan Chaterjee podcast episode talking to Jonathan Haidt; https://drchatterjee.com/how-smartphones-are-rewiring-our-brains-why-social-media-is-eradicating-childhood-the-truth-about-the-mental-health-epidemic-with-jonathan-haidt/Let Grow Project; https://letgrow.org/; Ideas to help parents let go of their children with confidence The healthy selfie;  https://thehealthyselfie.co.uk/?srsltid=AfmBOoq9PZA1KQPogR59HR1zbJovmLmkgy_kgD4Bp1dbkTn7gXvLGMzt; fantastic book full of practical tips for helping your child develop a healthy relationship with their phone and themselves Resources to point headteachers to: Smartphone free schools; https://smartphonefreeschools.co.uk/; All the evidence behind the need to go fully smartphone free, including success stories from headteachers who have done this. Sophie Windosr presenting a fantastic speech on the need for schools to reduce their invading Edtech https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V6nucKFK88PAPAYA (Parents Against Phone Addiction in Young Adolescents); https://www.papayaparents.com/; amazing charity delivering parent and child workshops about phone addiction. If you look closely in Meet the Teamhttps://www.papayaparents.com/meettheteam you may see a familiar face Resources for Health Professionals: Health Professionals for safer screens;

Send us Fan MailIt is a great pleasure today to re-release an episode from back in season 7 to celebrate the paperback edition of to Jane Campbell’s novel “Interpretations of Love” which was published on 5th June Jane joined me to talk about her first novel, Interpretations of Love.  Regular listeners may know that I've talked about one of Jane's books before, which is a short story collection called Cat Brushing, which I absolutely loved. Jane was a group analyst and then became a writer in her late 70s, publishing her first book in her 80s and I think she's a real inspiration that it's never too late to start writing but that also to remember that as we interact with people and as we work with them we will collect stories and we will get a better understanding of what a narrative is and different people's perspectives and that probably actually makes people better writers. It was a real joy talking to Jane and I'm really hoping you're going to enjoy our conversation.

Send us Fan MailWelcome to season 10 of Bedside Reading and what a series I've got lined up for you this time around! I am delighted to be launching today with two very special guests, Debbie Hicks and Gemma Jolly from The Reading Agency.The Reading Agency is an absolutely wonderful charity and their Reading Well "Books on Prescription" scheme is absolutely fantastic. If you don't know about it already, there's plenty in the show notes to tell you about it and we will be talking about it during today's episode. https://readingagency.org.uk/We are here today to talk about three different and absolutely brilliant books that the Reading Agency recommend on their Reading Well scheme. Frankie's World by Aoife Dooley, Slow Puncture, Living Well with Dementia by Pete Berry and Deb Bunt, and Boy with a Topknot by Satnam Sanghera

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Send us Fan MailNina Donovan's brilliant poem Nasty Woman moves me so much every time I hear it, or read it. It's such a joy to welcome Charley to the podcast hereListen to Nina perform her poem here  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvN0On85sNQ

Send us Fan MailIn this episode, I'm joined by GP Jo Maher as we delve into Jackie Kay’s evocative poem “Three Little Birds” We explore grief, memory, the power of music and the possibility of an earworm from beyond the graveWhether you’re familiar with her work or discovering it for the first time, this episode offers a heartfelt look at one of Jackie Kay’s most moving poems.we mentioned Jo's partner's poetry podcast which you can find here: https://www.chris-jones.org.uk/

Send us Fan MailIt's a real treat to welcome one of my all time medical humanities heroes to the podcast again this week. Sam Guglani is an oncologist, poet and novelist. He is the curator of the incredible Medicine Unboxed, hosting a festival which I've thoroughly enjoyed attending and this wonderful podcast https://soundcloud.com/medicineunboxedSam was generous enough to give up his time to talk about his wonderful novel Histories back in season 2  (listen here:  https://bedsidereading.buzzsprout.com/1880290/episodes/11212760-histories) and it was so lovely to spend time talking with him again, this time about Preparation by Czeslaw Milosz. 

Send us Fan MailI'm not sure I can say I have a favourite poet but if I were forced to choose the incredible Hollie McNish would be up there as a hot favourite.Lizz Lidbury and I are talking about one of our favourite of her poems today Arguing in the Headmaster's Office.   As the mother of teenage girls this one spoke to me (and is one of the only literature sources my older teen and I can both agree on the brilliance of!!)It's clearly best when ready by Hollie herself so here's a link  https://www.tiktok.com/@holliemcnish/video/7246103333604248859Enjoy, we did!!