Countercurrent: conversations with Professor Roger Kneebone

James Kinross combines his career as a consultant surgeon in a London teaching hospital with groundbreaking biological research at Imperial College London. In this conversation we explore how working across such different areas of expert practice requires fluency in the 'languages' of science, medicine and patient care.

Tamzin Cuming's career has moved between medicine and literature. As a consultant surgeon specialising in anal disease, her work takes place at a point of intersection between fields of expertise. Her clinical experience has been shaped by a longstanding fascination with literature and the humanities.

Dr John Launer has many strands to his career. A general practitioner, a specialist in family therapy and a prolific author, John approaches conversation from multiple perspectives. His model of interactional skills - 'Conversations Inviting Change' - draws on his lifelong experience as a clinician. In this podcast we compare notes from our own experiences of medicine and writing.

Micky Astor has many strings to his bow. He trained as an engineer, joining an arctic expedition sailing the North West Passage in an umiak before switching to parallel careers in financial services and farming. A gifted jazz musician and a keen sportsman, Micky is fascinated by intersections between different kinds of performance. In this podcast we compare notes from our different perspectives, exploring similarities and differences between surgery, jazz and aviation.

Hans Johannsson is one of Iceland's most distinguished luthiers. He has been making violins, cellos and double basses for over 40 years. This conversation, recorded in Reykjavik at the 2017 International Symposium on Performance Science, explores the embodied ways of knowing on which violin-making and medicine both depend. In it we uncover unexpected intersections between science, art and craftsmanship.

Chris Nichols' career has included extended periods in the civil service, investment banking, an academic position at Ashridge Business School, individual and organisation coaching and now the independent company GameShift. He has played a 'trickster' role throughout, defying classification as he switches roles. In this conversation we explore areas of similarity between our apparently different perspectives, including simulation, careers that change direction and the respective roles of insider and outsider.

David Cotterrell is an installation artist whose work crosses many boundaries. Working all over the world, from Shanghai's burgeoning cityscape to a military trauma unit at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan, David defies traditional classification. He challenges himself and his ideas through a continual drive towards artistic discomfort. In this extended conversation recorded on David's converted coal barge on the River Thames we explore how medicine and art can intersect in surprising ways.

The retired plastic and reconstructive surgeon Brian Morgan has combined a long clinical career with a lifelong fascination with sculpture, painting and playing the jazz trombone. In this conversation we discuss some challenges of steering a course between medicine and the arts, and explore the three dimensional thinking that plastic surgery demands.

Professor Misha Perouansky has developed parallel careers as an anaesthetist and an experimental neuroscientist. Multilingual in every sense of the word, his experience ranges widely across cultures and traditions. A passionate desire to interrogate his work deeply led led him into the history and philosophy of science. He is currently exploring responses to brain trauma through genetic research with fruit flies at his university of Madison, Wisconsin. In this conversation we explore our experiences of intersection between science and clinical practice.

Harrison Pearce is an artist and philosopher whose work brings together many interests and influences. Much of his artistic work is shaped and inspired by his fascination with analytical philosophy. In this discussion we explore how art, philosophy and medicine intersect in unexpected ways, and how conversation provides a framework for enquiry.