Each episode, sometimes academics, Courtney Hempton, Jane Williams and Chris Mayes take an undisciplined dive (i.e. bellyflop) into the underwater caverns of history, ethics and politics of health. They are joined by a cocktail of erudite, cantankerous and more qualified guests to talk through everything from the history of feminist bioethics to why acronyms are a curse and unnecessary evil. Plus, they break down the latest biopolitical news, discuss #bioethicstwitter bin-fires, and dig up…
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Send us Fan Mail We talk with philosopher Marilyn Stendera about grief as a disruption of lived time and why AI griefbots raise questions that go beyond simple “deception” claims. Stendera talks us through how Heidegger’s world time and clock time can help us to reconceive bereavement, digital legacy, and the pressure to grieve on a schedule. Other topics and questions discussed: • What griefbots…
Send us Fan Mail We talk with Órla O'Donovan about how medical museums and university heritage spaces can hide violence in the display cabinets while still shaping what we treat as knowledge, normality, and progress. We discuss with the limits of consent, erasing records, and why real repair demands ongoing reckoning with the past. References to topics discussed: Órla O'Donovan, University ‘dude…
Send us Fan Mail We talk with Professor Jon Jureidini about why AHPRA’s adoption of the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism alarms many Australian healthcare workers, academics and students. We discuss how a narrow regulatory move can chill speech, fuel vexatious complaints, and sideline collective and intersectional anti-racist strategies in healthcare. Considering signing the “ Joint letter from…
Send us Fan Mail We talk with Peter West-Oram about his new book - Justice, Solidarity and Global Health: From Globalisation to Collaboration - and discuss why solidarity is not automatically virtuous and how it can contribute to exclusion, coercion, and violence. We use COVID-19, vaccine conflict, and global injustice to ask what a minimal pro-social solidarity looks like and who gets counted…
Send us Fan Mail Dr Lisa Mitchell and A/Prof Diego Silva join us to discuss Netflix’s “Don’t Die” and use Bryan Johnson’s longevity regimen to talk about fear, meaning, and the politics of health. We ask what gets lost when anti-aging turns into an identity, a moral badge, or a business model. • Brian Johnson’s “don’t die” project as a story about wealth, control, and death anxiety • the tedium of…
Send us Fan Mail We chart how social media turns low testosterone into a crisis, selling masculinity, anxiety, and medical fixes to healthy men while skirting regulation. Emma Grundtvig Gram joins us to unpack overdiagnosis, celeb MRI scans, and the manosphere’s grip on health norms. • harms of screening and the right to balanced information • direct-to-consumer tests, devices, and influencer…
Send us Fan Mail We return after a hard pause to sit with grief, public safety, and how quickly politics moves to claim tragedy. We point to real solidarity work, reflect on bioethics beyond the moment of death, and share plans for more focused conversations next year. • pause explained and schedule intentions • Bondi tragedy and the ethics of listening • Australia’s uneasy multicultural story and…
Send us Fan Mail Dr. Nanette Ryan discusses gender open parenting, a model allowing children to determine their own gender in their own time without imposing gender expectations based on assigned sex at birth. According to Dr Ryan, this approach creates space for autonomy and protects children from potentially harmful patriarchal gender norms while providing them with knowledge to navigate gender…
Send us Fan Mail Dr. Andrea Ford, cultural and medical anthropologist, explores the fascinating world of femtech and period tracking apps, revealing how these technologies are transforming our understanding of bodies, health, and gender. The conversation examines how these digital tools function within surveillance capitalism while promising personal empowerment through data collection. • Period…
Send us Fan Mail Five years after COVID-19 upended our lives, we've developed a curious collective amnesia. When was the last time you seriously reflected on playground closures, door-to-door testing teams, or the "disappointing Dan" press conferences? These once-extraordinary interventions now seem like strange artifacts from another era. Jane Williams shares how COVID researchers now…