Episode 62: The Sisters Blackwell

Elizabeth Blackwell — the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States — and her sister Emily Blackwell are some of the most important physicians of the 19th century, firmly establishing the role of women as physicians, starting an infirmary and hospital for poor women and children, […]

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Diagnosing Diagnosis: A Historical and Epistemological Exploration of the Internist’s Most Important Procedure

  What does it mean to make a diagnosis? Are we always talking about the same thing? If you couldn’t make the lecture in person, here is a recording of the Grand Rounds I gave this year at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where I explore the changing definitions of diagnosis […]

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Episode 61: Etymologies

  Words matter. At its best, etymology gives us insight not only into the origins of words, but why they remain so important today, especially in medicine, where we’ve been accruing jargon for millennia. In this episode, we’re delving into four specific words — doctor, cerebrovascular accident, rounds, and zebras.  […]

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Episode 60: Santa’s Salmonella

For a special holiday treat, we’re going to explore two tales of salmonella disease detectives — the first about Mary Mallon (“Typhoid Mary”) and the birth of a new genre; and the second about a mysterious salmonella outbreak at Massachusetts General Hospital solved with the assistance of a very jolly […]

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