Medical Technology

Did you know that a scientist discovered X-rays by accident? Or that people have been taking pain medicine for more than 5,000 years? Get ready to learn the strange stories behind inventions you use every day. From the Roman warrior with a famous false hand, to the Boy Scouts who made Band-Aids a big deal, you'll find out how we got the medical wonders that help us heal faster and feel better.

Secrets kill. Perfection destroys. A hardened detective and his idealistic, young deputy investigate the attempted murder of a child and uncover a secret with earth-shattering implications. ∞ Near Halti Fell, Northern Finland, the last of humanity has survived four hundred years in a series of crumbling habitats built to last fifty. Outside, the Earth is an irradiated wasteland of sand and desolate cities known as the scour. In the scour, nothing survives. Chief Investigator Linus Halla is tired of violence and death in cramped, rusted boxes. After twenty years on the job, he’s ready to...

The inspiring stories of six people who changed history. Contents: Edward Jenner, the man who fought the terrible disease smallpox; Florence Nightingale, the nurse known as 'the lady with the lamp'; Elizabeth Garrett, England's first female doctor; Carl Jung, the doctor who wanted to understand the human mind; Jonas Salk, who defeated the dangerous illness polio; Christiaan Barnard, the first man to replace a human heart.

A directionally-challenged woman with a dreaded fear of pain and the tendency to faint at the slightest physical malady goes on a soul search and winds up with an unconventional medical degree, an overweight chicken as a house guest, and a new road map for life. Spending years in a profession she’s wholly unsuited for gave her a unique perspective on human suffering. It also put her in the position of being able to entertain and inform listeners (and audiences) who are looking for a way to end their own suffering.

In Tell Me the Planets, Ben Platts-Mills tells stories about his work with survivors of brain injury, offering a rare glimpse into the world as seen through their eyes: charismatic Danny, whose criminal past has left him paralysed down one side, but who now helps others worse off than himself; Sid, whose memory for the present lasts only moments; and Liah, who is caught in a battle with the care system threatening to make her homeless.

The brilliant young forensic pathologist had no idea that the body on the slab in front of him would change his life - and ultimately change the world. The body belonged to legendary American footballer Mike Webster, whose mental health had rapidly declined after he had stopped playing - he had ended up Tasering himself to relieve his chronic back pain and fixing his rotting teeth with superglue. Dr Bennet Omalu found that the psychosis suffered by "Iron Mike" was no accident.

Have we advanced so far that we have arrived full circle with the technology of ancient times? Dr. James Bartlow thinks so. Appointed by the president of the United States to head the country's first national center for live fetal-tissue research, Bartlow stumbles upon an ancient, unknown technology that he believes will open the gateway to a whole new paradigm.