Best Medicine

Joining Kiri this week is comedian Laura Smyth who discovered the importance of sleep as she underwent cancer treatment. Historian Subhadra Das celebrates the incredible medical pioneer of blood transfusion Dr Charles Drew, Professor Lindsay Hall uses golden poo donors to cure serious infections, and Professor Nicholas Embleton’s life is saved by a stem cell transplant.Best Medicine is your weekly dose of laughter, hope and incredible medicine. Award-winning comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean is joined by a funny and fascinating panel of comedians, doctors, scientists, and historians to celebrate medicine’s inspiring past, present and future. Each week, Kiri challenges a panel of medical experts and a comedian to make a case for what they think is 'the best medicine', and each guest champions anything from world-changing science or an obscure invention, to an everyday treatment, an uplifting worldview, an unsung hero or a futuristic cure. Whether it’s origami surgical robots, life-changing pineapple UTI vaccines, Victorian scandal mags, denial, sleep, tiny beating organoid hearts, lifesaving stem cell transplants, gold poo donors or even crying - it’s always something worth celebrating. Hosted by Kiri Pritchard-McLeanFeaturing: Subhadra Das, Professor Nicholas Embleton, Professor Lindsay Hall and Laura SmythWritten by Laura Claxton, Edward Easton, Charlie George, Mel Owen, Pravanya Pillay, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Nicky Roberts and Ben RowseProducers: Tashi Radha and Ben WorsfieldTheme tune composed by Andrew JonesA Large Time production for BBC Radio 4

Joining Kiri this week at the Hay Festival is comedian Zoe Lyons who tells Kiri how running helps with the stress associated with her alopecia - and how she survived getting rammed by a badger. Dr Matt Morgan explains how kangaroo vaginas held the key to developing IVF and whales’ hearts inspired new heart treatments for humans, Dr Fotios Sampaziotis unveils innovative new treatments that could repair livers before a transplant is needed, and ethnobotanist James Wong unearths the benefits of horticulture and how it can benefit health and bring hope.Best Medicine is your weekly dose of laughter, hope and incredible medicine. Award-winning comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean is joined by a funny and fascinating panel of comedians, doctors, scientists, and historians to celebrate medicine’s inspiring past, present and future. Each week, Kiri challenges a panel of medical experts and a comedian to make a case for what they think is 'the best medicine', and each guest champions anything from world-changing science or an obscure invention, to an everyday treatment, an uplifting worldview, an unsung hero or a futuristic cure. Whether it’s origami surgical robots, life-changing pineapple UTI vaccines, Victorian scandal mags, denial, sleep, tiny beating organoid hearts, lifesaving stem cell transplants, gold poo donors or even crying - it’s always something worth celebrating. Hosted by Kiri Pritchard-McLeanFeaturing: Zoe Lyons, Dr Matt Morgan, Dr Fotios Sampaziotis and James WongWritten by Laura Claxton, Edward Easton, Charlie George, Kiri Pritchard-McLean, Nicky Roberts and Ben RowseProducers: Tashi Radha and Ben WorsfieldTheme tune composed by Andrew JonesA Large Time production for BBC Radio 4

Joining Kiri Pritchard-McLean this week is comedian Daliso Chaponda who champions Denial as the best medicine (or does he?). Urology Consultant Mr Bob Yang explains how a pineapple-flavoured UTI vaccine is changing lives, Dr Dana Damian takes Kiri on a journey through the body with tiny swallowable Origami Surgical Robots, and paramedic Thomas Martin teaches Kiri how to stay alive with Defibrillators.And the panel hear from David, one of the few people in the world who can claim he was brought back from clinical death with a defibrillator - and has also watched the whole incident on video.Best Medicine is your weekly dose of laughter, hope and incredible medicine. Award-winning comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean is joined by a funny and fascinating panel of comedians, doctors, scientists, and historians to celebrate medicine’s inspiring past, present and future. Each week Kiri challenges a panel of medical experts and a comedian to make a case for what they think is 'the best medicine', and each guest champions anything from world-changing science or an obscure invention, to an every-day treatment, an uplifting worldview, an unsung hero or a futuristic cure. Whether it’s origami surgical robots, life-changing pineapple UTI vaccines, Victorian scandal mags, denial, sleep, tiny beating organoid hearts, lifesaving stem cell transplants, gold poo donors or even crying - it’s always something worth celebrating. Hosted by Kiri Pritchard-McLeanFeaturing: Daliso Chaponda, Dr Dana Damian, Thomas Martin and Mr Bob YangWritten by Mel Owen, Pravanya Pillay, Kiri Pritchard-McLean and Ben RowseProducers: Tashi Radha and Ben WorsfieldTheme tune composed by Andrew JonesA Large Time production for BBC Radio 4

It's time for your second dose of Best Medicine! Award-winning comedian Kiri Pritchard-McLean is joined by a funny and fascinating panel of comedians, doctors, scientists, and historians to celebrate medicine’s inspiring past, present and future.Each week Kiri challenges her guests to make a case for what they think is 'the best medicine', and each of them champions anything from world-changing science or an obscure invention, to an every-day treatment, an uplifting worldview, an unsung hero or a futuristic cure.Whether it’s futuristic origami surgical robots, life-changing pineapple UTI vaccines, Victorian scandal mags, denial, sleep, tiny beating organoid hearts, lifesaving stem cell transplants, gold poo donors or even crying - it’s always something worth celebrating.Series 2 starts on Tuesday 19 November 2024 - and if you want to be notified as soon as a new episode drops, make sure you're subscribed to Best Medicine on BBC Sounds and have push notifications turned on.