Ben Franklin's world is a production of the

Omaha Institute. Hello and welcome to episode 263 of Ben Franklin Swirl.

The podcast dedicated to helping you learn more about how the people and events of our

early American past

have shaped the present day world we live in.

And I'm your host, Liz Kovart.

Did you know that imagination

once played a key role in the ways that Americans understood and practiced medicine.

I know it sounds quite unscientific but it's true.

Americans once used imaginative means to better understand health, disease, and the ways that the human body works.

Sari Altuler is an assistant professor of English at Northeastern University, and she's the author of The Medical Imagination, Literature and Health in the

Early United States.

And today, Sari joins us to investigate the ways that early American doctors used imagination

in their practice and learning of medicine.

So as we explore how early American doctors used their imaginations,

Sari reveals.

How and why early American doctors used imagination in their practice of medicine.

Early American ideas about disease, health, and the body,

and why we should consider medical imagination when we think about the histories of medicine and science. But first, did you know that Ben Franklin's

world has a swag shop? You asked me a while ago for a way that you could purchase Ben Franklin's

world t-shirts, mugs, and tote bags.

So my Omaha Hundro Institute colleague Martha Howard created an online store at Ben Franklin's

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