Day In The Life Of A Plague Doctor

After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal

History Hit

Myths, Folklore, Mystery, History, Ghosts, Society & Culture, Murder, Ufos, True Crime, Paranormal, Supernatural, Serial Killers

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2025

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

If you think your job is bad, have you tried being a plague doctor in 17th century Venice?

Join Anthony and Maddy as they wake up on a quarantine island and take you through a day in the life of a plague doctor, including the sights, smells and horrors of what you would have seen as you explored plague-riddled Venice in 1631.

Find out what they would have worn, what they did on their lunch break, and what the perks of the job were!

This podcast was edited by Tom Delargy and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.

Please vote for us for Listeners' Choice at the British Podcast Awards! Follow this link, and don’t forget to confirm the email. Thank you!

You can now watch After Dark on Youtube! www.youtube.com/@afterdarkhistoryhit

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal is a History Hit podcast.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello everyone. It's us, your hosts Maddie Pelling and Anthony Delaney.
0:04.2	But before we begin the show, we want to ask for a few seconds of your time.
0:08.2	If you're enjoying After Dark, and we love you, if you are, we would love you just a little bit more.
0:13.5	If you could vote for us in the listeners choice category at the British Podcast Awards.
0:18.0	So go to the show notes now, click the link and just then search for After Dark.
0:23.2	Fill in your name and your email and don't forget to confirm. They will send you an email.
0:27.2	You need to confirm. The whole process probably takes about 30 seconds.
0:30.7	If you've already voted, we are so, so grateful. If you haven't, stop what you are doing right now.
0:35.4	Vote for us before you enjoy this show.
0:38.1	Hello and welcome to After Dark. I'm Maddie. And I'm Anthony.
0:41.6	Now today, Anthony is going full method for us. Never doubt his commitment to the cause
0:46.7	as we cast him as a plague doctor in 17th century Venice.
1:02.0	Yeah. It's just after dawn on Lazzarito Vecchio, Venice. Venice's island of the plague infected and the dammed in the 17th century. The water elapsed
1:08.5	gently at the crumbling stone key. It's quiet and calm, though this does not
1:14.3	reflect the dangers to come. Our doctor, let's call him Lorenzo, though no one dares call him
1:20.8	anything at all, rises from his cot in the physician's quarters, a draughty little cell that
1:26.5	smells like mould, rosemary, and despair.
1:31.0	He dons the infamous outfit, fresh from the streets of Paris, on goes his waxed canvas robe,
1:37.9	still damp from yesterday's sweat and laden with the misery of the dead, gloves, boots,
1:48.2	and then the piast of dead, gloves, boots, and then the Piaz de resistance, a leather mask shaped like a bird's beak stuffed with mint, lavender, and maybe a dash of wishful thinking.
1:55.6	The beak was meant to keep death out, but it has now become the very face of it.
2:02.9	Through the foggy glass eye holes, the world looks smeared and distant. Honestly, that's probably for the best. With a grunt,
	...

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