Renaissance Medicine (Radio Edit)
You're Dead to Me
BBC
4.7 • 11.8K Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2026
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Greg Jenner is joined in the 16th century by Dr Alanna Skuse and comedian Ria Lina to learn all about medicine and medical professionals in Tudor and Stuart England.
In Renaissance-era England, medicine was still based on the theory of the four humours, passed down from ancient Greek and Roman physicians like Hippocrates and Galen. But from the reign of Henry VIII, there were signs of change. The invention of the printing press led to an explosion in medical and anatomical books, and the circulation of ideas from across Europe. The College of Physicians was founded in 1518, and the Company of Barber-Surgeons in 1543. Medicine became a real business, with a range of specialists, professional bodies overseeing different kinds of healthcare, and an explosion of medical providers advertising their services to the general public.
This episode explores the landscape of healthcare in 16th- and 17th-century England, looking at everyone from physicians, surgeons and apothecaries to domestic healers and midwives, and even taking in quacks and frauds. Along the way, it examines the sensible social distancing measures taken during the Great Plague, the cures both sensible and dangerous offered for all kinds of diseases, and the cutting-edge experiments men like William Harvey and Christopher Wren were carrying out on the circulation of the blood.
This is a radio edit of the original podcast episode. For the full-length version, please look further back in the feed.
Hosted by: Greg Jenner Research by: Katharine Russell Written by: Dr Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Dr Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Dr Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Audio Producer: Steve Hankey Production Coordinator: Gill Huggett Senior Producer: Dr Emma Nagouse Executive Editor: Philip Sellars
Transcript
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| 0:37.6 | Hello and welcome to You're Dead to Me, the Radio 4 comedy podcast that takes history seriously. |
| 0:42.7 | My name's Greg Jenner. I'm a public historian, author and broadcaster. |
| 0:46.1 | And today, we're putting on our plague masks and rummaging in our doctor's bags as we head back to 16th century England to learn all about Renaissance era medicine. |
| 0:54.6 | And to help us, we are joined by not one, but two esteemed doctors. |
| 0:58.8 | In History Corner, she's an associate professor in the Department of English Literature |
| 1:02.1 | at the University of Reading, where her research focuses on medicine and the body from the 16th to |
| 1:06.7 | 18th centuries. |
| 1:07.9 | And luckily for us, she's also the author of the fantastic new book, |
| 1:27.4 | The Surgeon, the Midwife and the Quack. How to Stay Alive in Renaissance England. It's Dr Alana Scus. Welcome Alana. Hello, nice to be here. Lovely to have you here. And in Comedy Corner, she's a comedian, actor and writer. You might have seen her on all the TV on Live at the Apollo, QI, pointless, and having good news for you. |
| 1:29.0 | Maybe you've caught her live shows or heard her on Radio 4's The News Quiz, |
| 1:30.9 | but you'll definitely remember her from our show, episodes of Chungie Sao and Marco Polo, of course. It's Dr. Ria Lina. Welcome, Dr. Ria. Thank you so much. I rarely use that title, so it's nice to use it. I mean, you're such a sort of renowned comedian. People might not know this. You have a PhD in virology. I do for my sins. I have a PhD in herpes. That's my specialty. The classic root into comedy. It just doesn't come up much, especially on a first day. I really... So if you are a trained scientist, modern medicine, presumably you're pretty comfortable. |
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