Victorian Bodybuilding (Radio Edit)

You're Dead to Me

BBC

Comedy, History

4.7 • 10.9K Ratings

🗓️ 30 September 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Greg Jenner is joined by Dr Vanessa Heggie and comedian Darren Harriot to learn about the bodybuilding boom of the 19th and 20th centuries. The latter part of the 19th century saw the beginning of a fitness craze where the seeds of the modern-day gym and fitness culture were sown. But physical fitness also tapped into other parts of the psyche of British society at the time. From concerns over the fighting fitness of the British army to the racist pseudoscience of eugenics, this novel leisure activity tells us a surprising amount about the societal and intellectual currents that existed in this period. For the full-length version of this episode, please look further back in the feed. Research by Caitlín Rankin-McCabe Written by Emma Nagouse, Caitlín Rankin-McCabe and Greg Jenner Produced by Emma Nagouse and Greg Jenner Assistant Producer: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow Project Management: Isla Matthews Audio Producer: Steve Hankey You’re Dead To Me is a production by The Athletic for BBC Radio 4.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to tell you why I love podcasting.
0:04.5	I'm Sasha Johansson, I'm an Assistant Commissioner for the BBC and I work on making podcasts.
0:11.1	My real passion is discovering unbelievable unheard stories and working with the biggest
0:16.9	stars who can really bring those stories to life.
0:20.1	I love the whole process of making podcasts from the spark of an idea to hearing the final
0:26.0	edit.
0:27.0	There's nothing like it.
0:28.0	What makes BBC podcast special is that we're working for you, so whatever we commission
0:32.6	has to reflect the things that you care about and love, wherever you are in the UK.
0:37.0	So if you like this BBC podcast, there's so much more to discover.
0:40.6	Have a listen on BBC Sounds.
0:42.1	Hello and welcome to your Dead To Me, the Radio 4 comedy podcast that takes history seriously.
0:53.7	My name is Greg Jenner, I'm a public historian, author and broadcaster and today we are
0:57.6	lunging in our leopard print hop pants, tensing our abs and flexing our biceps as we bulk
1:02.2	up on the early history of bodybuilding and joining me to get historically hench at two
1:07.4	very special guests.
1:08.8	In History Corner, she's associate professor in the history of science and medicine at
1:12.5	the University of Birmingham's Institute of Applied Health Research.
1:15.8	You may have read her long running science column in the Guardian newspaper or her recent
1:19.4	book Higher and Colder on the Physiology of Extreme Exploration, it's professor Vanessa
1:24.6	Hegey.
1:25.6	Welcome Vanessa.
	...

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