The podcast has already released three episodes, which can be found on Spotify or Apple Music.
MedChir, the society for medical students, and one of the University’s oldest, established in 1802, has launched an all-new podcast series called “MedTalks” with the tagline: “Ideas worth cheering!”. The podcast series aims to discuss everything “related to medicine, that may or may not be educational, with guests from within and outwith the medical profession”.
Categorised as both an educational and entertainment podcast on Spotify, Glasgow’s Medico-Chirurgical Society have two episodes out already and promise that an exciting line-up is to continue. Ran by Daniel Petrie, Billy Heeley, and Lewis O’Connor, the boys say that they have big plans: “We’d love to get a few famous names on; it’d be great to make it a hit.”
Created with the mindset that Zoom is already boring those students who have to deal with lecture material on the platform, the MedTalks podcast makes involvement in non-compulsory educational talks easier and, the founders hope, more interesting.
Speaking to Lewis O’Connor, one of the podcast’s founders, The Glasgow Guardian was told that the podcast planned to elucidate some of the research that is going on within medicine, learning about the lives of those working within the medical field, and hearing more anecdotal advice from different doctors. O’Connor also said that the podcast planned to be a platform for a diverse range of voices within the medical school through collaborating with different societies to help move medicine away from its stereotype of being “straight, White male-orientated”. The founders felt diversity was an important element of the podcast, to show that MedChir is willing to platform voices from a range of backgrounds and cultures, and to also get more people involved in the overarching society for medical students at Glasgow.
Currently, four episodes are available. The first episode features Professor John Paul Leach, Head of the Undergraduate Medical School, and is titled “Careers, consultancy and comedy”. The episode divulges some little known details of Leach’s comedy career, which stemmed from his first stand-up gig at the annual MedChir revue and grew into him meeting a number of famous faces. The second converses with Dr Mike Farquhar, a somnologist from London, who talks to O’Connor about the importance of sleep (Matt Walker-esque) and an intriguing “exploding head syndrome”. The third speaks with Dr Lottie Corr, both a medic and a comics creator, who talks to both Heeley and O’Connor about demystifying “graphic medicine”.
In their latest episode, the podcast introduces Sir Kenneth Calman, a renowned alumni of Glasgow Medical School, formerly President of MedChir. He has held the position of Chief Medical Officer in Scotland, and then England, later becoming Chancellor of Glasgow University.
Although the team don’t want to give away all their surprises, future episodes may include Peter Krykant who would bring forward the debate about the legalisation of injecting rooms in Scotland, something The Glasgow Guardian has previously reported on, and which can be found here. The podcast can be found on Spotify and Apple Music. For more details about the activities of MedChir, their Facebook page can be found here.
