This month’s Books and Ideas podcast (#41) is an interview with Holly Tucker, author of Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution.  Dr. Tucker’s book is about the first blood transfusions—which, surprisingly, occurred way back in the 1660’s; 150 years before the first successful human-to-human transfusions.

The thing that makes Blood Work compelling is that Dr. Tucker puts these early efforts into the context of their time, and she helps us to consider how these events could be relevant to the medical controversies of our own time.  And, as we will allude to during our conversation, the story includes a fascinating murder mystery.

Listen to Episode 41 of Books and Ideas

Episode Transcript (Download PDF)

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 Links of Interest:

• Holly Tucker: author website
• History of Science and Medicine group on GoodReads.com
• For links to the people discussed in the interview, download the episode transcript.

References:

• Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution by Holly Tucker
• Blood and Guts: A Short History of Medicine by Roy Porter
• The Greatest Benefit to Mankind: A Medical History of Humanity by Roy Porter
• Transcript of 2006 State of the Union Address by George W Bush

Announcements:

• Use the coupon code GINGER to order books at http://scottsigler.com, including pre-order of the upcoming book The All Pro, which is the 3rd book in his Galactic Football League series.
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• Dr. Campbell will be speaking live in London, UK on May 11, 2011. Click here for details.
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