Matt Kaplan discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Matt Kaplan is a science correspondent at the Economist. He is the author of The Science of Monsters and Science of the Magical, and co-author of David Attenborough’s First Life: A Journey Through Time. His new book is I Told You So! Scientists who were Ridiculed, Exiled and Imprisoned for Being Right, which is available at https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250372284/itoldyouso/.

1. The few doctors who worked out that handwashing was essential for preventing the spread of disease were attacked by their peers https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/ignaz-semmelweis-doctor-prescribed-hand-washing

2. George Washington disobeyed direct orders from the Continental Congress and inoculated his troops against smallpox during the Revolutionary War https://historyofvaccines.org/blog/washingtons-war-against-smallpox-revolutionary-inoculation-campaign/

3. Louis Pasteur was a vicious fellow who engaged in academic fraud. https://cms.viroliegy.com/2022/02/25/louis-pasteurs-unethical-rabies-fraud/

4. The mild mannered French physician Pierre Alexandre Louis worked out that the common practice of blood-letting was terrible for patients. https://www.grunge.com/812824/the-radical-history-of-bloodletting-explained/

5. Katalin Kariko https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/10/scientists-egos-key-barrier-to-progress-covid-vaccine-pioneer-katalin-kariko

6. Experiments exploring novel ideas are getting rarer as the effort needed to get research done steadily goes up https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20180338

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Jane Dougherty discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Jane Dougherty, of Irish origin, grew up in Yorkshire and now lives in France. She began writing by coming up with short stories and a YA series for her teenage children. Her first novel was published by an American publisher Musa in 2014. Since then, her poetry and short stories have been published online, in anthologies and magazines. She has been nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize and has published three poetry pamphlets. Her most recent novel, The Darkest Tide was published by Northodox Press in 2025. Pasiphae is available at https://www.waterstones.com/book/9781917163293

1. Déjà s'envole la fleur maigre (Paul Meyer, 1960) https://www.artforum.com/columns/paul-meyers-deja-senvole-la-fleur-maigre-231206/
2. Beatrice Cenci https://www.througheternity.com/rome/beatrice-cenci-life-death-rome
3. The Lot-et-Garonne département https://www.guide-du-lot-et-garonne.com/en/tourism/discover/the-lot-et-garonne.html
4. The works of Natalia Ginzburg https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1985/11/07/the-force-of-habit/
5. The painter Franz Marc https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n12/michael-hofmann/at-the-orangerie
6. The Irish legend about Grainne and Diarmuid https://www.discoveringireland.com/the-legend-of-diarmuid-and-grainne/

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Adam Steiner discusses with Ivan six things which should be better known.

Adam Steiner is a swim-teacher, freelance journalist and author. When not saving lives he sits dreaming about all the books he will never write.

He has written several books of music criticism: Into The Never: Nine Inch Nails And The Creation Of The Downward Spiral, Silhouettes And Shadows: The Secret History of David Bowie’s Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps) and Darker With The Dawn: Nick Cave's Songs Of Love And Death.

He runs the Disappear Here poetry film project – 27 x collaborative poetry-films about Coventry Ringroad – and now curates the Living With Buildings poetry film series, screening experimental films about people, poetry and place. For more information, go to https://adamsteiner.uk/.

1. Being There, Jerzy Kozinski: movie and book – so this is a great example of late/last great art - Peter Sellers was very attached to the story and was determined to make the movie, so he had do more pink panthers for the studio to back him.

2. Lifeguards / Swim Teachers - under-appreciated, under-sexed, underpaid its one of the hardest jobs out there - sitting in a chair dreaming, not doing anything, but people always take it for granted.

3. 40 - So we're always told that 40 is the new 30 etc - but it's a dangerous, difficult age.

4. When Biographies Become Biopics: Will Self said writers reading biographies of other writers is basically lit-porn – so we get caught up in a life narrative that often informs the work but steers us away from the original.

5. Real Dictators podcast - This is my go to 'easy' listening podcast, particularly when really ill I can just leave it on in the background and absorb.

6. Charity shops... the ultimate form of social progression. In London charity shops are a mecca for the undiscerning buyer.

This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm