Countercurrent: Conversations With Professor Roger Kneebone

Michele Clapton has a stellar career as a costume designer, winning many awards for her creative work in film and television. Her designs for Game of Thrones and The Crown are widely acclaimed. In this conversation we explore how she inspires and brings together teams of craftspeople as she develops her vision for each production. 

Mark Wilson specialises in treating patients with brain injuries and is an expert in pre-hospital care. He’s worked in extreme environments all over the world and has been part of a NASA team monitoring intracranial pressure in astronauts. He was awarded an OBE in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours, recognising his pioneering work developing the GoodSAM community platform for roadside assistance. In this podcast we explore the many directions his career has taken and discuss similarities and differences between our experiences in and beyond the world of medicine.

Sir Antony Gormley RA is a well-known British sculptor who tries to ‘identify the space of art as a place of becoming in which new behaviours, thoughts and feelings can arise’. In this conversation we explore how our perspectives from art and medicine intersect and sometimes overlap. https://www.antonygormley.com

Dave Gibbons is best known for the iconic Watchmen, which he wrote with Alan Moore and John Higgins. His recent book How Comics Work, written with Tim Pilcher, explains the complex processes of design and development, with many examples of his own work. In this extended conversation we explore the world of comics and graphic novels and discuss points of connection between our interests and experience.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Gibbons     

Eleanor Crook trained in sculpture at Central Saint Martin’s and the Royal Academy Schools. She is widely known for her wax sculptures inspired by human anatomy and for the emotional intensity of her work. In this podcast we explore the regions where sculpture, anatomy and medicine intersect. https://eleanorcrook.net

Justin Margovan has been providing his technical expertise for my Countercurrent podcasts since the series started in August 2014. In this podcast we discuss his varied career and explore how his experience as a DJ and his expertise in becoming a ‘curator of music’ has fed into his current role at the Wellcome Trust.

Mr Dan Saleh, a consultant in Newcastle, is an expert in reconstruction after complex cancer surgery. In this conversation we start by discussing the unique characteristics of this branch of surgery and the skills of moving living tissue from one part of a patient’s body to another. We then explore issues around face transplantation, an area which raises profound issues around identity and personhood. As a surgeon in a research group with a special interest in face transplantation - a procedure not yet performed in the UK - Dan talks about the ethical and scientific issues he and his colleagues have to address.

Hannah Peel has a distinguished career as a musician. As a composer and performer she works with a wide variety of styles and approaches. Her latest soundtrack album is for The Deceived (Channel 5). In this podcast we discover unexpected parallels between our worlds of music and medicine and agree on the importance of close listening.  http://www.hannahpeel.com

Chau-Jean Lin’s company Marulin is all about tea. Chau-Jean’s family has been growing oolong tea in Taiwan for five generations. She herself trained as a materials scientist and engineer, living and working in France, the Netherlands and the UK before establishing her own company. Working with a co-operative of tea farmers, including family and friends, she focuses on sustainability and raising awareness of tea across the world. https://marulin.co.uk

Sheridan Tongue is a composer, performer and songwriter, well known for composing music for programmes including Silent Witness and the recent BBC Northern Ireland series Spotlight on the Troubles: A Secret History. In this podcast we explore points of connection between his career and mine, especially around the need for attentiveness, team-working and and close listening in our work. https://sheridantongue.com Sheridan’s album '2068' will be released on 16 October 2020  

Brian Lobel is Professor of Theatre and Performance at Rose Bruford College. His personal experience of cancer when he was 20 has shaped his career as a performer and a passionate advocate for patients’ voices. Brian and I got to know one another when we were both Wellcome Trust Engagement Fellows, and we share an interest in crossing conventional disciplinary boundaries.  https://www.bruford.ac.uk/news-events/news/brian-lobel-appointed-as-rose-bruford-colleges-professor-of-theatre-and-per/

Ollie Howell is a jazz performer and composer whose career crosses many disciplinary boundaries. As a music student specialising in jazz drumming, Ollie needed neurosurgery for an Arnold-Chiari malformation of the brain. While recovering he composed his first album Sutures and Stitches. Since then he was awarded a prestigious Sky Academy Arts Scholarship, which gave him the freedom to develop his career in new directions. Now his focus is on composing music for film and television. In this podcast we discuss the excitements and challenges of crossing disciplinary boundaries.  http://olliehowell.com

Luke Blair began his career as a newspaper journalist for the Reading Chronicle. He then became a lobby journalist and political correspondent before moving into communications for many public and private sector organisations. In his current role at Imperial College London he bridges the worlds of education, research and external relationships. In this conversation we explore how we understand the term ‘communication’ in our different professional worlds.  https://www.imperial.ac.uk/people/luke.blair

Andy McKillop was an editor and publisher for many years, becoming Publishing Director at Random House and reading up to 40 books every week. In 2003 he suffered a stroke which radically affected his speech and language. Unable to continue in his former role, he underwent a long period of speech therapy during his recovery. He then changed direction, retrained as a gardener and developed a new career. Since then he has changed direction again, focusing on drawing and painting. In this conversation we explore his experience of moving from a world dominated by words to a life built on different ways of seeing, thinking and doing.  

Roger Neighbour is well known to GPs as the author of The Inner Consultation and The Inner Apprentice, two books which had a powerful influence over Roger Kneebone when he was a GP. In this conversation we discuss how Neighbour combined his interests in medicine, psychology, Zen Buddhism and clinical medicine to write books which have shaped what it means to be a general practitioner. 

Howard Williams is a distinguished musician who has conducted many leading orchestras in the UK and across the world, including the English National Opera and Royal Ballet. He is professor of conducting at the Royal College of Music and has a particular interest in teaching conductors. In this conversation we explore parallels between our experiences, discussing similarities and differences between music and medicine. Finally we discuss Howard’s experience of teaching conducting in silence. https://www.rcm.ac.uk/Conducting/professors/details/?id=03945 http://www.whowardwilliams.com

Will Liddell studied zoology at university before working on cotton pests in South America. He then changed direction, studied medicine, and eventually became a general practitioner. In this conversation we discuss how his many interests, including Neuro-Linguistic Programming, have fed into his clinical work over the years. Will also owns a farm and has an enduring commitment to environmental science and sustainability. We explore the idea of healing as something that applies both to people and the natural world.

Erma Hermans combines academic knowledge with practical skill. Trained as a painting conservator and holding a doctorate in art history, Erma is also an art teacher and has a wide knowledge of fine and decorative arts. In this conversation we discuss what it means to become an ‘expert generalist’, exploring parallels between her world and my experience as a clinician. Erma is fascinated by the ‘material biography’ of each object she works with, interpreting its construction and history in the context of our contemporary lives.  https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/press/press-releases/erma-hermens-rijksmuseum-professor-of-studio-practice-and-technical-art-history

David Roach started his career by training to become a professional footballer. Injuries compelled him to change direction and he became a personal trainer and sports coach, working with clients at every level of fitness. David’s passion is climbing, which he sees as a kind of three dimensional chess - combining strength, agility, problem-solving and a meditative focus on the moment. http://www.davidroachtraining.co.uk  

Tabitha Tuckett’s career has moved across poetry, Classics and Renaissance literature. She has been an editor at the Oxford English Dictionary. As a musician she specialises in baroque cello and has performed and taught extensively. In this podcast we explore what it means to cross disciplinary boundaries and discuss ideas around identity and change.