New season of "In the Same Vein" has launched!! My wonderful (graduated) master's student Jan and I interview @agnesjuliet.bsky.social about surgical myths and stereotypes & why a historian's perspective is vital in health policy and practice, among other topics! podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i...

Society has reached such a state of disrepair that people are watching TikToks with no headphones in the NICU As if having a very premature baby isn’t stressful enough

Cover reveal for my forthcoming book, WE HAVE COME TO BE DESTROYED: GROWING UP IN COLD WAR BRITAIN which tells the history of Cold War Britain (c.1956-89) through the eyes of children & young people! Out with @yalebooks.bsky.social 28 April 2026 #booksky #skystorians yalebooks.co.uk/book/9780300...

I'm speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival on Monday 13th October with novelist Georgi Gospodinov and psychologist Catherine Loveday! www.cheltenhamfestivals.org/events/nosta...

And! We bought a house today! Completed on this 1970s gem in South London

Off to do some filming for German TV about nostalgia! The German cover might - among stiff competition - be my favourite

I love these illustrations from a 1980s pamphlet on pre-term labour so much

It’s pouring with rain, but I just ate a ripe fig off a tree in south London

Living temporarily with my mum while we’re between houses, and these are the kind of gems she comes home with 🌿

We're reading @jennycrane.bsky.social's fantastic article on the history of public consultation and health policy in our policy team's analysis/reading group at the Health Foundation this week! www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Hello world! EAHMH is now officially on Bluesky. Follow us to receive updates about all things #histmed (but also #histsci, #STS) etc. For those of you joining us in Berlin for our biannual conference, please help us spread the word by using #eahmh25!

This is a really excellent, well-argued piece from @jenniferthf.bsky.social on the unresolved "dualities" which plague English health policy - and how far we (still) are from any settled view on how the NHS should be run. www.health.org.uk/features-and...

There's a LOT of tragedy going on here, but can't help feeling the purest horror for poor Mrs Thackeray 🤰 Giving birth in 1818, full stop 🩺 Your Dr is widely blamed for the death of Princess Charlotte in childbirth weeks earlier 💀 Your Dr then SHOOTS HIMSELF while you are in labour

Following the decision to abolish NHS England, @agnesjuliet.bsky.social​ and @hughalderwick.bsky.social​ analyse the history of changes to NHS management, identify unresolved tensions that underpin them and set out implications for the latest round of reform. Read more ⬇️ https://bit.ly/4mtiZB9

My non-history job allowed me to write some history! (and its policy implications, ofc)

I once set out to walk from my airbnb in a Nashville suburb to a coffee shop 14 minutes away and four (4) separate (very nice, well-meaning) people in their cars stopped to ask me why I was walking and if I was okay.

My first piece in the TLS — a review of a fantastic and pioneering new study of the Paris Commune’s afterlives in Britain and Ireland by @lauracforster.bsky.social www.the-tls.com/history/the-...

How can the feet have already disappeared when I still have three months to go?

Researching "natural" childbirth in 1990s Britain and just enjoying it so so much

I've written a fair bit about Henry Marsh's narrativization of his professional self, and how he confirms old myths, while also updating them for the more emotionally expressive cultures of the present day. Will be watching, but maybe not enjoying doi.org/10.7765/9781...

'Feeling blue: Colour and the modern British hospital' is out! And it's free online (or a relatively affordable £25 hardback if you prefer print)! Thanks so much to everyone who helped with the research for this, from supporting site visits to reading drafts. www.manchesterhive.com/display/9781...

Back to work after a two week holiday, except the “holiday” was potty training a toddler 🙃

If you own a car you are spiritually suburban

2 things: (1) I’m having a baby (!) & (2) you can apply for my mat cover at the Health Foundation! I love working here, it’s a fab job at a fascinating time for UK health policy, fab team, great organisation. Happy to answer any qs! Espec from academics/ #histmed ! lde.tbe.taleo.net/lde01/ats/ca...

Many high street health tests are unfit for purpose and need greater regulation, warn researchers in two studies. These studies highlight issues over accuracy and suitability for public use, they say www.bmj.com/content/390/... www.bmj.com/content/390/...

Health care regulation is in the spotlight following the 10-Year Health Plan and Penny Dash’s review of patient safety. @agnesjuliet.bsky.social​ argues that questions remain unanswered, with more work needed to develop an effective, proportionate regulatory system ⬇️ https://bit.ly/40ODrDG

ICYMI: In 2012, Jess Ainscough celebrated 2yrs of “intense detoxification and nutritional treatment” via the Gerson therapy: “Cancer is something I will always manage with my clean lifestyle.” Read my essay on quackery in @sciencehistory.org's Distillations www.sciencehistory.org/stories/maga...

I wrote an article about the Gerson Therapy, and what it is about cancer and its history that attracts so many alternative treatments. For the @sciencehistory.org’s Distillations magazine www.sciencehistory.org/stories/maga...

Fascinating read. I remember a friend of my parents being "prescribed" some of these things, including the coffee enema.

I wrote an article about the Gerson Therapy, and what it is about cancer and its history that attracts so many alternative treatments. For the @sciencehistory.org’s Distillations magazine www.sciencehistory.org/stories/maga...

Health care regulation is in the spotlight following the 10-Year Health Plan and Penny Dash’s review of patient safety. @agnesjuliet.bsky.social​ argues that questions remain unanswered, with more work needed to develop an effective, proportionate regulatory system ⬇️ https://bit.ly/40ODrDG

I enjoyed Agnes Arnold-Foster's monograph on nostalgia. She shows how it pervades our politics and culture. But also, how it can be a positive way to arrange our communities and find imaginaries of hope. And immediately you start spotting it in the wild... 1/2

As integrated care boards face cuts of 50% to running costs and likely mergers, @agnesjuliet.bsky.social​ draws on analysis of ICS characteristics and the history of NHS reorganisations to identify some of the risks and potential implications of merging. Read more ⬇️ https://bit.ly/44JiCM8

An old dream - to see the NHS as a stop-gap solution until prevention and community health solve all problems. It failed before, and it does not take a rocket scientist to predict it will fail again. The real irony is how little the health secretary knows (or indeed cares) about history.

"To deliver, we will increase the share of NHS resources spent in the community and decrease the share spent in hospital over the course of this plan." okay, but howwwwwww www.gov.uk/government/p...

With the NHS 10 Year Plan to be shortly published, read our responses already from @theasrstein.bsky.social and @becksfisher.bsky.social on the plans for neighbourhood teams, dentistry and technology. www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/news-item/nu...

We're looking for a dynamic and experienced Improvement Fellow to join our Insight and Analysis Unit. This is a fantastic opportunity to lead research and analysis that informs policy, influences practice and drives meaningful change. Find out more and apply by 13 July ⬇️ https://bit.ly/3TPB0wJ

The tone of this BBC deep dive into RFK Jr is bizarre. "Is RFK 'drifting into misinformation'?" - yes "'He is not anti vax, he is anti corruption'" - no www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

On the eve of the gvt's 10-year health plan, I've written something that is, among other things, about the history of NHS reorganisation and reform, and whether those efforts to find the "perfect" system or structure have done more harm than good www.health.org.uk/features-and...

Our book is out! The surprising history of masks worn by plague doctors, factory workers, trench soldier, hospital nurses, and the rest of us. yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300... @yalepress.bsky.social @yalebooks.bsky.socuial

Working in health policy, still managing to squeeze some history into my publications ✨ Marking seven months at @healthfoundation.bsky.social, my very first blog.

NEW: As integrated care boards face cuts of 50% to running costs and likely mergers, @agnesjuliet.bsky.social​ draws on analysis of ICS characteristics and the history of NHS reorganisations to identify some of the risks and potential implications of merging. Read more ⬇️ https://bit.ly/44JiCM8

Romanian & Korean editions of NOSTALGIA [email protected]

Calling all scholars of night work! I am organising a workshop on the night shift since 1900 this September at Newcastle. Looking for scholars across disciplines who think about working at night in critical context to give short working papers. More info here: kristinhussey.co.uk/research/34u...

From 'Breathe through your nose' to 'Care for your feet', a cast of largely unimpressed London infants spreading the municipal health message in 1938 More excellent health advice available through our digitised sources on British healthcare, 1900-1948, at warwick.ac.uk/services/lib...

Job Alert! We're hiring a 3-year F/T Public Engagment Fellow based @lcflondon.bsky.social to lead our exciting programme of activities. We're looking for collegial & creative people with expertise in History, Galleries, Archives, Libraries, or Museums. Spread the word! www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNI861/p...

What makes us nostalgic? On Saturday @agnesjuliet.bsky.social, Krystine Batcho and I discussed nostalgia on the BBC World Service. @medianostalgia.bsky.social @harvardpress.bsky.social @freieuniversitaet.bsky.social www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w...

Published today, @healthfoundation.bsky.social reveals an increasingly concerning picture of health in the UK. www.health.org.uk/reports-and-...

Correct assumption.

😮😮😮