Philosophers on Medicine Podcast: Philosophy Outside Academia

It is no revelation that there is philosophy in medicine. Bioethics contains ethics, and bioethics is a booming enterprise. But what about metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy or phenomenology? In medicine, there are certain entities, diseases, whose nature is somewhat mysterious and whose reality is sometimes questioned. There is medical evidence, clinical reasoning and uncertainty. There are disagreements over the organization of medicine and its place in society. There is suffering, as people confront their mortality and the meaning of a life worth living. Until recently, these problems as they arise in medicine received little philosophical attention, especially compared to problems investigated by big brother bioethics.

Over the last few years, the philosophy of medicine has grown to be a new philosophical discipline that tackles philosophical questions beyond bioethics. Part of my motivation for starting the Philosophers on Medicine podcast series featuring philosophers of medicine was to help nourish the field by spreading the word: medicine is teeming with philosophical problems waiting for attention from both philosophers and medics.

I also have a wish for the field: I want the philosophy of medicine to be engaged with healthcare–with its problems, its science, its practice and its people. I went to medical school in addition to pursuing doctoral studies in philosophy, with the idea that medicine and philosophy could be collaborators in the quest to treat abstract medical problems as well as fleshy ones. The thing is, I wasn’t sure how this could be accomplished (I’m still figuring it out). I doubted that there was one hyper-ideal way for philosophy to engage with medicine, but what were the possibilities, even?

Philosophers write articles (sometimes, they are even read by others). So, one obvious strategy is to write for a healthcare audience. This approach is often the one used by philosophers engaged in ‘public philosophy’. However, the public is deluged with articles that pour through social media streams. In medical practice, information overload is a much-talked-about phenomenon (I’m sure someone has worked out that every time a doctor coughs, one new clinical trial is published, or something like that). Podcasts are one alternative medium capable of reaching a wide audience.

Now for a sobering point, philosophers: More people will listen to that podcast your colleague recorded in an hour compared to that book or article you toiled over for years. Of course, there are better markers of research impact than merely reach. But reach is important. Reach can make a cumulative difference. Departments and tenure committees: take heed!

So, I decided to start a podcast series. I called it ‘Philosophers on Medicine’. I bought a Blue Snowball microphone for $100, downloaded the free recording and editing software Audacity, and I began interviewing my colleagues in philosophy of medicine. I recruited Emilio Flores, a helpful undergraduate student with some experience in sound recording, to assist me with the editing. And three months ago, I launched our shoestring podcast. I became a closet podcaster (meaning that I literally record some segments in a closet – without access to a studio, finding rooms that are conducive to reasonable sound quality is an ongoing challenge).

I modeled the format after a successful philosophy podcast, Philosophy Bites. Most episodes are between 20 and 25 minutes long. Some episodes will involve segments from separate interviews that are spliced together. In most episodes, I interview a single guest, a philosopher of medicine, about their work. There is a small amount of back and forth, but the series is mostly a medium for philosophers to present their ideas. So far, I have published episodes titled ‘What is medicine?’ (with Alex Broadbent), ‘Pick your medicine: evidence-based, narrative or precision?’ (with Miriam Solomon) and ‘Vaccine hesitancy and public trust in healthcare’ (with Maya Goldenberg). Episodes on whether diseases are real (with Jeremy Simon), delusions (with Matthew Parrott), and modern medical nihilism (with Jacob Stegenga) are soon to follow.

The podcast is partly for philosophers, to stimulate interest in philosophy of medicine. But the primary audience is healthcare providers, health scientists and patients (in other words, all of us). I do consider this podcast to be an act of public philosophy. I think of public philosophy as philosophy not just for the ‘general public’ but also for particular publics (in my case, healthcare publics). These are the stakeholders for philosophical research (at least the publicly funded kind), and I think sharing philosophy with the public is partly a matter of accounting. I also think that health providers can particularly benefit from thinking about the philosophical foundations of their practice – but that is an argument for another time.

I am publishing the first handful of Philosophers on Medicine podcasts jointly with the Canadian Medical Association Journal, along with short, peer-reviewed articles written for the journal by my guests. All this effort is an attempt to bring one area of philosophy closer to its subject matter. This is the prospect and potential of philosophy podcasting: to bring philosophy into conversation with the world again: with the disciplines, with the masses.

Of course, we must find a way to make these conversations dialogic rather than monologue; there is much for philosophers to learn as well as teach. And here, outside the ivory gates of peer-reviewed journals, our voices are just a few among a clamour (anyone with a microphone and an iTunes account can publish a podcast). There are challenges with any new medium. But podcasts are one means for philosophy and the outside world to rediscover each other, and I think this opportunity is too good to pass up.

As for Philosophers on Medicine, I don’t know whether it will be a finite series or an indefinite one. Associating a podcast with a department or a journal may be one way to institutionalize it. I have already experimented with the latter course. I am publishing episodes monthly for now. I’m open to ideas.

Oh, yes: and if you are interested in Philosophers on Medicine, you can find us on our website, on iTunes/Apple Podcasts, or on Google Play.

Jonathan Fuller

Jonathan Fuller is a postdoctoral fellow in theInstitute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology at the University of Toronto. From August 2019, he will be Assistant Professor in theDepartment of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh. His research is in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of medicine, and he is currently writing a book about the philosophical strands of ‘the new modern medicine’. He is producer and host ofPhilosophers on Medicine.