{"version":"1.0","type":"rich","provider_name":"Acast","provider_url":"https://acast.com","height":250,"width":700,"html":"<iframe src=\"https://embed.acast.com/$/6467b7de03f4220011a934bd/6929d939635c16d6407bd951?\" frameBorder=\"0\" width=\"700\" height=\"250\"></iframe>","title":"280. Stop Calling Renaissance Doctors Stupid with Alanna Skuse","description":"<p>Renaissance medicine wasn’t ignorant—its cures were stranger and smarter than you think.</p><p><br></p><p>Step back into a world of <strong>blood, bones, bile, and groundbreaking innovation</strong> as Dr Alanna Skuse dismantles the biggest myths about <strong>Renaissance medicine</strong>. From battlefield surgeries and prosthetics, to midwives, quacks, toads, and the four humours, this episode reveals a medical world far more logical, experimental, and effective than popular history suggests.</p><p><br></p><p>Discover why Renaissance surgeons weren’t reckless, why quacks sometimes worked wonders, and why patients were far from naïve. Packed with bizarre cures, pioneering breakthroughs, and the surprising origins of modern treatments, this is the ultimate guide to the misunderstood world of <strong>16th and 17th-century healing</strong>.</p><p>Whether you're into medical history, social history, early modern England, quackery, midwifery, apothecaries, or surgical innovation, this episode of <strong>History Rage</strong> delivers deep insight, dark humour, and a fresh perspective.</p><p><br></p><p><strong>What You’ll Learn in This Episode</strong></p><ul><li>Why Renaissance medical practitioners <strong>were not ignorant or cruel</strong></li><li>How surgeons made <strong>astonishing breakthroughs</strong> long before modern medicine</li><li>Why patients demanded treatments like bloodletting</li><li>The strange power of quacks—and why some were surprisingly effective</li><li>How apothecaries, midwives, and women healers shaped everyday healthcare</li><li>The bizarre logic behind cures involving <strong>toads, spiders, and boiling puppies</strong></li><li>The truth about syphilis nose reconstruction, battlefield prosthetics, and chemical medicine</li><li>Why the four humours actually made intuitive sense</li><li>What Renaissance medical thinking still influences today</li><li>What future historians will find horrifying about modern treatments</li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>About Our Guest: Dr Alanna Skuse</strong></p><p><strong>Dr Alanna Skuse</strong> is a literary scholar, medical historian, and author specialising in early modern disease, surgery, and the cultural history of the body. Her latest trade book uncovers the real experience of staying alive in Renaissance England.</p><p><strong>📚 Buy Her Book</strong></p><p><strong><em>The Surgeon, the Midwife, the Quack: How to Stay Alive in Renaissance England</em></strong></p><p>👉 <a href=\"https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10120/9781836430773\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em>https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10120/9781836430773</em></a></p><p><strong>📨 Contact / Follow Dr Alanna Skuse</strong></p><p>Website: <a href=\"https://www.dralannaskuse.co.uk/\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>https://www.dralannaskuse.co.uk/</strong></a></p><p>Twitter / X: <strong>@alanna_skuse</strong></p><p><strong>Instagram: @historian_alanna</strong></p><p><br></p><p><strong>Explore More Medical History Episodes</strong></p><p>If this episode left you hungry for more medical history:</p><ul><li><strong>Ep 161 – Karen Bloom Gevirtz</strong> on 17th-century healer-women</li><li><strong>Ep 56 – Louise Wilkie</strong> on Robert Liston &amp; Victorian surgery</li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>Follow &amp; Support History Rage</strong></p><p>🎙 <strong>Follow History Rage:</strong></p><p>Twitter/X: <strong>@HistoryRage</strong></p><p>Instagram: <strong>@historyragepod</strong></p><p><br></p><p>💥 <strong>Support the Show &amp; Get Bonus Content</strong></p><ul><li><strong>£3/month</strong> – Ad-free listening on Apple &amp; Patreon</li><li><strong>£5/month</strong> – Monthly livestreams + the coveted <em>History Rage Mug</em></li><li>Join Here: <strong>patreon.com/historyrage</strong></li></ul><p><br></p><p>❤️ <strong>Best way to help?</strong></p><p>Tell a friend about the podcast and get them raging too.</p>","author_name":"Paul Bavill"}