Pedantic Zebra Pod with Long Covid Advocacy

In this episode of the Pedantic Zebra Book Club, we’re joined by writer and cultural historian Elinor Cleghorn to discuss her acclaimed book Unwell Women: A Journey Through Medicine and Myth in a Man-Made World.Together we explore the long history of medical misogyny, the cultural myths that shaped women’s healthcare, and the enduring legacy of dismissal, disbelief, and diagnostic inequality. From hysteria and psychosomatic labels to chronic illness and modern medical gaslighting, this conversation examines how historical narratives continue to shape patient experiences today.We also discuss the emotional and political impact of writing Unwell Women and why reclaiming these histories matters now more than ever.If you’re interested in medical humanities, feminist history, chronic illness, disability, healthcare justice, or the politics of medicine, this episode is for you.Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the bell to catch more of our disability and chronic illness-focused literary discussions.Chapters00:00 Introduction & Elinor Cleghorn’s Story02:17 Lupus, Misdiagnosis & Medical Dismissal08:40 The History of “Hysteria” in Medicine15:30 Women’s Pain & Diagnostic Bias21:45 Autoimmune Disease & Gender30:55 Why Chronic Illness Is So Often Disbelieved34:42 Medicine’s Problem With Complexity35:31 Falling Through the Cracks of Specialisms37:52 Medical Education & “It’s Anxiety”39:46 What Medical Misogyny Actually Means41:49 Endometriosis & Systemic Failure43:01 The NHS, Chronic Illness & Structural Problems44:38 Why Doctors Need Time to Sit With Uncertainty46:04 ME/CFS, Incline Village & “Yuppie Flu”49:54 Psychologising ME & “Myalgic Nervosa”51:05 Long Covid, ME & Chronic Illness Stigma53:15 Why Medicine Must Change for Chronic Disease55:14 Exploitation, Blame & “Fairy Tale Diagnoses”56:18 Reimagining Healthcare Around Patients58:10 Elinor’s New Book: A Woman’s Work58:29 Reclaiming the Radical History of Mothering

In this special episode for Long Covid Awareness Day, Dr Rupert Higham, lecturer in Learning and Leadership from the Institute of Education at UCL speaks with Professor David Putrino, neuroscientist and rehabilitation specialist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai - and general legend!Professor Putrino is also the Nash Family Director of the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses (CoRE), where his team researches and treats infection-associated chronic illnesses (IACI) including Long Covid, ME, and chronic Lyme disease.Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Professor Putrino has become a leading voice in both the clinical care and research of Long Covid. He is also helping to develop medical education programmes for clinicians on infection-associated chronic illness as part of the Long Covid Open Medical Education Program with Polybio and at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.In this conversation we discuss:• Long Covid and the emerging science of infection-associated chronic illness• The overlap with ME• The challenges patients face in healthcare systems• Why traditional rehabilitation models can fail these conditions• The urgent need for better medical educationFor timestamps on specific questions, if you wish to break the interview up or view your personal most important sections, you can see them here: 0:00 Introduction 1:32 What drew David Putrino to Long Covid 4:53 How medical education has failed Long Covid and ME patients 14:19 Medical textbooks and patient experience in books 21:52 The problem with ‘medically unexplained symptoms’ 27:09 Why we see optional educational programs 33:10 How to embed Long Covid in under/post-grad training 33:30 Putrino's top three changes for medical education 41:01 How to reduce infection risk 44:27 How patients can navigate difficult doctor visits 55:16 How Long Covid education is spreading internationally 1:00:21 Q&A PEM vs Fatigue 1:02:51 Q&A Relationship between Long Covid and ME 1:05:32 Q&A Dysautonomia, Gut Problems and Nutrition 1:09:12 Q&A Help for diagnosis for MCASCohen Centre Living Clinical Guidelines for Infection-Associated Chronic Conditions and Illnesses on the HSS WebsiteDownload Infection-Associated Chronic Illnesses Provider Manual

Welcome to a special interview with Laura Elliott, author of the gripping near-future thriller Awakened. We dive into the story’s chilling world of sleeplessness, collapsing civilisation, and a small group of scientists grappling with the consequences of their own creation - and explore the book’s thoughtful representation of ME and chronic illness.The Pedantic Zebra Book Club, is our disability and chronic illness reading collective.IMPORTANT NOTE: We’ve moved our book club over to Fable - download the app and find us in Clubs for friendship, community & discussions.💙 Join Pedantic Zebra on Fable:📚 Books discussed: Awakened by Laura Elliott📚 Read an extract

Welcome to our second Pedantic Zebra book club video interview! Here we have an insightful and fascinating talk with Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan, author of ‘Unheard: The Medical Practice of Silencing’, our spring read. Our discussion dives deep into what medical silencing is, the all too real issue of disease prestige, how doctors do (or don’t) deal with uncertainty, give a moment to AI in medicine and more…Handy Links:Join the Pedantic Zebra book club on GoodReadsFollow along on our social media with the hashtag #pedanticzebraDetails on the book clubMore about ‘Unheard’ and Dr Dhairyawan on her websitePodcast also available on YouTube and Spotify

Welcome to the first-ever Pedantic Zebra book club pod! In this episode we interview Dr Jonathan Stea, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary and practising psychologist.  'Mind the Science - Saving Your Mental Health from the Wellness Industry' is his current book that we will be discussing. Pseudoscience is something that people with chronic illness are constantly having to deal with, so we will be discussing this topic and more... You can join the Pedantic Zebra book club on GoodReads here:https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1254946-the-pedantic-zebra-book-club And/or follow along on the Long Covid Advocacy social media channels with the hashtag  #pedanticzebra More details on the Pedantic Zebra #bookclub:https://www.longcovidadvoc.com/post/the-pedantic-zebra To find out more about ‘Mind the Science’ and Dr Stea you can visit his website & social media:https://www.jonathanstea.com/ X https://x.com/jonathanstea Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/dr_jonathan_stea/ Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/drjonathanstea/ #bookclub #jonathanstea #pedanticzebra #pseudoscience #misinformation #disinformation #conspirituality #longcovid #chronicillness #disability