Perspectives on Science
Episodes
Do Less Harm: Ethical Questions for Health Historians
12 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In Do Less Harm, editors Courtney E. Thompson and Kylie M. Smith bring together a group of leading historians and scholars to confront one of the most...
Trans and Intersex Health from Past to Future
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
"Trans and Intersex Health from Past to Future" will bring together academics and activists to explore the history of trans and intersex people’s ex...
Medicine Crossing Borders: Immigration and Health
29 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
"Medicine Crossing Borders" explores how issues of immigration, medicine, and health have intersected in the past and present. The panelists will disc...
Federal Regulations: Progressive Era and Beyond
06 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Federal regulations are typically borne out of crisis. This conversation will examine how policy is set, starting in the Progressive Era and moving in...
Early Careers Workshop #7: Grant Writing Master Class
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Topics: Think big questions and frame them well; crafting your grant; personal experience. Speakers: Gerardo Ienna is postdoctoral researcher at the...
Early Careers Workshop #6: Content and Submission of Book Proposals
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Topics: Should I turn my dissertation into a book?; How to find the right press; how to approach editors; how to outline a book proposal; collective a...
Early Careers Workshop #5: Roundtable Discussion on Collaborative Research & Writing
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Topics: Best practice in communication in teams; different ways of collaboration; are virtual tools a game changer; national styles; are we moving tow...
Early Careers Workshop #4: Career Diversity
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Topics: Academic vs non-academic jobs; Work-life balance; gender; transition out of academia. Speaker: Arwen Mohun is Professor in history at the Uni...
DHST Early Career Workshop #1: Introduction in Writing Good & Fair Book Reviews
22 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Topics include: The nuts and bolts; communication with editors; deadlines; the balance of criticism; how to connect the book-under-review to previous ...
Christa Kuljian - Our Science, Ourselves
11 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Christa Kuljian discusses her book, Our Science, Ourselves: How Gender, Race, and Social Movements Shaped the Study of Science. Focusing on a network ...
DHST Early Career Workshop #3: Roundtable Discussion on Journals as a Means of Shaping the Production & Dissemination of Knowledge
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Topics include: How to find suitable journals; how to respond to reviews; the role of journals in acdemic discourse; the policies and politics of jour...
DHST Early Career Scholars Workshop #2: Best Practice in Oral History Interview and Analysis
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Topics include: What is oral history; limits and (dis-)advantages; biases; lessons from the practice; what to consider when producing and analyzing in...
Psychedelics in America
16 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Benjamin Breen and Jonathan Moreno on the history of psychedelic drugs in America. There is a resurgen...
Psychedelics in America
23 Feb 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Join us for a discussion of the history of psychedelic drugs in America. There is a resurgence of interest in psychedelics in the medical world as pos...
Conversation with Elena Conis – Author of How to Sell a Poison, 2024 Welch Award Recipient
09 Dec 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Historians of medicine often express the desire for their work to reach broader audiences; however, popular platforms—be they television, radio, pod...
50+2 years of Scholarship: UPenn Hist and Soc of Sci - History of Medicine
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In October 2022, the University of Pennsylvania HSS Department commemorated it's 50th anniversary, delayed two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic....
50+2 years of Scholarship: UPenn Dept of the Hist and Soc of Sci - History of Technology
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In October 2022, the University of Pennsylvania HSS Department commemorated it's 50th anniversary, delayed two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic....
50+2 years of Scholarship: UPenn Dept of the Hist and Soc of Sci - History of Science
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In October 2022, the University of Pennsylvania HSS Department commemorated it's 50th anniversary, delayed two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic....
50+2 years of Scholarship: UPenn Dept of the Hist and Soc of Sci - Dept Founder Arnold Thackray
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In October 2022, the University of Pennsylvania HSS Department commemorated it's 50th anniversary, delayed two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic....
50+2 years of Scholarship: UPenn Dept of the Hist and Soc of Sci - Plenary Presentations
05 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In October 2022, the University of Pennsylvania HSS Department commemorated it's 50th anniversary, delayed two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic....
Beyond the Annual Meeting & History in Therapeutic Spaces
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Historians of medicine often express the desire for their work to reach broader audiences; however, popular platforms—be they television, radio, pod...
The Joys and Perils of Relevant History
29 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Historians of medicine often express the desire for their work to reach broader audiences; however, popular platforms—be they television, radio, pod...
Connecting through Literature, Corporate Media, and the Museum
28 Oct 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Historians of medicine often express the desire for their work to reach broader audiences; however, popular platforms—be they television, radio, pod...
History of Science Society at 100: Mining in the history and social studies of science
22 Sep 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Join us for a discussion on the history of mining and the intersections of history of science with several other fields. How are mines sites of knowin...
DNA Papers 15: A Conversation with Matthew Meselson and Franklin Stahl
31 Aug 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Tune in one last time to a bonus episode of The DNA Papers with the authors of "the most beautiful experiment in biology" as they reminisce about "the...
History of Science Society at 100: History of Science in Song
16 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Four historians share their interests in music, and their perspectives in using songs as source material for better understanding the history of scien...
IsisCB on Pandemics - On Past, Present, and Possible Future, Pandemic Diseases
31 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode three of the podcast companion to the Isis CB special issue on pandemics, focuses on the very substance of pandemics, namely the diseases them...
DNA Papers 14: Matthew Meselson, Franklin Stahl, and semiconservative replication of DNA
10 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
The penultimate episode of the DNA Papers podcast series revisits a paper that demonstrated the semiconservative mode of DNA replication, which had be...
DNA Papers #13 - James Watson, Francis Crick, and the DNA Double Helix × Status message
25 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Rounding out the story begun in the previous installment, episode 13 of the DNA Papers centers on the publications in which the double helical structu...
Donald L. Opitz - Daughters of Ceres
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Don's book project, "Daughters of Ceres: The Scientific Advancement of Women in Horticulture, 1870–1920" examines the confluence of two 19th century...
Rena Selya — Salvador Luria: An Immigrant Biologist in Cold War America
23 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we speak with Rena Selya, the archivist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and author of Salvador Luria: An Immigrant Biologist in Cold W...
DNA Papers #12: Maurice Wilkins, Rosalind Franklin, and the double helix model for DNA structure
13 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 12 of the DNA Papers, is the first of a two-parter, which centers on papers published about the now iconic double helix structure of the DNA m...
Vandersommers - Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo: Stories from the Animal Archive
21 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Daniel Vandersommers, author of Entangled Encounters at the National Zoo: Stories from the Animal Archi...
Christopher Willoughby — Masters of Health: Racial Science and Slavery in U.S. Medical Schools
04 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives we speak with Christopher Willoughby, author of Masters of Health: Racial Science and Slavery in U.S. Medical Schools....
DNA Papers #11: Hershey, Chase, and DNA as the material of heredity
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In episode 11 of The DNA Papers we revisit a paper describing a famous experiment performed by Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase which combined the atom...
IsisCB on Pandemics - The Social and Political Dimensions of Pandemic Diseases
16 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Following in the wake of the Isis CB special issue on pandemics, this episode of the companion podcast takes a deeper look at the social and political...
DNA Papers #10: Harriet Ephrussi-Taylor and Rollin Hotchkiss
05 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The tenth episode of the DNA papers podcast brings to light some of the lesser discussed papers in the history of DNA that were instrumental in confir...
Empires of the Dead: Inca Mummies and the Peruvian Ancestors of American Anthropology
29 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Christopher Heaney, author of Empires of the Dead: Inca Mummies and the Peruvian Ancestors of American ...
DNA Papers #2: Albrecht Kossel
25 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
DNA Papers #2: Albrecht Kossel by Consortium for History of Science, Technology and Medicine
Who Does the Work of Science? A Century of Science as Passion, Punishment, and Paycheck
23 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Laura Stark is a historical sociologist and Associate Professor at Vanderbilt University. Her second book project, The Normals: A People’s History, ...
History of Science Society at 100: Publications
15 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The current and incoming editors of the journal Isis reflect on their expectations, experiences, and hopes for the journal and for the field of the hi...
DNA Papers #9: Erwin Chargaff
08 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 9 of the DNA Papers discusses a set of papers by the first scientist who made a sustained effort into uncovering the secret behind specificity...
History of Science Society at 100: Global Perspectives
10 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Join us for a discussion of history of science from the perspectives of Latin American, African, and Ottoman history — and global history more broad...
DNA Papers #8: Maclyn McCarty and Oswald Avery
29 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In Episode 8 of the DNA papers, we discuss the papers that directly followed up the discovery of the 1944 paper from episode 7. These papers, which h...
History of Science Society at 100: HSS at the Movies
11 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Moviegoers who might never pick up a book on the history of science may nonetheless find themselves confronted with the stories, themes, and questions...
DNA Papers # 7: Avery, McLeod and McCarty
26 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The seventh episode of the DNA Papers is the central one in this podcast series, not only because it marks the halfway point of the podcast, but also,...
History of Science Society at 100: Women Historians of Science
20 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The discovery of a never-released report from 1973 on women in the History of Science Society provides an opportunity to reflect on how much things ha...
Adam Fulton Johnson — Information Control and Indigenous Politics of Documentation
16 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Adam Johnson, Consortium NEH Fellow. Adam introduces us to his book project, which examines the shiftin...
DNA Papers #6: William Astbury and Florence Bell
10 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The sixth installment of this podcast series introduces a brand new player into the story of DNA: a technique from physics called X-ray crystallograph...
History of Science Society at 100: Society Presidents
19 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As the History of Science Society approaches its centennial celebration in 2024, its members reflect on the past 100 years of the profession, its fasc...
DNA Papers #5: Phoebus Levene
02 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 5 of the DNA papers examines the contributions of the organic chemist Phoebus Levene, who published a corpus of some 200 papers on the subject...
IsisCB on Pandemics: Fundamental Concepts in Understanding Pandemic Diseases
26 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This episode of the IsisCB Pandemics series features contributors who wrote and reviewed bibliographic essays surveying the literature about concepts ...
The National Academy of Sciences in the American Democracy: A History
21 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
An Albert M. Greenfield Forum in the History of Science In 2014, Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Daniel J. Kevles and Peter Westwick were invited to write the 1...
DNA Papers #4: Fred Griffith
30 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Episode 4 of the DNA Papers features another chapter in the deep history of DNA in which the molecule itself doesn’t come up. As in the previous epi...
DNA Papers #3: Walter Sutton
02 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The papers discussed in episode 3 of the DNA Papers do not mention DNA in any way at all! And yet they are vitally important in any history of DNA bec...
DNA Papers Episode 2: Albrecht Kossel
03 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In episode 2 of the DNA Papers we discuss a cluster of papers from the late nineteenth century by the German physiological chemist Albrecht Kossel, wh...
IsisCB on Pandemics: Introduction
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This series offers discussions with the editors and authors of a special issue of the Isis Current Bibliography. It provides perspectives into the sta...
Judith Kaplan — Linguistics: Reconstructing the Discipline through Universals Research
10 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Judith Kaplan is a historian of the human sciences focused on nineteenth- and twentieth-century linguistics. She holds degrees in disability studies a...
DNA Papers: Introduction
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
This podcast series illuminates the history of seminal discoveries and research through which we learned about the molecule that has been dubbed as th...
DNA Papers #1: Friedrich Miescher
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The first episode of the DNA papers goes back to the nineteenth century when a young Swiss doctoral student, searching for the secrets of life by delv...
Joseph Malherek — Free-Market Socialists: European Émigrés Who Made Capitalist Culture in America
20 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Joseph Malherek, author of Free-Market Socialists: European Émigrés Who Made Capitalist Culture in Am...
Susan Brandt on Women Healers: Gender, Authority and Medicine in Early Philadelphia
13 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Susan Brandt, author of Women Healers: Gender, Authority, and Medicine in Early Philadelphia. Drawing ...
Rana Hogarth — Eugenics and the Legacies of Slavery
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Rana Hogarth is Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University of Illinois and an NEH Fellow at the Consortium for History of Scie...
Ofer Gal — The Origins of Modern Science: From Antiquity to the Scientific Revolution
28 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Ofer Gal, author of The Origins of Modern Science: From Antiquity to the Scientific Revolution. What i...
Eugenia Lean — Vernacular Industrialism
08 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, we speak with Eugenia Lean, author of, Vernacular Industrialism in China: Local Innovation and Translated Technologies in the Making ...
Replay — Abe Gibson's Feral Animals in the American South
23 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Join us as we revisit our interview from April 2021 with Abraham Gibson, assistant professor of history at the University of Texas at San Antonio and ...
Replay — Aristotle's Masterpiece: Early Modern Sex Ed with Mary Fissell
18 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Join us as we revisit our spotlight on Aristotle's Masterpiece with Professor Mary Fissell, from October 2020. To see the visuals that Dr. Fissell ref...
Adam R. Shapiro — Trying Biology
10 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Adam R. Shapiro, author of Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial, Textbooks, and the Antievolution Movement ...
Stephen Weldon — The Scientific Spirit of American Humanism
04 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Stephen Weldon, author of The Scientific Spirit of American Humanism. In his book, Stephen Weldon unco...
Replay — Trust in Science: Vaccines
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In light of the COVID-19 epidemic and the sometimes fierce opposition to vaccination, join us as we re-examine our presentation from January 2019 on c...
Injustice in Science: The Meitner Scandal and Robert Millikan's Troubling Legacy
17 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
What would it take to "render justice" in science? In this roundtable discussion, our panelists discuss two episodes that demonstrate how scientific c...
Richard Wetzell on "Racial Science" in Nazi Germany
11 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Richard Wetzell analyzes the history of "racial science" in Germany during the early years of the Nazi regime, demonstrating how medical doctors, phys...
Replay—Freedom's Laboratory: The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science by Audra Wolfe
28 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How did scientists, policymakers, and government officials think about concepts such as "scientific freedom" and "Western science" during the Cold War...
Replay—Susan Lindee's Rational Fog: Science and Technology in Modern War
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How do we reconcile the positives and negatives of scientific and technological development? Join us in revisiting our interview with Susan Lindee, au...
Andy Evans on Racial Science in Germany
11 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Andy Evans discusses the history of racial science in Germany before the Nazi takeover in 1933. Evans describes how Germany's nineteenth-century liber...
Emily Merchant — Building the Population Bomb
29 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Emily Merchant, author of Building the Population Bomb. In her book, Dr. Merchant explores the histor...
Douglas O'Reagan — Taking Nazi Technology
15 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Douglas O'Reagan, author of Taking Nazi Technology: Allied Exploitation of German Science After the Sec...
Replay—Presidents of HSS, SHOT, and AAHM (September 2020)
07 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
With the virtual joint meeting of the History of Science Society and Society for the History of Technology coming up next month, join us as we revisit...
Eric Hintz — American Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D
29 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Eric Hintz, author of American Independent Inventors in an Era of Corporate R&D. In his book, Eric Hin...
Lucas Richert — Break On Through: Radical Psychiatry and the American Counterculture
22 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Lucas Richert, author of Break On Through: Radical Psychiatry and the American Counterculture. In his ...
Teasel Muir-Harmony — Operation Moonglow
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Teasel Muir-Harmony, author of Operation Moonglow: A Political History of Project Apollo. In her book,...
Rachel Walker — Race & Popular Science in Early America
09 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Join Dr. Rachel Walker as she recounts how reading a curious passage in the Anglo-African Magazine, which she found in the archives of the Library Com...
Neeraja Sankaran — A Tale of Two Viruses
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Neeraja Sankaran, author of A Tale of Two Viruses: Parallels in the Research Trajectories of Tumor and ...
Replay—Melanie Kiechle's Smell Detectives: An Olfactory History of Nineteenth-Century Urban America
26 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What's that smell? Join us as we revisit our interview with Melanie Kiechle on the history of cities, senses and public health. This episode of our p...
Alberto Martínez — Burned Alive: Bruno, Galileo, and the Inquisition
03 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Alberto Martínez, author of Burned Alive: Giordano Bruno, Galileo and the Inquisition. In his book, A...
From the Archives — Shopping for Health: Medicine and Markets in America
16 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
If you've watch television or listened to the radio lately, you've probably been bombarded with direct-to-consumer pharmaceutical advertising. Join us...
From the Archives — Immortal Life: The Promises and Perils of Biobanking and the Genetic Archive
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Direct-to-consumer genetic testing has been in the news this week with the recent IPO of 23andMe. Thus, we are revisiting our forum from September 201...
Sciences Of The Mind with Courtney Thompson and Alicia Puglionesi
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Held in partnership with the American Philosophical Society, this discussion brings together historians Courtney Thompson and Alicia Puglionesi to dis...
From the Archives — Trust in Science: Vaccines
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In light of the current global vaccination campaign against COVID-19 and the struggles to increase vaccine acceptance and ensure vaccine compliance, w...
Behind the Scenes: Black Holes | The Edge of All We Know
04 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Black Holes | The Edge of All We Know is available now on Netflix, or go to https://www.blackholefilm.com and click on the Watch button at the top for...
Abe Gibson — Feral Animals in the American South
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Abraham Gibson, author of Feral Animals in the American South: An Evolutionary History. In his book, A...
From the Archives — Kavita Sivaramakrishnan on COVID-19
12 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In light of India's ongoing struggle with COVID-19 and its devastating impacts, we revisit our conversation with Kavita Sivaramakrishnan from June 30,...
Bert Hansen — "Overlooked Images of Medicine" in America's New Mass Media of the Late 19th Century
28 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
To view Professor Hansen's images and for more resources on this topic, please visit: https://www.chstm.org/video/118. Join Professor Bert Hansen as ...
Stephen Kenny on Racial Science
16 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen Kenny scrutinizes the career of surgeon Rudolph Matas, the so-called "father of vascular surgery." Kenny demonstrates how his life and work mu...
Wendy Gonaver — The Peculiar Institution and the Making of Modern Psychiatry
07 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we speak with Wendy Gonaver, author of The Peculiar Institution and the Making of Modern Psychiatry, 1840-1880. Wen...
Warwick Anderson on Racial Science
29 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this recording, historian Warwick Anderson discusses his investigations into the development of racial science in the Global South and the fabricat...
Christa Kuljian on Racial Science
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this recording and in her book Darwin's Hunch: Science, Race, and the Search for Human Origins, Christa Kuljian examines the history of paleoanthro...
Audra Wolfe — Freedom's Laboratory: The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science
12 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we sit down with Audra Wolfe to discuss her book, Freedom's Laboratory: The Cold War Struggle for the Soul of Science...
Susan Lindee — Rational Fog: Science and Technology in Modern War
01 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of Perspectives, we talk with M. Susan Lindee, author of Rational Fog: Science and Technology in Modern War. In Rational Fog, Susan L...
Elise Burton on Racial Science
17 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Elise Burton discusses the development of genetics, racial science, and race concepts in the Middle East. Dr. Burton sketches the connections between ...