Episode 4
Physician Gavin Francis leads us round a cultural map of the body: the mysterious liver, essential to life, capable of regeneration. From 2015.
Gavin Francis leads us through a cultural map of the body – an adventure in what it means to be human. Drawing on his own experiences as a physician and writer, he blends first-hand case studies with reflections on the way the body has been imagined and portrayed over millennia.
The liver is a mysterious organ - essential to life, multifarious in its actions, its tissue unusual in being able to regenerate.
Ancient cultures used the livers of sacrificed animals to predict events; Biblical kings planned wars according to what the liver foretold. Livers appear in the proverbs of eastern Europe and in the folk tales gathered by the Brothers Grimm. And when a young gardener scratches her finger on a thorn and falls into a coma, it might be her liver which saves her life.
Read by Bill Paterson
Abridged by Jo Coombs
Produced by Hannah Marshall
A Loftus production first broadcast on Â鶹Éç Radio 4 in 2015.
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Credits
Role | Contributor |
---|---|
Reader | Bill Paterson |
Writer | Gavin Francis |
Abridger | Jo Coombs |
Producer | Hannah Marshall |
Broadcasts
- Thu 11 Jun 2015 09:45Â鶹Éç Radio 4 FM
- Fri 12 Jun 2015 00:30Â鶹Éç Radio 4
- Thu 16 Apr 2020 14:45Â鶹Éç Radio 4 Extra
- Fri 17 Apr 2020 02:45Â鶹Éç Radio 4 Extra