The portrait artist Adele Wagstaff trained at Newcastle University and the Slade School of Fine Art. She has been shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize and the BP Portrait Award and her work has been exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery. Alongside her work in the UK she spends time in Egypt, working on portraits of people along the Nile. Adele teaches a wide range of students, including life classes at the Royal Academy of Arts, which is where we first met. In this conversation we explore similarities and differences between our areas of work.
Helen Leek is a pianist who has won many prizes, including the International Young Concert Artists Competition and the Brant International Piano Competition. She performs as a soloist and chamber musician and teaches piano at Royal Holloway, University of London. She also gives masterclasses and adjudicates at competitions within the Royal College of Music. In this conversation explore her approach to music and discuss parallels between our professional worlds.
Helen dedicates this podcast to the memory of psychotherapist Bill Hendry, who died suddenly in March 2025.
Dame Eleanor Sharpston KC served as an Advocate General at the Court of Justice of the European Union from 2006 to 2020, before being removed following Brexit. Eleanor has held academic roles at the University of Cambridge, has numerous honorary doctorates and is a Bencher at the Middle Temple. In this conversation we discuss her remarkable career and explore parallels between our different paths.
Steven Appleby is an artist, illustrator and cartoonist who has created cartoon strips for The Guardian, The New Musical Express and many other publications. She has written and drawn many books (including the graphic novel Dragman), designed record covers, and has collaborated on a wide range of projects. She’s a transgender person who describes herself as being relaxed about pronouns. We recorded this podcast at Steven’s exhibition Nothing is Real in London.
Graham Scott is one of only twenty Premier League football referees. In this podcast we explore the challenges, pressures and satisfactions of being a top level referee and discuss the nature of the role. We also explore Graham's parallel career in journalism, from being a report to becoming Editor of the Nursing Standard.
Stephen Akinsanya is a barrister who focuses on defence work in many areas of criminal law. He has a particular interest in defending young people accused of involvement in knife-related crime. He is also committed to advocacy training and to supporting less experienced colleagues in his profession as they develop their careers. In this conversation we discuss our experiences in very different areas of professional practice.
Professor Allan Hamilton is a neurosurgeon, radiation oncologist, author, academic, horse whisperer, television scriptwriter and pioneer in artificial intelligence (AI). He holds four professorships at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. In this Countercurrent Revisited conversation we explore the excitements and dangers of AI in the clinical world and beyond.
https://neurosurgery.arizona.edu/profile/allan-j-hamilton-md-facs
Sharon Weldon is Professor of Healthcare Simulation and Workforce Development at the University of Greenwich. After overcoming serious illness as a teenager and travelling all over the world, Sharon trained as a nurse. After completing a Masters at the London School of Hygiene and Tropic Health she joined Imperial College London. Her pioneering work as a doctoral student in my own research group included developing the concept of Sequential Simulation. Since leaving Imperial to join the University of Greenwich she has established her reputation as a leading thinker in her field and is the President Elect of the Association for Simulated Practice in Healthcare (ASPiH).
https://www.gre.ac.uk/people/rep/faculty-of-education-and-health/dr-sharon-weldon
Paul Jakeman is a sculptor and stone carver, whose work ranges from creating new designs to restoring historic statues. He is also Stone Carving Tutor at the City & Guilds of London Art School. Paul’s large scale work includes the Atlas Fountain at Kenilworth Castle and carving - and installing - the massive unicorn on the steeple of St George’s Bloomsbury, one of London’s iconic Hawksmoor churches. In this conversation Paul describes the processes of stone carving and how he brings together ancient and modern influences in his work.
Thomas Schlich is the James McGill Professor in the History of Medicine and Charie of the Department of Social Studies of Medicine at McGill University in Montreal. This Countercurrent Revisited conversation picks up the story six years after our first podcast. We discuss Thomas’s longstanding fascination with surgery in the long nineteenth century and his book exploring these ideas. We also discuss his work on the history of masks, prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Annmarie Adams is Stevenson Professor in the History and Philosophy of Science, including Medicine, at McGill University in Montreal. An architect and architectural historian by background, Annmarie is jointly appointed in her university’s School of Architecture and Department of Social Studies of Medicine. We explore how these perspectives intersect and share our experiences of hospital buildings and other sites of care, drawing on Annmarie’s ability to analyse and map the skeletal structure of buildings in a way that resonates with studying human anatomy.
Nina Baker was one of my first Countercurrent guests. In 2014 she described her varied career, from being the first female deck officer in the British Merchant Navy to her PhD in concrete science and her work in university administration. In this Countercurrent Revisited podcast we explore her longstanding fascination with the history of women in engineering.
After a five year apprenticeship as a wood and stone carver Bradford’s (a leading London workshop) in the 1950s, Tony worked at the firm for fifteen years as a journeyman. He then moved to St Paul’s Cathedral as Master Carver. There he was responsible for the cathedral’s extensive conservation and restoration programme and also created new work. In this conversation we explore Tony’s lifelong fascination with the art and craft of carving, inspired by forms in the natural world.
Professor Misha Perouansky is a consultant anaesthetist and experimental neuroscientist in Madison WI, USA. He first took part in Countercurrent 2017. In 2023 he suffered a catastrophic water-skiing accident, leading to a high above-knee amputation of one lower limb and a number of other injuries. In this Countercurrent Revisited conversation we explore Misha’s experience of serious trauma and its impact on his life and career.
Dr Emma Barker is an art historian and academic who teaches and researches at the Open University. She specialises in eighteenth-century French art and she is currently exploring ideas around art and blindness.
Anne Desmet RA is a distinguished wood engraver, print maker and Royal Academician. Fascinated by the idea of metamorphosis, her imaginative works often draw on architectural themes. We discuss how her work has evolved over several decades, and how she brings together a wide range of styles and techniques.
The immunologist Andrew George is Professor Emeritus at Imperial College London. In addition to his immunological research, Andrew plays a leading role in developing policy around ethical conduct and regulation of research. He has held many senior positions in universities and the health service and is also a career coach.
Sir Christopher Le Brun PPRA is widely known as a painter, though he also works in other media. From 2011 until 2019 he was President of the Royal Academy of Arts (RA). We discuss his approach to art and the challenges of leading the RA during a time of challenge and redevelopment.
Quassim Cassam is professor of philosophy at the University of Warwick. He is well known for his work examining terrorism, political extremism, the professional values of general medical practice and the idea of epistemic vice. In this conversation we explore how these strands are interwoven within his career.
Peter Openshaw CBE is a respiratory physician and mucosal immunologist at Imperial College London, where he is Professor of Experimental Medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute. His because a familiar voice in the media during the Covid-19 pandemic. We discuss how his clinical and research interests intertwine, and how his Quaker principles underpin his approach to clinical practice and experimental work.
https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/p.openshaw
Dr Dan Dworkis is a board-certified emergency physician and Adjunct Professor at the Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. He is Chief Medical Officer at the Mission Critical Team Institute. His book The Emergency Mind: Wiring Your Brain for Performance Under Pressure was published in 2021. In this conversation we explore what it means to deal with uncertainty in situations of crisis.
Matt Bishop is a writer, journalist, novelist and communications expert with a lifelong passion for motor sport. In this podcast we explore his insights into the worlds of Formula One racing and journalism.
https://www.motorsportmagazine.com/articles/author/mattbishop/
Dr Stephen Webster is a philosopher of science and developed the internationally renowned Masters in Science Communication at Imperial College London. He stepped down from directing the Science Communication Unit in 2023 and now leads the Good Science Project at Imperial. We discuss what ‘good science’ means and explore how sitting and thinking can be as important as laboratory benchwork.
Geoff Grandfield is well known for his iconic book covers and illustrations, strongly influenced by film noir. His images, with their unconventional viewpoints and perspectives, convey a powerful sense of isolation, unease and disquiet. In addition to his work and his teaching, Geoff is exploring the legacies of primal separation in his doctoral studies.
Sheila Hayman is a documentary film maker who has been exploring the relationship between people and technology for over forty years. In this conversation we explore issues around sustainability, artificial intelligence and what it means to be human.