JOANNA BOURKE
Video & Audio
Here are my latest videos and audio files! Enjoy.
I am interviewed on Woman's Hour about the history of breast cancer. See 47:07 to 57:00.
'Breast Cancer: A History'
George Severs talks to Laura Bates about the Everyday Sexism Project.
Laura Bates and Everyday Sexism
In this podcast, I explore the way people talk about pain. Is it really 'beyond language', as some people argue? Or do people-in-pain use complex metaphors to describe their feelings?How do languages of pain change over time?
May 2016
The Language of Pain
In this podcast with Prospect Magazine, I explore the modern history of death. Medical science is now able to prolong human life in a way that was unthinkable even ten years ago. But is it in our interest to extend life in that way? And how is digital technology affecting our ability to mourn?
16 March 2018
"The End of Death?"
I explore the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on violence against girls and women. The pandemic exacerbated, not created, the problem of sexual and domestic violence in our society.
11 November 2020
'Domestic and Sexual Violence During Covid-19'; British Academy
Men, masculinities and violence. Why do some men value physical violence as a resource? We also discuss stag parties, deviance and consumerism.
1 December 2016
'Men and Masculinities': Thinking Allowed (BBC Radio 4)
What is pain? You know it when you feel it, but it’s almost impossible to properly describe. And it turns out, our idea of what that suffering is and means has changed significantly over the centuries. I explore how knowing the history of pain helps us acknowledge our own sorrows and the suffering of others.
February 2017
'The Story of Pain': Radio West (U.S.)
I discuss Siegfried Sassoon and his celebrated protest against the 1914-18 war.
21 June 2017
'Siegfried Sassoon's Letter to The Times': Radio Three
When you say you have a splitting headache, or pain is shooting through your legs you know exactly how it feels, but others may not. Pain is subjective and personal so the context in which we sense it can fundamentally affect your experience of it. I explore how people in the past have coped with painful ailments, and what we can learn from them today.
30 July 2017
'Considering Pain': Radio National
Why do some people feel more pain than others and what happens in the brain during surgery? Irene Tracey asks if we can see pain generated in the brain using high tech scanners.
23 January 2018
'Seeing Pain': BBC World Service
Scientists reveal why we feel pain and the consequences of life without pain. Phantom limb pain, babies’ pain, people without pain, aid the understanding this subjective experience.
1 February 2018
'Knowing Pain': BBC World Service
I explore how soldiers in battle learn to deal with pain.
5 February 2018
'Controlling Pain': BBC World Service
Audio
A brilliant film, directed by Sophie MacCorquodale, about survivors of sexual violence. It was commissoned by the SHaME project.
SHaME: Stories of Survival
Antonio Monegal and I discuss war and art at the CCCB in Barcelona. We talk about aspects of the culture of war that affect the way in which war is represented and reaches us through history, collective memory and the media, in an attempt to sketch the contours of a possible ethics of representation.
2024
Images and Silences of War
This is a 'celebration' organised by my colleagues and friends, on me taking early retirement. MC-ed by Jude Kelly; speakers are Richard Evans, Pat Thane, Julie-Marie Strange, and Rodin May SChott. Then I am interviewed by Julia Laite (starts 1:05:52). 10 July 2023.
Celebrating Me! ('leaving do')
This is a short film about the history of Birkbeck and the experience of studying there.
Birkbeck - The Past and Today
I chart how, over the past five centuries, dentistry has been transformed from a backstreet horror show into a gleaming modern science.
2016
Incidentally, in the course of making this documentary I became very 'high' -- and the cameras kept rolling. Hugely embarrasing....