Medi-Culture Conversations

Medi-Culture Conversations

Series 2 Episode 5: Stephen Coats

Host: Ilsa Jones

Medi-Culture Conversations is the official podcast of the Medi-Culture Festival, celebrating health, science and wellbeing in the heart of London Bridge this Autumn. Across a series of short episodes, we go beyond the festival programme to explore the ideas, research and people behind the events. From poetry and stand-up comedy to Pilates, women’s health, the science of death and the wellbeing of NHS nurses, each conversation uncovers the stories and ideas shaping how we understand health today.

Hosted by Team London Bridge, the podcast features interviews with poets, comedians, museum directors, festival organisers, local business owners and healthcare professionals. Together, we explore how culture, creativity and community can support healthier lives, and why London Bridge, from Keats’s medical training at Guy’s to Florence Nightingale’s legacy, has long been a place where medicine and innovation meet. Whether you are attending the festival or simply curious about the intersection of health and culture, Medi-Culture Conversations offers a space to slow down, learn something new, and connect with the ideas behind the programme.

In this episode, Ilsa is joined by Stephen Coats of London Month of the Dead to explore how a festival about death has found a natural home in London Bridge. Stephen shares the origins of the festival and who it attracts, what draws it to an area with such a deep medical history, and how it complements Medi-Culture. They also look ahead to two talks on 31 October: Reading the Dead with forensic anthropologist Dame Sue Black, and The Neuroscience of Forgotten Diseases with Dr Jenny Lange.