In The Human Subject, Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw investigate the threads connecting modern day medicine to its often brutal origins.

This is the story of a 17 year old enslaved girl - Anarcha - and the other enslaved women who gave birth to the field of gynaecology. The year is 1845 and Anarcha has just had a baby. But there’s a problem. She is in great pain and her doctor, J Marion Sims, believes nothing can be done about it - at least at first.

She has developed a vesico-vaginal fistula, a hole between her bladder and her vagina. This leaves her incontinent and in the doctor’s words: “aside from death, this was about the worst accident that could have happened to the poor young girl”. In search of a cure Anarcha would be experimented on 30 times. Julia and Adam hear from Dr Deirdre Cooper Owens, a professor at the University of Connecticut and the author of Medical Bondage: Race, Gender and the Origins of American Gynaecology.

Presenters: Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw Producers: Simona Rata and Rufaro Faith Mazarura Assistant Producer: Mansi Vithlani Executive Producer: Jo Meek Sound Design: Craig Edmondson Commissioner: Dan Clarke

An Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4.

In The Human Subject, Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw investigate the historic threads connecting modern day medicine to its often brutal origins.

This is the story of a farmer from the small town of Milford, Kansas. The year is 1916 and the town has a population of only 200. The farmer is looking for a cure to his failing libido, so one day he decides to walk into the town doctor’s office and ask for help with his ‘flat tire’.

The doctor, John R. Brinkley tells the farmer that he’d have no problem with his virility if he had the testicles of a goat. According to the legend, the farmer asks ‘Well, why don’t you put ‘em in?’. Soon after the operation, a second man comes to see Brinkley, a man by the name of Bill Stittsworth. And so starts a series of similar transplants across the United States, leading to hope, joy, suffering and ultimately, death for many of the men who went under the small-town doctor’s knife. In this episode Julia and Adam hear from Pope Brock, author of Charlatan: America's Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam.

Presenters: Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw Producer: Simona Rata Assistant Producer: Mansi Vithlani Executive Producer: Jo Meek Sound Design: Craig Edmondson Commissioner: Dan Clarke

An Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4.

Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw investigate the threads connecting modern day medicine to its often brutal origins.

This is the story of 16 year old Lana Ponting. The year is 1958 and she has run away from home yet again. The police pick her up and a judge orders her to the infamous Allen Memorial Institute in Montreal, Canada.

There, she is met by Dr Ewen Cameron, a very famous psychiatrist. What neither Lana nor her parents knew is that Dr Cameron’s method of treatment was less than conventional and his work would soon attract the attention of the CIA and their mind control efforts. This is the story of Subproject 68 and MK Ultra. Julia and Adam hear from journalist John Marks, author of The Search for the Manchurian Candidate: The CIA and Mind Control. They also speak with Lana Ponting, one of the last living survivors of Dr Cameron's experiments at the Allen Institute.

Presenters: Dr Adam Rutherford and Dr Julia Shaw Producer: Simona Rata Assistant Producer: Mansi Vithlani Executive Producer: Jo Meek Sound Design: Craig Edmondson Commissioner: Dan Clarke

An Audio Always production for BBC Radio 4