Pedantic Zebra Pod with Long Covid Advocacy

About Pedantic Zebra Pod with Long Covid Advocacy

Welcome to the Cripademia Book Club Podcast. We are a chronic illness and disability reading collective. Quarterly and intersectional (with the occasional non-book episode), we explore in community: chronic illness, disability, medical history and crip culture. Hosted by Long Covid Advocacy. 📚 ⁠Cripademia Book Club on Fable⁠: https://bit.ly/crp-fable 📷 ⁠Cripademia Instagram⁠: https://www.instagram.com/cripademia/ 💙 ⁠Long Covid Advocacy: https://www.longcovidadvoc.com/⁠ 🎧 Subscribe Thank you for listening and supporting sick and disabled-led work

Publisher

Long Covid Advocacy

Category

health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

8 Mar 2025

Latest episode

22 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

6 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   22 Sept 2026

   06 - On Fairy Tales & Disability: Discussing Disfigured with Amanda Leduc | Cripademia Book Club

   Join us for a conversation with Amanda Leduc, author of Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space. We’ll explore disability and difference in fairy tales, the Disneyfication of darker stories, representation, and what happens when disabled people reclaim the stories we’ve been told about our bodies. 📚 Disfigured by Amanda Leduc 🎙️ Cripademia is Long Covid Advocacy’s chronic illness and disability book club. Chapters 0:00 Introduction 0:39 What inspired Disfigured? 5:33 Fairy tales and disability 9:10 Why are transformations so central to fairy tales? 11:08 Can fairy tales have happy endings without transformation? 14:40 How fairy tales shape attitudes towards disabled bodies 18:09 The “nerd transformation” and beauty conventions 20:36 Disney, fairy tales and what we lose 25:30 Disney as a capitalist empire 29:16 Stories of collective transformation 37:37 Complex embodiment and Long Covid 39:00 The medical model, social model and complex embodiment 43:34 Disability is dynamic 45:22 Surgery, transformation and making space 50:44 Listening rather than measuring 53:52 Who is writing better stories about disability? 56:49 Disability in Star Trek, Pixar and Inside Out 58:41 Can changing stories change culture? 1:01:01 Disability representation and social change 1:01:39 What’s next for Amanda Leduc? 1:02:45 Goodbye Amanda's website (https://amandaleduc.com/) Cripademia on IG ( https://www.instagram.com/cripademia/) Cripademia book club on Fable (https://fable.co/club/cripademia-with-claire-478820715680#about )Long Covid Advocacy (https://www.longcovidadvoc.com/) #Cripademia #AmandaLeduc #Disfigured #FairyTales #DisabilityRepresentation #Bookclub #Disability #LongCovid

2. 

   29 May 2026

   05. On Medical Misogyny with Dr Elinor Cleghorn

   In this episode of the Pedantic Zebra Book Club, we’re joined by writer and cultural historian Elinor Cleghorn to discuss her acclaimed book Unwell Women: A Journey Through Medicine and Myth in a Man-Made World. Together we explore the long history of medical misogyny, the cultural myths that shaped women’s healthcare, and the enduring legacy of dismissal, disbelief, and diagnostic inequality. From hysteria and psychosomatic labels to chronic illness and modern medical gaslighting, this conversation examines how historical narratives continue to shape patient experiences today. We also discuss the emotional and political impact of writing Unwell Women and why reclaiming these histories matters now more than ever. If you’re interested in medical humanities, feminist history, chronic illness, disability, healthcare justice, or the politics of medicine, this episode is for you. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and hit the bell to catch more of our disability and chronic illness-focused literary discussions. Chapters 00:00 Introduction & Elinor Cleghorn’s Story 02:17 Lupus, Misdiagnosis & Medical Dismissal 08:40 The History of “Hysteria” in Medicine 15:30 Women’s Pain & Diagnostic Bias 21:45 Autoimmune Disease & Gender 30:55 Why Chronic Illness Is So Often Disbelieved 34:42 Medicine’s Problem With Complexity 35:31 Falling Through the Cracks of Specialisms 37:52 Medical Education & “It’s Anxiety” 39:46 What Medical Misogyny Actually Means 41:49 Endometriosis & Systemic Failure 43:01 The NHS, Chronic Illness & Structural Problems 44:38 Why Doctors Need Time to Sit With Uncertainty 46:04 ME/CFS, Incline Village & “Yuppie Flu” 49:54 Psychologising ME & “Myalgic Nervosa” 51:05 Long Covid, ME & Chronic Illness Stigma 53:15 Why Medicine Must Change for Chronic Disease 55:14 Exploitation, Blame & “Fairy Tale Diagnoses” 56:18 Reimagining Healthcare Around Patients 58:10 Elinor’s New Book: A Woman’s Work 58:29 Reclaiming the Radical History of Mothering

3. 

   15 Mar 2026

   04. On Medical Education with Prof David Putrino

   In this special episode for Long Covid Awareness Day, Dr Rupert Higham (https://profiles.ucl.ac.uk/62063-rupert-higham), lecturer in Learning and Leadership from the Institute of Education at UCL speaks with Professor David Putrino (https://profiles.icahn.mssm.edu/david-f-putrino), neuroscientist and rehabilitation specialist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai - and general legend! Professor Putrino is also the Nash Family Director of the Cohen Center (https://icahn.mssm.edu/research/cohen) for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illnesses (CoRE), where his team researches and treats infection-associated chronic illnesses (IACI) including Long Covid, ME, and chronic Lyme disease. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Professor Putrino has become a leading voice in both the clinical care and research of Long Covid. He is also helping to develop medical education programmes for clinicians on infection-associated chronic illness as part of the Long Covid Open Medical Education Program (https://polybio.org/projects/open-longcovid-medical-education-program/) with Polybio and at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. In this conversation we discuss: • Long Covid and the emerging science of infection-associated chronic illness • The overlap with ME • The challenges patients face in healthcare systems • Why traditional rehabilitation models can fail these conditions • The urgent need for better medical education For timestamps on specific questions, if you wish to break the interview up or view your personal most important sections, you can see them here: 0:00 Introduction 1:32 What drew David Putrino to Long Covid 4:53 How medical education has failed Long Covid and ME patients 14:19 Medical textbooks and patient experience in books 21:52 The problem with ‘medically unexplained symptoms’ 27:09 Why we see optional educational programs 33:10 How to embed Long Covid in under/post-grad training 33:30 Putrino's top three changes for medical education 41:01 How to reduce infection risk 44:27 How patients can navigate difficult doctor visits 55:16 How Long Covid education is spreading internationally 1:00:21 Q&A PEM vs Fatigue 1:02:51 Q&A Relationship between Long Covid and ME 1:05:32 Q&A Dysautonomia, Gut Problems and Nutrition 1:09:12 Q&A Help for diagnosis for MCAS Cohen Centre Living Clinical Guidelines for Infection-Associated Chronic Conditions and Illnesses on the HSS Website (https://www.hhs.gov/lyme/index.html) Download Infection-Associated Chronic Illnesses Provider Manual (https://www.coresinai.org/manual)

4. 

   13 Mar 2026

   03. On ME Representation with Laura Elliott

   Welcome to a special interview with Laura Elliott, author of the gripping near-future thriller Awakened. We dive into the story’s chilling world of sleeplessness, collapsing civilisation, and a small group of scientists grappling with the consequences of their own creation - and explore the book’s thoughtful representation of ME and chronic illness. The Pedantic Zebra Book Club, is our disability and chronic illness reading collective. IMPORTANT NOTE: We’ve moved our book club over to Fable - download the app and find us in Clubs for friendship, community & discussions. 💙 Join Pedantic Zebra on Fable (https://fable.co/club/pedantic-zebra-book-club-with-cripademia-478820715680#faq): 📚 Books discussed: Awakened by Laura Elliott (https://www.theportobellobookshop.com/9781915998903) 📚 Read an extract (https://reactormag.com/revealing-awakened-by-laura-elliott/)

5. 

   6 Jun 2025

   02. On Medical Silencing with Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan

   Welcome to our second Pedantic Zebra book club video interview! Here we have an insightful and fascinating talk with Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan, author of ‘Unheard: The Medical Practice of Silencing’, our spring read. Our discussion dives deep into what medical silencing is, the all too real issue of disease prestige, how doctors do (or don’t) deal with uncertainty, give a moment to AI in medicine and more… Handy Links: Join the Pedantic Zebra book club on GoodReads (https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1254946-the-pedantic-zebra-book-club) Follow along on our social media with the hashtag #pedanticzebra Details on the book club (https://www.longcovidadvoc.com/post/the-pedantic-zebra) More about ‘Unheard’ and Dr Dhairyawan on her website (https://www.drrageshri.com/) Podcast also available on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP6Byvwepf8) and Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/episode/1D3cx39DScLxJ1fzgKNugb?si=yAGEw36qTBO6cP_-EAwqZA)

6. 

   8 Mar 2025

   01. On Pseudoscience with Dr Jonathan Stea

   Welcome to the first-ever Pedantic Zebra book club pod! In this episode we interview Dr Jonathan Stea, Adjunct Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary and practising psychologist. 'Mind the Science - Saving Your Mental Health from the Wellness Industry' is his current book that we will be discussing. Pseudoscience is something that people with chronic illness are constantly having to deal with, so we will be discussing this topic and more... You can join the Pedantic Zebra book club on GoodReads here:https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1254946-the-pedantic-zebra-book-club And/or follow along on the Long Covid Advocacy social media channels with the hashtag #pedanticzebra More details on the Pedantic Zebra #bookclub:https://www.longcovidadvoc.com/post/the-pedantic-zebra To find out more about ‘Mind the Science’ and Dr Stea you can visit his website & social media:https://www.jonathanstea.com/ X https://x.com/jonathanstea Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/dr_jonathan_stea/ Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/drjonathanstea/ #bookclub #jonathanstea #pedanticzebra #pseudoscience #misinformation #disinformation #conspirituality #longcovid #chronicillness #disability

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Spotify

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Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.