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The Aural Apothecary

The Aural Apothecary

By: The Three Apothecaries
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The Aural Apothecary Podcast. An authentic yet lighthearted take on the world of medicines and healthcare in the UK from Jamie, Gimmo and Steve the Chemist.Copyright The Three Apothecaries Hygiene & Healthy Living Physical Illness & Disease Psychology Psychology & Mental Health
Episodes
  • 8.10 From HRT to Headlines, with Dr Ellie Cannon

    8.10 From HRT to Headlines, with Dr Ellie Cannon
    Jun 26 2026
    In this final episode of Series 8, we are joined by Dr Ellie Cannon — NHS and private GP, women’s health specialist, Mail on Sunday health columnist, and author of The Little Book of HRT. The conversation ranges from the evolving landscape of menopause treatment and the dangers of health misinformation online to the role of the media in shaping public health behaviour.

    Ellie reflects on her 18-year career as a GP on Abbey Road in North London and her work bringing calm, evidence-based medicine to an increasingly crowded and often sensationalist health media landscape. We explore the nuances of HRT prescribing, including the thorny topic of duration of use, while also discussing her earlier book Is Your Job Making You Ill? and the profound impact that work and workplace relationships can have on health and wellbeing.

    The episode’s micro discussion examines a systematic review of patient access to clinical notes, weighing the benefits for patient empowerment and safety against concerns about data quality, clinician intentions and unintended consequences.
    Impact of online patient access to clinical notes on quality of care: a systematic review https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/35/4/266

    As with all of our guests, Ellie shares with us her Memory Evoking Medicine, a career anthem and book. Her book choice is particularly poignant.The Little Book of HRT: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/little-book-of-hrt-9781399423694/

    Is Your Job Making You Ill? https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/dr-ellie-cannon/is-your-job-making-you-ill/9780349416755/

    From Prescription to Ocean — A TEDx Talk by Jamie HayesWe’re incredibly proud to share that Aural Apothecary co-host Jamie Hayes has taken to the TEDx stage with a thought-provoking talk: Prescription to Ocean: The Hidden Impact of Medicines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swCLNaAG5qYJamie explores a fascinating and urgent question: What happens to our medicines once they leave the prescription pad — and how do they impact the world beyond the patient? It’s a journey that connects healthcare, the environment, and our shared responsibility for the future. You’ll never think about prescribing (or taking) medicines in quite the same way again.Please take a few minutes to watch, reflect, and share — this is a conversation worth having.Please follow us on

    LinkedIn! Let us know what you think of the show.
    https://www.linkedin.com/company/auralapothecary/

    You can listen to the Aural Apothecary playlist here; https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3OsWj4w8sxsvuwR9zMXgn5?si=tiHXrQI7QsGtSQwPyz1KBg

    You can view the Aural Apothecary Library here; https://litalist.com/shelf/view-bookcase?publicId=KN6E3O

    Our website is https://www.theauralapothecary.com/

    To get in touch follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky and X @auralapothecary or email us at auralapothecarypod@gmail.com. Don’t forget to rate us and comment wherever you have got this podcast from.
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    1 hr and 4 mins
  • 8.9 How to take Drugs with Professor Nick Barber

    8.9 How to take Drugs with Professor Nick Barber
    May 29 2026
    Are your medicines actually working for you? According to Professor Nick Barber, probably not as well as you think. In this episode of The Aural Apothecary, Jamie, Gimmo and STC are joined by Professor Nick Barber — pharmacist, academic and author of the new book How to take Drugs — for a sharp, eye-opening conversation about why medicines so often fail in the real world. Not because the drugs are useless, but because taking medicines is far more complicated than we pretend.They explore the messy reality behind adherence, side effects, polypharmacy and patient behaviour — and why healthcare systems routinely overestimate what medicines can achieve while underestimating how hard they are to use properly.Along the way, Nick reflects on decades spent researching medicines optimisation and patient safety, arguing that the future of healthcare may depend less on discovering new treatments and more on helping people use existing ones better.A thoughtful, provocative conversation about one of modern medicine’s biggest blind spots.Buy the book here https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/nick-barber/how-to-take-drugs/9781035072132Two seminal papers by Nick , discussed on the podcast:What constitutes good prescribing? https://www.bmj.com/content/310/6984/923 Quality of medication use in primary care--mapping the problem, working to a solution: a systematic review of the literature https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19772551/Website discussed on the podcast re ASSESSING MEDICATION FOR ANTICHOLINERGIC BURDEN (USING THE ANTICHOLINERGIC EFFECT ON COGNITION TOOL) AND FOR QTc PROLONGATION, HYPONATRAEMIA, BLEEDING, DIZZINESS, DROWSINESS and CONSTIPATION MedichecAbout Professor Nick Barber ProfessorNick Barber is one of the UK’s leading experts in pharmacy practice, medicines optimisation and patient safety. He has held senior academic and leadership roles across healthcare and higher education and has spent decades researching how medicines are used in the real world. As with all of our guests, Nick shares with us his Memory Evoking Medicine, a career anthem and book. The drug choice with a deeply personal story that underpins the whole ethos of the book. Gimmo commits podultary! Listen to his appearance on the excellent ‘Knowing You’ podcast with friend of the show Sarah Cripps on all major podcast platforms: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sarahcripps_leadership-qualityimprovement-mentalhealth-share-7442815050563809280-nDgR From Prescription to Ocean — A TEDx Talk by Jamie Hayes We’re incredibly proud to share that Aural Apothecary co-host Jamie Hayes has taken to the TEDx stage with a thought-provoking talk: Prescription to Ocean: The Hidden Impact of Medicines https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swCLNaAG5qY Jamie explores a fascinating and urgent question: What happens to our medicines once they leave the prescription pad — and how do they impact the world beyond the patient? It’s a journey that connects healthcare, the environment, and our shared responsibility for the future. You’ll never think about prescribing (or taking) medicines in quite the same way again. Please take a few minutes to watch, reflect, and share — this is a conversation worth having.Please follow us on LinkedIn! Let us know what you think of the show. https://www.linkedin.com/company/auralapothecary/ You can listen to the Aural Apothecary playlist here; https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3OsWj4w8sxsvuwR9zMXgn5?si=tiHXrQI7QsGtSQwPyz1KBg You can view the Aural Apothecary Library here; https://litalist.com/shelf/view-bookcase?publicId=KN6E3OOur website is https://www.theauralapothecary.com/To get in touch follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky and X @auralapothecary or email us at auralapothecarypod@gmail.com. Don’t forget to rate us and comment wherever you have got this podcast from.
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    57 mins
  • 8.8 Biography Before Biology: Professor Sir Gregor Smith and Critical Connections

    8.8 Biography Before Biology: Professor Sir Gregor Smith and Critical Connections
    May 7 2026
    Is healthcare becoming too much like a repair shop?In this episode, we are joined by Professor Sir Gregor Smith, Chief Medical Officer for Scotland, for a wide-ranging conversation on 10 years of Realistic Medicine and the themes explored in his latest report, Critical Connections.Together we explore the need to create a better balance between biography and biology when practicing evidence based medicine. We discuss why meaningful human connection matters so profoundly to health, and how modern healthcare risks drifting into “transactional industrial care.”The discussion ranges from prevention and sustainability to polypharmacy, de-prescribing and the challenge of measuring what truly matters through PROMs (Patient-Reported Outcome Measures) and PREMs (Patient-Reported Experience Measures).Gregor reflects on the formative experiences that shaped his thinking as a GP, the development of Scotland’s polypharmacy guidance, and why Realistic Medicine was always intended as a grassroots movement rather than a top-down programme.This is a conversation about careful and kind care — and what it would take to build health systems that genuinely help people live well.We discuss in detail Gregor's own report ‘Realistic Medicine - Critical Connections’. It is one of the most insightful and important papers we have ever read and is a must-read for our listeners!https://www.gov.scot/publications/chief-medical-officers-annual-report-2024-2025-realistic-medicine-critical-connections/As with all of our guests, Gregor shares with us his Memory Evoking Medicine, a career anthem and book. Another appearance by a popular author, a song choice with a story and a drug that takes us right back to the very formation of the podcast!Gimmo commits podultary! Listen to his appearance on the excellent ‘Knowing You’ podcast with friend of the show Sarah Cripps on all major podcast platforms: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sarahcripps_leadership-qualityimprovement-mentalhealth-share-7442815050563809280-nDgR Link to “ Thinking Critically About AI Lectures” by Jessica Morley https://youtu.be/03bJ8BcYs1c?si=j9eHuCWVJEng7cO1From Prescription to Ocean — A TEDx Talk by Jamie HayesWe’re incredibly proud to share that Aural Apothecary co-host Jamie Hayes has taken to the TEDx stage with a thought-provoking talk: Prescription to Ocean: The Hidden Impact of Medicineshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swCLNaAG5qYJamie explores a fascinating and urgent question: What happens to our medicines once they leave the prescription pad — and how do they impact the world beyond the patient? It’s a journey that connects healthcare, the environment, and our shared responsibility for the future. You’ll never think about prescribing (or taking) medicines in quite the same way again.Please take a few minutes to watch, reflect, and share — this is a conversation worth having.Please follow us on LinkedIn! Let us know what you think of the show. https://www.linkedin.com/company/auralapothecary/You can listen to the Aural Apothecary playlist here; https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3OsWj4w8sxsvuwR9zMXgn5?si=tiHXrQI7QsGtSQwPyz1KBg You can view the Aural Apothecary Library here; https://litalist.com/shelf/view-bookcase?publicId=KN6E3OOur website is https://www.theauralapothecary.com/To get in touch follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky and X @auralapothecary or email us at auralapothecarypod@gmail.com.Don’t forget to rate us and comment wherever you have got this podcast from.
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    1 hr and 14 mins
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