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Adventures in Human Being

Bill Paterson

Gavin Francis

Jo Coombs

Hannah Marshall

Adventures in Human Being by Gavin Francis: Episode 4

Gavin Francis - Adventures in Human Being

Episode 4

Adventures in Human Being by Gavin Francis

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Adventures in Human Being by Gavin Francis, Episode 4

Physician Gavin Francis’ journey round the body reaches the mysterious organ - the liver.

Physician Gavin Francis leads us round a cultural map of the body: the mysterious liver, essential to life, capable of regeneration. From 2015.

Gavin Francis leads us through a cultural map of the body – an adventure in what it means to be human. Drawing on his own experiences as a physician and writer, he blends first-hand case studies with reflections on the way the body has been imagined and portrayed over millennia.
 
The liver is a mysterious organ - essential to life, multifarious in its actions, its tissue unusual in being able to regenerate. 
 
Ancient cultures used the livers of sacrificed animals to predict events; Biblical kings planned wars according to what the liver foretold. Livers appear in the proverbs of eastern Europe and in the folk tales gathered by the Brothers Grimm. And when a young gardener scratches her finger on a thorn and falls into a coma, it might be her liver which saves her life.
 
 
Read by Bill Paterson
Abridged by Jo Coombs
 
Produced by Hannah Marshall
A Loftus production first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2015.

BBC Radio 4 Extra

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama

Your digital radio entertainment station showcasing the best in comedy and drama. With recent favourites from BBC Radio 4.

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Factual: Science & Nature

Physician Gavin Francis leads a cultural tour of the body. Read by Bill Paterson.

Physician Gavin Francis leads a cultural tour of the body, an adventure in what it means to be human. Abridged by Jo Coombs, read by Bill Paterson.

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