If you’re stuffing your face with mince pies this Christmas Day, spare a thought for the hundreds of thousands of people working in the NHS providing vital medical support over the festive period.
One person who has seen his fair share of Christmas shifts is comedian and writer Adam Kay, who in a previous life worked as a junior doctor. His new book, Twas the Nightshift before Christmas (£9.99, Harper Collins), is at times, a graphically intimate diary of what happens on a labour ward over the holidays.
Our editorial assistant Amy Barrett spoke to Adam over the phone about whether Christmas is more dangerous than other seasons, some of the issues facing healthcare at this time of the year, and life after medicine.
Let us know what you think of the episode with a review or a comment wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Listen to more episodes of theScience Focus Podcast:
- Dean Burnett: What’s going on in the teenage brain?
- Sarah Harper: What does a world with an ageing population look like?
- Andrew Hunter Murray and Dan Schreiber: Is there really no such thing as a fish?
- Matt Parker: What happens when maths goes horribly, horribly wrong?
- Robin Ince: Inside the mind of a comedian
- Dara Ó Briain: Finding the fun in science
