Stuck for something to do this Valentine's Day?

Listen to our new Body Pod, The Heart, by performance poet Francesca Beard and cardiologist Dave Hildick-Smith.

Francesca writes of her podcast:

"I was never that enamoured of the heart. As an organ, it seemed basic. Physically, the heart is a pump.

Emotionally, I think I know my own heart. Random, yes, subject to chaos, yes, unfathomable and mysterious, not. If I say something and think another and feel a third thing, it is because I am a people-pleasing hypocrite.

Romantically, giving your heart to another person, even figuratively, has always seemed to me to be a naked act of aggression. Like turning up for your date, or even worse, wedding, with a bomb strapped to your chest and handing your intended the detonator.

I talked with Dave Hildick-Smith about the heart. I learnt about his work as a cardiologist. I listened to him analyze his relationships with patients. I put on scrubs and observed him maneuver a nitonol valve through the femoral artery and into a living, beating heart. I realized I was a doofus and the heart is awesomesauce.

I hope that when you listen to this podcast, it makes you feel warm towards the very important pump in your chest. Happy Valentine’s Day. Take care of your heart, it’s a mind-blowingly phenomenal piece of kit."

You can also read an article about the podcast in The Independent. Speaking of the series, Fuel co-director Kate McGrath said: "One of the things we like is that the artists have a naive perspective on science, which lots of listeners will be able to empathise with."

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