Samara Linton

Nail biting, hair pulling, skin picking – if you think these are just bad habits, think again. Here, one writer explains how it feels when your body becomes your battleground.
On one wrist, I have a birthmark; on the other is a scab. It started as a mosquito bite, I think. I’d picked it until it bled, until it turned my brown flesh pink. Then, one day, I left my scab alone. And again the day after that. I left it until new skin grew over it. But this new skin is leathery and rugged; it has ri...

The Association of Black Psychiatrists-UK has been in operation for little more than a year. We reflect on its achievements, including its first annual conference, as well as its future aspirations.

New data reveal the shocking extent to which black and Asian doctors are at a disadvantage when applying for medical jobs. Samara Linton reports

Ivan Beckley is a student doctor, host of The Bias Diagnosis, and co-founder and CEO at Suvera, a digital service helping clinicians follow up their patients virtually. Earlier this month, Google announced that Suvera was one of 30 black-led start-ups selected for their $2 million (£1.5 million) European Black Founders Fund.
I caught up with Ivan a few days after he sat his medical school final exams and asked him where it all began. “I became interested in the start-up scene around the time ...

RCPSYCH INSIGHT MAGAZINE ISSUE 16. Lockdown has dealt an extra blow to many vulnerable children and their carers but, for some, it has allowed greater access to help

...There is no better time to get stuck in to Akala’s Natives, a Radio 4 audiobook that confronts these topics head-on, alongside the acclaimed rapper and activist’s personal story of growing up mixed-race through one of Britain’s most tumultuous periods...

RCPSYCH INSIGHT MAGAZINE ISSUE 15. Recognition of the work of eminent psychiatrist and academic Dr Aggrey Burke over the past 50 years.

In selecting the soundtrack to their lives, Desert Island Discs castaways take listeners on a journey down memory lane.
They share their insights and frustrations, they're surprising and inspiring, and their stories make us laugh and cry.
If you are in need of an uplift, here are eight castaways who left us with a little more hope than we had before.

Facts about fungi

Over the decades, numerous politicians have been cast away to Radio 4’s desert island; the most recent being the leader of the opposition, Sir Keir Starmer. We look at six other party leaders who’ve been on Desert Island Discs, where they were asked to choose eight tracks, a book and a luxury item to help them live in isolation on an imaginary island.

The immune system is a wonderfully complex network of proteins, cells, tissues, and organs which work together to protect your body against disease. At its best, the immune system defends the body against pathogens—organisms which cause disease—but tolerates non-threatening organisms.

In 2020, the live music scene came to a grinding halt. Glastonbury festival, like countless other events across the globe, became a virtual event. In the Radio 4 documentary The Year the Music Stopped, musician and poet Arlo Parks speaks to artists she admires about how they have responded to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. What have they missed about live performances, and will live music ever be the same again?

In 2020, the live music scene came to a grinding halt. Glastonbury festival, like countless other events across the globe, became a virtual event. In the Radio 4 documentary The Year the Music Stopped, musician and poet Arlo Parks speaks to artists she admires about how they have responded to the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. What have they missed about live performances, and will live music ever be the same again?
Arlo Parks
This year, Arlo Parks launched her debut album: “I’d always ...

When does a mutation become a new variant; will new vaccines work against the new versions identified in South Africa, the UK and Brazil; is herd immunity still possible?

The virus knows no borders so do international travel restrictions work for Covid-19?