So I've been pretty fortunate to know, over the years, a number of pretty brilliant neuroscientists, and I've also been pretty fortunate to know quite a number of accomplished writers, from nonfiction to fiction.
My guest today, Lisa Genova, is the first person I've met who is both.
She is an astonishingly accomplished neuroscientist with a strong focus on Alzheimer's and cognitive brain function.
And at the same time, shes an acclaimed fiction writer who wrote a book called still Alice, which became a massive bestseller, selling millions of copies, was then turned into an Oscar winning movie with all these a list stars in it.
And that also kicked off a stream of other fiction books.
She tends to write books that illuminate people moving through neurological conditions, but they're fiction, and they're so beautiful and compelling, and it allows you to step into the experience of other people and families and understand them in an entirely different way.
Really, really powerful.
She is also an expert in this world of Alzheimer's and the decline of brain function.
And for anybody who is in the middle years of their lives, you may be wondering, what do I do to stay as cognitively active and alert and hear as possible?
For anybody who may be a little bit older, you may actually be dealing with problems with yourself or with loved ones or with parents.
So we come full circle and dive into that world as well at the end to really explore what happens and what are the things that we might be able to do to help prevent some of this decline and potentially even maybe reverse it or kind of rebuild around it.
So excited to share this conversation with you.
I'm Jonathan Fields, and this is good life project.
I don't think I've met yet another neuroscientist novelist, so I don't know if I'm the only one out there doing this.
I might be.
Yeah.
I was always interested in science, and I was good at it.
My brain sort of very easily understands math and science, and I like the idea of studying how we work.
How is a human being put together?
And so I loved learning about anatomy and physiology and biochemistry of anything.