Literature meets science – ISTAART Research Perspectives

In this podcast Dr Claire Sexton, Director of Scientific Programs & Outreach at the Alzheimer’s Association interviews Professor Cindy Weinstein and Professor Bruce L. Miller. Discussing their collaboration on a new book ‘Finding the Right Words – a story of literature, grief, and the brain’.

This podcast was originally recorded as an ISTAART webinar in August 2021.

This is the moving story of an English professor studying neurology in order to understand and come to terms with her father's death from Alzheimer's.

Finding the Right Words follows Cindy’s decades-long journey to come to terms with her father's dementia as both a daughter and an English professor. Although her lifelong love of language and literature gave her a way to talk about her grief, she realized that she also needed to learn more about the science of dementia to make sense of her father's death.

To write her story, she collaborated with Professor Bruce L. Miller, neurologist and director of the Memory and Aging Center at the University of California, and Co-Director of the Global Brain Health Institute.

It combines a personal memoir, literature, and the science and history of brain health into a unique, educational, and meditative work. Cindy articulates dealing with a life-changing diagnosis, describing the shock of her father's diagnosis and his loss of language and identity. Writing in response Bruce describes the neurological processes responsible for the symptoms displayed by her father. He also reflects upon his own personal and professional experiences. Their two perspectives give readers a fuller understanding of Alzheimer's than any one voice could.

Find out more about the authors on their website and order the book with the links below:

https://www.weinsteinandmiller.com/
Amazon - https://amzn.to/3icHpj0
Book Store - https://bit.ly/3i9HZyk

You can find out more about our guests, and access a full transcript of this podcast on our website at:

http://www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/podcast

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This podcast is brought to you in association with Alzheimer's Research UK and Alzheimer's Society, who we thank for their ongoing support.