Pria Anand, MD
Assistant Professor of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine
Anupam B. Jena, MD, Ph.D.
Joseph P. Newhouse Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School and host of the "Freakonomics, MD" podcast
The Mind Electric: A Neurologist on the Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains
BONUS AFTER-HOURS EVENT: FAN donors are invited to attend a private AFTER-HOURS event hosted by Anand and Jena that will start immediately after the webinar. Details on the webinar registration page.
Stories are etched into the very structure of our brains, coded so deeply that the impulse for storytelling survives and even surges after the most devastating injuries. But our brains are also porous—the stories they concoct shaped by cultural narratives about bodies and illness that permeate the minds of doctors and patients alike. In the history of medicine, some stories are heard, while others—the narratives of women, of Black and brown people, of displaced people, of disempowered people—are too often dismissed.
In The Mind Electric: A Neurologist on the Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains, neurologist Pria Anand, MD, reveals—through case study, history, fable, and memoir—all that the medical establishment has overlooked: the complexity and wonder of brains in health and in extremis, and the vast gray area between sanity and insanity, doctor and patient, and illness and wellness, each separated from the next by the thin veneer of a different story.
Moving from the Boston hospital where she treats her patients, to her childhood years in India, to Isla Providencia in the Caribbean and to the Republic of Guinea in West Africa, she demonstrates repeatedly the compelling paradox at the heart of neurology: that even the most peculiar symptoms can show us something universal about ourselves as humans.
Anand is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Medical School, and she trained in neurology, neuro-infectious diseases, and neuroimmunology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital. She is now an assistant professor of neurology at Boston University School of Medicine, and she cares for patients at Boston Medical Center.
Anand will be in conversation with Anupam B. Jena, MD, Ph.D. (FAN ’23), the Joseph P. Newhouse Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School and a physician in the Department of Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is the host of the Freakonomics, MD podcast, and co-author of Random Acts of Medicine: The Hidden Forces That Sway Doctors, Impact Patients, and Shape Our Health
This event suitable for youth 12+. It will be recorded and available on FAN’s website and YouTube channel.
Event Sponsors
- The Alliance for Early Childhood
- The Avery Coonley School
- Avoca D37
- Baker Demonstration School
- Beacon Academy
- Bennett Day School
- Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School
- Brickton Montessori School
- British International School of Chicago
- Catherine Cook School
- Chiaravalle Montessori School
- Compass Health Center
- Countryside Day School
- Evanston Scholars
- Evanston Township High School D202
- The Family Institute at Northwestern University
- Family Service Center
- The Frances Xavier Warde School
- Francis W. Parker School
- Glencoe D35
- Glenview Public Library
- Gorton Center
- Hyde Park Day School
- Illinois Student Assistance Commission
- Kenilworth D38
- Lake Bluff D65
- Lake Forest Community High School D115
- Latin School of Chicago
- Leo Catholic High School
- Libertyville D70
- Lycée Français de Chicago
- North Shore Country Day
- Northwestern University Office of Neighborhood and Community Relations
- Northwestern University School of Education and Social Policy
- Pope John XXIII School
- Regina Dominican College Preparatory High School
- Resurrection College Prep High School
- Rogers Park Montessori School
- Roycemore School
- Sacred Heart Schools
- St. Bernard’s School
- Santa Clara University School of Law
- Science & Arts Academy
- The Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School
- Stevenson High School D125
- Township High School D113
- TrueNorth Educational Cooperative #804
- UChicago Network for College Success
- Wilmette Public Library
- Winnetka D36
- Wolcott College Prep
- Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart
Upcoming Events
Born to Flourish: How New Science and Ancient Wisdom Reveal a Simple Path to Thriving
Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D.
William James and Vilas Research Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and founder and director of the Center for Healthy Minds, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Cortland Dahl, Ph.D.
Chief Contemplative Officer at Humin and research scientist at UW-Madison's Center for Healthy Minds
Jacqueline Moreno
Chief Service Officer of the Illinois Student Assistance Commission
ON ZOOM
There Is No Place for Us: Working and Homeless in America
Brian Goldstone, Ph.D.
Journalist and Author
Evanston Township High School Auditorium
Note: Event start time is Central Time (CT).
NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED.
The New Perimenopause: An Evidence-Based Guide to Surviving the Zone of Chaos and Feeling Like Yourself Again
Mary Claire Haver, MD
Board-certified OB/GYN, founder of The 'Pause Wellness, and #1 New York Times bestselling author
Heidi Stevens
Chicago-based writer and Director of External Affairs for the University of Chicago’s TMW Center for Early Learning + Public Health
Regina Dominican High School, O'Shaughnessy Theater
Note: Event start time is Central Time (CT).
NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED.
