Is there anything more mysterious and more fundamental to our lives than the human brain? But do any of us really understand how our brains work, where consciousness comes from or how best to deal with our unique quirks of perception?
This episode features Stephen Brockwell in conversation with neuroscientist David Eagleman and Nina Jane Drystek in conversation with autistic self advocate and essayist Sarah Kurchak.
Sarah Kurchak is autistic. She hasn’t let that get in the way of pursuing her dream to become a writer, or to find love, but she has let it get in the way of being in the same room with someone chewing food loudly, and of cleaning her bathroom sink. In I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder, Kurchak examines the Byzantine steps she took to become “an autistic success story,” how the process almost ruined her life and how she is now trying to recover.
In his new bestseller, Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain, best-selling author and neuroscientist, David Eagleman, takes us on a thrilling journey of discovery. The brain is often portrayed as an organ with different regions dedicated to specific tasks. But that textbook model is wrong. The brain is a dynamic system, constantly modifying its own circuitry to match the demands of the environment and the body in which it finds itself.
A limited number of signed books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.
The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
With humour, compassion, and scintillating wit, Kurchak probes to the very heart of what it means to be a writer, while illuminating the struggle to define oneself in the face of people determined to enforce their own inadequate definitions. Her victory in growing up to become her own badass self is both an autistic victory and a universal human one, and everyone should read this book.
Is there anything more mysterious and more fundamental to our lives than the human brain? But do any of us really understand how our brains work, where consciousness comes from or how best to deal with our unique quirks of perception?
This episode features Stephen Brockwell in conversation with neuroscientist David Eagleman and Nina Jane Drystek in conversation with autistic self advocate and essayist Sarah Kurchak.
Sarah Kurchak is autistic. She hasn’t let that get in the way of pursuing her dream to become a writer, or to find love, but she has let it get in the way of being in the same room with someone chewing food loudly, and of cleaning her bathroom sink. In I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder, Kurchak examines the Byzantine steps she took to become “an autistic success story,” how the process almost ruined her life and how she is now trying to recover.
In his new bestseller, Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain, best-selling author and neuroscientist, David Eagleman, takes us on a thrilling journey of discovery. The brain is often portrayed as an organ with different regions dedicated to specific tasks. But that textbook model is wrong. The brain is a dynamic system, constantly modifying its own circuitry to match the demands of the environment and the body in which it finds itself.
A limited number of signed books are available from our friends at Perfect Books.
The Ottawa International Writers Festival is supported by generous individuals like you. Please consider subscribing to our newsletter and making a donation to support our programming and children’s literacy initiatives.
