Dr. Lisa Genova is a neuroscientist in a moment of our history where groundbreaking advances in Alzheimer’s research and treatment are being announced practically every day. She’s also an author of bestselling fiction.
She’s acclaimed as the “Oliver Sacks of fiction,” and the “Michael Crichton of brain science.” And those worlds intersect with her writing and her research. It becomes very personal.
“The people I've come to know … the most remarkable, beautiful people who have had the misfortune of these diagnoses,” said Genova. “But they don't live their diagnoses. They live their best versions of themselves in the face of it. And that's inspiring.”
As part of its annual Health and Well-Being Speaker Series, the St. Luke's Wood RiverFoundation will host Genova Wednesday, Aug. 2. All of the in-person seats have already been snapped up, but audiences can still catch her talk at Ketchum’s Church of the Big Wood by clicking here.
Just prior to her visit, Genova visited with Morning Edition host George Prentice.
Read the full transcript below:
GEORGE PRENTICE: It's Morning Edition. Good morning. I'm Prentice. We may well look back at the summer of 2023 as quite possibly a critical moment in Alzheimer's research and treatment. In the past few weeks, we have shared so many news stories on advances or research, so the timing could not be better for spending some time with Dr. Lisa Genova, neuroscientist and bestselling author. She's been called the Michael Crichton of Brain Science and the Oliver Sacks of Fiction. Of her many bestsellers, many of us know her for the novel Still Alice, which went on in its film adaptation to win an Oscar for Julianne Moore. Her new book is Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting. And coming up, Wednesday, August 2nd. She is the guest speaker of the Saint Luke's Wood River Foundation. She comes to the Sun Valley region as a guest of Saint Luke's. And for now, she's our guest. So, let's say good morning to Lisa Genova.
LISA GENOVA: Hi, George.
PRENTICE: Up first, I have to ask about the subtitle of this, of this book. I do grasp, or at least I think I grasp “the science of memory,” but I'm trying to wrap my brain around “the art of forgetting.” What does that mean?
GENOVA: It's funny. Subtitles are sort of formed by committee with a publisher. And so originally the subtitle I wanted was “How We Remember and Why We Forget.” Oh, okay. But the “art of forgetting makes sense to me as well, because I think that people put so much emphasis on the importance of memory without realizing that that forgetting is arguably equally as important. It's important for us to forget what our brains don't need. So, what we want to remember is in the foreground. So, lose the noise and keep what we care about. And there can be an art to it too. Embracing the fallibility of memory to being more forgiving and softening around our brain's imperfections when it comes to memory. Because our memories are not designed to remember everything. Forgetting is a normal part of being human. And I think most of us, most people don't really know that.
PRENTICE: Well, can you talk a little bit more about cognitive reserve? I'm fascinated by that and how you challenge us not to. Live in our past or, you know, all of the knowledge that we think we've stored up. But to pave new neural roads and learn new languages or reading a book or meeting new people.
GENOVA: Right. So, learning new language might feel daunting to some people, but it can be any new thing. So cognitive reserve is this idea that, you know, your brain isn't this static, same blob of tissue housed inside your skull your entire life. Your brain changes every day. So, for me to remember today, what happened yesterday means that overnight my brain had to change. And so every time we learn something new, what's happening in our brains, we're making new neural connections, paving new neural roads. Information wasn't connected, didn't exist before you learned the new thing. And now it does. And that existence is an actual neuroanatomical neuro physical neurochemical thing in your brain. It takes up space. What? The idea is that if you can learn more things throughout your life, you're building more and more neural pathways, you have more and more roads that should you develop something like Alzheimer's in your future. So, you have some Alzheimer's disease pathology in your brain blocking some of your neural roads. Well, if you've built a lot of backup connections, if you've built a lot of ways of detouring that problem, then you might not even notice that anything is amiss. So, we encourage we in the Alzheimer's community who are trying to get people to think about brain health just like they might their heart health to to want to match their brain span with their life span. Right. Because we are fortunate enough to live longer than we ever have in human history on average. And we want to make sure that our brains still work at that age. So one of the ways we can do this is through the idea of building a cognitive reserve through something called neuroplasticity, which means that our brains change every time we learn something new. And so the “learning something new” is listening to this conversation right now that's never happened before. And so you're actively learning new information. It's being in conversation with someone that conversations never happened before. It's learning to play pickleball. It's learning. It's going on vacation to a new city. Sights and sounds you've not seen before. So, any time you're experiencing something new, your nervous system wakes up and can build new connections.
PRENTICE: As a reader, I have to take this opportunity to ask you something… I don't know if you've heard this before from other readers, but in your characters… and I'm thinking of Richard in Every Note Played and of course, Alice in Still Alice. Initially I was afraid as I began the story. I was afraid of what was happening to those characters because I was instantly putting myself in their place. But then over time, I actually found myself less afraid of loss.
GENOVA: I love that. Well, first, I love that the stories immediately brought you into a place of empathy. And this really is the magic of story. And why I do what I do is because I think that anyone living with something going on from the neck-up tends to carry a special kind of taboo in our world. So, if you've got a neurological disease or disorder or mental illness, people get afraid of you pretty quickly. You get people, you make people uncomfortable because it's unfamiliar. And so it's really hard to stay connected through a place of empathy until you maybe know someone with this or and if you don't know anyone with Alzheimer's or ALS or bipolar disorder or autism, story becomes a place where you can feel like you know someone because you're walking in their shoes and you can experience empathy, which then makes it familiar and gives you the language and the and the compassion to then when you encounter someone with these conditions or diseases and disorders, it doesn't feel so scary anymore. So that's wonderful. The other thing is I think that there's this idea, this sort of misconception that people dealing with any of these diseases live the tragedy of their diagnosis 24/7. And, of course they don't. And, you know, in doing the research for these books, I came to know people who live with the diseases and disorders. So, I came to know 27 people living with early stage and or early-onset Alzheimer's with ALS. I came to know a dozen people living with ALS, and you get to see the lived experience… and it's people. They tend to reconcile their lives. So, it's “Who can I forgive?” And “How do I live with all that I am every day that I'm here?” So it's like we're all only here for so many days, right, George? Like, all of us are going to die someday. But we tend to forget this when we're not faced with our mortality. And so, Allice in Still Alice, and Richard in Every Note Played are very much presented with their mortality. And it's,” Well, how do I matter now? So, who am I? And, how do I matter with all that I am while I'm here?” The people I've come to know… the most remarkable, beautiful people who have had the misfortune of these diagnoses. But they don't live their diagnoses. They live their best versions of themselves in the face of it. And that's inspiring.
PRENTICE: Yeah, my heart broke and yet it was filled at the same time. And I can't recommend these books enough to our listeners. I didn't know what to expect and they just stay with you… probably forever. With all the news in the past month about Alzheimer's, can I assume that your inbox is blowing up?
GENOVA: Yeah, it's a very exciting time. None of the developments, none of the new drugs that are now FDA approved for Alzheimer's are home runs. These are not cures for the disease. These aren't even real options for a lot of people. They're too expensive still or they're rather invasive to be treated their monthly infusions. So, it's not a pill yet, but we've had nothing for so long. And these drugs are a proof of concept that in fact the strategy that scientists have been betting on for decades and decades is a valid one. And so, it's tremendously exciting. It gives credibility to the idea that that Alzheimer's disease begins decades before you see your first symptom, sort of like heart disease. If you have high cholesterol, we know that you're at risk for developing a heart attack further down the line. Maybe 30 years later you might have one if untreated. But if you can keep your cholesterol levels low through lifestyle. So, diet and exercise and a statin, which is a pill that you can take to lower your cholesterol levels, then you might never get a heart attack, you might never die of a heart attack or develop heart disease. Similarly with Alzheimer's, the goal is very much preventative. It is. Can we prevent you from developing amyloid plaques to the level that would lead you to develop Alzheimer's disease? So, it's incredibly exciting.
PRENTICE: Well, we can't wait for your visit. It's Wednesday, August 2nd. The folks at Saint Luke's tell me that in-person is fully reserved, but it is available online and we will link to that as well.
And she is Lisa Genova. And again, it's Wednesday, August 2nd. She's the guest speaker of the Saint Luke's Wood River Foundation. Looking forward to that. Safe travels to Idaho and thanks for giving us some time this morning.
GENOVA: Thank you so much, George. Can't wait.
Find reporter George Prentice on Twitter @georgepren
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