I am joined in this episode by journalist Lauren Aguirre, an award-winning science journalist, to explore the neuroepidemiology work of neurologist Jed Barash and colleagues which revealed the existence of a silent epidemic of what is now named opioid associated amnestic syndrome. Lauren chronicled the onset and progress of the epidemic using the two index cases she described in her book.
She narrated the way Barash and colleagues went about convincing the public health authorities and the CDC about the existence of the epidemic, and how they got the neurology community to pay attention to it. We discussed the related anecdotes that Lauren used to complement her book, especially that of Patient HM, just as we explored the way that the research in opioid associated amnesia has progressed since it was established as a neurological entity.
Apart from The Memory Thief, Lauren Aguirre is also the author of Secrets Behind How We Remember, a 2022 PEN/EO Wilson Science Literary Award finalist. And as a staff member for the PBS series NOVA, she produced documentaries, short-form video series, podcasts, interactive games, and blogs.
Lauren Aguirre’s articles on memory and addiction have appeared in STAT, The Boston Globe, Undark, The Atlantic, The Scientist, and PBS. She is currently at work on a historical novel set in the early 1900s at a colony for epileptics in upstate New York.
Watch on YouTube:https://youtu.be/ZFldX0_PI_U
Listen on Spotify:https://open.spotify.com/show/5RjI1mLKRawaUPIGL7mUU0
Listen on Apple podcastshttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/episode-52-amnesia-with-lauren-aguirre-author-of/id1748456248?i=1000681929582
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