In this episode, I explore the joint themes of viral encephalitis and amnesia with Michael Lemonick, author of The Perpetual Now, the memoir of Lonnie Sue Johnson, who developed amnesia following devastating viral encephalitis.

The podcast explored Johnson’s illness journey and recovery, and the way her profound amnesia provided neuroscientists new insights into the way memory works. We also discussed the history of our understanding of memory with references to Patient HM, and the Nobel prize winner Eric Kandel.

Michael was the Chief Opinion Editor at Scientific American magazine, where he had worked since 2015. Previously, he spent 20 years as a writer at Time magazine, where he wrote more than 50 cover stories on science and the environment. He has been a freelance contributor to Scientific American, New Scientist, Discover, National Geographic, Smithsonian, Wired, The New Yorker and several other publications.

Michael is also the author of seven popular science books, and he teaches writing and journalism at Princeton University, and has also taught at NYU, Johns Hopkins and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where he earned an MS degree in 1983.