236 - Andrea J. Buchanan - A Pianist Rebuilds Her Brain

Andrea Buchanan lost her mind while crossing the street one blustery March morning. The cold winter air triggered a coughing fit, and she began to choke. When the coughing finally stopped, she thought it was over. She could not have been more wrong.

When she coughed that morning, a small tear ripped through her dura mater, the membrane covering the brain and spinal cord. But she didn’t know that yet. Instead, Andrea went on with her day, unaware that her cerebrospinal fluid was already beginning to leak out of that tiny opening.

We talk to author Andrea J. Buchanan about her experience with a brain injury and how she used playing the piano to recover. Buchanan’s new book is The Beginning of Everything: The Year I Lost My Mind and Found Myself.

Links:

Andrea’s Website

Andi on Twitter

Interview on the Rumpus

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237 - Eric Oliver - How Intuition and Reason Divide Our Politics

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235 - Joseph Meany - The Material That Will Revolutionize the World