jill bolte taylor – brain researcher experiences a stroke and lives to tell about it

I caught this on the NPR Fresh Air podcast that was a couple of weeks old.

Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is a Harvard-trained brain researcher who, in 1996 at age 37, had a stroke. She survived and underwent an eight-year recovery with the tremendous care of her mother. While having the stroke, knowing the brain as she did, she realized what was happening, then realized that she was a brain researcher experiencing a stroke “from the inside.” She’s recently published a memoir, My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist’s Personal Journey. She also gave a lecture to the TED conference that is available on video. The video lecture from TED.com is about 18-ish minutes; the Fresh Air interview podcast is about 47 minutes. Both are absolutely fascinating and well worth the time.