Interview with Susannah Cahalan

Otherworld

Society & Culture

4.8 • 3.4K Ratings

🗓️ 23 June 2025

⏱️ 73 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode, I sit down with Susannah Cahalan—American journalist and bestselling author of Brain on Fire, The Great Pretender, and most recently, The Acid Queen. We discuss her harrowing experience with anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, a rare brain inflammation that led to seizures, vivid hallucinations and hospitalization during a month long psychotic episode. This ordeal that ultimately sparked her deep interest in psychology and neuroscience. Susannah also shares insights from her latest work, offering a compelling look into the life of Rosemary Woodruff Leary, a central figure in the 1960s psychedelic movement and the wife of Timothy Leary from 1967 to 1976. Check out our Merch⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow us on:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠,⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ For business inquiries contact: [email protected] If you have experienced something paranormal or unexplained, email us your story at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected] To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I made you think you was dream.
0:02.0	My name is Caden Sinclair.
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0:15.0	Something terrible happened last summer,
0:17.0	and I have no memory of what or who hurt me.
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0:22.7	When you're left for dead, you want answers. We Will Liars. New series, watch now, only on Prime Video.
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0:55.8	trial at Shopify.com slash setup. Welcome to Otherworld. I'm your host, Jack Wagner.
1:12.0	In this episode, I will be interviewing journalist and author Susanna Cahelan.
1:17.2	She has written the books Brain on Fire, The Great Pretender, and most recently The Acid Queen,
1:23.2	which is about Rosemary Leary Leary, the wife of Psychedelic Pioneer Timothy Leary.
1:29.1	Susanna's first book, Brain on Fire, My Month of Madness, is an autobiography,
1:34.4	and it details her battle with a rare form of encephalitis called anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis.
1:43.1	To put it very simply, in her early 20s, Susanna was going about her
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