Robert Kolker: ...the far-reaching implications of mental illness on a family

Nobody Told Me!

Entrepreneurship, Business

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 22 September 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On this episode, we’re joined by journalist Robert Kolker, author of the book 'Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family', a #1 New York Times bestseller. It tells the heartbreaking, and at times, terrifying, story of the Galvin family—a family with 12 children, six of whom were diagnosed with schizophrenia. The Galvins were so unusual that they were studied by the National Institute of Mental Health in an effort to learn more about the genetic origins of schizophrenia. Their story is one of shame, denial, shock, trauma and misunderstanding as it relates to mental illness. His website is http://robertkolker.com/

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Nobody Told Me.
0:13.7	I'm Laura Owens.
0:14.9	And I'm Jan Black.
0:16.1	And on this episode, we're joined by journalist Robert Kolker,
0:19.9	author of the new book Hidden Valley Road,
0:22.7	inside the mind of an American family. Hidden Valley Road is a number one New York Times bestseller,
0:28.5	which tells the heartbreaking and at times terrifying story of the Galvin family, a family with 12
0:34.2	children, six of whom were diagnosed with schizophrenia. The Galvins were so unusual
0:39.4	that they were studied by the National Institute of Mental Health in an effort to learn more about
0:44.5	the genetic origins of schizophrenia. Their story is one of shame, denial, shock, trauma,
0:50.8	and misunderstanding as it relates to mental illness. Robert, thank you so much for joining us.
0:56.3	Thank you, Laura and Jan. I'm really thrilled to be talking to you. How did you first hear about
1:01.2	the Galvin family and decide to write their story? I had been looking for a new book to write. I'm a
1:08.3	journalist and author, and an old editor of mine who was also a good
1:13.1	friend of mine put me in touch with an old high school of friend of his. And she happened to be
1:18.0	the youngest member of the Galvin family. She and her sister are the only two girls in the family.
1:22.7	They do not have schizophrenia. But they had endured some of the more trying and challenging and difficult
1:30.2	and even tragic aspects of life in their house over the years. And they had been talking for
1:36.0	decades about the best way to let people know about their story. They also were convinced that
1:40.7	the family had some scientific significance because scientists had been
1:44.2	studying their family's genes for decades.
1:47.1	And so they finally decided to ask a journalist to not just write about their experiences,
	...

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