Show 162: In Memory of Oliver Sacks
The People's Pharmacy
Joe and Terry Graedon
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 3 September 2015
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Dr. Oliver Sacks was much more than a neurologist. In his books, he invited us to imagine the world from wildly different perspectives than our own. When he described individuals with neurological differences (that would be termed “deficits” by most doctors and other people), he helped his readers recognize the special gifts these people were able to mobilize and appreciate their humanity. He died on August 30, 2015, and he is missed.
Oliver Sacks as Author:
Many people are familiar with his best-known books, especially Awakenings, which was made into a popular movie starring Robin Williams as Dr. Oliver Sacks. Other popular titles included The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, An Anthropologist on Mars and Musicophilia. Many years ago, we interviewed him on the topic of a lesser-known work, The Island of the Colorblind. Like all his books, it is captivating.
We offer our listeners this fascinating interview in memory of Oliver Sacks. It was originally broadcast on February 22, 1997.
This Week’s Guest:
Oliver Sacks was a neurologist and author. (His medical degree, BM Ch, was conferred by The Queen’s College, Oxford.) He practiced and taught at New York University School of Medicine and Columbia University.
Dr. Sacks wrote thought-provoking essays for The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New York Times and other publications. His best-selling books include Awakenings (1973), The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1985), Seeing Voices: A Journey into the World of the Deaf (1989), An Anthropologist on Mars (1995), Uncle Tungsten: Memories of a Chemical Boyhood (2001), Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (2007), The Mind’s Eye (2010) and Hallucinations (2012). The book we discussed with him was The Island of the Colorblind (1997). His autobiography, On the Move, was published this year (2015).
Listen to the Podcast:
The podcast of this program will be available the Monday after the broadcast date. The show can be streamed online from this site and podcasts can be downloaded for free for four weeks after the date of broadcast. After that time has passed, digital downloads are available for $2.99. CDs may be purchased at any time after broadcast for $9.99.
photo credit:Dan Lurie https://www.flickr.com/photos/dantekgeek/1593075185/ cc license 2.0, original photo modified.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, I'm Joe Graydon. |
| 0:02.3 | I'm Terry Graydon. |
| 0:03.8 | Welcome to this podcast of the People's Pharmacy, where we bring you the stories behind the health headlines. |
| 0:10.2 | This podcast is brought to you by Redux Industries, makers of utterly smooth body cream. |
| 0:16.0 | 800-345-7339 on the web at utter cream.com. |
| 0:30.7 | Dr. Oliver Sacks was a neurologist, an author, a traveler, a music lover, and a botanist. |
| 0:37.2 | He was also an amazing communicator. |
| 0:39.9 | This is the People's Pharmacy with Terry and Joe Graydon. |
| 0:48.1 | On February 22, 1997, Dr. Oliver Sacks came into our studio with a wet bathing suit in one hand and a cycad plant in the other. |
| 0:59.0 | He was there to talk about his book, The Island of the Colorblind. |
| 1:03.0 | Dr. Sacks died on August 30th. To honor his memory, we share this conversation about one of his lesser-known books. |
| 1:10.0 | We talk about his trip to |
| 1:11.4 | Micronesia. How does the environment affect neurological function? Coming up on the People's Pharmacy, |
| 1:17.0 | a rebroadcast of our 1997 interview with Dr. Oliver Sacks. First, the news. |
| 1:36.6 | In the People's Pharmacy Health Headlines, new research confirms your grandmother was right. |
| 1:40.5 | Getting enough sleep keeps your immune system in good working order. |
| 1:46.3 | The study included 164 healthy young men and women who kept track of their sleep every night for a week using diaries and devices. Then they were deliberately exposed to a standard |
| 1:52.7 | quantity of cold virus, which was sprayed into their noses. After the exposure, the volunteers |
| 1:58.3 | were quarantined and monitored to see if they started sniffling, sneezing, and coughing within five days. |
| 2:04.4 | 45% of those who averaged less than five hours of sleep nightly came down with cold symptoms, compared to just 17% of those who slept at least seven hours most nights. |
| 2:14.5 | The authors point out that previous research has shown immune system |
| 2:18.8 | impairment in people who are sleep deprived. They did not study immune system activity in these |
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