You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.

Hello resident brain guy John Hamilton or JJ Hammer as producer Rebecca

Ramirez likes to call you. How are you today?

Emily, I am too legit to quit. Wow.

Wow.

That reference so dates me. Who wrote that?

I am fine and I am here today to bring you a story that took me like seven

years to finish.

Seven years. This is the kind of journalism I really respect John.

What did you report on?

So you know that I cover Alzheimer's disease and usually I'm doing stories about

what caused it or about some new approach to treatment. But I also report on how the

disease affects people who get it, you know, and their families.

I kind of think that's important because Alzheimer's is really unlike most other fatal diseases.

It doesn't just kill you, you know, it can gradually destroy these areas of the brain

that make you who you are.

Yeah.

So back in 2015, I met these two sisters from a family that is at high risk for what's

called early onset Alzheimer's. It's driven by these gene mutations that can cause the

disease to show up sometime in middle age. So depending on the exact mutation you get,

that can mean in your early 30s or as late as your early 60s.

Wow. That's a long span of time. How did you meet these sisters?

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