#AcademicRunPlaylist - 1/9/25

Author

Ben Waber
January 09, 2025

A selfie of me in front of a winding frozen brook leading into a mostly frozen Charles River on a sunny day. There are bare trees lining both banks. I'm a middle-aged white man with a red beard flecked with white. I'm wearing a black balaclava, black sunglasses, and a neon orange running jacket over a light blue running hoodie.

As you can probably tell, it was a wee bit cold today in Boston (the Charles was completely frozen over a few hours after this). Still, that didn't stop me from going on a nice run and listening to a book for my #AcademicRunPlaylist!

Today I listened to "Projections" by Karl Deisseroth, who explores various psychiatric disorders with flowery prose here, bringing in a bit of neuroscience and optogenetic studies to illuminate some of the underlying processes at play. By far the best chapter here is on schizophrenia, and since I've spent a lot of time interacting with people with schizophrenia I can tell you it very nicely captures the essence of those conversations and thought processes. As a heads up this is more of a memoir than a scientific book, so plan accordingly