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Genius, Delusion, and Legal Capacity: Estate Planning Lessons from A Beautiful Mind 🧠📈

82 Toothpicks

Release Date: 09/05/2025

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82 Toothpicks

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82 Toothpicks

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What can a Nobel Prize-winning mathematician teach us about estate planning? In this powerful episode of 🎙 82 Toothpicks, Thad, Ethan, and guest Amber break down A Beautiful Mind—and explore the legal and emotional weight of planning for a future where your mind may not be your own.

John Nash’s brilliant mind is both his greatest asset and his deepest vulnerability. As his schizophrenia unfolds, the team unpacks what the movie gets right (and heartbreakingly real) about capacity: what it means to understand a decision, perform it, and who gets to decide when someone can’t. From Alicia’s refusal to commit her husband to Nash’s final moments of clarity (“I have to choose what I indulge in”), this story becomes a case study in elder law, mental health, and love’s role in legal decision-making.

💡 Key takeaways:
✅ Legal capacity—how it waxes, wanes, and why it matters in estate planning
✅ When quirks become incapacity—and how families should respond
✅ Spousal roles in healthcare decisions—and the power of believing someone can heal
✅ Legacy through intellect and recognition—including the moving “pen ceremony”

Plus: a live round of the “Prisoner’s Dilemma,” a game theory lesson straight from Nash’s playbook.

🎧 Subscribe to 82 Toothpicks, share the episode with someone who thinks math is boring (they’re wrong), and check out our free resources at www.huizengalaw.com. 

🎬 Every movie is an estate planning movie—don’t miss the next one!