244. Mary-Frances O’Connor with Dr. Anthony Back: Grief and the Body
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Release Date: 03/28/2025
244. Mary-Frances O’Connor with Dr. Anthony Back: Grief and the Body
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Despite grief being one of the most universal of human experiences, there is still much that we do not know about it. Can we die of a broken heart? What happens in our bodies as we grieve; how do our coping behaviors affect our physical health, immunity, and even cognition? While we may be more familiar with psychological and emotional ramifications of loss and sorrow, we often overlook its impact on our physical bodies. In The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing, the follow-up to its successful predecessor The Grieving Brain (2022),...
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243. Thor Hanson: The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
The routines of modern life can often cause us to fall out of touch with our surroundings. But reconnecting with our world can go much further than just stopping to smell the roses – and without having to travel very far at all. In his newest book Close to Home: The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door, conservation biologist Thor Hanson encourages readers to see just how many exciting natural discoveries can be made in our most familiar environments. Close to Home takes a magnifying glass to the yards, gardens, and parks we already know and shows the hidden wonders that lie in...
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242. Psychedelic Salon with April Pride: Psychedelics for Creativity
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Have you wondered how psychedelics are being intentionally used by artists, writers, musicians, and other creatives to push the boundaries of their craft? This session kicks off our new series, Psychedelic Salon, with a panel of esteemed Seattle artists who will discuss the role of psychedelics in Seattle’s countercultural movements and how they influence artistic expression. Expect a candid conversation on the relationship between altered states and creativity, with insights from prominent Seattle creatives known for their experimentation. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of how...
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241. Gary F. Marcus with Ted Chiang How to Make AI Work for Us (And Not the Other Way Around)
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Artificial intelligence is an actively surging field in today’s digital landscape, and as each new AI interface reaches the public it throws into sharper resolution that all the big tech players are getting involved. And quickly. But where are the roots of this rapidly expanding industry’s interests? How does AI impact individuals, established industries, and the future of our society if it continues to grow faster than it is critically examined? In his newest book Taming Silicon Valley: How We Can Ensure That AI Works For Us, author and scientist Gary F. Marcus uses his expertise in...
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240. Amorina Kingdon: Sing Like Fish – How Sound Rules Life Underwater
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
The ocean has proven endlessly mysterious and fascinating to all manner of people across the globe, but for centuries true knowledge of the depths was simply out of reach. As modern technologies advance, science has debunked much once held to be true – including the idea of the “silent world” of the ocean. What was once thought to be a muffled marine landscape with little to no perceptible sounds has now been revealed to be a complex interplay of aquatic acoustics. In her debut book Sing Like Fish: How Sound Rules Life Under Water, science journalist Amorina Kingdon turns up the...
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239. Lynne Peeples with Bill Radke: Shining New Light on Our Rest and Routines
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Whether it’s staying up late in front of the screens or waking up before dawn for that early morning flight – it’s easy to tell when something big has thrown off our routines. But what about the little things that add up over the course of a day, a week, or our lives overall? How do small adjustments to our daily practices affect our long-term relationship with the balance between our bodies and the busy technology-driven world we live in? In her new book, author and science journalist Lynne Peeples explores how our often hectic habits can impact our physical, mental, and social...
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238. Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert with Daniela Rosner: The Secret Life of Data
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
With tech giants such as Microsoft and Amazon, Seattle will be instrumental in the future of data and its effects on society. What are the long-term consequences of humanity’s recent rush toward digitizing, storing, and analyzing every piece of data about ourselves and the world we live in? How will data surveillance, digital forensics, and AI pose new threats––and opportunities? In their new book, The Secret Life of Data, authors Aram Sinnreich and Jesse Gilbert explore what might happen with all the data that we collect. They build on this basic premise: no matter what form data...
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237. Lawrence Ingrassia with Robert Merry: A Lethal Legacy — Genetic Predisposition to Cancer
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
One instance of grief can be difficult enough to cope with, but for Lawrence Ingrassia, losing multiple family members was not only devastating but perplexing. Typical discussions surrounding inheritance may include heirlooms or estates — not rare tumors in the cheeks of toddlers, as was the case for Ingrassia’s two-year-old nephew. After he lost his mother, two sisters, brother, and nephew to different types of cancer, Ingrassia was unsure whether his family’s generational heartbreak was merely misfortune or if there was some other cause. In his book A Fatal Inheritance: How a...
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236. Zoë Schlanger with Brooke Jarvis: The Light Eaters
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Did you know that plants can hear sounds? And have a social life? Science writer Zoë Schlanger shares even more remarkable plant talents in her latest book, The Light Eaters, illustrating the tremendous biological creativity it takes to be a plant. To survive and thrive while rooted in a single spot, plants have adapted ingenious methods of survival. They communicate. They recognize their own kin. Schlanger immerses into the world of being a plant, into its drama and complexity. Scientists have learned that plants, rather than imitate human intelligence, have perhaps formed a...
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235. Elaine Lin Hering with Ruchika Tulshyan: Learning to Speak Up in a World That Wants You to Stay Quiet
Town Hall Seattle Science Series
Can you think of occasions where you wanted to say something, but couldn’t? Perhaps you stopped yourself out of fear, or due to outside pressures. Having a seat at the table doesn’t necessarily mean that your voice is welcome. A new book is aiming to examine the influence of silence and offer ways that we can begin to dismantle it to find our voices at home and work to shift the paradigm. In Unlearning Silence: How to Speak Your Mind, Unleash Talent, and Live More Fully author Elaine Lin Hering explores the difficulty that can come with speaking up, especially when there may be...
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Despite grief being one of the most universal of human experiences, there is still much that we do not know about it. Can we die of a broken heart? What happens in our bodies as we grieve; how do our coping behaviors affect our physical health, immunity, and even cognition? While we may be more familiar with psychological and emotional ramifications of loss and sorrow, we often overlook its impact on our physical bodies.
In The Grieving Body: How the Stress of Loss Can Be an Opportunity for Healing, the follow-up to its successful predecessor The Grieving Brain (2022), grief expert, neuroscientist, and psychologist Dr. Mary-Frances O’Connor focuses on how the painful ordeal of grief impacts the body.
O’Connor shares scientific research, charts, and graphs coupled with personal stories, revealing new insights on grief’s physiological impact and helping illuminate the toll that loss takes on our cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems and the larger implications for our long-term well-being. The Grieving Body is for anyone who has experienced loss and who may want to learn more about what they are going through and how to support them.
Mary-Frances O’Connor, PhD, is a professor of psychology at the University of Arizona, where she directs the Grief, Loss and Social Stress (GLASS) Lab, investigating the effects of grief on the brain and the body. Her book The Grieving Brain was included on Oprah’s list of Best Books to Comfort a Grieving Friend. O’Connor holds a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Arizona and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in psychoneuroimmunology at the UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.
Dr. Anthony Back, Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington, is a pioneer in patient-oncologist communication and co-founder of the nonprofit VitalTalk. Educated at Stanford and Harvard, with training at UW and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, his research spans physician-assisted dying, communication pedagogy, and psilocybin therapy for healthcare providers and patients with cancer-related anxiety. He is also an ordained Zen priest in Roshi Joan Halifax’s lineage.
