The Tapestry of Consciousness and the Self: Winning Over Alzheimer’s with Rudolph E. Tanzi
In this episode of See See by Ceci, Rudolph Tanzi, one of the world’s most influential neuroscientists, takes us inside the mind as it builds, and as it begins to come undone. Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, director of the Genetics and Aging Research Unit and co-director of the McCance Center for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital, co-founder of the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund, and named by TIME one of the 100 most influential people in the world, Tanzi co-discovered the very first Alzheimer’s genes and helped create the groundbreaking “Alzheimer’s in a Dish” model that has transformed the search for a cure.
In this luminous and deeply human conversation, Tanzi traces the disease from its first description by Alois Alzheimer in 1906 (the strange plaques and tangles no one believed could cause a mind to slip away), to the golden age of treatment now within reach. He walks us through the three pathologies of plaques, tangles and inflammation; the genes he discovered and the blood test that can now see the disease coming; the brain’s housekeeper cells, the microglia, and their Macbeth-like turn from caretakers to killers; and the kitchen-sink logic of the drugs his lab is racing to trials: turn off the tap, unclog the drain, stop the overflow. He shares SHIELD, his lifestyle plan for brain health, and the gut–brain axis that lets food become medicine for the mind.
And then the conversation goes deep. Tanzi reflects on memory as a tapestry woven from a hundred billion neurons; on the hippocampus, the little seahorse that gives the world its context; on why music memory survives when almost everything else is gone. He speaks, with rare openness, about awareness and the self, about lucid dreaming and terminal lucidity, about the feelings of beauty, awe and love that he believes AI may mimic but never be, and finally about his conviction that everything is, ultimately, consciousness.
Along the way we hear neuroscientist John Cryan on the gut microbiome and the food that feeds the brain; Cognitive neuropsychologist and Harvard Professor Alfonso Caramazza on prosopagnosia and the emotion that endures when recognition fails; four-time Grammy winner Terri Lyne Carrington and the documentary Alive Inside; photographer Domingo Milella on water, minerals and the camera obscura; parapsychology researcher Dean Radin on the taboo edges of mind; and a chorus of artists, Gregory Halpern, Marina Viotti, Andrei Ioniță, Cecilia Rivera and Kerem Hassan, on creativity, flow, and the blurring of time and space, a current that runs through Tanzi himself, a prolific musician who has recorded and performed with the likes of Aerosmith, Joe Perry and Johnny Depp.
This is an episode about a terrifying disease, and about the relentless creativity, courage and compassion working to defeat it. About what memory is, what the self is, and what remains when both are taken. And about a scientist who insists, against one of the cruellest diseases of our time, now assures us: “I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”
Rudolph E. Tanzi, Ph.D.
Director, McCance Center for Brain Health,
Director, Genetics and Aging Research Unit,
Mass. General Brigham
Joseph P. and Rose F. Kennedy Professor of Neurology,
Harvard Medical School
Faculty profile at the MassGeneral Institute for Neurodegenerative Disease:
https://www.mghmind.org/faculty/Tanzi
Prof. Tanzi’s official lab page at Massachusetts General Hospital:
https://www.massgeneral.org/neurology/research/genetics-aging-research-unit/tanzi-lab
Donations:
“The MGH Genetics and Aging Research Unit”
Mailed to:
Dr. Rudolph E. Tanzi
Director, Genetics and Aging Research Unit
Massachusetts General Hospital
114 16th Street
Charlestown, MA, 02129
OR:
You can click on “Give Now” on either the top ribbon or the bottom of our website
McCance Center for Brain Health
It will take you to: Make a Gift to Mass General
Music used in this episode with permission and as courtesy.
“Remember Me” written by Rudolph E. Tanzi and Chris Mann. Vocals by Chris Mann. In aid of the Cure Alzheimer’s Fund.
https://curealz.org/news-and-events/remember-me-chris-mann-and-rudy-tanzi/
Original piano compositions by Rudolph E. Tanzi: “The Lost Ones”, “Future Unknown”, “Nitrogen”, “Van Gogh”, “Acceptance (for Mom)”, “The Good Journey” and “Breathless”. From the composer’s catalogue at n1m.com/rudytanzi, made freely available by the artist. Guitar by Andrew Yoo.
Recommended Book
Rudolph E. Tanzi with Ann B. Parson, Decoding Darkness: The Search for the Genetic Causes of Alzheimer’s Disease (New York: Perseus Publishing, 2000).
