S1E19 - Louann Brizendine - To Drive or be Driven?
We met with Dr. Louann Brizendine to dive into the under-appreciated “forces within” that drive our behavior, our relationships, and so much of our lives. The founder of the Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic at UCSF, Brizendine wrote several definitive books on the subject, including The Female Brain, The Male Brain, and The Upgrade - How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in Midlife and Beyond, where she reframes the post-menopausal experience as an opportunity to reclaim one’s authentic self. Nobel Prize winner Issac Bashevis Singer summarized the paradox we all experience best when asked if he believed in free will by responding, “I have no choice.” To what degree are we driven by our hormones? How much do they define our sexuality and our gender? What role does sleep, exercise, nutrition and even pollution play? How do we reclaim the driver’s seat while at the same time accepting ourselves and the infinite diversity of those around us? Join us as we uncover real subterranean forces actively at work to varying degrees in all of us.
Biography
Dr. Brizendine was among the first to explain why women think, communicate, and feel differently than men. Now, inspired by her own experiences and those of the thousands of women at her clinic, she has a message that is nothing short of revolutionary: in the time of life typically known as menopause, women’s brains are reshaped, for the better, in a way that creates new power, a bracing clarity, and a laser-like sense of purpose if you know how to seize it.
“I completed my degree in Neurobiology at UC Berkeley, graduated from Yale School of Medicine, and did my internship and residency at Harvard Medical School. I also served on both the faculties of Harvard University and University of California at San Francisco. I founded the Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic at UCSF. My New York Times bestseller, The Female Brain, and its follow-up, The Male Brain, continue to be read around the world. My new book, The Upgrade: How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in Midlife and Beyond, is due out April 2022.”
Conversation recorded on December 10, 2022.