🧠👨‍⚕️ Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery
Not a Book Report
I enjoy reflecting on the movies, TV, books and other media that I consume. I’m notoriously sentimental. This series documents the books that I read. These aren’t reviews or recommendations. Just a list. For me. Mostly so that I can page through what I read, where I was, and when.
Why did I read it?
I am a religious reader of The Economist and each year they publish books they recommend at the end of the year. This made their list and I was curious about it so I added it to my Audible library and picked it up.
What is it?
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Gray Matters: A Biography of Brain Surgery |
| Author | Theodore H. Schwartz |
| Year Published | 2024 |
| Format | Audiobook (Audible) |
| Length | 16 Hours 31 Minutes |
| ASIN | B0CPTDCCLX |
Publisher Summary
A popular biography of brain surgery, by one of its preeminent practitioners
We’ve all heard the phrase “it’s not brain surgery.” But what exactly is brain surgery? It’s a profession that is barely a hundred years old and profoundly connects two human beings, but few know how it works, or its history. How did early neurosurgeons come to understand the human brain—an extraordinarily complex organ that controls everything we do, and yet at only three pounds is so fragile? And how did this incredibly challenging and lifesaving specialty emerge?
In this warm, rigorous, and deeply insightful book, Dr. Theodore H. Schwartz explores what it’s like to hold the scalpel, wield the drill, extract a tumor, fix a bullet hole, and remove a blood clot—when every second can mean life or death. Drawing from the author’s own cases, plus media, sports, and government archives, this seminal work delves into all the brain-related topics that have long-consumed public curiosity, like what really happened to JFK, President Biden’s brain surgery, and the NFL’s management of CTE. Dr. Schwartz also surveys the field’s latest incredible advances and discusses the philosophical questions of the unity of the self and the existence of free will.
A neurosurgeon as well as a professor of neurosurgery at Weill Cornell Medicine, one of the busiest and most highly ranked neurosurgery centers in the world, Dr. Schwartz tells this story like no one else could. Told through anecdote and clear explanation, this is the ultimate cultural and scientific history of a literally mind-blowing human endeavor, one that cuts to the core of who we are.
How did I read it?
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| Date Started | December 5, 2024 |
| Date Finished | January 14, 2024 |
| Places Read | Gyms in Lisbon, walks to the Lisbon office, gyms in Utah |
Notes - No Spoilers
- Neurosurgeons really, really do not want you to confuse them with neurologists, psychiatrists, or any other type of surgeon. I started to giggle at the frequency with which the author would make it very clear that some of the “bad guys” of brain surgery development were not, in fact, neurosurgeons.
- Fun to learn about how much of the field descends from a few pioneers.
- Humans are either weirdly resilient and can take a serious beating and be fine or they can trip in the shower just once and be dead immediately. That is terrifying.