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Behind The Story: Author Talk with Pria Anand

A CCPL Virtual Author Speaker Series Program

2025-07-31 14:00:00 2025-07-31 15:00:00 America/New_York Behind The Story: Author Talk with Pria Anand Virtual -

Thursday, July 31
2:00pm - 3:00pm

Add to Calendar 2025-07-31 14:00:00 2025-07-31 15:00:00 America/New_York Behind The Story: Author Talk with Pria Anand Join us and author Pria Anand to discuss the strangeness and wonder of our brains! Virtual -

Join us and author Pria Anand to discuss the strangeness and wonder of our brains!

You’re invited to a fascinating conversation with neurologist and author Pria Anand to chat about her new book The Mind Electric: A Neurologist on the Strangeness and Wonder of Our Brains (forthcoming June 10, 2025).

The Mind Electric tells the stories we tell ourselves about our brains, and the stories our brains tell us.

A girl believes she has been struck blind for stealing a kiss. A mother watches helplessly as each of her children is replaced by a changeling. A woman is haunted each month by the same four chords of a single song. In neurology, illness is inextricably linked with narrative, the clues to unraveling these mysteries hidden in both the details of a patient's story and the tells of their body.

Stories are etched into the very structure of our brains, coded so deeply that the impulse for storytelling survives and even surges after the most devastating injuries. But our brains are also porous—the stories they concoct are shaped by cultural narratives about bodies and illness that permeate the minds of doctors and patients alike. In the history of medicine, some stories are heard, while others—the narratives of women, of Black and brown people, of displaced people, of disempowered people—are too often dismissed.

In The Mind Electric, neurologist Pria Anand reveals—through case study, history, fable, and memoir—all that the medical establishment has overlooked: the complexity and wonder of brains in health and in extremis, and the vast gray area between sanity and insanity, doctor and patient, and illness and wellness, each separated from the next by the thin veneer of a different story.

Moving from the Boston hospital where she treats her patients, to her childhood years in India, to Isla Providencia in the Caribbean and to the Republic of Guinea in West Africa, she demonstrates again and again the compelling paradox at the heart of neurology: that even the most peculiar symptoms can show us something universal about ourselves as humans. Register now to join this intriguing virtual conversation!

About the Author: Pria Anand is a neurologist at the Boston Medical Center and an Assistant Professor at the Boston University School of Medicine. She is a graduate of Yale University and Stanford Medical School, and she trained in neurology, neuro-infectious diseases, and neuroimmunology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Massachusetts General Hospital.

To view a recording of this event or to see the full archive of Behind the Story events, click here. Scroll to search for the event you are looking for.


The views expressed by presenters are their own, and their appearance in a program does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent. Reference to any specific product or entity does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by Charles County Public Library.

Charles County Public Library events are accessible for all. If you have an accessibility request, please contact programs@ccplonline.org three business days prior to the event.

Virtual


Hours
We're closed Friday July 04 due to CLOSED: INDEPENDENCE DAY
Mon, Jun 30 9:00AM to 8:00PM
Tue, Jul 01 9:00AM to 8:00PM
Wed, Jul 02 9:00AM to 8:00PM
Thu, Jul 03 9:00AM to 8:00PM
Fri, Jul 04 Closed
(CLOSED: INDEPENDENCE DAY)
Sat, Jul 05 9:00AM to 5:00PM
Sun, Jul 06 Closed

About the library

Upcoming events

Fri, Jul 04, All day
All CCPL locations closed in observance of Independence Day.

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Tue, Jul 08, 4:00pm - 5:00pm
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Tue, Jul 08, 5:00pm - 6:00pm
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Tue, Jul 08, 6:30pm - 7:30pm
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Thu, Jul 10, 6:00pm - 7:00pm
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Sat, Jul 12, 10:00am - 12:00pm
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Sat, Jul 12, 11:00am - 1:00pm
Join us for our Virtual Dungeons and Dragons Homebrew sessions! From the comfort of your home, you can become a grand adventurer with a story tailored specifically for you!

Mon, Jul 14, 6:00pm - 7:00pm
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Thu, Jul 17, 4:00pm - 5:00pm
Join us and author Marie Lu to discuss looking beyond the surface!
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Wed, Jul 23, 4:00pm - 5:00pm
Join us and author Rex Ogle to discuss hope and grace in the face of hardship!

Mon, Jul 28, 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Come to our Spanish Virtual Conversational Club and make new amigos as you learn new vocabulary and practice speaking the language. Basic Spanish vocabulary is required. íTe esperamos!

Thu, Jul 31, 2:00pm - 3:00pm
Join us and author Pria Anand to discuss the strangeness and wonder of our brains!
Register