I struggled with science in college, mostly because remembering all of the details and processes and being able to play them back on an exam didn't come easily. Math was an even greater challenge. (I could blow an essay test on an obscure piece of literature or bit of history out of the water, however.)
Much later, I figured out that I might have been far more successful academically in the sciences if the teaching had included more storytelling. It wasn't that I didn't like science; I just needed a better way in.
Oliver Sacks, who would have been 85 today, was one of the great science and medicine storytellers who could make concepts beyond my experience and background come alive for me. His anecdotes and insights about the human mind and body stayed with me long after I listened to interviews he gave. And I specifically call out his interviews because for me, there was something gentle yet compelling and powerful about his voice.
On his birthday, I'm passing along two links to interviews Sacks did with Terry Gross for NPR's Fresh Air. The first one, about his book The Mind's Eye, is one of my all-time favorite radio interviews (or "podcast episodes," as we usually say now). I think it's especially memorable because Sacks, who wrote so compassionately about the unusual medical challenges he encountered in his patients, talks of his own unusual struggles after treatment for an aggressive tumor in his eye.
If you love great science storytelling, too, listen to these Oliver Sacks interviews on your next run or commute:
Oliver Sacks: A Neurologist Examines 'The Mind's Eye'
Oliver Sacks, Exploring How Hallucinations Happen
You may also enjoy this post on one of my favorite blogs, Brainpickings: Oliver Sacks on Storytelling, the Curious Psychology of Writing, and What His Poet Friend Taught Him About the Nature of Creativity.