Science writer Sadie Dingfelder joins us in conversation with Maiken Scott, host and creative director of WHYY's weekly health and science show, “The Pulse,” to discuss Dingfelder’s new book Do I Know You? To reserve your copy of the book for the event, please use the “Add to Cart” button on this page.
Sadie Dingfelder has always known that she’s a little quirky. But while she’s made some strange mistakes over the years, it’s not until she accosts a stranger in a grocery store (who she thinks is her husband) that she realizes something is amiss.
With a mixture of curiosity and dread, Dingfelder starts contacting neuroscientists and lands herself in scores of studies. In the course of her nerdy midlife crisis, she discovers that she is emphatically not neurotypical. She has prosopagnosia (faceblindness), stereoblindness, aphantasia (an inability to create mental imagery), and a condition called Severely Deficient Autobiographical Memory.
As Dingfelder begins to see herself more clearly, she discovers a vast well of hidden neurodiversity in the world at large. There are so many different flavors of human consciousness, and most of us just assume that ours is the norm. Can you visualize? Do you have an inner monologue? Are you always 100% sure whether you know someone or not? If you can perform any of these mental feats, you may be surprised to learn that many people — including Dingfelder — can’t.
A lively blend of personal narrative and popular science, Do I Know You? is the story of one unusual mind’s attempt to understand itself — and a fascinating exploration of the remarkable breadth of human experience.
Sadie Dingfelder is a science journalist who is currently obsessed with hidden neurodiversity and science-based answers to the question: If you were beamed into the mind of another person or animal, what would that be like? She spent six years as a reporter for the Washington Post Express, where she focused on high-impact public service journalism, such as a review of every single bathroom on the National Mall. From 2016 to 2019, she also penned a biweekly column, "The Staycationer," detailing her DC adventures, which included a walk-on part in the Washington Ballet’s Nutcracker, auditioning to be a “Nationals Racing President,” and playing one of the Smithsonian’s priceless Stradivarius violins. She contributed feature stories to other sections of the paper, including the tale of a crane who fell in love with her zookeeper. As a freelance writer, Dingfelder’s work has appeared in National Geographic, Washingtonian Magazine, Connecticut Magazine, and the Washington City Paper. Prior to working at the Post, Dingfelder spent almost a decade as the senior science writer for the American Psychological Association’s Monitor on Psychology magazine, covering new findings in neuroscience, cognitive science, and ethology.
Maiken Scott is the host and creative director of WHYY’s weekly health and science show, The Pulse. The Pulse explores stories about the people and places at the heart of health and science.
A Temple graduate, Maiken has covered behavioral health since 2008 and has hosted The Pulse since its launch in 2013. Before that, she produced several weekly radio shows for WHYY.