Episode 07: Use It or Lose It - The Brain, Lifelong Learning, and the Courage to Stay Curious

psychophobia* podcast · Jun 2, 2026 · 1h 16m · transcript

“I am still learning.“ — Michelangelo, at age 87

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Sandy Halperin was a Harvard professor so brilliant he could deliver two-hour lectures from memory. A decade into his early-onset dementia diagnosis, Steve Orfield says he was still sharper than most people who didn’t have the condition. When Steve asked CNN’s producers why their ongoing feature kept telling the story of Sandy’s decline rather than what he was still able to do, they refused. It’s the kind of story that runs through every part of this conversation. The founder of Orfield Labs in Minneapolis is a polymath in the old sense --…