Luke Dittrich (2013)
This episode is a rebroadcast of the interview Matt Tullis did with Luke Dittrich in September 2013. At the time, Esquire had just published his story \u201cThe Prophet,\u201d a story about a neurosurgeon who claimed to have visited heaven in a best-selling book. Dittrich\u2019s piece pretty much debunked those claims.\n\nDittrich also talks about his story about the Joplin, Missouri, tornado. The story \u2014 \u201cHeavenly Father! I Love You! I Love Everyone,\u201d was about 23 people who rode out the storm in a convenience store cooler. The store was destroyed, but the people within all survived. Dittrich ultimately won a National Magazine Award for the piece. \n\nSince joining the podcast, Dittrich turned another piece that was discussed in this interview \u2014 \u201cThe Brain That Changed Everything\u201d \u2014 into a book. \u201cPatient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets\u201d digs deep into that Esquire story and unveils the life of his grandfather, the doctor who treated Patient HM and performed lobotomies on untold numbers of people. The book is one of the best science-related books that I\u2019ve read in a long time, and easily holds rank with \u201cThe Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks,\u201d by Rebecca Skloot.