Bonus Sample: Reality, Monsters & Brain Glitches

Listen to the full episode What do films like Dracula, The Truman Show, The Matrix, Invasion of the Body-Snatchers, Being John Malkovich, and Night of the Living Dead all have in common? Science fiction and horror bend our everyday experiences and beliefs around mind and body, sensory perception, identity, and reality itself. But it turns out that many fictional tropes (zombies, vampires, cloned imposters, reality-simultations, and shapeshifters) may be rooted in rare brain disorders. These conditions, often caused by injury or disease, can make people prone to becoming convinced that their loved ones are imposters, the same person (in elaborate and convincing disguises) is following them everywhere, their surroundings are an artificial duplicate of a real place, or even that they themselves are already dead. Once our perceptions are sufficiently distorted, our minds invent explanations that confound reality. Might these overlap with supernatural and conspiratorial beliefs? Julian blends storytelling, cultural references, and observations from psychiatry and neurology to take you on a fascinating journey. You’ll learn about: A woman in a 1903 Prague clinic who patiently explained to staff that the clinic was a perfect replica—not the real clinic itself A man in 1970’s Sacramento who believed he was a real-life zombie and went on to commit a series of grisly crimes A woman in 1920’s London who believed that two famous French actresses were following her everywhere in hyper-realistic disguises—and controlling her mind One man in LA and another in Utah that tragically killed their own family members because they believed they were imposters These cases drive to the core of how humans experience self, relationships, and the structure of reality. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices