Susannah Cahalan

Susannah Cahalan is an award-winning journalist and the #1 New York Times best-selling author of "Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness," a memoir that details her struggle with a rare autoimmune disease of the brain. This memoir has not only sold over a million copies but has also been adapted into a highly viewed Netflix original movie in 2016. She is known for her significant contributions to advocacy work, including her roles as a founding member of the Autoimmune Encephalitis Alliance and as an international ambassador for the UK's Encephalitis Society.

Cahalan's second book, "The Great Pretender," delves into a famous psychological study about undercover psychiatric patients. This work was shortlisted for the 2020 Royal Society’s Science Book Award, and has received critical acclaim from various publications—NPR remarked that the book "cements Cahalan's place in the country's sharpest writers of nonfiction," while Nature described it as an "engrossing, dismaying book" and Psychology Today heralded it as "the book of the decade." In addition to her books, her journalistic work has been featured in The New York Times, The New York Post, The Atlantic, Elle, The New Scientist, and BBC’s Focus.

Currently, Cahalan is working on her third book, focusing on a biography about a forgotten woman in the history of psychedelics. She continues to share her expertise by lecturing at universities worldwide and serving as a keynote speaker at various conferences. She was recently honored with the 2021 Poynter Fellowship in Journalism from Yale University. Cahalan resides in New Jersey, where she lives with her husband, twins, and dog, balancing her professional endeavors with her personal life.