About this episode
Sadie Dingfelder shares her journey of discovering her neurodivergence at 40 and its impact on her life.
What if the thing you've been adapting to your entire life had a name, and discovering it at 40 changed everything? Sadie Dingfelder is a veteran Washington Post science journalist who discovered at 39 that she had prosopagnosia (face blindness), affecting an estimated one in 50 people, many of whom have no idea. Sadie's journey into midlife self-knowledge is a masterclass in what it means to stop hiding your differences and start working with the brain you actually have. This is a second-act story rooted in science, told with humor, and bracingly honest about what it is like to finally see yourself clearly. In this episode, you'll learn why late diagnosis in women is so common (we are remarkably good at adapting and masking), about the midlife happiness curve, and what it looks like to build a life around your actual strengths rather than an exhausting performance of capacities you don't have. For any woman over 40 who has wondered whether her brain works differently, this conversation is a gift. Sadie Dingfelder is the author of Do I Know You?: A Faceblind Reporter's Journey into the Science of Sight, Memory and Imagination, a memoir-meets-reported-science book about…
People in this episode
Host: Aransas Savas
Guest: Sadie Dingfelder
Topics covered
- neurodivergence
- prosopagnosia
- midlife self-knowledge
- women's health
- cognitive science
Keywords
- neurodivergent
- face blindness
- self-acceptance
- midlife happiness
- women over 40
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Washington Post, American Psychological Association
Books & works: Do I Know You?: A Faceblind Reporter's Journey into the Science of Sight, Memory and Imagination
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