About this episode

Emily and Perry discuss pregnancy brain with actress Allison Williams, exploring its effects and how to support women during this time.

This week, Emily and Perry are joined by actress Allison Williams to discuss all things pregnancy brain. Are the fog and forgetfulness due to actual brain shrinkage? Does it replenish itself postpartum? Do women ever actually "bounce back"? What's all this change in the service of, exactly? And, most importantly, how do we support the women in our lives going through this? Plus: lactate gels at the Tour de France, Bryan Johnson's pesky autoimmune disease, and hail and farewell to the last American Polio survivor. Submit a question for our weekly mailbag at wellnessactually.fm. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

People in this episode

Hosts: Emily Oster, Perry Wilson

Guest: Allison Williams

Topics covered

• pregnancy brain
• brain health
• supporting women
• postpartum recovery
• lactate gels
• autoimmune disease
• polio

Keywords

• pregnancy brain
• forgetfulness
• brain shrinkage
• postpartum
• support
• lactate gels
• autoimmune disease
• polio

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Tour de France

More episodes of Wellness, Actually with Emily Oster & Perry Wilson, MD

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• What's the deal with sleep? · June 18, 2026 · 58 min

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