Zachary Quinto + Dr. Judith Grisel

Addiction has the terrifying power to alter our neurochemistry, undermine our best intentions, and destroy relationships, leaving human lives shattered in its wake. How can we fight it while summoning the healing power to repair its damage? Neuroscientist Judith Grisel PhD, who studies factors that contribute to addiction, and actor Zachary Quinto, who has his own experiences with addiction, offer perspectives on the topic. Together they explore how addiction happens, discuss why specific drugs—including opioids, alcohol, and cocaine—are so hard to kick, and illuminate the path to recovery for addicts, loved ones, caregivers, and crafters of public policy.

About the Speakers

 

Zachary Quinto received his BFA from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama in Pittsburgh in 1999. After moving to Los Angeles and breaking into television, he appeared as computer analyst Adam Kaufman on 24, Tori Spelling’s flamboyant best friend on so noTORIous, and Sylar the super-powered psychopathic serial killer on Heroes. Since 2009 Quinto continues to appear as Spock in the blockbuster reboot of the Star Trek franchise. He recent film credits include portraying Glenn Greenwald in Snowden in 2016 and Hotel Artemis in 2018. In 2013 Quinto played the role of Tom Wingfield in the American Repertory Theatre’s production of The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, a role he reprised on Broadway in 2014. In 2016 he appeared in the New York premiere of MCC Theater’s Smokefall and returned to Broadway as Harold in the revival of Boys in the Band this past year. This is his third appearance at the Rubin; his first was in 2016’s Brainwave, with Dr. Heather Berlin, who is also returning to Brainwave this year.

Judith Grisel PhD, is a behavioral neuroscientist and a professor of psychology at Bucknell University. She has been awarded more than a million dollars in federal funding to pursue research on the causes of drug abuse. Her work focuses on what in the brain predisposes people to addiction, and her most recent paper revealed a genetic risk for alcoholism in women. Based on her own experiences, as well as those of others, her new book Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction, was published by Doubleday in February 2019.