Dancing into Brain Health (S2 Ep4): UnRavelling Creativity
Creativity is one of the most admired and universal human attributes, taking form across genres, ages, and levels of professionalism. Whether it contributes to an individual’s sense of flow and multimodal expression or inspires awe in those who witness the artistic output of others, creativity undeniably evokes—and amplifies—what makes us most human.
From a neuroscientific perspective, creativity is a highly complex and multifaceted process, engaging numerous regions of the brain in dynamic interplay. Yet despite its universality, much about creativity remains a mystery.
In this episode of the Dancing into Brain Health Podcast, we are joined by two individuals helping to illuminate that mystery: renowned behavioral neurologist Dr. Bruce Miller and actor and writer Jake Broder.
Their conversation is brought together through the story of Anne Adams—a woman whose emergent artistic expression in the face of a progressive neurodegenerative condition radically reshaped how neuroscientists understand creativity in the brain. Through Anne’s journey, Dr. Miller and Jake Broder invite us to look beyond a deficit-based narrative of dementia and toward a more expansive view—challenging long-held assumptions about degeneration and revealing how shifts in neural networks can give rise to new forms of expression and meaning.
Together, they take us on a journey through the intersection of neuroscience, art, and lived human experience, inviting us to reconsider what creativity is, where it lives in the brain, and how it can persist, transform, and even flourish in the face of profound change.
Listen here
“If we’re really gonna help people, we have to understand who they are. If we’re gonna be effective, we have to connect.”
“The purpose of a lot of drama is to create connection between an audience and the storyteller and also between the people who are telling the story. Connection is the engine that makes everything move.”
Listen to Season 2, Episode 4 now: Unravelling Creativity on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Youtube.
Learn more about Dr. Bruce Miller:
https://memory.ucsf.edu/people/bruce-miller
Bruce L. Miller, MD, is the A.W. and Mary Margaret Clausen Distinguished Professor of Neurology and director of the UCSF Edward and Pearl Fein Memory and Aging Center. An expert in neurodegenerative diseases, he focuses on frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Miller integrates genomics, neuroimaging, and precision medicine in his research, leading initiatives like the Tau Consortium, the Bluefield Project to Cure FTD, and the ReDLat study across the Americas. As founding director of UCSF’s Global Brain Health Institute, he trains leaders in brain health worldwide. Dr. Miller has authored over 1,100 publications and earned numerous honors for his work.
Learn more about Jake Broder:
https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/jake-broder
Jake Broder lives in Los Angeles with his wife Lucy and children Ella and Louis. He is currently an Atlantic Fellow at the Global Brain Health Institute (at UCSF and Trinity College, Dublin), who commissioned his play UnRavelled www.UnRavelledplay.com. He was the Hellman Visiting Artist at the MAC/USCF in 2019, which yielded the script. UnRavelled was nominated for five Los Angeles Drama Critic Circle Awards (LADCC) including best writing, production, and ensemble, and won for design. He is writing the new musical Max & Willy’s Last Laugh with Conor Du!y, which just had a reading at the Mosaic Theater in DC. His play Our American Hamlet premiered at the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company and was nominated for best new play, IRNE (Boston). His musical, Miravel, won the LADCC for best score, composed by Jake. He co-wrote and originated the role of Louis in Louis & Keely Live at the Sahara, winning Jake Ovation, LADCC, Garland, and LA Weekly awards for Best Actor and Best Musical. It ran at the Ge!en Playhouse, directed by Oscar winner, Taylor Hackford, and has since toured Chicago and SoCal. His Royal Hipness Lord Buckley played O!-West End (Soho Theatre), O!-Broadway (59e59), and in LA. Jake’s TV Writing includes Typewriter Days (Revolution Studios) and Black Hole Sun (Echo Lake). He was also a fellow at the O’Neill under artistic director John McDaniel. As an actor, Jake recently shot The Patient with Steve Carrell, was on The Morning Show on Apple TV+, and has a recurring role on HBO’s Silicon Valley. Broadway/West End includes: Mozart in Amadeus directed by Sir Peter Hall (Old Vic, Music Box, Ahmanson), When Harry Met Sally with Alyson Hannigan and Luke Perry (Theatre Royal Haymarket), and Ophelia & Juliet in the Reduced Shakespeare Company’s Complete Works of Shakespeare (Criterion) in London. He played Ira Gershwin in Words By: Ira Gershwin (Colony Theatre) and Einstein in Einstein Comes Through (North Coast Rep), both directed by David Ellenstein. He received his BA degree from Tufts University and trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. www.jakebroder.com
Read and watch more:
UnRavelled Play
https://www.unravelledplay.com/
Creativity & FTD: Past Present Future: The Story of Dr. Anne Adams and Maurice Ravel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-tCG6m79pk&t=1s
‘UnRavelling’ Stigma to Find Common Threads
https://localnewspasadena.com/2025/unravelling-stigma-to-find-common-threads/
Unravelling Boléro: progressive aphasia, transmodal creativity and the right posterior neocortex
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18057074/
Art & Creativity: UCSF Memory and Aging Center
https://memory.ucsf.edu/brain-health/art-creativity
Emergence of visual artistic creativity in frontotemporal dementia
https://alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/alz.065202
Prevalence, Timing, and Network Localization of Emergent Visual Creativity in Frontotemporal Dementia
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36848111/
Unraveling Bolero
https://radiolab.org/podcast/unraveling-bolero
This episode of Dancing into Brain Health was edited and produced by Magda Kaczmarska and Hilary Brown-Istrefi. The music for this show is the title cut from the album, Critical Path by Joe Venegoni and Carl Weingarten.
ABOUT DANCING INTO BRAIN HEALTH PODCAST
Join host Magda Kaczmarska, dancer, researcher, Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health and executive director of arts and health nonprofit, DanceStream Projects, in uncovering the interconnections of dance, brain health and community. Each episode Magda brings together leading researchers, artists, advocates and thought leaders to illuminate the magical interconnections of dance and brain health and explore their influence on all aspects of our lives.
* New Episodes every month! *
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