Much admired for her novels, essays, and poems, she currently lectures in psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. During our conversation at the Brooklyn Historical Society, she spoke about “the Invisible College,” the mind-body problem, and her love of Virginia Woolf, despite Woolf’s lamentable ignorance of 17th century science. With music from Niall Connolly. I can’t gauge his scientific knowledge, but he sings wonderfully.

•  PERSON: Margaret Cavendish
•  PLACE: the Royal Society
•  THING: a model brain
•  RANDY’S PERSON: Ernest Shackleton