Hay Festival Querétaro 2021 – Health

Among the many things wrong with our current socioeconomic system is not just the fact that healthcare is a privilege for the few, but that a whole illness industry exists that is structured around making a profit from those who are unwell, often with serious illnesses. The poet, essayist and lecturer Anne Boyer (United States) won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction for The Undying. A Meditation on Modern Illness, an acute and lucid work that tells of her own experience as a survivor of an aggressive breast cancer, which led her to live through and understand some chilling realities. Boyer is also the author of books such as The Romance of Happy Workers (2008), The 2000s (2009), Garments Against Women (2015) and A Handbook of Disappointed Fate (2018). In conversation with Eduardo Rabasa.

Simultaneous translation from English to Spanish available

Is the human brain still evolving? Are the new technologies affecting it? The Argentinean neurologist Facundo Manes studied at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires and is a Doctor of Science from the University of Cambridge. He has published various books and produced television programmes such as Los enigmas del cerebro and Cerebro argentino, together with the Literature graduate Mateo Niro. His latest book, written with Niro, is called El cerebro del futuro: ¿Cambiará la vida moderna nuestra esencia?, and it tackles themes such as interdisciplinary work, the impact of the new technologies on the brain, neuroethics, how to treat mental illnesses and the role of science when dealing with social problems. He will talk to the BBC journalist Carlos Serrano.