Oliver Sacks sits down with Studs Terkel to discuss aspects of "other clinical tales" from his book "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales". Sacks discusses the important role played by the visual arts, music, drawing and math in the lives of people suffering from autism, Parkinson's disease, and mental challenges. He also discusses the repercussions and loss of unique abilities to make patients more socially acceptable.

In the of first of many appearances on Studs' radio show, Oliver Sacks discusses his book "Awakenings" and recounts several patient profiles from his groundbreaking treatment application of L-DOPA to sufferers of Sleeping sickness and Parkinson's disease. They explore his work in the context of Studs' concept of Feeling Tone and Sacks tells of a remarkable scene with aphasic patients reacting to a speech of then President Ronald Reagan.

His book, "The Island of the Colorblind," was the result of Dr. Oliver Sacks' travels to Micronesia. Sacks was puzzled by how people that were color blind could tell if a banana was ripe. A man told him that one must rely on the smell of the banana and its texture. The second part of the book is devoted to Sacks' travels to Guam.*Please note: some sections have been edited out from the original recording due to copyright considerations