The Skeptics Guide #1114 - Nov 14 2026

SPEAKER_1 (0:03)

You're listening to The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe, your escape to reality.

Steven Novella (0:09)

Hello and welcome to The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe. Today is Thursday, November 12th, 2026 and this is your host, Steven Novella. Joining me this week are Bob Novella.

Jay Novella (0:18)

Hey everybody.

Steven Novella (0:19)

Kara Santa Maria.

Kara Santa Maria (0:20)

Howdy.

Steven Novella (0:21)

And Jay Novella.

Jay Novella (0:22)

Hey guys.

Steven Novella (0:22)

So guys, two weeks ago, unfortunately, Patrick Stewart died. He died right after our recording of the show that week, and we didn't bring up the previous week. So we have to bring it up. I mean, Patrick Stewart obviously was a tremendous actor. He played Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek The Next Generation.

Bob Novella (0:44)

And so many more.

Steven Novella (0:45)

So many more roles. What have you guys heard about it? About how he died? Nothing.

Jay Novella (0:51)

I heard that he had a type of Alzheimer's and it was a quick onset.

Steven Novella (0:55)

Yeah. So he died of a rapidly progressive dementia that we are being told by his family. And his people was a combination. It's actually called mixed dementia.

It's a combination of Alzheimer's disease and Lewy body dementia.

Kara Santa Maria (1:11)

That's rough. And Lewy body, of course, was what took Robin Williams.

Steven Novella (1:15)

Yeah. Robin Williams had just Lewy body.

Kara Santa Maria (1:18)

Yeah.

Steven Novella (1:18)

What is that? So it's essentially a combination of Parkinson's disease and dementia. But if the dementia comes first, they call it Lewy body dementia. If the Parkinson's come first, they call it Parkinson's with dementia.

And it has specific inclusions in the neurons, the so-called Lewy bodies. That's a pathological finding. So essentially, if you have Alzheimer's and Lewy body, you have the inclusions that you see, the tau and amyloid that you see in Alzheimer's plus, then you get the Lewy body, Lewy bodies that you see in Lewy body dementia.

So the thinking is that when you have both together, it's just to increase strain on the cells. And in some cases, it can lead to a very rapidly progressive disease. There has not been a biopsy that's been reported. So we have no information, I mean, an autopsy. So you will read online that there are autopsy reports. It's all just click bait. There's no autopsy has been released, which means that it probably was a clinical diagnosis, or it may have been backed up with some blood work, but it can only be 100% confirmed on autopsy, so we make it that information at some point.

Bob Novella (2:24)

So what would the obvious symptoms be if you were dealing with somebody?

Kara Santa Maria (2:28)

Well, so from what I understand, tell me if I'm right on this, Steve, like with Lewy body, there's like a lot of fluctuation.

Bob Novella (2:37)

Yeah.

Kara Santa Maria (2:38)

So like you'll be kind of with it and then not with it and with it. And there's also like a fair amount of kind of, maybe not pure psychotic symptoms, but like hallucinations. That's correct.

Steven Novella (2:50)

Yeah, Lewy body has more hallucinations, more sleep disturbances early on. You can get those later on in Alzheimer's, but they occur earlier on with Lewy body.

Kara Santa Maria (2:58)

And Parkinson's, that's common with Parkinson's, yeah.

Steven Novella (3:01)

But then you get the movement disorder component, but that should be after the dementia for Lewy body dementia.

His last film, so his last film credit, is going to be the latest Marvel X-Men, where he is Professor X. And that was filmed just last year. And he was in an interview in July, so just a few months before he died, where he seemed fine and was talking about continuing to act. So I think it's really been very rapid, like just the last few months is what it seems.

Jay Novella (3:33)

I guess that's good, right?

Bob Novella (3:35)

I was thinking about, he was 86

Steven Novella (3:37)

So if you get to 86 and are still working and with it and healthy, and then you have a rapid decline and die, that's better than 10 years of decline.

Bob Novella (3:47)

Which a lot of people suffer from when it comes to dementia. Compressed morbidity is a goal, man. That's just like, that's kind of ideal in so many ways.

Jay Novella (3:54)

He had an amazing life. I read his memoir. It was very good.

Just very interesting and he's very specific. And I would say that he's one of the most thoughtful celebrities that I've read about. Like he really cared. And in the end, I think Patrick Stewart leaves an amazing legacy. First of all, not only has he been in so many different films, and he's Shakespearean actor all the way to doing Star Trek. And he liked to have fun with film roles as I interpret it. My first encounter with him was when he was in the 1984 Dune.