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Meredith Burns

@merelee513

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obsessed with brain health, my husband, our family + parties that fix broken systems. Beautiful Brain Founder.
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la. last year. the story. flew out to say goodbye to my dad. hadn't seen him since i was 27. that was 17 years ago. sat in my hotel room for two days first. couldn't do the hallway. my cousin caitlin found him a home. i couldn't manage that part. just said goodbye to my mom. stepdad disappearing into alzheimer's. caitlin's a true sister — cousins, really. found each other again on facebook in our 20s, after growing up on different coasts. finally made it down the hall. sunshine. dad in my sunnies — one of the only gifts i ever gave him. left something i'd seen the world through — with him. last photo we have together. when an estranged parent passes, the feeling is indescribable. it'll need an essay of its own. more to come, on navigating that grief. that night, my college roommates came with me to a play. sat down. turned to the stranger next to me. "what brought you here?" "well," he said. "i wrote it." cried start to finish. him, after: "are you ok?" me: "thank you." that's all i had. the play was unravelled. anne adams. maurice ravel. frontotemporal dementia. my mom's disease. the one that took her words first. the disease takes the words. who you used to be. this play is the only thing that's ever made me feel seen. know that really happened. we really lived it. we really survived it. now, my parents are all together in heaven (hopefully getting along). mom. neil. my stepdad. tonight, unravelled opens in new york. i co-produce it now. and i'm on the panel — next to dr. bruce miller, the man who taught the world ftd isn't alzheimer's. the disease that took my mom. last year: audience. this year: panel. full circle doesn't fix the hurt. it gives it somewhere to go. miller theatre, broadway + 116th. tonight 7:30. tomorrow 1. two shows only. tickets from $20. link in bio. someone you love disappearing? come sit in it. there's a seat next to me this time.
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THE POWER OF ART I can’t wait to see this again tomorrow. A play so dear to my heart, the one that gave me a place to feel seen and understood. To know I hadn’t gone crazy. Anne Adams was a scientist who left the lab, out of nowhere, to paint. Then frontotemporal dementia took her words — and the painting got even more stunning and precise. She became an extraordinarily talented artist — showing true genius while losing her mind to FTD. Art and science on display at its core. UnRavelled — Jake Broder's play, — is Anne's story. Miller Theatre, Columbia University: Fri Oct 23, 7:30pm · Sat Oct 24, 1pm. Tickets from $20, link in bio. Come with me. I promise it’s astounding 🤍 Artwork: "Unravelling Boléro" (1994) by Dr. Anne Adams, via the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. #FTD #FrontotemporalDementia #UnRavelled #ArtAndScience #BrainHealth
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mayo on fries. always. at 5 i was flying solo. unaccompanied minor, cincinnati to dc, to see my dad. the plane was the fun part. delta still handed out sandwich packs. mayo packets included. one flight, a man with brown hair and glasses watched me put mayo on my turkey croissant and told me it was disgusting. i was five. i went quiet. still remember the sting of first embarrassment. anyway. still love mayo. little moi did that flight alone, over and over. resilient then. resilient now. my kids come by it honestly. and never be embarrassed by your own choices. #TeamMayo #UnaccompaniedMinor
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THE DISPATCH — POLICY Washington moved. On Monday, an executive order championed by the First Lady set up a White House Women's Health Task Force and gave the NIH 90 days to create a Women's Health Division. The White House names Alzheimer's disease and menopause among the areas where women need more research. That's the brain, in writing. Red or blue, here's a first worth toasting: Susie Wiles — the first woman ever to serve as White House Chief of Staff, and one of Washington's most formidable power brokers — co-chairs the task force. The person who runs the President's calendar is in the room. A division is not $’s - yet. But it is a door. I’ll stay hopeful l. Our partners at UsAgainstAlzheimer's have pushed for exactly this focus for years through Advancing Women's Brain Health. Now the work: making sure brain health is at that table — because nearly two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer's are women, and 3% is not a funding strategy. 👀 are on the line items. Source: The White House, executive order and fact sheet, Oct 19, 2026. #WomensHealth #WomensBrainHealth #NIH #Alzheimers #HealthPolicy
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HOT SCULPT 🔥 Just you, the mat, and the heat. Bodyweight only — core, glutes, and strength head to toe 💪 Tue & Thu 9:30 AM · Hot Vinyasa Wed 9:30 AM 📍 @hamptonshotyoga All levels welcome — come sweat with us ✨ #hotsculpt #hotyoga #hamptons #bodyweighttraining #coreandglutes
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THE DOSSIER / PART I — STEPPING STONE SCIENCE We fund the steps that let their vision launch. A stepping stone is a goal small enough to finish and big enough to matter — the proof a bold vision needs before the world will fund the rest. We find those steps. We name them. We fund them in full. (It's usually the unglamorous one. That's the point.) Case No. 1: Dr. Claire Clelland at UCSF, mapping how to deliver treatment into the brain itself. $100,455. 49 donors. Funded in full. Every ask names a specific goal. Every dollar funds it. One stone at a time. Coming soon, Part II: the platform. Not a cure hunt. A map. Follow along — women's brain health, funded one step at a time. #WomensBrainHealth #BrainHealth #Alzheimers #Dementia #WomensHealth
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Connecticut and Long Island#100womenofimpact
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Optimism came up over and over this weekend during a UNGA event I hosted from home and it changed how I think about it. Sebastian Guth from @bayerofficial opened with something I keep coming back to, that in global health specifically, optimism is not naive, it is necessary if we actually want to tackle what is ahead. @richardwedelman pushed it further, naming trust, or the lack of it, as the real fault line right now, and reframing that gap as our biggest opportunity to act together as one humanity instead of fractured pieces. I added my own piece to that. Optimism cannot just be a feeling we reach for when things get hard. It has to be a strategy. A resilient, solutions-oriented mindset is what actually drives systemic change, not just what makes us feel better while waiting for it. Thank you to everyone who joined us: @virgilioviana, Michael Posner, @georgevradenburg, Elaine Brennan, @andyvga, @lishzr, @juxyjux, @sheswickedsmaat, @helenclarknz, @marissasolis10, @caro_guardiola, Sebastian Guth (@bayerus), @merelee513, @elencapri, @josettesheeran1, and so many more.
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Brain health is women’s health. Women have changed the conversation around our bodies, our careers and our worth. Now, it’s time to bring our brains into that conversation. Because brain health deserves our attention before there is a diagnosis. Because knowledge gives us choices. And because women have the power to change what comes next. Through 100 Women of Impact, we are bringing women together to lead, learn, advocate and help move the conversation about Alzheimer’s, dementia and brain health forward. Our brains are next. #100woi #iam100woi #caringkind #brainhealth #womenshealth
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The end of a beautiful summer! Dani came to visit after 6 years of not being here. A full circle moment, because when she was here last, I was opening my store and didn’t have time to spend time with her and other friends, and show them around. We more than made up for it this time, going to my favorite spots and properly catching up. I opened Matriark less than a year after moving to the Hamptons and, for 5 years, I worked all summer and never had the opportunity to slow down and enjoy time off with the family. Then last year we travelled to Japan, so this is truly the first time I am actually enjoying being here. There were so many events and things to do, but sometimes this place becomes too “networky” and transactional (I’m allergic to both), so I didn’t go to most of them. The Hamptons for me is about living with less pressure, less transactional relationships, less hustling, and more joy and beauty. Having time to do things with more intention and spending time with people that matter to me and my family is why I moved here. I feel this season was finally was what meant to be to begin with. Grateful for this beautiful summer, and (sort of) ready for back to school and sweater weather. 🙏❤️
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Your Brain Is Beautiful And Your Deserve More! Almost two-thirds of Americans living with Alzheimer’s are women, and Meredith Burns wants to change that Ten days ago, Meredith hosted a luncheon to kick off The Beautiful Brain Campaign, an initiative to make sure women’s brain health gets funded by the NIH, and that the funding reaches the neuroscientists doing the best, most rigorous work on this disease. We heard from physician-scientist Dr. Claire Clelland, of UCSF’s Memory and Aging Center, Dr. Emily Rhodes Lowry and Valerie Estess from Project ALS, and co-founder and chairman of UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, George Vradenburg. Before the lunch, CaringKind founder Eleonora co-hosted the NOURISH gathering with fellow 100 Women of Impact Claudia Romo Edelman, Helen Christoni, Jan Planit, and Natasha Caronna to drive the point home: this disease is not inevitable, and it is not someone else’s fight. Meredith and I share more than the love of our kids, and the disease who killed our loved ones. We both know that women are affected the most , and we share the conviction (not just hope) that dementia can be prevented and cured ❤️ It’s why I said yes to CaringKind’s 100 Women of Impact. It’s why I’ve now donated to the Beautiful Brain Campaign. And it’s why I’m asking you to get involved: we can change this. With awareness, with dollars, with pressure on the institutions that decide whose bodies get studied and whose don’t. Every woman wants and deserves to keep her brain free of dementia for the rest of her life. And preventing dementia isn’t a women’s issue. It’s everyone’s. Our kids, our partners, our families and future caregivers will thank us 🙏 Read more at this week’s newsletter at Matriark.com
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Did you know you can make your memories on purpose? Last week in No. 0012 - I wrote about how memory lives in the body, not in photographs, and how you can plant triggers on purpose. The sound one hit a nerve. So: senior year of high school. What was playing? 🎶 Reading every single one, and I'm building all your answers into a Spotify playlist that goes out with the next Substack. Add yours before I hit publish. Link in bio!
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