Short Biography

BRANDY SCHILLACE (skil-AH-chay), PhD, is a historian, author, journalist and mystery novelist.  Winner of the 2024 Royden B. Davis, S. J., Distinguished Author Award, and 2018 Arthur P. Sloan Science Foundation award, Brandy has bylines at WSJ, Scientific American, Globe and Mail, HuffPo, WIRED, Boston Globe, and UNDARK. She is host of Unsolved Mysteries of Medicine (2025) and the popular YouTube livestream, Peculiar Book Club, featuring bestselling authors of unusual nonfiction, from Mary Roach to Ed Yong.  Brandy has appeared on Mysteries at the Museum with Don Wildman, The Unbelievable with Dan Akroyd, Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny, and Histories Greatest Mysteries with Laurence Fishburne. She gives regular keynotes and is a tireless advocate for social justice, disability and LGBTQ+ representation.

Press Inquiries:

Film Rights:

Literary Agent for Inquiries:

Jessica Papin, Dystel Goderich & Bourret

Jpapin@dystel.com

Content Menu:

INTERVIEWS AND PODCASTS

(featured/curated; for a full list of podcasts click here)

FICTION

Authors on the Air, Global Radio Network, host Brandy on Autism and Mystery

Episode 121: Autism, Cemeteries, and Cozy Mysteries with Dr. Brandy Schillacer

Author Brandy Schillace says new mystery book draws inspiration from her life

Author Chat with Brandy Schillace

Brandy Schillace – The Framed Women of Ardemore House

NON-FICTION

Daniel Brook & Brandy Schillace: The Sex Expert Who Scared Hitler

Hatred Rolls Downhill (the gender backlash)

Cara is joined by author, historian, journalist and mystery novelist, Brandy Schillace, PHD. They discuss Brandy’s newest book, “The Intermediaries: A Weimar Story.”

Ep. 57- Magnus Hirschfeld, the trans community, and the Nazis with Brandy Schillace

Brandy joins this episode to discuss her book about the world’s first center for homosexual and transgender rights

Hope In Dark Places (feat. Brandy Schillace PhD)

Black and Brown in Bioethics: A new Medical Humanities Research Forum

Dr. Brandy Schillace on pathologizing women

A pioneering gender-affirming health institute opened in 1919 in Berlin

Episode 19. Medicine and humanities with Dr. Brandy Schillace

Wormhole w/ Brandy Schillace: Head transplants

New Books in Neuroscience: Brandy Schillace, “Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher

Episode 317. Brandy Schillace: Transplanting the Soul in Mr. Humble and Dr. Butcher

Episode 707 – Brandy Schillace’s Mr Humble and Dr. Butcher

The History of Head Transplants

Episode 551 – Brandy Schillace

The Quest to Transplant a Soul with Dr Brandy Schillace

Matt NcNeil with Brandy Schillace

Dr. Brandy Schillace

Dr. Brandy Schillace

featured Book reviews

FICTION

In writing a detective with autism, a novelist investigated herself [The Dead Come to Stay]

“Schillace’s characters remain a pleasure to spend time with.” [The Dead Come to Stay]

Booklist Review:

“Engaging and full of twists, with a neurodivergent heroine who is both charismatic and relatable.” [The Dead Come to Stay]

“a superior puzzle” [The Dead Come to Stay]

These mystery novels are changing how we see autistic women [The Framed Women of Ardemore House]

Mysteries: A.J. Finn’s ‘End of Story’ Plus Brandy Schillace’s ‘The Framed Women of Ardemore House’ and Iris Yamashita’s ‘Village in the Dark.’ [The Framed Women of Ardemore House]

Review New Releases [The Framed Women of Ardemore House]

Mystery and Thriller [The Framed Women of Ardemore House]

The Power of Neurodiverse Characters in Mysteries [The Framed Women of Ardemore House]

New Release [The Framed Women of Ardemore House]

Five Star Review [The Framed Women of Ardemore House]

Review [The Framed Women of Ardemore House]

Autism, awareness, and The Framed Women of Ardemore House [Framed Women of Ardemore House]

A " compulsively readable murder mystery"

NON-FICTION

The Gay Doctor Who Fought Nazis [The Intermediaries]

“Hope has a history” [The Intermediaries]

STORY BEHIND THE BOOK: Think today’s anti-trans panic is new? Brandy Schillace’s new book tracks its Nazi roots. [The Intermediaries]

A richly detailed, prodigiously researched history [The Intermediaries]

A Cold War State of Mind and Weird Neurosurgeries [Mr. Humble & Dr. Butcher]

Could You Transplant a Head? This Read-Life Dr. Frankenstein Thought So [Mr. Humble & Dr. Butcher

Transplant an organ? Why not an entire body? [Mr. Humble & Dr. Butcher]

If you Transplant a Human Head, Does Its Consciousness Follow? [Mr. Humble & Dr. Butcher]

A Heart in the Right Place [Mr. Humble & Dr. Butcher]

[Mr. Humble & Dr. Butcher]

Yesterday’s World of Tomorrow [Clockwork Futures]

[Clockwork Futures]

[Death’s Summer Coat]

Our Strange, Unsettled History of Mourning [Death’s Summer Coat]

Awards and Honors

Members Of The National Book Critics Circle Board

Visiting Scholar, Manchester University

Visiting scholar, History and Autism Center

Hosking House Trust, Stratford Upon Avon

Brandy Schillace Receives Distinguished Author Award

Science in Public Understanding Award

Invited Talks and Keynotes

Pittsburgh Book Festival, featured author, May 2026

An evening with Brandy Schillace, Miami University, Nov 2025

Masterclass, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Oct 2025

Hope in the Dark: How a daring team of sexologists built the world’s first trans clinic in the shadow of the Third Reich; Manchester University, 2025

The Intermediaries; King’s College London and the Centre for the Humanities and Health, 2025

Autism and Fiction, The Kinny Center for Autism, St. Joseph’s University, Philadelphia, 2025

NEPA Trans Health Conference, 2025

University of Scranton’s Friends of the Weinberg Memorial Library, November 2024

When Science Turns Evil, University of Lynchburg, October 2023

Donley Symposium on Medical Humanities, Hiram College, September 2023

University of Kent, Center for Health and Medical Humanities, 2022

University of Senchenov, Moscow, Russia, Medical Humanities, 2018

University of Oslo, Norway, Cultural Crossings of Care, 2017

TV and MEDIA APPEARANCES

Secrets Declassified with David Duchovny, History Channel

The Forgotten History of the World's First Trans Clinic: How Hatred Begins

Facing Our Fear of Grief

Secrets of the Civil War

Dr. Butcher’ Dreamed of Doing Head Transplants

Fox, Polio Vaccine episode

Mysteries at the Museum 2016

Steampunk Science: True Tales of Innovation in a Steam-Powered Age