Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 678 is a conversation with Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler, an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon who has performed tens of thousands of procedures, pioneered the Holcomb C3R keratoconus cross-linking treatment, and written two books, Perceptual Intelligence and Influenced. We cover how he saved the vision of Olympic bobsled champion Steven Holcomb, how that work connects to my own family's keratoconus story, and why his latest book argues that social media is quietly reshaping how all of us perceive what is real.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · YouTube · or press play in the player above.
Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler is an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon who has performed tens of thousands of eye procedures and is a pioneer in keratoconus treatment. He developed the Holcomb C3R cross-linking procedure that strengthens a weakened cornea, and he is the author of two books, Perceptual Intelligence and Influenced, which explore how the brain forms and is manipulated in its perception of reality.
Influenced examines how social media platforms use algorithms and psychological mechanisms to shape what people believe is real, normal, and true. Building on the idea of perceptual intelligence from his first book, he explains why intelligence and education offer little protection against algorithmic influence and how anyone can become more aware of how their perception is being shaped.
Keratoconus is a disease of the cornea, the outer lens of the eye, where weak collagen causes the cornea to bulge outward, producing blurry vision, glare, and halos. The traditional treatment was a painful cornea transplant with a long recovery. Dr. Boxer Wachler developed the Holcomb C3R cross-linking procedure, which strengthens the cornea and stops the disease from getting worse without a transplant.
Steven Holcomb was an Olympic bobsled gold medalist who had keratoconus and was going blind before Dr. Boxer Wachler treated him with the cross-linking procedure that now bears his name. I share the keratoconus story alongside Holcomb in this episode, and Dr. Boxer Wachler says watching Holcomb compete at the Sochi Olympics inspired the thinking that led to his books on perception.
Perceptual intelligence is the concept behind Dr. Boxer Wachler's first book of the same name. Just as people have emotional intelligence, he argues they have a perceptual intelligence that governs how accurately they interpret reality, and that this faculty can be fooled, trained, and manipulated, which is the bridge to the social media themes in his second book, Influenced.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 678 with Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. The video version is embedded at the top of this page.
Dr. Boxer Wachler is not a stranger to me. One of my favorite shows we ever did was when Steven Holcomb, Turner, and I all sat down and told the story of keratoconus, the eye disease that connected all of us. Dr. Boxer Wachler is the surgeon who built the treatment that saved Steven's vision and let him keep driving a bobsled at the Olympic level. So when his new book came out and I read it cover to cover in one sitting, I knew I wanted him back to talk about both halves of his work: the eyes themselves, and what he has learned about how the mind behind the eyes can be fooled.
Press play in the player above to hear the whole conversation.
For anyone who has heard the term and never understood it, Dr. Boxer Wachler gives the clearest explanation of keratoconus I have come across. He describes how the cornea weakens and bulges, what that does to your sight, and why the old fix was a brutal cornea transplant. Then he walks through the cross-linking procedure he developed, the one named after Steven Holcomb. This part hits close to home for my family, and he tells it better than I can. Listen to the opening of the episode.
Here is the turn I did not see coming. Dr. Boxer Wachler says the idea for his books came to him in Sochi, Russia, while he was watching Steven Holcomb compete. He explains the concept of perceptual intelligence, the idea that, alongside emotional intelligence, we each have a faculty for interpreting reality that can be sharp or dull, trained or tricked. The line he draws from an eye disease to a theory of perception is one of my favorite moments in the conversation. Hear him explain it in the player above.
His second book, Influenced, is about what happens when perceptual intelligence meets an algorithm built to exploit it. Dr. Boxer Wachler makes the uncomfortable case that being educated, even being a physician, does not make you immune to having your view of reality shaped by a feed. As someone who uses social media to share fishing content, I found this genuinely sobering. He explains the mechanisms without the usual fear-mongering. Listen to that section of the episode.
Dr. Boxer Wachler also pulls back the curtain on the publishing world, and it is nothing like most people imagine. He explains why nonfiction authors sell a book proposal and a business plan before writing a single chapter, how getting an agent is its own battle, and why the work only really begins once the book is finished. If you have ever thought about writing a book, this stretch is worth the price of admission. Press play in the player above.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or watch in the player at the top of this page.
What I appreciate about Dr. Boxer Wachler is that he is a builder. He built a procedure that gives people their sight back, and now he is building a framework for protecting the thing behind the eyes, the way we interpret what we see.
The keratoconus story will always be the one closest to my heart because of what it meant for Steven and for my own family. But the perception material is the part I keep thinking about, because every one of us is carrying around a phone designed to shape what we believe.
Press play in the player above, or grab Episode 678 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler · Steven Holcomb · Holcomb C3R Cross-Linking · Influenced (book) · Perceptual Intelligence (book) · Sochi 2014 Olympics · Keratoconus
The Tom Rowland Podcast brings you long-form conversations with the most accomplished anglers, hunters, conservationists, and outdoor professionals in the game. Listen to every full-length Tom Rowland Podcast interview.
Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler is an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon who has performed tens of thousands of eye procedures and is recognized as a pioneer in the treatment of keratoconus. He developed the Holcomb C3R cross-linking procedure, named for Olympic bobsled champion Steven Holcomb, which strengthens a weakened cornea and halts the disease without a transplant. He is the author of two books, Perceptual Intelligence and Influenced: The Impact of Social Media on Our Perception, and he appears regularly in the media discussing eye health and how technology shapes human perception.
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