Back in March of 2016, anthropologist Caroline Melly had just received tenure at Smith College, and was mother to a healthy five month-old baby boy, Lionel. Then one morning, Lionel had a series of seizures in Caroline’s arms – and she knew everything about her family’s life would change. Racked with seizures daily, Lionel was diagnosed with a catastrophic form of epilepsy called infantile spasms. And he was put on a cocktail of drugs that left him barely able to interact with his parents. But through online communities, Caroline found that other parents of epileptic children were having positive results with CBD. And she and her husband decided to give it a try. And as she watched her son improve, she turned her academic research to these groups of parents who are driving the science forward.

Learn more about Caroline’s story in the Summer 2021 issue of Different Leaf Magazine, available at differentleaf.com.

Follow us on Instagram @DifferentLeaf, and on Twitter @Different_Leaf, and find host Brit Smith @BritTheBritish.

Produced by Andrea Muraskin and Brit Smith, music by Home Body.