Susan Peirce Thompson had been a straight-A student who wanted to go to Harvard, when she found herself in a crack house, where she’d been for four days. “I had a moment of clarity, when I saw who and where I was. I knew if I didn't get out of there—right then—that's all I was ever going to be.” A Ph.D. today, she is a psychology professor, a brain and cognitive scientist, and an expert in the psychology of eating. Her program uses cutting-edge research to explain how the brain blocks weight loss and how to undo that damage so people can live happy, thin, and free.