Then, around 2010, Ruby did a 180-degree turn that would give a stuntman whiplash. She got a master’s degree in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy from Oxford University. Oxford. The same Ruby who once made a studio audience howl by simulating a nervous breakdown on a chair now wrote a thesis on them.
Her most famous act now? She wrote the book Sane New World, which is basically a survival guide for your frazzled brain. She turned her own struggles with clinical depression into a one-woman show that toured the world. She’d stand on stage, barefoot, and shout “Depression is not a dirty word—it’s just your brain being a greedy little jerk!”
She Made TED Talks Feel Like a Stand-Up Set
If you search “Ruby Wax TED talk,” you’ll see a woman who looks like a glamorous auntie who’s secretly a neuroscientist. She started her TEDx talk by saying, “I’ve been mad for a long time, but now I have the science to prove it.” The audience laughed so hard they almost missed the fact she was teaching them about the prefrontal cortex.
I'm A Celebrity 2026: Ruby Wax's secret jungle advantage
She famously calls the amygdala (the brain’s fear center) “the drama queen that lives in your skull.” She’ll tell you that your “monkey mind” is just a bunch of neurons having a tantrum. And she does it while making you feel like you’re at a comedy club, not a lecture hall.
