MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory hosted its inaugural Neuroscience of Democracy Symposium on May 19th, bringing together researchers from MIT, Harvard, Princeton, and Penn with leading election deniers and Black Lives Matter activists to address the urgent scientific question of why some people vote incorrectly.

The symposium was co-sponsored by the Freedom Together Foundation, which was seeded with proceeds from the estate of Jeffry Picower, Bernie Madoff’s single largest beneficiary who personally extracted $7.2 billion from history’s largest Ponzi scheme. His widow donated generously to MIT, endowing both the Picower Institute and, through the rebranded Freedom Together Foundation, the landmark launch of this new field of neuropolitical science.

Keynote addresses were delivered by Stacey Abrams — voting rights activist, two-time Georgia gubernatorial loser, and connoisseur of stolen elections — and Alicia Garza, co-founder of Black Lives Matter, an organization now under federal investigation for misuse of donor funds. Apparently, no neuroscientists were available for the keynote slots.

Abrams brings singular qualifications to the democracy space. In 2024, the Biden administration awarded $2 billion to Power Forward Communities on its way out the door, a coalition she helped found, which at the time of the grant reported exactly $100 in prior revenue. Her New Georgia Project subsequently dissolved in November 2025 following congressional scrutiny over $7 million in illegal campaign contributions. MIT did not disclose whether her honorarium was paid in cash.

The symposium represents the natural expansion of MIT’s protect-our-democracy portfolio. The Institute’s Election Lab, which last month demonstrated its expertise in Election Science™ gaslighting, now has a sister neurological arm to study the cognitive deficiencies of the electorate.

Barbara Picower could not be reached for comment, presumably occupied laundering additional stolen investor funds into academic credibility.

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