by Jana Panarites | Jun 6, 2019 | Podcasts |
Did you know that in the United States there are over 80,000 centenarians? Those are Americans who have made it to age 100 and beyond. They were born at a time when the life expectancy was just 53-1/2 for men and 56 for women. Today, life expectancy is 76 for men and...
by Jana Panarites | May 30, 2019 | Podcasts |
Pioneering educator and researcher Dr. Pauline Boss coined the term “ambiguous loss” to describe a form of grief that is common in caregivers of family members with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. It’s marked by a never-ending grief...
by Jana Panarites | May 23, 2019 | Podcasts |
We celebrate this Memorial Day with the story of a military caregiver whose husband returned from active duty alive but mentally wounded. Jill Armijo’s husband, Joe, served in the Navy as a machinist and was deployed to a ship in the Persian Gulf just before...
by Jana Panarites | May 16, 2019 | Podcasts |
Chicago native Denise M. Brown founded CareGiving.com at a time when Google, Twitter, Facebook and Wikipedia didn’t even exist. Everyone told Denise she was wasting her time. No one would be interested in a website like CareGiving.com. She launched the site...
by Jana Panarites | May 9, 2019 | Podcasts |
A few months after their 50th wedding anniversary, Helene Berger’s husband Ady was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. When the doctor gave him the news, Ady replied, “I don’t want to live anymore.” From that moment on, Helene vowed to...
by Jana Panarites | May 2, 2019 | Podcasts |
In the next fifty years the population of Americans over age 65 will double. Where do millennials fit in? That’s the question posed by filmmaker and visual journalist Sky Dylan-Robbins in her documentary short for NBC Left Field titled, “Millennials Stepping...
by Jana Panarites | Apr 25, 2019 | Podcasts |
If you’re having a hard time caring for a family member or friend, chances are there are lingering wounds in the relationship. But choosing the path of forgiveness can heal even the most fractured bonds. Take it from filmmaker Gayle Kirschenbaum, whose emotional...
by Jana Panarites | Apr 18, 2019 | Podcasts |
George and Carol Shannon were on their last night of vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico when Carol had a stroke. A day later, in a hospital back in their hometown of Pittsburgh, PA, a million questions went through George’s mind. He was still working....
by Jana Panarites | Apr 11, 2019 | Podcasts |
UPDATE: Shannon Brownlee stepped down from her leadership role at the Lown Institute as of April 1, 2021. We hear a lot about how the opioid crisis is destroying families and communities. But the scope and impact of medication overload is much bigger: in the last two...
by Jana Panarites | Mar 28, 2019 | Podcasts |
58-year-old Brian LeBlanc is an international Alzheimer’s advocate who speaks at conferences, workshops, symposiums, and even on dementia-friendly cruises. He’s got a sense of humor that will knock you over. But don’t call him an...
by Jana Panarites | Mar 21, 2019 | Podcasts |
No one knows what it’s like to be old until they get there. That’s the view of Ronni Bennett, a former radio producer in her 70s who also spent over two decades as a writer and producer in network television in New York City. These days Ronni is busy with her...
by Jana Panarites | Mar 14, 2019 | Podcasts |
Much of the research on dementia in the United States has overlooked African Americans, but the prevalence of dementia in this population is more widespread than you might think. PhD candidate Kalisha Bonds is doing a deep dive into the subject as a student at Oregon...
by Jana Panarites | Mar 8, 2019 | Entertainment |
Did you know there are over 660,000 podcasts floating around in the world? Yep, you read that correctly: over half a million podcasts, eager for your ears. So how do you find that needle in the haystack? Well, here’s a podcast I recommend, hands down, for...
by Jana Panarites | Mar 7, 2019 | Podcasts |
Wanting to care for your child is a basic instinct for most mothers. All the more so when that child has a chronic condition, like the son of today’s guest—a Wisconsin mother who asked that we not use her last name. Carol’s adult son has Multiple Sclerosis (MS), but...
by Jana Panarites | Feb 28, 2019 | Podcasts |
In the U.S., as many as 8.4 million people act as caregivers to adults with emotional or mental health conditions. That’s according to a recent report co-authored by the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). ...
by Jana Panarites | Feb 21, 2019 | Podcasts |
Brooklyn-born attorney and empowerment guru Tamesha Keel was riding high in her career when her father died and she took on the role of sole caregiver for her mother. Years earlier her mother had survived a massive brain hemorrhage. She couldn’t live alone, so she...
by Jana Panarites | Feb 14, 2019 | Podcasts |
Florida native Katherine Summers stumbled into her career as a paid caregiver. She had some time on her hands, and friends from her childhood began asking if she could check in on their aging parents. Katherine found she liked being around the elders, and...
by Jana Panarites | Feb 7, 2019 | Podcasts |
Alzheimer’s Speaks founder Lori La Bey is driven to help people with dementia and their care partners live positive and purpose-filled lives. The work of her Minnesota-based advocacy group has been recognized by Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Oz and Sharecare and Alzheimer’s...
by Jana Panarites | Jan 31, 2019 | Podcasts |
In 2015, award-winning journalist John Leland set out on behalf of The New York Times to meet members of America’s fastest growing age group: people age 85 and older, or what gerontologists often refer to as “the oldest old.” What John discovered during his...
by Jana Panarites | Jan 24, 2019 | Podcasts |
Candia, New Hampshire residents Kathy and Ray MacDonald vowed when they got married that neither mother-in-law would ever live with them. Then Kathy’s mother Simone developed Alzheimer’s disease. The working couple now juggles caring for 78-year-old Simone with...
by Jana Panarites | Jan 17, 2019 | Podcasts |
Singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer Kate Schutt was packed and set to leave for a gig in the Middle East when she learned that her mother had stage 3c ovarian cancer. Kate broke her contract, moved in with her mother and became her primary caregiver for the...
by Jana Panarites | Jan 10, 2019 | Podcasts |
Veteran journalist Paula Span has had personal experience with many of the issues explored in her twice-monthly column for The New York Times, “The New Old Age”—the only dedicated real estate at the Times that talks about aging issues and caregiving. On the show,...
by Jana Panarites | Dec 20, 2018 | Podcasts |
Dr. Nicole Rochester has known she wanted to be a pediatrician since she was about eight years old. A Washington, DC native whose dad was a Redskins season ticket holder, Dr. Rochester has advocated for her own family members and given medical care to children in the...
by Jana Panarites | Dec 13, 2018 | Podcasts |
When Steve Burrows’ mother, Judie, fell into a coma after a routine hip surgery, he was afraid she would never wake up. Questioning Judie’s care during surgery, Steve discovered his mother was one of an alarming number of patients in the US who are harmed by medical...
by Jana Panarites | Dec 6, 2018 | Podcasts |
Talking about death can be difficult. But Lois Perelson-Gross believes people are eager to find a way in and begin to feel comfortable talking about the inevitable, so she helped launch Reimagine End of Life, a not-for-profit whose mission is to publicly explore...