The Agewyz Podcast

Mom In The Middle

26 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Irene Atkinson grew up in Texas, steeped in European culture: her parents spoke Polish in the house, and her family socialized in Houston’s large Po...

Aging Famously

19 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

News icon Walter Cronkite and the legendary photographer Gordon Parks are just two of over thirty famous and lesser known people interviewed by Elizab...

The Fixer

12 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Brandi Neal was twenty-nine years old and living in Maine when she dropped everything and flew to Arizona to help care for her ailing father, a...

Not Just A Family Issue

05 Oct 2017

Contributed by Lukas

As an elected official in Southern California, Hector De La Torre expanded access to doctors in underserved communities and he helped protect consumer...

Bleeding Hearts

28 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Pediatric and trauma nurse Tami Reeves talks about her memoir, “Bleeding Hearts: A True Story of Alzheimer’s, Family, And The Other Woman,” the ...

Tony And Elia - The Sequel

21 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

When we spoke with fine artist Tony Luciani in 2016, his then 93-year-old mother Elia, who has dementia, had recently moved in with him. Tony had just...

Marissa Moss on "Last Things"

14 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

“Last Things: A Graphic Memoir About ALS” is a radical departure from the previous work of award-winning author and illustrator Marissa Moss, who ...

Hidden Lives

07 Sep 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The Agewyz Podcast is on a summer break and will be back with all new episodes starting September 14th. Meanwhile, we hope you enjoy this popular rebr...

Billie Jordan: Going Out Dancing

24 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Billie Jordan survived a major earthquake in New Zealand, but she was so traumatized after seeing people die in front of her she fled to tiny Waiheke ...

What You Make Of It

17 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Help Our Wounded (HOW) Founder and President Rosalinda Babin is one of a growing number of parents caring for their veteran sons and daughters. The Ir...

SquadCare With Sherri Williams

10 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Self-care gets a lot of play in the media, but the truth is we’re all connected and the practice of care involves many people, especially in times o...

Autism Dad Topher Wurts

03 Aug 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Autism Village founder Topher Wurts says that with a special needs diagnosis, a parent’s “imaginary future child” dies all at once instead of by...

The Ground Game

27 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

This week as Senators wade through healthcare bills known and unknown, everyday citizens and grassroots campaigns like Caring Across Generations (CAG)...

The Hardest Job I'll Ever Love

20 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

55-year-old Maggie McClane is one of millions of working women who often feel like they have to choose between being a good employee and a good daught...

It's Personal: Wellthy CEO Lindsay Jurist-Rosner

13 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Lindsay Jurist-Rosner was just nine years old when her mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Over twenty-five years of caregiving later, ...

The Eternal Flame

06 Jul 2017

Contributed by Lukas

78-year-old Rosemary Otto is a self-taught, outsider artist whose work is both a form of creative expression and has helped in her recovery from menta...

The Comic Nurse

29 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

MK Czerwiec was not the kid in school who could draw. But in 1994, during her first nursing job on AIDS Unit 371 in Chicago’s Illinois Masonic Medic...

Leaving Tinkertown

22 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico writer Tanya Ward Goodman was joined at the hip with her father Ross Ward, a nationally known carnival artist an...

The Legacies Project

15 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Jay Nelson believes that regardless of background everyone has a story worth sharing, and that the stories of our elders are especially worth sharing ...

Filmmaker Deirdre Fishel On "Care"

08 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Director Deirdre Fishel walked around in a state of rage during the making of her documentary film, “Care,” which delves into the world of paid ca...

Aging Together With Grace

01 Jun 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Peter Fox has a natural connection with older adults. An only child whose parents had him later in life and who were his best friends growing up, he a...

Episode 98: Invisible Costs Of War

25 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

US Marine Corps veteran Sherman Gillums, Jr., Executive Director of Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA) at the time of this recording, discusses how ...

Episode 97: Anything For That Smile

18 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Loretta Veney’s greatest fear is that her mother will outlive her money. Her great grandmother lived to age 107 and her grandmother to age 98. Neith...

Episode 96: Madeleine And Myrtle

11 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Writer/Director Liz Levine talks about a new web series she co-created with Jessie Award winning actress France Perras, who plays a caregiver (Madelei...

Episode 95: Best Foot Forward

04 May 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Canadian author Rick Lauber is among a growing number of male caregivers who provide support alone or with the help of siblings. In today’s show, Ri...

Episode 94: Grown-Up Pains

27 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

When her mother was diagnosed with Huntington’s Disease, 29-year-old writer Melissa Bilchik had to decide whether she too should be tested; there wa...

Episode 93: A Million Ordinary Days

20 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Author and essayist Judy Mollen Walters has been battling Crohn’s disease for over 16 years with oral medications, injections, biologic therapies an...

Coming Of Age In Aging America

13 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Veteran documentary filmmaker Christine Herbes-Sommers talks about her new film for PBS, which explores how longer life expectancy is transforming sma...

Episode 91: A New Normal

06 Apr 2017

Contributed by Lukas

A year ago on the podcast Lisa Howland told of quitting her job to be a full-time caregiver for her father, who has Parkinson’s disease, and of hidi...

Episode 90: In This Together

30 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Howard Grossman is an internist at the Cleveland Clinic Florida and widely known as a specialist in HIV medicine and LGBT health. His residency at Kin...

Episode 89: PHI: Investing in the Direct Care Workforce

23 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Millions of Americans rely on the direct care workforce to care for family members and friends. But this workforce is among the lowest-paid in the nat...

No Limitations

16 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Life was humming along for artist Rolando Chang Barrero, until one day he went to sleep and didn’t wake up for three weeks. A middle-age, openly gay...

Episode 87: Being There

09 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Author Julie Saeger Nierenberg believes that although death is an inevitable part of life, how we choose to be with the dying and the bereaved is up t...

Episode 86: Caring For Dad At 32

02 Mar 2017

Contributed by Lukas

New Yorker Jennifer Levin talks about how becoming a caregiver for her father at age 32 changed her and why she wrote about her experience in Cosmopol...

Episode 85: Learning How To Dance In The Rain

23 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

The challenges of his political career were nothing compared to the steep learning curve faced by former Wisconsin Governor Martin J. Schreiber when h...

Episode 84: The President Will See You Now

16 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

As a little girl Peggy Grande was obsessed with presidents, but she never imagined she would end up working for one. In today’s show Peggy talks abo...

Episode 83: Owning It

09 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

For the past fifteen years Kim Schofield has been living with Lupus, a disease her employer didn’t accept because Lupus is an invisible disability. ...

Episode 82: Your GPS Doc

02 Feb 2017

Contributed by Lukas

For nearly two decades, pediatrician Dr. Nicole Rochester has had an insider’s view of the way hospitals work. In today’s show she shares her know...

Episode 81: AARP Florida and Aging in the Era of Trump

26 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

AARP local offices have their work cut out for them in the state of Florida, where the percentage of residents age 65 or older is higher than anywhere...

Episode 80: Critical Mass

19 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

As the daughter of career UN diplomats, journalist Jay Newton-Small grew up all over the world. But her world was upended when, on top of grieving her...

Episode 79: Rescue Mission

12 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

Pittsburgh native Carole Brecht comes from a talkative family, but when her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease no one discussed her illne...

Episode 78: Something to Fight For

05 Jan 2017

Contributed by Lukas

While she was still in college Jasmine Pearlman became the sole caregiver for her mother, who developed non-Hodgkins lymphoma in 2004 and then faced m...

Pieces of Light

29 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

For twelve years, Priya Soni and her family “lived in the questions” about the undiagnosed neurological condition that ultimately took her father’...

The Only Way Through Is Through

22 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In the blink of an eye, author Liz O’Donnell went from speaking out on the challenges faced by working mothers to losing sleep as a working daughter...

Episode 77: Here For You

15 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Jaime Estremera-Fitzgerald is a CEO on a mission. As head of South Florida’s Area Agency on Aging, known locally as Your Aging and Disability Resour...

Episode 76: A Single Man

08 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

75-year-old Dan Hall talks strategy: as an aging, single gay man and as Treasurer of the Palm Beach County Human Rights Council, which advocates local...

Episode 75: A Long Strange Trip

01 Dec 2016

Contributed by Lukas

On their fifth wedding anniversary Jeff Block’s wife Debbie was diagnosed with anaplastic astrocytoma, a stage 3 brain cancer which she continues to...

Episode 74: Last Call

24 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

65-year-old George Brandetsas spent four years flying back and forth from his home in northern California to his parent's house in Florida, tag-teamin...

Episode 73: Veteran Caregivers: Not Just Women

17 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

New York native Andrea Goldstein was an active duty naval officer from 2009-2016, and she’s been a contributor to the military website “Task &...

Episide 72: Port In A Storm

10 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

When an aging parent falls or needs help of any kind, even the most competent son or daughter can suddenly feel powerless. Meet Candy Cohn, the owner ...

Episode 71: Gold Star

03 Nov 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Victoria Negri is a member of the millennial generation, but her father was a veteran of World War II and he developed Parkinson’s disease before Vi...

Episode 70: The Healing Powers Of Music

27 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Bree Beynon was under the spell of music from a young age. An only child raised by a single mom, she started singing at age five for the seniors at a ...

Episode 69: A Better Way

20 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

When Craig Glover added Organ Donor to his driver’s license, he had no idea he would still be alive when he gave up an organ and that his wife Bonni...

Episode 68: Nurturer By Nature

13 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Working in a hospital as a Certified Nursing Assistant, Karen White saw the best and worst of how patients were treated. The eye-opening experience in...

Episode 67: Crusader For Caregiving Youth

06 Oct 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Connie Siskowski founded the Florida-based American Association of Caregiving Youth to meet the needs of eight to eighteen-year-olds who sacrifice...

Making It Work

29 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Journalist and author Katherine Stewart left New York and moved into her childhood home in Boston to care for her cancer-stricken mother in the last y...

Episode 65: Ann Brenoff - Life, Upended

22 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Huffington Post Senior Writer Ann Brenoff writes about caregiving from the perspective of her own hard-earned truths. In today’s episode she describ...

Episode 64: Billie Jordan - Going Out Dancing

15 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Billie Jordan survived a major earthquake in New Zealand but was so traumatized from seeing people die in front of her, she fled to tiny Waiheke Islan...

Explaining Dementia To Children

08 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Author and illustrator Kathryn Harrison created her picture book “Weeds in Nana’s Garden” to help children who have family members with dementia...

Designing For Dignity

01 Sep 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Designer, researcher and professor Glen Hougan created a program at NSCAD University that puts an emphasis on designing products for seniors. In today...

The A-Word

25 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

What exactly is Alzheimer’s disease and how does it differ from other forms of dementia? Do medications used to treat Alzheimer’s really work? Dr....

Episode 61: Fighting For Life

18 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In a span of five years Nebraska native Valerie Bourdain lost her daughter to adrenal cancer, her mother to lung cancer and her father to leukemia. He...

Episode 60: Staging Alzheimer's - Mickele Hogan on her play "Mourning The Living"

11 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

24-year-old Mickele Hogan’s first full-length play “Mourning the Living” explores the toll Alzheimer’s takes on a husband with the disease and...

Episode 59: Aging Matters

04 Aug 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Pittsburgh native Sue Peschin spent a lot of time around older adults as a youngster, so it’s no surprise that she chose to advocate for older Ameri...

Episode 58: The Person I Am In My Head

28 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Fine artist Tony Luciani began taking photos of his 93-year-old mother Elia after she moved in with him in 2014. Primarily a painter, Tony initiated t...

Episode 57: Greek-Style

21 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

When her father was diagnosed with B-cell lymphoma—a type of Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma—Callie was thrust into long-distance caregiving complicated ...

Episode 56: A Soft Touch

14 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

22-year-old Atonya Jackson is one of over four million Americans employed as a direct care worker, a labor force that includes home health aides, nurs...

Episode 55: In Sickness And In Health

07 Jul 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Canadian Larry Singer is a glass-is-half-full kind of guy, but even he has his moments caring for his beloved wife, Sylvia, who has dementia. In today...

Episode 54: Moments Together And Apart

30 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Krysta Close and her siblings all live in different cities, but they banded together to figure out a new living situation for their mother when they r...

Episode 53: Love And Connection In The Land Of Dementia - Part 2

23 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Just because you’ve been diagnosed with dementia, it doesn’t mean you can’t lead a meaningful life. So says writer Deborah Shouse, who explains ...

Episode 52: Love and Connection in the Land of Dementia - Part 1

16 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Memphis-born writer Deborah Shouse believes engaging creatively with people who have dementia benefits both the caregiver and care recipient. In the f...

Episode 51: Then and Now

09 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

An update on last summer’s interview with a New Yorker named Tim, whose dad is in the late stages of Parkinson’s disease and whose stoic mother re...

Episode 50: Aha Moments

02 Jun 2016

Contributed by Lukas

CELEBRATING OUR 50th EPISODE! Laura Katz Olson is a professor of political science at Lehigh University who’s studied aging policies in the US for o...

Episode 49 : After The Falls

26 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

88-year-old Mary Gallagher wound up in rehab for the same reason lots of older adults do: she injured herself during a fall. But this diehard fan of t...

EpIsode 48: Navigating With Grace

19 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Humor, optimism and resilience have helped writer and trained social worker Susan Margolis Stillman get through a host of family medical challenges. S...

Episode 47: Hidden Lives

12 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Feylyn Lewis is a millennial from Nashville, Tennessee who’s doing her PhD thesis on identity development in young adult caregivers in the US and UK...

Episode 46: The Star Thrower

05 May 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Jamaica-born attorney Andrea McMillan began her caregiving journey on the morning of her brother’s birthday, when the actions of a distracted driver...

Episode 45: Giving Back To Grandma

28 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In her early twenties Jenn Chan left a well-paying job in San Francisco to care for the “sassy” grandmother who raised her. Ten years of caregivin...

Episode 44: The Mitzvah

21 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when two sisters with polar opposite views of their parents are called upon to provide care for them? In today’s episode: the sister wh...

Episode 43: The Cuban Caregiver

14 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Mary Aguiar slept about twenty hours in the first three months after her mother moved in with her. Mary’s mother has Parkinson’s disease, and the ...

Episode 42: Making The Invisible Visible

07 Apr 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In the United States there are 1.5 million lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) older adults — a number that’s expected to double by 2030...

Episode 41: The Advocate

31 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Todd Bonlarron has spent over a decade lobbying in Tallahassee and in Washington on behalf of the residents of Palm Beach County, Florida, where nearl...

Episode 40: Pieces Of Light

24 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Caring for a loved one can be so stressful that the positive gains are often overlooked. In today’s episode New Yorker Priya Soni talks about how ca...

Episode 39: From Ragged Edge to California Cool

17 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

When her husband proposed that they spend the month of February in Mexico, Susan Reid was fearful of being away from her elderly parents for so long. ...

Episode 38 : The Dutiful Daughter

10 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Author Judith Henry was living in Los Angeles when she noticed a pattern emerging in her weekly phone calls with her parents, who lived in Florida: he...

Episode 37: This Is What Normal Looks Like

03 Mar 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Brooklyn-born attorney and empowerment guru Tamesha Keel was riding high in her career when her father died and she instinctively took on the role of ...

Episode 36: The Only Way Through Is Through

25 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

In the blink of an eye, author Liz O’Donnell went from speaking out on the challenges faced by working mothers to losing sleep as a working daughter...

Episode 35: Life, Interrupted

18 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

When her father crawled out of a window in the middle of the night, Lisa Howland had to make a thousand calculations at once to coax him back inside h...

Episode 34: Caregiver Rx From Gerontologist Steven Zarit

11 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Pioneering gerontologist and Penn State University professor Steven Zarit has spent decades studying the effects of caregiving on families. In today’...

Episode 33: The Tsunami

04 Feb 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine your spouse waking up in the middle of the night desperate to know where he is and anxious to locate his family. That’s just the tip of the ...

Episode 32: The Meditative Mediator

28 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

Filing a lawsuit can be an expensive and drawn out process—challenging factors for anyone, but especially older Americans, even if they’re healthy...

Aging Actively Without Kids

21 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

52-year-old architect Scott Joyce felt unmoored after he lost both parents six months apart, all the more so because he didn’t have kids to keep him...

Episode 30: Opportunity Knocking

14 Jan 2016

Contributed by Lukas

It’s an election year in the United States, and with the number of Americans who need care of some kind skyrocketing there’s no better time to siz...

Episode 29: Love, Life And Living

31 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Retired engineer Patricia Lodge was thrown for a loop when her late father remarried after her mother’s death, but she soon realized the gift he’d...

Episode 28: Midwesterner On A Mission

24 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

MJ Campbell is the Director of Nursing for Michigan-based Rite Choice Home Health Care, which provides in-home care for seniors through a specialized ...

Episode 27: Hands On

17 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Ruthanne Zentner is a trained acupuncture physician who lived in Sante Fe, New Mexico for several years before returning to her roots in New York City...

Episode 26: The Trans-Atlantic Caregiver

10 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

German-born Marion Brunken didn't know any English when she came to the US in the late 1990s after winning a green card lottery that gave her permanen...

With Both Feet In

03 Dec 2015

Contributed by Lukas

Writer, producer, publisher and social entrepreneur Deborah Goldblatt knows how to live life to the fullest. In today’s episode she talks about her ...

Episode 24: Patient Safety Maverick

26 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when your parent has a medical emergency and you’re the only family member willing to respond? In today’s episode, Pat Rullo shares h...

Episode 23: The Teenage Caregiver

19 Nov 2015

Contributed by Lukas

30-year-old Natasha Rawding was an infant when her parents divorced and she and her mother moved in with Natasha’s grandparents. Her mother later mo...