RealTalk MS

What happens when you're diagnosed with a chronic, unpredictable condition just as your career is taking off? That's exactly what happened to my guest, Dana Foote.   This week, Dana joins us to share her journey from hiding her MS diagnosis as a young auditor at one of the largest accounting organizations in the world to becoming National Managing Partner for Audit & Assurance Operations and a lea...

Whether it's walking into a room and blanking on why you're there, struggling to pull up a word that's right on the tip of your tongue, or losing track of daily tasks, cognitive fatigue and brain fog can turn simple routines into exhausting hurdles. What makes cognitive changes particularly challenging is their invisibility. They don't show up on a routine check-in like mobility issues do. Family...

  Most people don't think about home accessibility until mobility changes force the conversation. But what if you decide to take control of the unknown and design your living space for whatever the future might bring? My guest, Sarah Timmerman, explains how she took total control of her future by designing and building what she calls  The House That MS Built —a home engineered from the foundation...

RealTalk MS is celebrating our ninth anniversary, and we're marking the milestone with a special guest! Dr. Tim Coetzee, President and CEO of the National MS Society, returns to the show for a candid, forward-looking conversation about why today represents one of the most promising moments for advancing MS research and transforming clinical care. We're taking a hard look at the game-changers on th...

  We are less than 40 days away from MSToronto2026—the joint ECTRIMS/ACTRIMS Scientific Congress. While the congress brings together the world's leading MS researchers and clinicians, Patient Community Day —in person and online—is designed specifically for people affected by multiple sclerosis. This week, Dr. Jennifer Graves and Brett Drummond join me to preview what to expect from Patient Communi...

Relapses make life with MS unpredictable. Understanding what they are, why they happen, and how best to manage them can make a relapse less scary and easier to navigate.   This week, Dr. Gabriela Karolidis, a board-certified neurologist and neuroimmunologist at Thomas Jefferson University, joins us for a deep dive into MS relapses. The MS International Federation has just updated the Atlas of MS,...

Wise men and women remind us that life is a marathon, and not a sprint. Joining us this week is Benji Wilkins. Benji is a magician in the U.K., and for 42 days this summer, his life was quite literally a marathon. In the process, Benji raised money to help his mom, who lives with MS, and he raised awareness of MS across the U.K. and around the world.   We're also sharing results of a study that fo...

Cognitive changes in MS—fluctuations in processing speed, memory, and executive function—can significantly impact daily life, yet they're often misunderstood or overlooked in routine clinical exams. This week, we are joined by Dr. Anna Kratz, clinical psychologist and Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Michigan, to discuss actionable, evidence-...

Imagine your spouse or significant other has been diagnosed with MS...shortly after you were diagnosed with stage IV colon cancer, and given just a 15% chance of survival. All of a sudden, the roles of patient and care partner are up for grabs -- and they change with almost daily frequency.  That's exactly the scenario my guest, Kathleen Silva, faced. Kathleen is joining me to discuss how she and...

If you Google the term "shared decision making", you'll find it defined as a collaborative process where patients and clinicians work together to select tests, treatments, and care plans based on clinical evidence and the patient's personal values and goals. But shared decision-making isn't an automatic happy pill. It takes work, it takes discipline, and it takes a clear understanding of both the...

We get more listener emails about diet and MS than almost any other topic. If you're curious about how some of the well-known diets for MS actually stack up, or you're interested in understanding the connection between diet and MS-related fatigue, or you want to know what the biggest obstacle to staying on a new diet is ( and this may surprise you ), then this is the episode for you. We're devotin...

During his fellowship in the United States, Dr. Avinash Chandra trained to become an MS specialist at a world-class MS center. Then he returned home to Nepal and discovered that MS was largely considered non-existent. But Dr. Chandra knew it wasn't.  In this week's episode, Dr. Chandra discusses his experience creating a framework for MS care in Nepal that hadn't existed before. He also explains t...

If you've spent any time at all living with or caring for someone with multiple sclerosis, you know that medical textbooks and information-filled websites can give us facts, figures, and symptoms, but they rarely capture the sometimes messy, sometimes overwhelming, and sometimes darkly funny reality of what it actually feels like to get a diagnosis of MS and realize your life has suddenly shifted...

Living with depression has been described as "like living under a wet, heavy blanket". It can stop someone from showing up at work, meeting up with friends, and even connecting with their family.  One out of every two people living with MS will experience depression at some point in their MS journey. The METS for MS study is focused on a novel approach to treating major depressive disorder among p...

The Americans with Disabilities Act ensures that people living with disabilities receive reasonable accommodations at work. That law also applies to students attending most colleges and universities. And the ADA doesn't limit itself to physical disabilities. It's often applied to invisible disabilities, as well. This week, Britt Neff, the Access Specialist at the University of Washington School of...

A short while ago, we shared very positive results from the Phase 3 clinical trials for fenebrutinib in both relapsing-remitting and primary progressive MS. Those results have been submitted to the FDA for approval. This week, Dr. Jiwon Oh, the principal investigator in one of the Phase 3 trials for fenebrutinib, walks us through these positive results and explains what makes fenebrutinib a differ...

Next week, Matt Knaggs and Colin Goodman will attempt to set a Guinness World Record for running the 350-mile length of Ireland with MS. This week, you'll meet Matt and Colin and learn why this undertaking is so important to each of them.  We're also sharing survey results that point to gaps in how we approach MS care from the day of diagnosis. We'll tell you what it really means when you read tha...

For years, the standard medical advice for someone diagnosed with multiple sclerosis was simple, cautious, and as we now know, incredibly limiting: "Take it easy. Don't overexert yourself. And get plenty of rest."   Today, like almost every other aspect of MS care, neurological rehabilitation is being entirely rewritten. It's no longer about just managing decline; it's about leveraging emerging te...

This week, our coverage of the Consortium of MS Centers annual meeting continues with my guest, Dr. Stephen Krieger. In a wide-ranging conversation, Dr. Krieger offers a very encouraging clinical trial update, shares his thoughts on what treating someone living with advanced MS ought to look like, and points out potential obstacles to implementing the updated criteria for diagnosing MS.  Dr. Krieg...

Last week, the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers, best known as CMSC, hosted its annual meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, where we had a chance to talk with some of the world's top MS experts. We'll be sharing those conversations over the next few episodes of the podcast. Welcome to Part One of our coverage of CMSC 2026! In what has become an annual tradition at this conference, Dr. Kat...

May 30th is World MS Day! This year, the theme for World MS Day is "My MS Diagnosis," and I've been thinking about what happens right after that diagnosis. After   an individual hears, " You have MS. " This week, Dr. Nancy Sicotte joins me to discuss the things you should know, the things you should be thinking about, and the things you should be doing in the first 100 days following an MS diagnos...

When we talk about managing Multiple Sclerosis, our conversations naturally focus on things like disease-modifying therapies, mobility, MRI scans, and symptom management. But in this week's episode, we're shining a light on a critical aspect of MS wellness that doesn't get nearly enough attention: your oral health. Living with MS can introduce a whole host of unexpected challenges to maintaining a...

One out of every two people with MS will experience clinical depression at some point in their MS journey, making depression one of the most significant yet under-discussed aspects of living with MS. While the physical symptoms of MS often take center stage, the neuropsychiatric challenges can be just as impactful on an individual's overall quality of life and long-term outcomes. Joining us to she...

For decades, an MS diagnosis came with outdated advice and significant uncertainty regarding starting a family. Today, the conversation has shifted from "Is it possible?" to "How do we optimize the journey?" This week, we're taking a deep dive into the essential considerations for family planning, managing MS during pregnancy, and the crucial postpartum period.  We're joined by Dr. Riley Bove, an...

Myelin repair is a natural function. But, for people living with MS, that ability to repair myelin eventually stops working. New research led by my guest, Dr. Larry Sherman, may explain why that happens and point to new possibilities for future myelin repair treatments. Dr. Sherman is a professor at the Oregon National Primate Research Center at Oregon Health & Science University, and his research...