Swallow Your Pride Podcast

Raise your hand if you’ve ever received orders to see a patient with head and neck cancer AFTER they’ve started (or completed) radiation and/or surgery. A million times yes. It’s one of those common cases where speech-language pathology is an afterthought. But in reality, we should be brought into the discussion before any treatment begins! Katie Moore is all too familiar with this, which is why s...

Imagine walking into a room where a team of physicians, physical therapists, and dietitians are sitting at the table discussing wound care. Would you pause and slowly back out the door, hoping no one noticed? Or would you pull up a seat at the table and join the discussion? Ashley Muñoz López not only pulls up a seat, but she builds a bigger table! In this episode of the Swallow Your Pride Podcast...

You know when a patient complains about swallowing difficulty and you do an instrumental, but everything looks fine? Excuse my lack of eloquence here, but…what the heck? This is often referred to as functional dyspahgia, and in this week’s episode of The Swallow Your Pride Podcast, I had the absolute joy of talking about it with Jaimie Anderson MS, CCC-SLP, BC-ANCDS. Together we discuss the challe...

So you want to work in the NICU. First of all - cheers to that! You have a major goal to help some of the most fragile (but also resilient) tiny humans we can help, which is exciting and inspirational! But how the heck do you do it? What does the journey of a non-NICU SLP look like while becoming a NICU SLP? Khaki Brown, MS CCC-SLP, CNT is here to help! Khaki is an SLP and NICU infant feeding spec...

Calling all pediatric MedSLPs who want to grow their therapy skills! The FREE MedSLP Summit is just around the corner, and we’re dedicating an entire DAY to pediatric MedSLP therapy approaches on Sunday, December 3rd! Curious about myofunctional therapy? Want to improve your pediatric AAC skills? Maybe you want to see what MedSLPs are doing today for feeding therapy from NICU to toddlerhood (and b...

Pssst...did you know that the FREE MedSLP Summit is happening this weekend? It's online...up to 14 hours of education...and 100% dedicated to today's therapy approaches (the what, the how, the why, the wow). And YES, a recording WILL be available to catch the replay! But who the heck is speaking? What's their background? Are they like...cool and knowledgeable? Yes, yes, a thousand times yes! In to...

So you have a patient with dysphagia…what do you immediately start considering? Diagnosis…comorbidities…past medical history…past surgical history…current diet recs… ☝️Those are the typical go-to “textbook” checklist items, but there are other incredibly important considerations that will affect how you evaluate and treat your patient. These considerations impact your clinical recommendations and...

Is it ever “normal” for infants to cough during feeding? Does it make a difference whether they’re breastfed or bottle-fed? What should med SLPs actually understand and implement when it comes to infant feeding? Infant feeding and our role as med SLPs is one of my FAVORITE topics to discuss, and my heart practically did a break dance when I got to sit down with Katlyn McGrattan, PhD, CCC-SLP, to d...

“I have a pretty controversial topic. I'm usually known for pushing the boundary a little bit.” ☝️If there were ever a sequence of words that will make heads turn and ears perk, it’s THAT! Join me in this week’s episode of the Swallow Your Pride Podcast where I had the absolute honor of digging into SLP challenges, gray areas, and pushing the envelope in our field with Monica Lupo, M.A., CCC-SLP,...

While the early 2000s hailed power couples like Brangelina and Bennifer, I’m WAY more excited to shine the spotlight on the dynamic duo on today’s podcast episode 🤩 Leon Daley M.A., CCC-SLP and Athanasia Svenning M.A., CCC-SLP are SLPs who specialize in dysphagia and operate a mobile FEES business together called Daley Dysphagia Diagnostics (while currently planning their wedding on top of it all...

Today we’re excited to bring to you the 300th episode of the Swallow Your Pride Podcast 🎉 This week, Theresa Richard is bringing it back to the very reason this podcast came into existence 299 episodes ago: addressing the gap in dysphagia education and clinical practice. Timothy Stockdale is this week’s special guest to discuss these gaps, what’s being done about it, and what other med SLPs shoul...

Have you ever worked with an athlete or a young patient who fears exercise because it can trigger what feels like an asthma attack? Or maybe you’ve helped someone who feels like they can’t breathe when they smell a strong perfume or have acid reflux. Only none of this is asthma…it’s a form of airway-induced obstructions.  In this podcast episode, Sara Davis, an SLP and the founder of Vox Fit discu...

On a scale of 1-10, how confident are you in your business skills as an SLP? What about your leadership skills? Whether it’s public speaking or knowing how to use an Excel spreadsheet, we should have a deeper understanding of business skills and healthcare leadership as SLPs. That’s exactly what Theresa Richard and Laura McWilliams dive into in today’s episode of the Swallow Your Pride Podcast! It...

Why rely on tongue depressors when you can give your patients a portable workout device that comes with an app to track their tongue strength, endurance, and exercise results?  That device exists! And it’s improved… Elizabeth Daly and Ed Steger are back on the Swallow Your Pride Podcast with exciting updates on the Tongueometer - a handheld lingual manometer that measures tongue and lip strength a...

“It flipped the whole household upside down. None of our meal times are quote-unquote normal...it's totally dysfunctional chaos.” ☝️This is the real and raw experience of Diane Wolff, dysphagia cookbook author and caregiver for her mother with dementia and impaired swallowing. This experience led Diane to write Essential Puree - The A to Z Guidebook: 67 Delicious Recipes for the Dysphagia Diet & S...

Did you know there’s a team of clinicians who come together each day in New York City to conquer dysphagia? In this episode of the Swallow Your Pride Podcast, Theresa Richard interviews Dr. Anaïs Rameau, laryngologist and trailblazer of New York City’s first multidisciplinary dysphagia clinic! Together they discuss the concept, logistics, and benefits of an integrated swallowing disorder center th...

The word “cancer” is often cloaked in feelings of uncertainty and fear - understandably so. But what can a medical SLP do to help? What’s our role in the world of oncology? In this podcast episode, host Theresa Richard interviews Heather George about her experience as an SLP working with oncology patients and the role of palliative care in dysphagia management. They discuss the challenges of navig...

So a patient walks into a fluoroscopy suite, points to their throat, and says “I have trouble swallowing.” You do the VFSS, and their oropharynx looks…okay! Maybe even within normal limits! Now what? *The esophagus has entered the chat* In this podcast episode, Theresa Richard interviews Dr. Watts, a speech-language pathologist, researcher, and clinician scientist at the University of South Florid...

Exploring diet consistencies (including the great bread debate)... Identifying barriers of modified barium swallow studies (and what to do about them)... Encountering tough pills to swallow (literally)… ☝️ These are just three of the topics Theresa Richard and Gavin Levy discuss in the most recent episode of the Swallow Your Pride Podcast! Together, Theresa and Gavin look at evidence-based practic...

“Every unique symptom is a call to explore beyond the known territories of our field.” -Autumn Henning, MS, CCC-SLP, COM, IBCLC ☝️Who can argue with that? In this podcast episode, Theresa welcomes Autumn Henning as her guest, who specializes in infant and pediatric feeding and orofacial functional disorders. They discuss the importance of practice-based evidence, collaboration, functioning vs func...

Pediatric feeding difficulties aren’t just physical…they can be traumatic, too.  While everyone can agree that caring for and nourishing our little ones is a top priority, access to the research and knowledge on pediatric feeding disorders remains elusive. Why? What can be done about it? And what should medical SLPs understand? In this podcast episode, host Theresa Richard interviews Jaclyn Peders...

How confident are you in your trach and vent knowledge? What about the interprofessional collaboration, patient advocacy, and therapeutic techniques we should be fighting for with this population?  In this episode of the Swallow Your Pride Podcast, Rachael Silveira, a passionate tracheostomy specialist, teamed up with Dr. Nicole López, a surgical critical care fellow, to address the gaps in trache...

Disarming SLPs… Guiding SLPs… Standing by SLP… ☝️These are just three powerful purposes of mentorship in our field.  And in part 2 of our mentors episode, MedSLP Ed Mentors Isabel, George, Jessica, and Lori continue to share their humanizing insights into the world of medical SLP mentorship and bring heartwarming stories to the discussion. Stories like perseverance in the fluoroscopy suite when a...

Four med SLPs come together and spill the beans on how SLPs can grow their careers and confidence like never before.  It all boils down to one simple word… Mentorship. In this episode of the Swallow Your Pride podcast, host Theresa Richard and a group of med SLP mentors dive deep into the world of mentoring and its impact on their careers *as well as* the careers of those they’ve mentored. Guests...

While most people associate PT with OT (sometimes as if they’re just one person, even!), there’s some serious magic that can come out of the SLP and PT partnership… And that’s exactly what we dive into in this week’s episode of the Swallow Your Pride Podcast! In this episode,  Megan Kane-Mangol MS, CCC-SLP, and Kris Zwemer MSPT discuss the benefits of working together as co-owners of a private pra...