Your Brain on Mom

In this episode of Your Brain on Mom, Wendy and Barry explore the lesser-known symptoms of dementia that often catch families completely off guard. From sensory and visual changes to altered behavior, loss of social filters, and changes in spatial awareness, they discuss how neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia affect far more than memory. Using their own...

When someone is diagnosed with dementia, most people expect memory loss to be the hardest part. But what happens when the illness begins changing your entire family? In this episode of This Is Your Brain on Mom, we pull back the curtain on one of the most difficult—and least talked about—aspects of caregiving: sibling dynamics. We share how our mom's dementia slowly reshaped our family roles, why...

What makes a life meaningful when dementia changes everything? In this episode of Your Brain on Mom, Wendy and Barry tackle one of the biggest questions caregivers face: how do we define quality of life for someone living with dementia? Inspired by conversations with dementia experts and their own experiences caring for their Mom, they explore the tension between safety, independence, connection,...

Just days after sharing a positive update about our mom's dementia care, everything changed. In this episode of Your Brain on Mom, we discuss a shocking conversation with a social worker who told us the nursing home was unhappy about our podcast and wanted us to stop talking about our experiences. The problem? The person making the accusations admitted they had never actually listened to the show....

Caregiving often feels like an endless series of meetings, phone calls, care plans, and crisis management. But occasionally, a meeting leaves you feeling hopeful. In this episode of Your Brain on Mom, Wendy and Barry share a surprisingly positive experience after meeting with a new care team member at their mom's long-term care facility. For the first time in a long time, the conversation wasn't a...

This Is Your Brain on Mom picks up right where the chaos left off: Mom is back at the nursing home after a month in the hospital — restrained, overmedicated, medically cleared, psychiatrically cleared… and somehow still stuck in the middle of a system that no one seems able to explain. In this episode, Wendy and Barry unpack the exhausting reality of dementia care when doctors, hospitals, long-ter...

What happens when the person who helps families plan for death becomes a dementia caregiver herself? In this episode of This Is Your Brain on Mom, Wendy and Barry speak with Canadian funeral director, educator, and author Minnelle Williams, founder of Ending Well with Minnelle Ending Well with Minnelle. What starts as a conversation about funeral planning quickly becomes deeply personal when Minne...

In this episode of This Is Your Brain on Mom, Wendy and Barry talk about one of the hardest parts of dementia caregiving: the moment your parent still recognizes you, but you no longer fully recognize them. After their mother’s diagnosis shifted from Alzheimer’s disease to mixed dementia — including Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) and vascular dementia — they began facing personality changes, emotio...

Wait… it’s not Alzheimer’s? In this episode of This Is Your Brain on Mom, Wendy and Barry unpack a major shift in their mom’s diagnosis—from Alzheimer’s to mixed dementia, including frontal temporal dementia (FTD) and vascular dementia. And honestly? It explains a lot. From extreme personality changes to aggression, language issues, and unpredictable behavior, this episode dives into what FTD actu...

In this episode, Wendy and Barry get brutally honest about the moment everything changes—and the shocking lack of support that follows. Because the truth is: no one hands you a plan. No one tells you what’s dementia, what’s delirium, or what to do next. You’re given a diagnosis… and then you’re shown the door. Inspired by a powerful post from Dr. Kalisha Bonds Johnson, we unpack the reality so man...

It’s been 16 months… and somehow, we’re right back where we started. What began as a plan to bring our mom home has turned into an ongoing cycle of hospital visits, medication changes, and uncertainty. In this episode, we share the reality of what happens when dementia care becomes unstable — and the system meant to support you starts to feel like it’s working against you. After a chaotic holiday...

What are the early signs of frontotemporal dementia (FTD)—and how do you know it’s not just “personality changes”? In this episode, we’re joined by Beth, host of FTD Navigating the Crap, who shares what it really looked like before her mom’s diagnosis. Not memory loss—but subtle, shocking shifts in behavior. Comments that felt out of character. A tone that didn’t match the woman she had always kno...

What happens when dementia isn’t about memory loss? In this episode of This Is Your Brain on Mom, Wendy and Barry share a raw update on their mom’s condition as her behavior—not her memory—continues to spiral. From yelling and disrobing to falls and confusion, the symptoms are escalating, unpredictable, and impossible to fully explain. With no clear answers, the proposed solution is a transfer to...

What if it’s not Alzheimer’s? In this powerful and deeply relatable conversation, we sit down with Alma Valencia — sandwich generation caregiver, advocate, and full-time daughter caring for her mother living with Frontal Temporal Dementia (FTD) — to unpack what happens when dementia doesn’t fit the mold. Before receiving an FTD diagnosis, Alma’s mother was misdiagnosed with depression and alcoholi...

When someone you love is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, the grief doesn’t wait for the end. It begins immediately — and it repeats. In this powerful and deeply honest conversation, we sit down with Ethan, founder of the Memory Miles Project, to talk about caregiving, men’s mental health, anticipatory grief, and why “just stay strong” might be the most unhelpful advice caregivers receive. After his gr...

What are the early signs of Alzheimer’s and dementia that families often miss? In this deeply personal episode, we sit down with Madeline, a long-distance caregiver whose father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2019, to talk about the subtle red flags, cultural stigma, advocacy battles, and emotional toll of caregiving. Madeline shares how her father—once the life of the party in Puerto Rico—bega...

What if dementia isn’t a care crisis — but a societal one? In this powerful episode of This Is Your Brain on Mom, we sit down with Teun Toebes, a Dutch activist and global advocate who made an extraordinary decision at just 21 years old: he moved into a closed dementia ward. Not as a researcher. Not as a staff member. But as a neighbor. Born in the south of the Netherlands, Teun first visited a nu...

Today’s episode is different — and deeply important. We sit down with David Uhlfelder, an advocate & podcast host living with dementia. David was diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s disease in April 2025, and from the moment of diagnosis, he made a conscious decision: this would be part of his story, but it would not be the part that silences him. David is the host of David’s Alzheimer’s Fight, a pod...

In this episode of This Is Your Brain on Mom, we’re joined by Kelly Baarley, a Certified Senior Advisor (CSA) with over a decade of experience in the senior care industry and specialized training in Alzheimer’s and dementia education. Kelly’s work is deeply personal. Her journey began as a family caregiver to grandparents living with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s, and that experience shaped...

Music has a way of reaching places that words — and even memory — sometimes can’t. In this episode of This Is Your Brain on Mom, we explore the power of music as a caregiving tool for people living with dementia and Alzheimer’s. From singing in the car to hallway concerts in care facilities, we reflect on how familiar songs can spark joy, unlock memories, and create moments of connection even duri...

In this episode, we’re joined by Edina, a lifelong caregiver whose story spans generations, diagnoses, and deeply personal responsibility. Adina found herself caring for aging parents while raising children of her own—living squarely in the reality of the sandwich generation. From supporting a mother with chronic mental health challenges, to caring for a fiercely independent father who later devel...

Caregiving for a loved one living with Alzheimer’s often feels like trying to follow a script that keeps changing — sometimes minute by minute. In this episode, Barry introduces the improv principle “Yes, And” and explains how the skills he learned in improv have become powerful tools for caregiving. While improv is often mistaken for being funny or quick, Barry and Wendy break down what it actual...

What happens when siblings aren’t just siblings—but part parents, part roommates, part emotional support systems? In this episode, Wendy & Barry pull back the curtain on their complicated (and often hilarious) sibling dynamic, shaped by age gaps, birth order, resentment, love, and decades of unspoken roles. From being mistaken for a couple in public (gross 😬), to joking about “giving orders since...

The holidays are supposed to be magical — but when you’re caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s, they can be anything but. In this heartfelt and honest episode of This Is Your Brain on Mom, siblings Wendy and Barry talk openly about navigating the holidays while supporting their mom through Alzheimer’s and dementia. From therapeutic lies and disrupted traditions to anxiety, exhaustion, and the g...

This episode opens with a family classic: Barry admits (for the second time) to leaving Mom at the airport — “like a matzo ball” — setting the tone for a conversation that swings between laugh-out-loud moments and the brutal reality of caregiving during the holidays. As the jokes land, the heaviness follows. Wendy breaks down a recent interdisciplinary team meeting (ITM) that felt less like collab...