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Joe Tanner is a natural!  He is the middle child of 8 that together maintained a rigorous schedule of visiting their mom while she was a resident in Senior Living.  So that he could remember his mom he started doing videos with her; to encourage and support others he started a Facebook page group for Caregivers called "You'll Always Be My Mama" that gained a worldwide following.  You have to listen to the podcast to learn why I have come to think of him as the Forest Gump of Caregivers because his Caregiver Personality keeps finding him successes on many different fronts. 

Mike is a 3rd Generation Professional Caregiver who tells the story of his youth growing up and around "Caring" environments.  He shares his Entrepreneurial efforts in other industries before returning to his roots of SeniorLiving and helping other organizations operate successfully before stepping in a CEO/Co-Founder of English Meadows, a small struggling Assisted Living community only to grow it into a successful company and "family" serving more than 500 Seniors all across the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Anastasia Valentino is a Millennial Caregiver/Registered Nurse and that was the topic I planned to discuss but that's not how this episode played out.  Anastasia works as an Intensive Care Unit nurse and as it turns out, she is truly a Corona Warrior as she gave me a lesson on what it is like to be on the forefront of Caring directly for people that have been affected by the Coronavirus Pandemic.

James might disagree, but he is a Caregiver.  His background is too complex to summarize here but suffice it to see he has been a lifelong leaner and student, an educator, a professional stand-up comedian and now, he is an Certified Dementia Practitioner and person living with Vascular Dementia.  You may never hear a more honest, positive and eloquently expressed perspective of what it is like living with dementia... and having an imaginary Hippopotamus!

Kay is one of my favorite people and she means a lot to me, even though we have only met in person twice!  Widely known as "America's Funniest Stressbuster" Kay earned her chops from real life.  As a successful (and self absorbed) professional touring comedian she returned home for her father's funeral and saw that her mother was also failing in health.  She became her mother's Personal/Family Caregiver for 7 years and was forever changed.  Now she is a successful touring and "Funny Motivational Speaker" and she once rescued me when I felt like an impostor... and she did it again on this podcast  This was a treat and I hope you will enjoy this episode.

Val was recommended to us as a guest because of her true Caregiver Personality and sense of humor from a previous guest of the podcast.  Val is "just" a Caregiver... and that may be one of the greatest compliments I could pay a person because she offered some incredibly insightful and helpful commentary on what it is like to truly Care for others!

Pam brings over 20 years’ experience in family and professional caregiver education.  Having engaged and trained thousands of care-partners and organizations, she is passionate about helping others embrace positive change. She is privileged to lead and direct a fast-growing company providing programs such as Dementia Live™ a high impact, dementia simulation experience that immerses participants into life with dementia, resulting in a deeper understanding of what it’s like to live with cognitive impairment and sensory change.

Ann shares her personal journey loving her husband Bill both before and 20 years after a tragic accident left in a ventilator dependent quadriplegic with five kids and a "Domestic Engineer" wife.  Ann tells a touching story of how their love has changed and in many ways intensified and exhibits grace, and humor while also disclosing her age, height and weight.  We both enjoyed this so much that we had our first callback on the podcast!

Growing up my two sisters made up 67% of "my three mothers" as they and my mother were extraordinarily influential women in my young life in a household where I was essentially the only male.  As a child I respected my older sister Genna and competed in classic sibling rivalry fashion with my younger sister Meghan but today, I am extremely grateful to have them both in my life and proud of their volunteer work as "Cuddlers" to hospitalized infant children.

When his father, Albert Zangaro, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s 14 years ago, Vince became his full-time caretaker. After an isolating first few years, he sought a way to help his family and others in the same situation and joined the Dementia Spotlight Foundation and eventually married his love for music and his passion for dementia advocacy in founding the Alzheimer's Music Festival.   

Dan Stockdale is an amazing keynote speaker with a powerful message, Dan inspires lasting change through his entertaining and unforgettable presentations. He is the only keynoter in the world to use a live tiger on stage during his presentations as he teaches audiences his leadership best-practices!   His listen and learn how his unique role as a Senior Leadership Consultant has allowed him a work-life-adventurer balance.

In this episode Lisa Westbrook tells her personal story of how she had to become AWARE of the need to overcome some past difficulties in her relationship with her mother; ACCEPT a new focus within in herself and their relationship in order to ALLOW her and her family to be her Caregiver.  This face-to-face episode really was an opportunity to genuinely explore some of the more intimate parts of the Caregiver Personality.

In this episode our founder and host discusses the role of "DOC" the "Defender Of Caregivers" in helping us remain calm and rational in the face of the emotional challenges of being a Caregiver.  He offers a strategy for overcoming the tendency to focus on what we "should" or "shouldn't" due and why these thoughts are NOT motivational because "life is already good!"

Born and raised on the east coast, Jeff was the perfect example of an all-around guy-- high school star quarterback, tennis, basketball and golf player, and All-American diver on his swim team. In his junior year, he was involved in an automobile accident in which he broke his neck. Life would now be lived from a wheelchair.... Jeff went on to become a touring professional comedian performing from a wheelchair as a “sit down comic who’s always on a roll.” For over twenty years, Jeff has been entertaining groups around the country. He has performed with acts such as Kevin Nealon, Drew Carey, Tom Dreeson, Joe Rogan, Nikki Glaser, Bobby Lee, Nick Swardson, Iliza Shelsinger, The Grass Roots, Apollonia, Max Gail, Miss Universe, Dave Somerville, to name a few.  Jeff’s direction in life encouraged him to move to Los Angeles to pursue his comedy and acting dreams. He has become a scriptwriter (film & sitcom) and contributing writer for “ABILITY Magazine” and has also published several humor books titled, “Medical Secrets Revealed” “Life Is A Funny Thing” and “Bygone Buffoonery.”

Tess is a "Nature" Caregiver personality that came to her Professional Caregiver role as a Registered Nurse as a second career.  This provided her with the perspective and maturity to lead and nurture (Care for!) others around throughout her academic career.  After graduating and gaining experience she chose a path, not unlike the "Virgin River" novel and Netflix series about a nurse who found a new life in a rural area where she could concentrate on serving others! 

Lori understands Caregiving from the inside out.  She lost her Father to Brain Cancer after a 4 ½ year battle.  Her Mother has struggled with Memory Loss for 30 years and is now in her end stages of Alzheimer’s disease.  Lori now shares tips and techniques she learned as a Caregiver and has reached millions through website and blog "Alzheimer's Speaks" and gained the recognition of people like Oprah Winfrey; Dr. Oz; Maria Shriver and Fox News along the way.

The founder and host of the podcast shares his personal experiences and highlights of each episode of 2019 and a little bit more of the WHY behind the message and methods behind the Caregivers Podcast.

Our guest today has a PhD  in curriculum with a specialty in Oncology nursing whose love of caregiving is  expressed through emotional and psychosocial/spiritual support for patients and family Caregivers as well as influencing future Caregivers/Nurses in an academic settings utilizing a professional and personal sense of humor and a spiritual perspective on life with all of its joys and challenges.

With an unparalleled journey as his wife’s sole caregiver for nearly thirty years through a medical nightmare that has mushroomed to 78 operations, the amputation of both legs, and $9 million in medical bills, Peter brings an astonishing understanding of health care issues, a deep compassion for the heartache of caregiving, and an outrageous humor to bring the fresh air of laughter into the painful places faced by America’s exponentially growing number of caregivers. 

These two ordinary mothers (and sisters) share the extraordinary reality - the joys, challenges, and absurdities - of raising "imperfect" children in a world preoccupied with perfection.  After growing increasingly weary of others speaking about their "perfect" children and resisting the urge to tell them to Shut Up!, they wrote and self-published a book called "Shut Up About Your Perfect Kids" that went on to get picked up and published by Random House; to be reprinted in South Korea and help them garner more than 850,000 Facebook followers and receive invitations to speak around the world.