In this bonus episode of A Friend for the Long Haul, I get to talk with Dr. Julia Moore Vogel from Scripps Research. I slid into her DMs to see if she'd like to join me to discuss the recruitment and structure of a new clinical trial examining the effects of tirzepatide, a dual GLP-1 and GIP agonist, on long COVID symptoms.

Dr. Vogel is the Senior Program Director, The Participant Center, All of Us Research Program. She's a fellow long hauler and "manages The Participant Center (TPC) for the All of Us Research Program which is charged with recruiting and retaining 350,000 individuals that represent the diversity of the United States. TPC aims to make it possible for interested individuals anywhere in the US to become active participants, for example by collaborating with numerous outreach partners to raise awareness, collecting biosamples nationwide, returning participants’ results and developing self-guided workflows that enable participants to join whenever is convenient for them." (Thanks for letting me borrow the blurb, Scripps. <3)

Our conversation covers the trial's remote format, patient support systems, potential impacts on symptoms like fatigue, GI issues, and mental health, as well as Dr. Vogel's personal experiences. This episode provides an overview for those interested in participating or learning more about cutting-edge long COVID research. Dr. Vogel also drops a few new nuggets of trial information that she hasn't shared elsewhere!

Here's the structure of the episode:

• Meet Dr. Julia Moore Vogel
• Discussing the TIRZEPATIDE Trial
• Remote Trials and Scripps Research
• Challenges and Support in Clinical Trials
• Placebo Concerns and Trial Integrity
• Gastrointestinal Concerns and Safety Monitoring
• Beth's quest to be sponsored by the Squatty Potty (Call me!)
• Support and the recommendations for therapy around Body Dysmorphia, Eating Disorders, Nutritional Guidance, and trauma from things like MCAS
• Metrics and Questionnaires for Measuring Improvements
• MCAS, EDS, and the Trifecta
• Drug formulations and brand confusion
• Hopes for the Trial
• Final thoughts and the big 3 questions

If you're interested in the the Long COVID Treatment Trial-Tirzepatide (LoCITT-T):

Check out their website: https://longcovid.scripps.edu/locitt-t/

or email the team at [email protected].

If you're interested in my anecdotal experience using tirzepatide as a first wave long hauler since January, you can follow me on Instagram, TikTok, or Substack. I have several posts there that you won't find anywhere else, and none are behind a paywall.

1. A GLP-Fun Adventure
2. One Month into GLP-Fun
3. Talking to your Doctor about GLP-1 Medications
4. My First GLP-1 Check Up
5. My Mounjaro Shopping List

If you'd like to support me in my one disabled woman podcasting endeavors, I sell long covid tshirts and other products and proceeds from that get funneled back into the podcast or used for community care. You can also just Venmo me at @afriend4thelonghaul. That also gets funneled back into the pod. I'm actually trying to raise about $170 by Christmas eve to cover platform and recording costs.

Over the last 1.5 years, I've built a playlist of long covid theme songs from my guests, available on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3n0GXLFRWqDJyifglNNM4K?si=dIlKoxWMRgO53CriOVAjPw

Please like, subscribe, and share A Friend for the Long Haul! Reviews go a long way to help, too. Thank you!

Welcome back to another episode of A Friend for the Long Haul - A Long COVID Podcast! In episode 11 of Season 3, I sit down with Claire and Amaranthia from Sista Creatives Rising. We met shortly after Art and Mind 2025 so that we could recap the experience and tap in to how they were feeling after hosting the event. Held on Thursday, September 25th, Art and Mind 2025 gathered an impressive turnout and showcased a blend of artists, community care, and education. The team who helped support Claire and Amaranthia and who were featured artists includes:

• Sarena Brown
• Chi White
• Brenda Macintyre - Medicine Song Woman
• Frankie Fingerling
• Brittany Shorpshire
• Nabila Nugroho
• Veronica Lee
• Mondo Millions
• Han Hamel

You can find out so much more about them and find a TON of resources in this document! This year's themes included COVID, climate change, and isolation. You can watch the entire event via Claire and Amaranthia's YouTube channel and check out the interactive art gallery they created here. There's actually a full playlist of videos for the event here. This episode offers a deep dive into the meticulous planning, intentionality, and community collaboration that made Art and Mind 2025 a great success!

These two humans truly make the world a better place!

Find Claire and Amaranthia on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/sistacreativesrising/ and subscribe to their Substack.

Please like, subscribe, and share A Friend for the Long Haul! Reviews go a long way to help, too. Thank you!

Welcome to season 3, episode 10 of A Friend for the Long Haul - A Long COVID Podcast! I got the chance to chat with Angeliska Polacheck for this episode. Angeliska is the beautiful soul behind Sister Temperance Tarot. They have been voted best tarot/psychic in Austin, Texas for 11 years in a row! I found Angeliska on social media about 13 years ago, (via the great Austin connector, Spike Gillespie - whose work you should absolutely read) and as time passed we discovered that we have so much in common, including eerily similar astrological charts and health diagnoses.

Angel and I discuss:

• The profound shifts brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges of living with long COVID
• Personal growth and empathy
• The vital role of art and tarot in healing, but how it, and artists and healers, get commodified and dehumanized
• How chronic illness, disability, and cognitive dissonance impact an independent, small business owner
• Wellness culture and the "manifestation" of health
• Surviving as two disabled Generation X Capricorns with C-PTSD and neurodivergence
• Trusting your intuition when your nervous system is fragged
• What does community even look like anymore
• How tarot can support Internal Family Systems therapy
• Diagnoses of exclusion
• There's at least one Bjork worked in there

You can find Angeliska on Instagram and Facebook as Sister Temperance Tarot. If you're interested in booking a reading, you can do that via their booking schedule. If you're in Austin and would like to invite Angeliska to a safe event, you can find out more about events bookings here.

They also offer sliding scale rates for 1-hour phone sessions for people who hold marginalized identities that are experiencing significant money struggles. Sliding scale sessions are limited and priority goes to Black, Indigenous, queer/trans and disabled folks, so please only inquire about sliding scale if you are facing genuine financial hardship.

If you'd like to support me in my one disabled woman podcasting endeavors, I have an Amazon gift registry that is completely unhinged, where I just throw anything that I see and like. I also have an Amazon Storefront you can use to purchase goods. I also sell long covid tshirts and other products on a Bonfire storefront, and proceeds from that get funneled back into the podcast or used for community care. I also have an Etsy wishlist or you can just Venmo me at @afriend4thelonghaul. That also gets funneled back into the pod.

Over the last 1.5 years, I've built a playlist of my guests long covid theme songs on Spotify.

Please like, subscribe, and share A Friend for the Long Haul! Reviews go a long way to help, too. Thank you!

Hey, friends! Welcome to season 3, episode 9 of A Friend for the Long Haul - A Long Covid podcast. This is a conversation I needed to have, and I'm so glad Lissy Donovan (my friend and a coach for people with busy brains) was here for it. I dive into my recent discovery of a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) I’d been pretending wasn't a thing for years, as well as our later-in-life ADHD diagnoses. Lissy was diagnosed in her mid-30s, and I got diagnosed post-COVID. If you've been listening for a while, you know I don't know how to be angry. We talk about how I'm learning to process and even healthily express anger which is a truly revolutionary and scary idea for me. We also get into activism, self-care, and self-compassion. Lissy shares how she navigates Long COVID and ADHD.

Topics we gab about include:

• ADHD diagnoses and hormonal changes
• Anger expression and conflict's role in making relationships stronger
• Music, dance, and well-being
• Body image, societal pressures, white supremacy, and the broader systems of oppression
• Engaging in activism while managing chronic illness, disability, and trauma
• Reflections on personal growth
• Social media habits
• Lissy's experience with Long Covid and running her own business

Join us as we explore the intersection of ADHD, trauma, and chronic illness. 

You can find Lissy at https://lissydonovan.com/ as well as Instagram and TikTok. Her YouTube channel is full of longer-form gems that are soooo helpful.

If you'd like to support me in my one disabled woman podcasting endeavors, I have an Amazon gift list that is completely unhinged. I also have an Amazon storefront you can use to purchase goods. I also sell long covid tshirts and other products on my Bonfire shop.

Over the last 1.5 years, I've built a playlist of my guests long covid theme songs. You can find it here.

Please like, subscribe, and share A Friend for the Long Haul! Reviews go a long way to help, too. Thank you!

I’m having surgery TOMORROW, September 22nd, and could use some support. I have a gift registry set up if you’d like to help me out. It’s truly deeply appreciated. 

Welcome to season 3, episode 8 of A Friend for the Long Haul - A Long Covid Podcast. This time, I got to gab with Paul Hennessy, who you know as @mixpaulogy on Instagram and @paulypandemic on TikTok. We talked about Paul’s Long Covid advocacy work, including what led him to get involved in 2021, and his work with organizations like Clean Air LA and Mask Together America. We get in to what it’s like to continue to take precautions in a time when very few are, including comments from strangers and how relationships are impacted when “everything is Covid” with you. Paul offers actionable advice for folks interested in being long Covid allies or getting involved in disability justice, and and we discuss the need for local and federal action to address the persistent challenges of ignoring a virus that’s disabled millions of humans worldwide. 

But it’s not all serious, because I don’t think it could be with us at the mic. Oh! We are joined by two very special guests at the end of the episode, so don’t miss that!

Places to find Paul!

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mixpaulogy/  

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@paulypandemic 

Also, check out Mask Together America, public health advocates who vowed to expose the life-threatening, yet preventable, risks of contracting COVID-19.

If you'd like to support this one-disabled-woman-produced podcast, check out my Amazon Storefront. I'll get a few pennies if you purchase your everyday items through the links in my storefront.

You can also listen to the ever-growing Long Covid Theme Songs playlist here.

Don't forget to like, subscribe, follow, and share A Friend for the Long Haul! And if you're feeling extra generous, leave a review. Your support helps get this in front of more earballs and helps me bring more episodes. Thank you!

Welcome to Season 3, Episode 7 of A Friend for the Long Haul - A Long Covid Podcast! In this week's conversation, I am joined by Steph Fowler, LCPC, CADC, who you may remember from Season 1, Episode 11. I love this description from the bio on Steph's website: "Other things to know: among my many identities, I am multiply-neurodivergent, chronically ill and disabled (Long COVID ‘20), an INFJ, ex-vangelical, and recovering perfectionist. In The Before Times, I enjoyed kickboxing, running, cosplay, karaoke, travel, cat cafes, and live lit/storytelling. Nowadays I enjoy gardening, nature, writing, photography, LEGO, subversion, and all things macabre." Steph is one of those people who always makes me things about things in a different way, and we wanted to chat about the challenges of building and sustaining community when everyone is navigating different levels of stress, grief, and physical limitations.

You'll hear us discuss:

• The emotional toll of community splintering within the COVID-conscious and long COVID communities.

• Practical strategies for emotional management, including the importance of practicing pauses and asking for consent before unloading stress.

• How to build trust and safety in groups by establishing clear shared values and embracing compassion for others’ different experiences.

• Navigating relationships and setting boundaries around personal COVID-19 risk and accommodations.

• Personal reflections on shifting identities, redefining determination, and coping with the profound grief of loss—both of health and relationships.

Places to find Steph!

Substack: https://misfitmentalhealth.substack.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/misfit.mental.healthTime Magazine: What to Do if Your Doctor Doesn't Take Your Symptoms Seriously

PBS News Weekend: The COVID pandemic's lingering physical and mental toll, five years later

If you'd like to support this one-disabled-woman-produced podcast, check out my Bonfire shop. Items bought in the shop support the renewal of my Zoom license for recording. Many items co-support other chronically ill friends. I also have an  Amazon Storefront and I'll get a few pennies if you purchase your everyday items through the links in my storefront. I also have an Amazon Wishlist of fun treats and practical needs for our family this autumn.

Don't forget to like, subscribe, follow, and share A Friend for the Long Haul! And if you're feeling extra generous, leave a review. Your support helps get this in front of more earballs and helps me bring more episodes. You can listen to the Long Covid Theme Songs playlist on Spotify. Thank you!

Welcome to this bonus episode of A Friend for the Long Haul - A Long Covid Podcast! Season 3, Episode 6 features Claire Jones and Amaranthia Sepia, the mother/daughter duo behind Sista Creatives Rising. The mission of Sista Creatives Rising is "To help creative marginalized women and marginalized genders gain accessibility and visibility in the arts to facilitate personal healing."

In this episode, we discuss:

• Our experiences with chronic illnesses and disabilities, and their impacts on our personal growth
• How Claire navigated a cancer diagnosis during the height of a Covid surge
• Amaranthia's experiences growing up in Japan and moving back to the United States, highlighting a stark difference between the two cultures
• How past experiences shape parenting styles and the value of creating a supportive environment where children feel safe to make mistakes
• Generational trauma, patterns, and how they drive us to change
• The origins of Sista Creatives Rising and Art and Mind, A FREE virtual charitable film & art event for marginalized women and genders
• Art and Mind 2025: Covid, Climate, and Our Future, which "will focus on these themes and their ongoing effects on BIPOC creatives who are homebound, disabled, and immunocompromised and how it’s affected their art & cultural practices while highlighting Indigenous perspectives such as Native North American & Palestinian experiences with displacement & climate disaster. "
• The challenges of running a virtual organization, including grant rejections and funding issues
• Collaboration, community, and accessibility
• The Sistas Uprising Fund, a charity project to help marginalized women & marginalized genders gain financial support through microgrants, created in memory of Claire's mother

I am very grateful for this conversation and the opportunity to get to know Claire and Amaranthia! I want to again thank both of them for taking the time to chat with me.

Tickets for Art and Mind 2025 will be available on August 21st, and the event will take place on September 25th from 6:30 to 9:30 pm Eastern time.

You can find Sista Creatives Rising

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sistacreativesrising/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@artmindseries9207

and Substack: https://substack.com/@sistacreativesrising

You can also support them via: https://givebutter.com/sistacreativesrising

If you'd like to support this one-disabled-woman-produced podcast, check out my Bonfire apparel shop. Items bought in the shop support the renewal of my Zoom license for recording. Many items co-support other chronically ill friends. I also have an Amazon storefront and I'll get a few pennies if you purchase your everyday items through the links in my storefront. I also have an Amazon Wishlist of fun treats and practical needs for our family this autumn.

Don't forget to like, subscribe, follow, and share A Friend for the Long Haul! And if you're feeling extra generous, leave a review. Your support helps get this in front of more earballs and helps me bring more episodes. You can listen to the A Friend for the Long Haul Long Covid Theme Songs playlist on Spotify. Thank you!

—A Long COVID Podcast! Season 3, Episode 6 features Claire Jones and Amaranthia Sepia, the mother-daughter duo behind ⁠Sista Creatives Rising⁠. Sista Creatives Rising's mission is " to

Welcome to season 3, episode 5 of A Friend for the Long Haul - A Long Covid Podcast! In this episode, I talk to our friend, Chuck, known as @whatexactlyisupchuck on social media. We dive into the politics of protection, the power of community care, and how Chuck planned a Covid-safer wedding in a world that often forgets the chronically ill. Chuck shares her experience navigating disability justice and mask advocacy in Texas. From confronting anti-mask legislation to celebrating love safely, this conversation is a heartfelt reminder that accessibility is love in action

Topics include:

• Disability justice and chronic illness
• Covid-safer wedding planning
• Mask rights and Chuck's advocacy in the Texas legislature
• Community support, specifically a love fest for Tara Whitney, and grief
• Hard-hitting topics like getting dumped by your hairdresser
• Chuck's tips for what to look for in a therapist

You can find Chuck on TikTok and Instagram.Chuck is also on Substack.

If you haven't checked out Chuck's shame-free Covid guides, you can access them here on her website.

If you'd like to support this one-disabled-woman-produced podcast, check out my Bonfire apparel shop. Items bought in the shop support the renewal of my Zoom license for recording. Many items co-support other chronically ill friends. I also have an  Amazon storefront and I'll get a few pennies if you purchase your everyday items through the links in my storefront. I also have an Amazon Wishlist that contains things that would help our low spoons house out this back to school fall season.

Don't forget to like, subscribe, follow, and share A Friend for the Long Haul if you can. And if you're feeling extra generous, leave a review. Your support helps get this in front of more earballs and helps me bring more episodes. You can listen to the A Friend for the Long Haul Long Covid Theme Songs playlist on Spotify. Thank you!

This episode could also be titled, "A Capricorn & a Pisces Walk Into a Podcast." In season 3, episode 4 of A Friend for the Long Haul - A Long Covid Podcast, I welcome back my friend and pacing buddy, Katrina Dreamer. Katrina was a guest on season 2, where we discussed how they kicked off Covid Safe Colorado, our local mask bloc. This is a very different conversation! In this episode, we discuss:

• Katrina's plans to resume their dream and energy work, sharing their experience of running a 6-week long Social Justice Dreaming workshop, where they work with participants learning to trust their intuition and how they can use that to guide their activism
• Their experience with dreamwork, including how it manifested in their childhood, and their professional experiences
• Lucid dreaming, how factors like medications, chronic illness, PTSD, and inflammation can affect dream patterns
• Whether Beth might be astral projecting in her sleep, and whether she is clairaudient
• Dream journaling and ancestral work
• The launch of Katrina's new website and offerings of intuitive readings and energy healings
• How they protect their energy doing these readings
• Beth's newest diagnosis of a midbrain traumatic brain injury caused by neuroinflammation from Covid-19
• How challenging experiences have led to a greater sense of self-worth for both of us
• Katrina's webtoon, Chaotic Good and the Banned Bookmobile," which features covid conscious, queer and trans high school characters who rally around their librarian who is circulating banned books
• Our year of being pacing buddies, using a shared Google spreadsheet
• There's a lot of giggling about Pedro Pascal
• Celebrities we've met and what they smelled like

You can find out more about Katrina and their offerings at www.katrinadreamer.com! The next cohort of Social Justice Dreaming begins on August 8th. Contact Katrina to find out more!

Katrina's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/katrinadreamer

And Bluesky.

Katrina's podcast, Dreaming Back to the Earth

And the cartoon, Chaotic Good and the Banned Bookmobile, is available on Webtoon! Sarah Steinberg is the illustrator.

⁠If you'd like your own copy of our pacing spreadsheet, here's one you can duplicate! Please don't use this copy!

In this episode, we also chat about our friends Lissy and Lior. Lissy will be on an upcoming episode, but she is a coach who blends neuroscience-backed strategies, compassionate support, and her own lived experience with ADHD in her approach. Lior Ocean is a queer collage artist, intuitive reader, and interspiritual companion. Lior has been on the podcast a couple of times.

Oh, and if you'd like an acupressure mat here's a link to the one Beth has: https://amzn.to/3H14gxH - this is an affiliate link to Beth's Amazon storefront.

If you'd like to support this one-disabled-woman-produced podcast, check out my Bonfire shop. Items bought in the shop support the renewal of my Zoom license for recording. Many items co-support other chronically ill friends. I also have an Amazon Storefront and I'll get a few pennies if you purchase your everyday items through the links in my storefront. I also have a wishlist that contains things that would help our low spoons house out this summer. Don't forget to like, subscribe, follow, and share A Friend for the Long Haul if you can. And if you're feeling extra generous, leave a review. Your support helps get this in front of more earballs and helps me bring more episodes. You can listen to the A Friend for the Long Haul Long Covid Theme Songs playlist on Spotify.

If you'd like to support this one-disabled-woman-produced podcast, check out my ⁠Bonfire site for silly long covid apparel⁠. Items bought in the shop support the renewal of my Zoom license for recording. Many items co-support other chronically ill friends. I also have an ⁠Amazon wishlist ⁠and ⁠Storefront⁠. I'll get a few pennies if you purchase your everyday items through the links in my storefront. You can also Venmo me @afriend4thelonghaul.

Welcome to another episode of A Friend for the Long Haul: A Long Covid Podcast! This is part 2 of my conversation with Nina Storey. In this episode, we talk about:

• Nina's plans for the future
• Getting dogs while dealing with long Covid
• Cute aggression
• Functioning in public around people when you're used to being at home
• How it feels like long Covid has made pre-existing sensitivities more intense
• Where all the lip balms and hair ties go
• Medical gaslighting
• Nina's attempts to soothe her nervous system and how singing helps
• Her experience getting the Novavax booster
• The fact that we don't know how to feel anger
• My travel tips for Las Vegas
• Nina's dog's autoimmune issues

Nina has shared a link to her song, Shadows Fall, which can be listened to on Even. Even is a new streaming platform she's using for her music. The model is pay what you can, and the funds go to artists. She says this about the release: "I wrote this song (which is still in demo form) about living with a chronic illness and how sometimes we have to be our own biggest champions. I got Long Covid after initially being infected in early 2020, and I have to say the silver lining has been meeting some extraordinary warriors in the disability community. So this song is dedicated to them and to any person facing health challenges. I see you. ✊🏼💕🙏🏼🙌🏼🎉"

You can find Nina and tour information on her ⁠website⁠, and on ⁠Instagram⁠. She is published in ⁠The Long Covid Reader⁠, and her comedy writing is at ⁠https://strangelyoptimistic.com/⁠.  If you're interested in Nina's Singing To Improve Health or Vocal Classes for Beginners to Professionals workshops, email [email protected]. Mention the podcast for 20% off the regular price! 

Please share A Friend for the Long Haul. If you're feeling generous, leave a review. Your support helps get this in front of more earballs and helps me bring more episodes. You can listen to the A Friend for the Long Haul Long Covid Theme Songs playlist on Spotify.

Disclaimers etc: The information provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and is not medical advice. The views and opinions expressed by the host and guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the podcast producers, sponsors, or affiliated organizations. Or like, friends? Family? Anyone. This podcast does not provide medical diagnosis, treatment, or professional healthcare services. If you have any concerns regarding your health or medical condition, please consult a qualified healthcare provider. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking treatment based on information heard in this podcast. Please don't compare yourself to someone else you hear, either. Our illnesses are highly individualized and what works for one person may not work for you. While we strive to provide accurate and up-to-date information, medical knowledge is constantly evolving, and we make no guarantees regarding the completeness, reliability, or applicability of the content discussed. The podcast and its creator assumes no responsibility for any actions taken based on the information presented. Additionally, this podcast may feature discussions on sensitive topics related to chronic illness. Listener discretion is advised. By listening to this podcast, you acknowledge and agree to these terms.