Daughterhood The Podcast: For Caregivers

The early signs of dementia are easy to dismiss: mail piling up, repeated purchases, getting lost on familiar routes. Dementia is not just memory loss, and families who spot the changes early can prepare before caregiving becomes a crisis.

Nicole Smith knows this firsthand. A mother of five, she became a "dementia daughter" and long-distance caregiver when her mother, father, and stepmother all began experiencing cognitive decline just as the pandemic hit. She wrote Diagnosis Dementia: Your Guide for Eldercare Planning and Crisis Management to be the guide she desperately needed.

Host Rosanne Corcoran and Nicole discuss how to document early signs of dementia, what to ask doctors, power of attorney, POLST and MOLST forms, and finding caregiver support, plus the grief and resistance that come with dementia care.

If you're caring for a loved one with dementia, you're not alone.

TRANSCRIPT

Rosanne Corcoran hosts Daughterhood the Podcast, conversations for adult children caring for aging parents, from dementia and caregiving to finances, end-of-life planning, and grief. More at https://daughterhood.org

"I don't want to talk about it." If you've heard some version of that from an aging parent when you've tried to bring up their finances, you're not alone, and you're not overstepping.

In this episode, financial-planning columnist and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Beth Pinsker joins us to talk about what it really takes to navigate financial caregiving — even when you're the expert. Beth won a SABEW Best in Business award for her columns on caring for her mother, which became her book, My Mother's Money: A Guide to Financial Caregiving. But as she shares, all that professional expertise didn't fully prepare her for the relentless tenacity required once she became a caregiver herself.

We get into why financial caregiving today isn't like it was for our parents' generation.

• Why naming co-proxies can be a disaster waiting to happen
• How to navigate banks, Social Security, the VA, Medicare, and Medicaid
• How sibling dynamics complicate caregiving decisions
• What happens when the parent-child relationship suddenly shifts
• What to do when a parent shuts down the money conversation

Whether you're deep in caregiving right now, just starting to prepare, or stuck because your parents won't engage, this episode meets you where you are.

TRANSCRIPT

Beth's Website

Rosanne Corcoran hosts Daughterhood the Podcast, conversations for adult children caring for aging parents, from dementia and caregiving to finances, end-of-life planning, and grief. More at https://daughterhood.org

Why do smart, capable people fall for scams? According to cybersecurity expert Patrick Coughlin, it's not about being naive, it's about how our brains are wired, and how criminal organizations are exploiting that at scale.

Patrick spent over twenty years protecting governments and Fortune 500 companies from cyber threats. He co-founded TruSTAR Technology (acquired by Splunk) and now leads Savi Security, where his team built Scamwise, a free tool that gives an instant read on suspicious messages. When his 73-year-old mother was targeted by an AI voice scam, that experience led him to write his debut book, Dark Side of the Boom: How Scammers Hijacked the AI Revolution.

In this episode, we talk about the most common scams targeting older adults, how to bring it up with a parent without blame or condescension, real strategies to make them safer, why nine seconds can make all the difference and so much more

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SaviSecurity

ScamWise.com

Dark Side of the Boom

Rosanne Corcoran hosts Daughterhood the Podcast, conversations for adult children caring for aging parents, from dementia and caregiving to finances, end-of-life planning, and grief. More at https://daughterhood.org

What does it actually feel like to have dementia and what does it take to die well with it?

P.K. Beville has spent her career answering the first question. As the founder of Second Wind Dreams, a non-profit organization that fulfills dreams for older adults living in long-term care, and the creator of the Virtual Dementia Tour, P.K built a simulation that has put hundreds of thousands of people inside the experience of dementia, reshaping how caregivers, clinicians, and families understand the disease from the inside out.

But somewhere along the way, P.K. noticed a gap: all that hard-won empathy tended to stop short of the one moment that needed it most, the dying. So she created Empathetic Transitions, a dementia death doula training built on the belief that how we die with dementia matters, and that caregivers shouldn't have to walk into that room unprepared.

In this episode, we go into the places most people look away from:

• Why death with dementia is different from death with other diseases
• What "social death" looks like and why it often begins long before physical death
• The emotional and impossible choices around feeding at the end of life
• What a good death with dementia can actually look like

This is a conversation about fierce compassion, for the living and the dying alike.

Transcript

Second Wind Dreams

Rosanne Corcoran hosts Daughterhood the Podcast, conversations for adult children caring for aging parents, from dementia and caregiving to finances, end-of-life planning, and grief. More at https://daughterhood.org

If you've ever felt like no one is listening, this episode is for you.

Jason Resendez, President and CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving, has spent his career making sure the voices of family caregivers are not just heard but felt, in the rooms where decisions get made. As a nationally recognized family policy expert, he's at the forefront of research and systems change that impacts more than 63 million caregivers across the country.

In this conversation, we talk about why your story matters, the critical role of Medicaid and Medicare in the lives of caregivers and those they love, how speaking up can be a powerful building block for real change and so much more.

TRANSCRIPT

Rosanne Corcoran hosts Daughterhood the Podcast, conversations for adult children caring for aging parents, from dementia and caregiving to finances, end-of-life planning, and grief. More at https://daughterhood.org

Stress, anxiety and overwhelm are often just accepted as being part of caregiving but my guest today wants to change that. 

Roy Remer is the author of Zen Caregiving: How to Care for Yourself While Caring for Others. An educator and end-of-life caregiver since 1997, he is executive director of Zen Caregiving Project in San Francisco and lead creator of the Mindful Caregiving Education curriculum.

In this episode, we dive into how mindfulness can transform caregiving — from being present and building emotional resilience, to o practicing self-compassion, processing grief, avoiding burnout, and so much more.

TRANSCRIPT

ZenCaregiving.org

Rosanne Corcoran hosts Daughterhood the Podcast, conversations for adult children caring for aging parents, from dementia and caregiving to finances, end-of-life planning, and grief. More at https://daughterhood.org

Starting the conversation about assisted living isn’t easy, especially when your parent doesn’t want to have it. In this episode, Shari Ross shares her SIMPLE framework, also featured in her book and workbook Senior Living Made Simple, to help guide each step: Support, Information, Matching, Preparation, Letting Go, and Engagement. She also shares how to move from resistance to readiness with compassion, clarity, and respect.

We talk about how to recognize when it’s time to speak up, how to begin the conversation without creating conflict, and how to find the balance between helping and pushing too far. You’ll also learn what to look for in assisted living and how to approach the process in a way that preserves your parent’s independence and dignity.

As she reminds us, “Planning ahead doesn’t mean giving up independence—it means preserving choice.”

Whether you’re just starting to think about next steps or already facing difficult conversations, this episode offers guidance, reassurance, and a path forward.

TRANSCRIPT

Rosanne Corcoran hosts Daughterhood the Podcast, conversations for adult children caring for aging parents, from dementia and caregiving to finances, end-of-life planning, and grief. More at https://daughterhood.org

You would think speaking about grief and trauma would be difficult, but not when you speak with Meghan Riordan Jarvis. A trauma-trained psychotherapist, grief and loss specialist, TEDx speaker, host of Grief Is My Side Hustle, and author and creator of the Grief Mentor Method, Meghan brings both expertise and refreshing honesty to every conversation.

If you struggled after your care partner died with what you witnessed, felt traumatized, or are unsure of who you are or how to move forward, this episode is for you. We explore why end-of-life caregiving can be genuinely traumatic, how our bodies hold grief, the stories we get trapped inside, and how to know when what you're carrying is more than ordinary loss. Her tell-it-like-it-is style will help you better understand your grief, and yourself.

Meghan Riordan Jarvis

Daughterhood

Rosanne Corcoran hosts Daughterhood the Podcast, conversations for adult children caring for aging parents, from dementia and caregiving to finances, end-of-life planning, and grief. More at https://daughterhood.org

Feeling exhausted while caring for others? You’re not alone. In this episode, certified health coach Lauren Fisher shares practical strategies for caregiver wellness, including nutrition, movement, sleep, and stress management. We explore the 80/20 rule for eating, small manageable changes, and tools for self-compassion when you’re running on empty.

Lauren Fisher Health Coaching

Daughterhood Circle with Lauren 

TRANSCRIPT

Rosanne Corcoran hosts Daughterhood the Podcast, conversations for adult children caring for aging parents, from dementia and caregiving to finances, end-of-life planning, and grief. More at https://daughterhood.org

Caring for a narcissistic parent can be filled with doubt, guilt and frustration. My guest for this episode is Julia L. Mayer, PsyD. A clinical psychologist in private practice in Media, Pennsylvania, with over three decades of experience supporting women in caregiving roles, those navigating troubled marriages, and individuals with histories of sexual trauma. She is the author of the novel, A Fleeting State of Mind and coauthor of AARP Meditations for Caregivers, AARP Love and Meaning After 50, and The AARP Caregiver Answer Book. A former president of the board of The Psychology Network, Julia has cohosted the podcast Shrinks on Third since 2016, focusing on psychology and social justice. She also brings lived experience as a caregiver for her father and mother-in-law with vascular dementia and her stepfather-in-law with Alzheimer’s disease.

In this episode, we talk about caring for a narcissistic parent, the different types of narcissism, compassionate ways to cope, tending to your own well-being and so so much more.

TRANSCRIPT

Dr. Mayer's website Caregiver Answer Book

Rosanne Corcoran hosts Daughterhood the Podcast, conversations for adult children caring for aging parents, from dementia and caregiving to finances, end-of-life planning, and grief. More at https://daughterhood.org