This conversation with Anne Basting covers her ground-breaking approach to engaging with patients in the midst of dementia and cognitive decline - a new, generative, and playful way of imagining elder care. Basting's work has challenged conventional wisdom and resulted in extraordinary changes for patients and caregivers alike. 

We discuss storytelling and our human need for narrative, relationships and the value of living in the present moment, and what is driving Anne's personal sense urgency at this moment. She opens up about her own mom’s experience with dementia, shares stories of infusing creativity and joy into care-giving, and explains what she calls “beautiful questions.”

Anne Basting is Professor of Theatre at the Peck School of the Arts at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, and founder and President of TimeSlips. Her innovative work as an artist and scholar has been recognized by a MacArthur "Genius" Fellowship, an Ashoka Fellowship, a Rockefeller Fellowship, and several major grants. She is author/editor of multiple books, including the Penelope Project (U of Iowa), Forget Memory (Johns Hopkins), and the new Creative Care (Harper One). TimeSlips fosters an alliance of artists and caregivers bringing meaning and joy to late life through creativity, and has certified facilitators in 47 states and 18 countries. 

Creative Care (released May 19, 2020): https://www.amazon.com/Creative-Care-Revolutionary-Approach-Dementia/dp/0062906178

TimeSlips: https://www.timeslips.org/

Anne’s 2014 Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPA6lklMQxM

More about Anne: https://www.anne-basting.com/about