The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast

We took advantage of a respite trip to visit my aunt Marge to have her on the podcast. We talk about my awkward youth, memories growing up, and how Aunt Marge has coped with being caregiver and losing two partners to cancer. Of course, we try to bring light to darkness and of course spring movie quotes on auntie. 

The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast follows the journey of a father with metastasized stage IV prostate cancer and his daughter. Wanting to capture stories and maximize his time with his daughter was the genesis of the show. 

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• YouTube: @ButterflyPavilionPod
• TikTok:  @butterflypavilionpod
• Find Ty on Twitter/X: @seeksboston26mi
• Email us: [email protected]

Nikki returns to the studios of The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast this month with a LOT to catch up on including an update on Ty's cancer and clinical trial. We talk about a new segment related to our recurring theme, "finding light in darkness" with what's brought light to us lately. And of course, our favorite segment; movie quotes return with Ty trying to stump daughter Nikki. 

The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast follows the journey of a father with metastasized stage IV prostate cancer and his daughter. Wanting to capture stories and maximize his time with his daughter was the genesis of the show. 

Send us Fan Mail

Connect with us

• Instagram: @butterflypavilionpod
• YouTube: @ButterflyPavilionPod
• TikTok:  @butterflypavilionpod
• Find Ty on Twitter/X: @seeksboston26mi
• Email us: [email protected]

This month we talk with Georgetown Professor and author of "Invisible Illness: A History, from Hysteria to Long Covid.," Emily Mendenhall.

"From lupus to Lyme, invisible illness is often dismissed by everyone but the sufferers. Why does the medical establishment continually insist that, when symptoms are hard to explain, they are probably just in your head?"

Emily takes a unique historical approach in her book while weaving in  a number of patient stories in an advocacy "tone." 

She interviewed over 150 patients (including me,) and chronic illness professionals for the book.

We address the early "Bluesky blow-up" where she took some "heat" for some of the passages in her book, historical context of disability and invisible illnesses, the unavoidable "politics," The Anthony Fauci Senate hearing, and of course a recurring segment on the show; "Movie Quotes."

It was a thrill to catch up with her again as I'd worked with her over the last 2-3 years on my story also presented in the book.

A couple of notes on the episode, I refer to Covid.org but should have been Covid.Gov. Should make more sense with the right link. While the Wired Magazine article; "The Painful Truth About Long Covid," by Alan Levinovitz, We did not have the time to dive deep into this; the link to my Substack post on the topic referenced on the show can be found HERE.

https://substack.com/@seekingbostonmarathon/p-200315063

The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast follows the journey of a father with metastasized stage IV prostate cancer and his daughter. Wanting to capture stories and maximize his time with his daughter was the genesis of the show. 

Send us Fan Mail

Connect with us

• Instagram: @butterflypavilionpod
• YouTube: @ButterflyPavilionPod
• TikTok:  @butterflypavilionpod
• Find Ty on Twitter/X: @seeksboston26mi
• Email us: [email protected]

Ty's brother flies in from California at the start of Ty's clinical trial. A great weekend  and great memories covered in this month's episode of The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast. Ty provides an update on his state IV cancer clinical trial,. we talk early years growing up, and subjects his siblings to "movie quotes!" 

The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast follows the journey of a father with metastasized stage IV prostate cancer and his daughter. Wanting to capture stories and maximize his time with his daughter was the genesis of the show. 

Send us Fan Mail

Connect with us

• Instagram: @butterflypavilionpod
• YouTube: @ButterflyPavilionPod
• TikTok:  @butterflypavilionpod
• Find Ty on Twitter/X: @seeksboston26mi
• Email us: [email protected]

Super excited to have Nikki back in the Studio of The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast. A lot to catch up on in this TV themed Episode. We talk about shows from our formative youth, Ty throws a surprise at Nikki (what's new,) we talk about Suleika Jaouad's book, "Between Two Kingdoms, Ty provides a cancer update and a surprise prop guest in movie quotes!

The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast follows the journey of a father with metastasized stage IV prostate cancer and his daughter. Wanting to capture stories and maximize his time with his daughter was the genesis of the show. 

Updated to include link to Ty's substack post; How to Talk to Someone Sick or Disabled.

Send us Fan Mail

Connect with us

• Instagram: @butterflypavilionpod
• YouTube: @ButterflyPavilionPod
• TikTok:  @butterflypavilionpod
• Find Ty on Twitter/X: @seeksboston26mi
• Email us: [email protected]

With the 130th Boston Marathon running on Patriots' Day, Monday April 13th, 2026, we have the Boston Marathon Episode on this month's episode of The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast. Ty's son's Jesse and Keenan join dad to talk about Ty's FIVE Boston Marathon's, some marathon tips you've never perhaps heard of or don't want to know about the race, the 2013 "bombing year" of the Marathon and of course all sorts of tangents. Ty tries to stump the boys with The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast Movie Quotes.

Footnote: Ty incorrectly calls it the 100th running and of course it's the 130th running of the Boston Marathon. 

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• Instagram: @butterflypavilionpod
• YouTube: @ButterflyPavilionPod
• TikTok:  @butterflypavilionpod
• Find Ty on Twitter/X: @seeksboston26mi
• Email us: [email protected]

Ty flies solo on this episode in an interview with Long Covid expert, David Putrino.

David is the Director of Rehab Innovation at Mount Sinai New York City and Assoc. Prof. at Mount Sinai Rehab for Icahn Mount Sinai and one of Seeking Boston's (Ty's) Long Covid super heroes--specifically "Batman."

We cover a range of topics concurrent with Long Covid Awareness Month (March '26) including the multiple hats Putrino wears, and the confluence of long Covid (and cancer) symptoms that Ty refers to as a Long Covid Kaleidoscope with different (symptom) prisms on a given day, hour, week, and month in the life of long Covid. 

A few links we referenced in the episode (we weren't able to cover all the promising trials that David is involved with.)

Interview with David Putrino hosted by Julie Armstrong as part of Long Covid Awareness Week (longer discussion on trials and treatments for long Covid.)

"Where do We Stand"

Long Covid Provider Manual

Find Ty's Long Covid Parody videos on x

and on YouTube; https://www.youtube.com/@SeekingBoston

Send us Fan Mail

Connect with us

• Instagram: @butterflypavilionpod
• YouTube: @ButterflyPavilionPod
• TikTok:  @butterflypavilionpod
• Find Ty on Twitter/X: @seeksboston26mi
• Email us: [email protected]

Jonathan Howard, Neurologist and Psychiatrist from New York City's Langone and Bellevue Hospital joins the Butterfly Pavilion to talk about his book; "We Want Them Infected" which was the mantra of many characters at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic--many of those "comic book villains" are now in the United States Health and Human Services. We discuss his book and the "Great Barrington Declaration" which. like Project 2025 is a bit of a pseudoscience hymnal that was meant to provide sparce restrictions for the Covid-19 Pandemic. 

Dr Howard was on the "front lines" of the onset of the pandemic at NYC's Bellevue Hospital. We talk about that experience and the injection of that pseudoscience in the vaccine schedule and guidance. 

The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast is a father and daughter podcast about his stage IV cancer journey and trying to find light in darkness along the journey. Ty also has long Covid. 

Ty's long Covid journey started in early 2020 with a mild onset of Covid but within six weeks, he could no longer run. He endured a 100 day fever that year that lead to a long medical journey seeking answers at National Jewish Health, Mayo Clinic, and RTHM Long Covid Clinic. His long Covid diagnosis includes damage to his body; neuropathy, vasculitis, endothelial and mitochondria damage, blood clots, and inflammation. With a broken immune system his oncology team said that it either caused or exacerbated his stage IV cancer. 

Send us Fan Mail

Connect with us

• Instagram: @butterflypavilionpod
• YouTube: @ButterflyPavilionPod
• TikTok:  @butterflypavilionpod
• Find Ty on Twitter/X: @seeksboston26mi
• Email us: [email protected]

Season II of the Butterfly Pavilion Podcast kicks off with our mutual Denver Broncos History dating back to the '60's at the original Mile High Stadium as season ticket holders. We talk about early era Broncos games, player "star struck" encounters, Super Bowls, Ty creating the "Hulk" banner that hung in the South Stands where Shannon Sharpe would "tap" after scoring in the south end zone, and Nikki's memories as a Denver Broncos Junior Cheerleader.

The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast is a father and daughter podcast about his stage IV cancer journey and trying to find light in darkness along the journey. Ty also has long Covid. 

Ty's long Covid journey started in early 2020 with a mild onset of Covid but within six weeks, he could no longer run. He endured a 100 day fever that year that lead to a long medical journey seeking answers at National Jewish Health, Mayo Clinic, and RTHM Long Covid Clinic. His long Covid diagnosis includes damage to his body; neuropathy, vasculitis, endothelial and mitochondria damage, blood clots, and inflammation. With a broken immune system his oncology team said that it either caused or exacerbated his stage IV cancer. 

Ty is a former telecommunications software sales executive, marathoner, triathlete that enjoyed traveling the world with his wife and family. Nikki lives close to dad and is in marketing and advertising. She now runs for dad since he can't. 

Send us Fan Mail

Connect with us

• Instagram: @butterflypavilionpod
• YouTube: @ButterflyPavilionPod
• TikTok:  @butterflypavilionpod
• Find Ty on Twitter/X: @seeksboston26mi
• Email us: [email protected]

Ty and Nikki Godwin Interview Akiko Iwasaki on The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast. Iwasaki is a Sterling Professor of Immunobiology at the Yale University School of Medicine. Her research focuses on the mechanisms of immune defense against viruses. Forbes 50 over 50 Innovation 2024, TIME 100 Most Influential People 2024,Keio Medical Science Prize in 2025.

The Butterfly Pavilion Podcast is a father and daughter podcast about his stage IV cancer journey and trying to find light in darkness along the journey. Ty also has long Covid. 

Ty's long Covid journey started in early 2020 with a mild onset of Covid but within six weeks, he could no longer run. He endured a 100 day fever that year that lead to a long medical journey seeking answers at National Jewish Health, Mayo Clinic, and RTHM Long Covid Clinic. His long Covid diagnosis includes damage to his body; neuropathy, vasculitis, endothelial and mitochondria damage, blood clots, and inflammation. With a broken immune system his oncology team said that it either caused or exacerbated his stage IV cancer. 

Send us Fan Mail

Connect with us

• Instagram: @butterflypavilionpod
• YouTube: @ButterflyPavilionPod
• TikTok:  @butterflypavilionpod
• Find Ty on Twitter/X: @seeksboston26mi
• Email us: [email protected]