Music has a way of reaching places that words — and even memory — sometimes can’t.

In this episode of This Is Your Brain on Mom, we explore the power of music as a caregiving tool for people living with dementia and Alzheimer’s. From singing in the car to hallway concerts in care facilities, we reflect on how familiar songs can spark joy, unlock memories, and create moments of connection even during the hardest seasons of caregiving.

After an emotionally exhausting year — and an especially difficult month — we talk honestly about what it feels like to give everything and still wonder if it’s enough. Inspired by family experience and research, we share how music isn’t a cure or a miracle, but something deeply human, accessible, and real that can make caregiving days gentler, calmer, and more connected.

We also discuss:

Why music often reaches people with dementia when other communication can’t

How familiar songs can trigger nostalgia, emotion, and joy

The role of music in nursing homes and assisted living settings

Simple ways caregivers can use music to connect with loved ones

Singing, memory, and the moments that still feel like them

If you’re caring for a loved one with dementia or Alzheimer’s — especially during times when the days feel heavy — this episode is a reminder that connection doesn’t always come from answers. Sometimes it comes from a song.

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In this episode, we’re joined by Edina, a lifelong caregiver whose story spans generations, diagnoses, and deeply personal responsibility.

Adina found herself caring for aging parents while raising children of her own—living squarely in the reality of the sandwich generation. From supporting a mother with chronic mental health challenges, to caring for a fiercely independent father who later developed dementia, Adina’s caregiving journey began long before most people even recognize the role.

She shares what it was like growing up as an only child, becoming a caregiver early, and navigating dementia alongside family history, trauma, and love. We talk about the moment she first noticed something was wrong with her father, the subtle signs of cognitive decline, and how dementia reshapes independence, identity, and family dynamics over time.

This conversation also touches on:

Caring for a parent with dementia later in life

The emotional weight of caregiving without siblings

Guilt, responsibility, and resilience in the sandwich generation

Dementia behaviors, safety concerns, and early warning signs

How humor shows up—even in the hardest moments

Most importantly, this episode offers a grounded, honest look at what long-term caregiving really feels like—before labels, before systems step in, and long after childhood ends.

Whether you’re caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s or dementia, supporting a loved one with mental illness, or balancing caregiving alongside parenting and work, this episode will resonate deeply.

🎧 Listen now for a candid, funny, and deeply human conversation about caregiving across a lifetime.

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Caregiving for a loved one living with Alzheimer’s often feels like trying to follow a script that keeps changing — sometimes minute by minute.

In this episode, Barry introduces the improv principle “Yes, And” and explains how the skills he learned in improv have become powerful tools for caregiving. While improv is often mistaken for being funny or quick, Barry and Wendy break down what it actually teaches: presence, flexibility, emotional listening, and acceptance — all essential when supporting someone living with dementia.

Through real, unfiltered caregiver moments — frantic phone calls, imagined locations, repeated questions, and emotional distress — this episode explores why correcting facts often escalates agitation, and how meeting your loved one in theirreality can preserve dignity, reduce stress, and strengthen connection.

The conversation also touches on the emotional toll caregiving takes, sibling dynamics, and the ongoing challenge of choosing emotional truth over factual accuracy — especially when fear, confusion, or panic take over.

This episode is for caregivers who feel overwhelmed, unsure of what to say, or exhausted from trying to “fix” situations that can’t be fixed. It offers practical mindset shifts and real-life examples that show how caregiving is improvisation, whether we realize it or not.

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What happens when siblings aren’t just siblings—but part parents, part roommates, part emotional support systems?

In this episode, Wendy & Barry pull back the curtain on their complicated (and often hilarious) sibling dynamic, shaped by age gaps, birth order, resentment, love, and decades of unspoken roles. From being mistaken for a couple in public (gross 😬), to joking about “giving orders since 1980,” they unpack what it really means to grow up in the same family—but in completely different realities.

They explore:

How being raised by different versions of the same mother shaped them

The impact of becoming a “third parent” before adulthood

Why sibling relationships take effort, grace, and brutal honesty

And how humor became their survival language

This episode is part family history, part therapy session, and part comedy routine—revealing how years of growing pains ultimately laid the groundwork for how they now show up together while caregiving for their mom.

If you’re navigating sibling dynamics while caring for a parent, feeling the weight of old roles resurfacing, or wondering why caregiving brings everything to the surface—this conversation will feel painfully familiar, validating, and unexpectedly funny.

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The holidays are supposed to be magical — but when you’re caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s, they can be anything but.In this heartfelt and honest episode of This Is Your Brain on Mom, siblings Wendy and Barry talk openly about navigating the holidays while supporting their mom through Alzheimer’s and dementia. From therapeutic lies and disrupted traditions to anxiety, exhaustion, and the grief that comes with celebrating without the person you’re slowly losing, this episode explores what holiday caregiving really looks like behind the scenes.They share personal stories about Hanukkah, family gatherings, decorations, performances mom can no longer attend, and the emotional weight of doing familiar traditions without her — even though she’s still very much alive. Wendy reflects on decorating without her mom for the first time in 16 years, while Barry opens up about performing during Hanukkah knowing his mom won’t be in the audience.This episode is for caregivers who:* Are navigating holidays with a loved one who has Alzheimer’s or dementia* Feel conflicted about traditions, celebrations, and “doing what’s best”* Are grieving someone who is still alive* Need validation, honesty, and permission to feel it allIf you’re struggling with dementia caregiving during the holidays, feeling the loss in real time, or trying to balance joy for your family with grief for what’s changed — you’re not alone.

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This episode opens with a family classic: Barry admits (for the second time) to leaving Mom at the airport — “like a matzo ball” — setting the tone for a conversation that swings between laugh-out-loud moments and the brutal reality of caregiving during the holidays.

As the jokes land, the heaviness follows. Wendy breaks down a recent interdisciplinary team meeting (ITM) that felt less like collaboration and more like a trial — where Mom’s “behaviors” were listed, her comfort items questioned, and her rapid cognitive decline following a UTI was minimized. We talk about medication cocktails, overstimulation in care facilities, fall risks, and what it feels like to be blamed for a system stretched beyond its limits.

We also get honest about burnout — anxiety, exhaustion, and what happens when you’re showing up every day but still feel unheard. This episode isn’t polished or perfectly structured. It’s raw, messy, and real — because that’s what caregiving actually looks like.

If you’re listening while caring for someone with dementia, navigating confusing care meetings, or just trying to survive the holidays — please know you’re not alone.

Topics include:
• Dementia & Alzheimer’s caregiving
• Interdisciplinary team meetings (ITMs)
• Caregiver burnout & anxiety
• UTIs, medications & sudden cognitive decline
• Sensory overload in care facilities
• Sibling dynamics & family caregiving
• Laughing through dysfunction

From our dysfunctional family to yours —
Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, and Happy New Year.
Subscribe, follow, leave a review, and tell a friend who needs to hear this.

🎧 This Is Your Brain on Mom — where caregiving is messy, emotional, sometimes funny, and never done alone.

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In this episode, “Running on Empty,” Wendy and Barry check in from a place many dementia caregivers quietly live in: emotional depletion, constant vigilance, fear, guilt, and the crushing weight of never truly feeling “off duty.”

What begins with a long-planned trip to New York quickly turns into another caregiving crisis when a bed suddenly opens at their first-choice memory care facility — and their mom must move immediately. It’s the second time a major transition happens while Wendy is out of town, because caregiving never checks the calendar.

From there, the conversation deepens into the reality of caregiver burnout and the toll of relentless change. Over the past year, their mom has lived in multiple hospitals, rehab centers, and care facilities — each move a shock to her system and another layer of emotional trauma for everyone involved. Even when she’s “stable,” nothing feels settled. And stability, when it comes, feels fragile.

They reflect on a recent family milestone — joyful, meaningful, and heartbreaking all at once — marking the end of an era and highlighting how dementia reshapes even the most beautiful moments. There is gratitude for what remains: humor, recognition, presence, and flashes of light in a very dark place. But there is also an honest reckoning with fear about what lies ahead.

In one of the episode’s most grounding moments, they talk about permission — permission to be exhausted without judgment, to lower your shoulders, to admit this is hard, to stop pretending resilience means never cracking. And yes, permission to laugh — even when the humor is dark — because sometimes laughter is the only relief valve left.

If you’re caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s or dementia, living in a constant state of alertness, questioning yourself, and wondering why you’re so tired all the time — this episode will feel painfully familiar.

No answers.

No pretending it’s okay.

Just truth, humor, fear, love — and the reminder that you’re not weak for being worn down. You’re human.

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In this episode of This Is Your Brain on Mom, we dive into the top gift ideas for people living with dementia — curated from real-life experience, caregiver recommendations, and the things we’ve actually bought for our mom. And listen… if anyone wants to send us a giant basket of these products, we will gratefully accept. Caregiving is expensive, okay?

We walk through practical, comforting, and dignity-giving gifts that truly make daily life easier. Starting with the dementia-friendly reminder clock — which Barry thought was just a “really nice clock,” but no, it’s literally designed for dementia care. With 20 customizable reminders and an anti-glare screen, it helps with medications, meals, appointments, orientation, and reducing confusion.

Next up: digital photo frames. We highlight the Aura frame, a caregiver favorite that allows unlimited photo uploads and can be managed remotely. These frames support memory connection, reduce anxiety, spark conversation, and keep loved ones surrounded by familiar faces and moments.

We also share one of our favorite discoveries: Socky Talkies from Beetlebug — adapted socks with easy-pull loops for people with limited dexterity. Independence, dignity, and a bit of hope printed right on the toes. Perfect stocking stuffer territory.

Then we get into the Senior Joy Box, a subscription box created specifically for seniors. Cozy items, puzzles, sensory-friendly goodies — each box is meant to send love, connection, and comfort, especially when distance or life gets in the way. They currently only ship in the U.S., but for our American listeners: this one’s gold.

And finally: weighted blankets. The caregiver community swears by them for reducing anxiety, calming restlessness, improving sleep, and offering comfort during transitions like hospital visits or moving into long-term care. Many describe it as the feeling of a hug — something every caregiver and every loved one deserves.

In this episode we cover:

Best dementia-friendly gifts backed by real caregiver experience

Why reminder clocks can be life-changing

How digital frames support memory and emotional connection

Adapted socks that build dignity and independence

The Senior Joy Box subscription

Why weighted blankets are a top comfort item

Caregiver humor, chaos, and our unfiltered sibling commentary

If you're shopping for a loved one with dementia — or looking for caregiver-approved tools that truly help — this episode is your go-to guide.

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In this episode of This Is Your Brain on Mom, we sit down with caregiver advocate and podcast host Mikayla Cluxton for a funny, honest, and deeply relatable conversation about the emotional chaos of caregiving — and the strange little rituals that keep us going (yes… even shoe shopping).

We talk about the realities of caregiving burnout, anxiety, and the constant battle between wanting quiet alone time and not actually liking being alone with our thoughts. Mikayla shares how her own emotional regulation journey has shifted—going from avoiding silence to finally finding peace in it. Meanwhile, Barry and Wendy unpack the mental load of being “always on call,” the guilt of saying no, and how hard it is to set boundaries when your loved one insists you’re the only person who can help.

We dive into:

✨ The emotional whiplash of caring for someone whose needs and moods change daily
✨ The impossibility of balance — and why “spinning plates” is a better metaphor
✨ The grief and identity loss tied to no longer driving or being independent
✨ Why caregivers need Do Not Do lists just as much as to-do lists
✨ Learning how to say no (or at least not right now) without drowning in guilt

If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed, overstimulated, overcommitted — and still somehow convinced that you should be doing more — this episode is your permission slip to breathe, set boundaries, and choose what you have capacity for today.

🎧 Listen now for real talk, humour, and the reminder that you are not alone.

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This week on This Is Your Brain On Mom, things take a hilarious turn — because apparently our mom has become… a joiner. Bingo champion. Artist. Bowling league member. Lead singer alongside a mysterious hallway guitarist. We don’t know who she is anymore — but honestly? We’re impressed.

In this episode, we catch up on mom’s surprisingly busy social life in memory care, upcoming travel plans, and Barry’s big family milestone. But beneath the laughter, we go somewhere real: the complicated emotional side of caregiving.

We talk about:

The isolation many caregivers feel

The frustration behind comments like “at least she still remembers you”

Unsolicited advice (especially from people who have never cared for someone living with dementia)

Toxic positivity, grief, resentment — and why humor sometimes saves us

The struggle with role reversal and language, including words like “diaper”

How routines shift when caregiving becomes part of everyday life

If you’re a caregiver for a parent with Alzheimer’s or dementia — or love someone who is — you’ll feel seen in this conversation. And you’ll probably laugh, because sometimes the only options are laughter… or chaos.

🎧 Listen now for honesty, humor, and the reminder that caregivers deserve compassion too.

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