Podcasts about caring

Ed Latimore⁠ is a former professional heavyweight boxer, a competitive chess player, sobriety advocate, physics graduate, U.S. Army National Guard veteran, and a bestselling author of Not Caring What Other People Think Is a Superpower and Sober Letters to My Drunken Self. He grew up in Pittsburgh's housing projects and fought poverty, addiction, and trauma with the discipline of boxing and the clarity of stoic philosophy. His newest book, ⁠Hard Lessons from the Hurt Business: Boxing and the Art of Life⁠, was released last year. Ed joined host Robert Glazer on The Elevate Podcast to discuss his boxing career, lessons learned from a life of fighting, and why you shouldn't care what people think. Thank you to the sponsors of The Elevate Podcast Shopify: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠shopify.com/elevate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Masterclass: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠masterclass.com/elevate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Framer: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠framer.com/elevate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Northwest Registered Agent: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠northwestregisteredagent.com/elevate⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Indeed: indeed.com/elevate

Physical therapists Ginny Paleg, Roslyn Livingstone, and Helen Milligan joined the podcast to talk about their approach to physical therapy in younger children with Down syndrome.  They drew upon the published review article that can be found here https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29630564/.  They discussed the "6 F-Words" of therapy: fitness, functioning, family, fun, friendships, future.   If you would like to suggest a topic for us to cover on the podcast, please send an e-mail to DownSyndromeCenter@chp.edu. If you would like to partner with the Down Syndrome Center, including this podcast, please visit https://givetochildrens.org/downsyndromecenter. We are thankful for the generous donation from Caring for Kids – The Carrie Martin Fund that provides the funding for the podcast recording equipment and hosting costs for this podcast.

0871Today we're talking about something that millions of families experience, but very few of us are really prepared for: the moment when the people who raised us begin to need us to care for them. My guest is Emmy-nominated filmmaker Michelle Boyaner, whose documentary It's Not a Burden: The Humor and Heartache of Raising Elderly Parents, named Documentary of The Month by The Today Show, takes a remarkably personal look at that role reversal—not only through Michelle's experience caring for her own parents, but through the experiences of families from many different backgrounds. It's a story about caregiving, but it's also about guilt, humor, frustration, dignity, family relationships and, ultimately, love.https://www.seniorcareauthority.com/resources/boomers-today-podcast/

Sometimes grief begins long before someone dies. It begins when the person you love is still beside you, but the life you knew together is already changing.In this episode, Teresa Reiniger sits down with Suzy McNamara for an honest conversation about caregiving, anticipatory grief, identity, faith, and carrying more than one devastating loss at once.Suzy spent five years as the primary in-home caregiver for her husband, Bob, after he was diagnosed with posterior cortical atrophy, a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's. She shares what it was like watching changes begin in his early 50s, protecting his dignity as his world became smaller, and slowly realizing that she was no longer only his wife, she had become his caregiver, advocate, and protector.Then, while Bob was entering the final stage of his illness, Suzy's sister and best friend, Elizabeth, died. Suzy reflects on what happens when there is barely room to grieve because someone still depends on you.This conversation offers validation for caregivers who feel unseen, people experiencing anticipatory grief, and anyone carrying layered losses.About our guest: Suzy McNamara is a widow, mother of four adult children, former primary caregiver to her husband Bob, and author of The Silkworm, the Magician, and the Sister Tree: A Tale of Love and Loss.In This Episode● How early-onset Alzheimer's changed Bob's identity, career, relationships, and independence.● Why grief can begin while the person you love is still physically present.● How Suzy's identity shifted from wife to caregiver, advocate, and protector.● Protecting a loved one's dignity when others do not understand their limitations.● Grieving Suzy's sister Elizabeth while continuing full-time caregiving.● How faith, writing, friendship, and a smaller support circle helped Suzy keep going.What You'll Take Away● Anticipatory grief is real grief.● Caregivers can lose parts of their identity, too.● Protecting someone may require disappointing other people.● Surviving one difficult day deserves recognition.● You do not need a large circle—you need people who can truly stay.MEMORABLE QUOTESSuzy: “There are so many little tragedies in the big tragedy of Alzheimer's.”Suzy: “That's when the grieving really begins.”Suzy: “The caregiver loses their identity for sure.”Suzy: “You do have to build sort of a wall around your heart.”Suzy: “Getting through one day is a huge, huge accomplishment.”Teresa: “Grief does not always wait for one loss to end before another one begins.”EPISODE CHAPTERS00:00 — When Grief Begins Before Death03:33 — Bob's Early-Onset Alzheimer's Story08:26 — The Fear and Shame Before Diagnosis13:28 — When Alzheimer's Arrives in Midlife18:00 — Losing the Identity of Wife and Becoming Caregiver19:48 — Protecting Bob's Dignity and Safety24:59 — Grieving a Sister While Caring for a Husband28:16 — When Caregiving Leaves No Room to Grieve29:26 — The Story Behind Suzy's Memoir33:30 — Finding the People Who Can Truly Stay35:48 — Getting Through One Day Is an Accomplishment39:32 — Suzy's Book and Audiobook42:19 — A Reminder for Caregivers Who Feel Unseen

This week Sarah sits down with Dr. Tony Nader, a physician, neuroscientist, and leader in the Transcendental Meditation movement, to explore one of the biggest mysteries of our existence: consciousness. Together, they explore the relationship between the mind and body, science and spirituality, meditation and creativity, and what it means to access a deeper sense of self. On this episode of Moonbeaming you'll hear: How Dr. Tony Nader went from physician and neuroscientist to studying consciousness and Transcendental Meditation What consciousness actually is and why Dr. Nader believes it extends far beyond human consciousness How meditation can create a state of inner silence while maintaining deep alertness and awareness Why stress and fear narrow our consciousness and limit the possibilities we can see How calming the nervous system can create more space for creativity, intuition, and clearer decision-making The connection between meditation, the brain, creativity, and the default mode network How Transcendental Meditation can help us reconnect with what Dr. Nader describes as our deeper, truer self What it means to live from a place of greater consciousness, connection, and care --- Dr. Tony Nader is a physician, neuroscientist, Vedic scholar, and leader of the Transcendental Meditation movement. A Harvard- and MIT-trained scientist, he is the author of Consciousness Is All There Is and his newest book, The Power of Caring, which explores how caring is rooted in consciousness and how we can cultivate deeper, more fulfilling connections with ourselves and others. https://drtonynader.com/ --- Join Our Community: Join the Moon Studio Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themoonstudio Buy the 2026 Many Moons Lunar Planner: https://moon-studio.co/products/many-moons-2026?srsltid=AfmBOopThx1yrmKl0tMjecc_EFeeN5DAiIafqPqvQ4Uke1WEi5droeam Subscribe to our newsletter: https://moon-studio.co/pages/newsletter Find Sarah on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gottesss/

Breakups are more than pesky life events. They are highly stressful and can lead to negative impacts on our health, some that can become long-term. But don't worry - I am here to help! If you are intentional about looking after yourself you can either prevent negative health consequences or find that they come and go as you go along your healing journey. Ready to schedule time with me? Get direct access to my calendar here.In this week's episode I cover: 

What if the most powerful leadership advantage is showing people that you care? In this episode, BJ sits down with Justin Ricklefs, Founder and CEO of Guild Collective and author of Give a Damn: The Catalyst for Caring Companies, to explore what human-first leadership looks like in practice. They discuss his path from sponsorship sales to building a brand storytelling agency, and how mentors shaped his belief that leaders earn commitment by knowing and caring for their people. He explains why strong systems create room for exceptional human connection, how curiosity, compassion, clarity, and consistency turn care into a daily discipline, and why brand is far more than a logo or marketing department. Justin also shares his perspective on burnout, reflects on a restorative silent retreat, and explains why the match is a powerful leadership metaphor. Tune in to learn what it means to care for yourself, to pass your flame to others, and to build companies where humanity and performance strengthen one another.Key Points From This Episode:Introducing Justin Ricklefs, Founder and CEO of Guild Collective.Justin's journey from Learfield Sports and the Kansas City Chiefs to entrepreneurship.Find out how a mentor's genuine interest showed Justin the power of human-first leadership.Explore why thoughtful systems create the conditions for exceptional human connection.Find out the origin and inspiration behind Justin's Give a Damn philosophy and book.Uncover what it means to apply effort and attitude with curiosity, compassion, and clarity.Discover why consistent action, even if it is not perfect, compounds over time.The Guild Collective's Human-First Brand Blueprint: clarity, connection, and creativity.Learn why a brand is the emotional heart of a business, not simply a visual identity.Rapid-fire questions: mentors, writers, hospitality, and meaningful books.He reflects on how a retreat helped him overcome exhaustion and burnout.Hear how Justin stays grounded in the present through a simple gratitude exercise.Quotes:“Why? Because he knew me, he cared for me. He was curious enough when I wasn't in the room to figure out who I was.” — Justin Ricklefs [0:13:37]“Effort and attitude [are] available. It's energy, right? It does not cost us anything. If we bring those two ingredients or fuel sources to growing in our curiosity, our compassion, our clarity, and ultimately, our consistency, – good things happen.” — Justin Ricklefs [0:20:59]“The brand is the heart center; it is the embodiment of the business.” — Justin Ricklefs [0:28:25]“That's the compounding effect of a leader. – It's when they give their flame's power to somebody else.” — Justin Ricklefs [0:42:21]Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:Justin RicklefsJustin Ricklefs on LinkedInJustin Ricklefs EmailGuild CollectiveGuild Collective: Human-First Brand AssessmentGive a Damn: The Catalyst for Caring CompaniesGiftologyClosing the Trust GapMatthew McConaughey's 2014 Oscar acceptance speechBird by BirdThe Conception Abbey RetreatUnreasonable HospitalityLeadership Blueprints PodcastLeadership Blueprints Podcast on YouTubeMCFAMCFA CareersBJ Kraemer on LinkedIn

What does it really mean to care for one another as the body of Christ? The Bible gives us clear instructions, not only about what we should do but how we should do it. Bucky walks through the practical ways believers are called to care for one another—from encouraging the fainthearted and helping the weak to restoring those who have fallen and carrying one another's burdens. But caring for one another means more than offering temporary relief. It also means helping one another pursue spiritual health. How is your church doing at caring for the body? And where might you be missing the mark?#faithbasedpodcast #biblepodcast #biblicalteachingpodcast #biblestudypodcast

In this original What the Dementia episode, we will discuss practical strategies for dementia caregivers to prevent and de-escalate physical aggression, specifically how to avoid getting hit while providing care. We outline key safety disclaimers and explains the underlying reasons why an individual living with dementia might hit, push, or kick during daily activities.This episode will cover:— Key disclaimers regarding dementia behaviors, caregiver safety, and personal boundaries.— The distinction between reactionary hitting during personal care and targeted aggression.— Strategies for maintaining safe personal space boundaries when agitation occurs.— The importance of obtaining permission, respecting "no," and avoiding forced cooperation.— An overview of THE IMPACTS framework from the P. A. N. D. A. Method for identifying potential triggers behind physical reactions.— Creative, trauma-informed approaches to incentivize participation in personal hygiene tasks.— How establishing predictable daily routines can help minimize conflict and reduce accidents.— When to seek medical advice, caregiver respite, or higher levels of care support.MENTIONED IN EPISODE: With Intent Book | https://letsbambu.link/withintentCONNECT, GET RESOURCES, LEARN MORE, + SIMPLIFY YOUR CARE JOURNEY:LinkTree | ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.letsbambu.com/b/linktree⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠MUSIC CREDIT: Listen To SpillageVillage - Tropical Landing Pop Songs At Looperman.com DISCLAIMER: The information contained in Bambu Care LLC's website, blog, emails, programs, services and/or products is for educational and informational purposes only. While we draw on our prior professional expertise and background in other areas, you acknowledge that we are supporting you in our role exclusively as a Dementia Care Consultant. By participating in Bambu Care, LLC's website, blog, emails, programs, services and/or products, you acknowledge that we are not a licensed psychologist, professional counselor, or medical doctor. We in no way, diagnose, treat, or cure any illnesses or diseases. Dementia Care Consulting is in no way to be construed or substituted as psychological counseling or any other type of therapy or medical advice. The information provided by Bambu Care, LLC also does not constitute legal or financial advice nor is intended to be. Dementia Care Consulting is not a substitute for the services of a CPA or attorney.

What if becoming unshakable has less to do with pushing harder and more to do with learning how to recover? In this solo episode of Becoming Unshakable, I'm talking about something leaders often undervalue until they have already hit the wall: intentional recovery. We spend so much time thinking about performance, results, responsibility, and caring for the people around us that it can become easy to overlook the person carrying all of that weight. But sustained performance requires capacity, and capacity has to be restored. I share why I believe leaders should begin thinking of themselves as high-performance corporate athletes. We look at what we can learn from athletes like LeBron James and the Williams sisters, who invest enormous amounts of time and attention into maintaining the bodies and minds that allow them to perform at the highest level. That same thinking applies inside our workplaces. I talk about rebalancing workloads, creating white space in calendars, paying attention to team capacity, and building recovery practices into everyday life. That might mean sleeping, walking, meditation, prayer, hydration, quiet thinking time, or simply creating enough space to stop operating in constant reaction mode. I also share a moment from my own leadership journey when I realized I had added one more responsibility to an already overwhelmed team member. It forced me to reconsider what was on her plate, what could be delegated, and what leadership looks like when we take capacity seriously. Most importantly, this episode examines the inward side of caring leadership. Caring for others matters deeply, but we cannot continually give people the best of ourselves while giving ourselves whatever happens to be left over. I learned that lesson by hitting more walls than I would have liked. My hope is that after listening to this, you don't have to. What would change if you began treating your own recovery as seriously as you treat your responsibilities to everyone else? Listen to the episode and share your thoughts with me.

Show SummaryOn today's episode, we're having a conversation with Registered Nurse, Military Spouse, and Workforce Development Advocate Tracy Steele, founder of Community Cultivator, an organization dedicated to strengthening well-being, belonging, and career stability for military spouses through community connection and professional developmentEpisode Partner:Our sponsor this week is Aetna, a trusted health care company, committed to serving Veterans, military families, and caregivers through meaningful, community-centered care. Provide FeedbackAs a dedicated member of the audience, we would like to hear from you. If you PsychArmor has helped you learn, grow, and support those who've served and those who care for them, we would appreciate hearing your story. Please follow this link to share how PsychArmor has helped you in your service journey Share PsychArmor StoriesAbout Today's GuestCommunity Cultivator was founded by Tracy Steele, SPHR, CPRW — a longtime military spouse, workforce development leader, and advocate for military spouse employment and community connection.​After more than two decades navigating military life, Tracy experienced firsthand the challenge of constantly rebuilding career momentum, professional networks, and community with every move. Through strategic volunteering, networking, and workforce development leadership, she became passionate about helping military spouses recognize their value and confidently pursue meaningful opportunities.But she realized military spouses needed more than job resources alone. They needed connection, belonging, and access to opportunities that could grow with them wherever military life led next.​So she built Community Cultivator.​What started as a vision in San Diego is growing into a nationwide movement helping military spouses build stronger careers, deeper connections, and lasting opportunities together.Links Mentioned During the EpisodeCommunity Cultivator WebsiteForeign Born Military Spouse NetworkSugar Bear Foundation WebsitePsychArmor Resource of the WeekThis week's PsychArmor Resource of the Week is the PsychArmor course 15 Reasons to Hire a Military Spouse. As an employer, you are looking for untapped talent pools. One talent pool that can be overlooked is the diverse and highly educated group of military spouses. Take this course to learn the top 15 Reasons to Hire a Military Spouse. You can find the resource here: https://learn.psycharmor.org/courses/15-Reasons-to-Hire-a-Military-Spouse Contact Us and Join Us on Social Media Email PsychArmorPsychArmor on XPsychArmor on FacebookPsychArmor on YouTubePsychArmor on LinkedInPsychArmor on InstagramTheme MusicOur theme music Don't Kill the Messenger was written and performed by Navy Veteran Jerry Maniscalco, in cooperation with Operation Encore, a non profit committed to supporting singer/songwriter and musicians across the military and Veteran communities.Producer and Host Duane France is a retired Army Noncommissioned Officer, combat veteran, and clinical mental health counselor for service members, veterans, and their families.  You can find more about the work that he is doing at www.veteranmentalhealth.com  

On this episode of The Forgotten Podcast, host Jami Kaeb welcomes Dr. Dusty Hess, a nationally recognized functional medical doctor, speaker, author, and founder of Upstream Health. Together, they explore a critical topic for foster and adoptive families: understanding and supporting children who have been impacted by prenatal drug and alcohol exposure. Dr. Hess helps shift the narrative for struggling caregivers, offering profound hope by explaining that what often presents as behavioral defiance is actually a physiological response from a nervous system adapted to survive difficult circumstances. Dr. Hess details the biological mechanics of how substances and chronic maternal stress alter brain development in the womb, impacting neuron formation, dopamine pathways, and stress response systems. He breaks down the behavioral clues that indicate a child is living in a chronic fight-or-flight state, including explosive emotional reactions, sensory sensitivities, sleep disturbances, and difficulty with transitions. Throughout the episode, he emphasizes the importance of looking beneath surface behaviors, documenting patterns with curiosity, and addressing underlying biological causes like gut-brain connection issues, blood sugar instability, and toxic burdens. Rather than relying on legalistic or punitive parenting strategies, Dr. Hess equips caregivers with practical ways to build biological safety through environmental changes. He shares actionable tips for establishing consistent household rhythms, creating soothing bedtime routines to improve sleep quality, and regulating a child's nervous system by maintaining a calm, organized home. Packed with encouragement, this conversation reminds parents that healing is a gradual, directional process and that even small, intentional steps can powerfully shape a child's path toward safety and wholeness. About the Guest Dr. Dusty Hess is a nationally recognized functional medical doctor, author, speaker, and the founder of Upstream Health, a movement dedicated to helping Christian families reclaim their health through God's original design. Through his practice and public speaking, Dr. Hess specializes in getting to the root cause of chronic health and neurological challenges by looking at biological, environmental, and lifestyle factors. He is passionate about empowering caregivers and foster parents with personalized, practical tools that foster long-term healing and biological safety for vulnerable children. In This Episode Recognizing the behavioral clues of prenatal drug and alcohol exposure, including emotional volatility, transition challenges, and sensory sensitivities. How prenatal substance exposure and maternal stress alter brain development, dopamine pathways, and nervous system regulation. The biological drivers behind dysregulation, including the gut-brain connection, blood sugar swings, and sleep dysfunction. Practical tools for creating biological safety at home through consistent rhythms, calming bedtime routines, and an organized, regulated environment. Resources + Links Learn more about The Forgotten Initiative - https://theforgotteninitiative.org/ Follow TFI on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/theforgotteninitiative/ Understanding & Supporting Kids with Prenatal Drug and Alcohol Exposure - https://onedrive.live.com/?id=%2Fpersonal%2Fa3caa6cbe49cc1ae%2FDocuments%2FDesktop%2FTFI%20Files%2FPodcast%20Recordings%2FTFP%2FDusty%20Hess%2FUnderstanding%20%26%20Supporting%20Kids%20with%20Prenatal%20Drug%20and%20Alcohol%20Exposure%2Epdf&listurl=%2Fpersonal%2Fa3caa6cbe49cc1ae%2FDocuments&ithint=file%2Cpdf&e=BkW1Zk&migratedtospo=true&parent=%2Fpersonal%2Fa3caa6cbe49cc1ae%2FDocuments%2FDesktop%2FTFI%20Files%2FPodcast%20Recordings%2FTFP%2FDusty%20Hess&redeem=aHR0cHM6Ly8xZHJ2Lm1zL2IvYy9hM2NhYTZjYmU0OWNjMWFlL0lRQjBzZFlMcWUxSVJMYklzYW9QeExqUEFRTHVwbUdOb0JGSU5jLUVsYTlBbFFjP2U9QmtXMVpr&ga=1

In “How the Church Moves,” Caleb Cole teaches from 1 Timothy 5 about becoming a healthy church that moves with purity, responsibility, and honor. From caring for people in need and providing for our families to honoring accountable leaders, working hard, staying connected to Christ, and caring for our whole selves, this message challenges us to leave autopilot faith behind and live intentionally through wholehearted surrender to Jesus. (00:00) - Continuing Through 1 Timothy (01:05) - Reading 1 Timothy 5 (03:53) - How the Church Should Move (05:19) - The Danger of Autopilot Faith (07:24) - Move Pure, Responsible, and With Honor (08:04) - Move With a Mindset of Purity (12:44) - Guard Your Own Purity (15:26) - Caring for Widows and Those in Need (21:28) - Hope in God and Purposeful Living (25:01) - Work Hard and Be a Provider (29:24) - Serving With the Time You Have (30:12) - Honor Your Leaders (32:36) - Honor Must Include Accountability (35:27) - Take Care of Yourself Physically (37:56) - Your Soul Needs a Savior

Episode 069 | Dr. Lewellis sits down with Cannon Brumley, Director of Operations at Dermatology Specialists of Fort Worth, to talk about operational leverage, culture, and AI for independent dermatology practices that want to survive, thrive, and remain independent. They dive into the operational growing pains that show up as a practice scales, and how systems, feedback loops, virtual assistants, and AI native tools like Forus can help your team work smarter while keeping the patient experience front and center.Thanks to our friends at Forus for their support of this episode! You may have known them previously as Tandem. They have a new name, but the same mission: helping us help our patients get access to the medications they deserve faster, all at no additional cost to your practice. Forus accelerates medicine for the people who need it, prescribe it, and create it by automating prior authorizations, appeals, assistance programs, and the myriad other daily, time-consuming frustrations that stand between prescription and treatment, which saves my practice both time and money!They're building a first-of-its-kind network that connects doctors, pharmacies, payers, and biopharma to bring new science to the patients who need it. The AI platform that powers this network is used by prescribers across all 50 states, supporting millions of patients each year. Forus is backed by leading investors including Thrive Capital, General Catalyst, and Accel. To learn more, just head to try.forus.com.If you know a product, service, organization, or individual (including yourself) that we should feature on the show, we'd love to hear from you. Just send Dr. Lewellis a text message at 715-391-9774 or email him at drlewellis@aboveandbeyondderm.com.Looking for a dermatologist? Submit our brief interest form or text/call us at 715-391-9774 to learn more. We offer in-office visits, house calls & virtual care in Wisconsin and virtual care in Illinois and Nebraska.Don't miss the Founding Member offer for our groundbreaking Integrative Skin Health & Longevity Membership program. The first 50 new members who enroll using the code FOUNDER at checkout pay just $89/month, locked in for the lifetime of your membership (regular price: $129/month).Above & Beyond DermatologyIntegrative Skin Health & Longevity MembershipNutrafol -- special pricing and physician exclusive productsNeoGenesis -- my favorite source of stem cell released molecules for skin/hairSilagen.biz -- physician dispensed scar refinement products delivered to your door (use practice code 1206240832P)NewsletterLinkedInFacebookDr. Lewellis on InstagramAbove & Beyond Dermatology on InstagramYouTubeTikTokTwitter/XChange Your Mind, Change Your LifeSoMeDocs (Doctors on Social Media)This page may contain affiliate links.Medical Disclaimer: The Above & Beyond Dermatology Podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Nothing discussed on this podcast creates a physician-patient relationship with Dr. Stephen Lewellis, Above & Beyond Dermatology, or any guest.The views expressed are those of the individual speakers and may not represent the views of their employers, affiliated organizations, or one another. Health decisions are personal, and what is appropriate for one person may not be appropriate for another. Always consult your own qualified healthcare professional before starting, stopping, or changing any medication, supplement, treatment, or health-related program.

What does a physician-scientist actually do each day to support her own healthy aging? This is a question Dr. Gillian Lockitch hears often. Her answer is not a prescription, a shopping list or a collection of fashionable biohacks. Healthy longevity is personal: our genetics, health histories, medications, priorities and goals differ, so the most useful routine is one designed for the individual. In this solo episode, Dr. Gillian organizes her approach around the seven pillars of healthy longevity described in her book, Growing Older, Living Younger. She explains how epigenetics offers a more hopeful way to think about aging, how food and movement send biological signals, why skin must be treated as an important organ, and how sleep, curiosity, purpose and relationships help protect health and independence. Dr. Gillian also shares her own daily routine—from nutrient-dense foods and time-restricted eating to walking, resistance and balance work, skincare practices and carefully selected supplements. She discusses mitochondrial support, CoQ10, collagen peptides, carotenoid antioxidants, nutrients for bone, joint and eye health, and support for autophagy. She emphasizes that supplements complement beneficial lifestyle habits such as healthy nutrition,  movement, sleep, stress management and where needed, medical care. Her own post-retirement health challenges—including emergency spinal surgery, myopic macular degeneration, and atrial fibrillation have made prevention, resilience and measurement deeply personal concepts. Blood pressure, laboratory testing, bone density, fitness and carotenoid scanning can provide useful feedback, but no single measurement tells the whole story. Her central thesis is simple: do not simply copy someone else's routine. Begin with the fundamentals of your lifestyle, work with healthcare professionals you trust, measure what matters, notice how your body responds, and remain willing to adapt as evidence and circumstances change. Noting that as a retired physician she does not treat or prescribe for medical diseases, she offers one on one conversations on constructing your own Roadmap for Growing Older Living Younger and extending healthspan not just lifespan. A plan for healthy longevity is not a fixed blueprint; it is a lifelong practice developed through curiosity, consistency and purposeful choice and she would love to work with you on your plan.  Episode Timeline 00:11 — Introduction: why Dr. Gillian is sharing her routine—but not prescribing it  03:10 — Pillar 1: Your genes are not your destiny and the promise of epigenetics  06:14 — Pillars 2 and 3: Food is information and movement is medicine  10:00 — Pillars 4 and 5: Caring for skin and nourishing the brain  15:00 — Inside Dr. Gillian's daily healthspan, nutrition and supplement routine  17:59 — Pillars 6 and 7: Lifelong learning, curiosity, connection and community  21:30 — How health challenges reshaped her approach to prevention and resilience  25:00 — Measure what matters: testing, carotenoid scanning and guiding principles  28:40 — Closing invitation: create your own healthy-longevity roadmap with Dr. Lockitch About Dr. Gillian Lockitch  Dr. Gillian Lockitch is a physician, medical biochemist, professor emerita, researcher, international speaker, author and host of the Growing Older Living Younger podcast. After retiring from academic medicine, she began a new chapter in entrepreneurship and healthy-longevity education. Through her book, podcast and Growing Older Living Younger programs, she helps people understand how lifestyle, epigenetics, measurement and purposeful action can support vitality and independence across the lifespan. Dr. Gillian Lockitch is an independent Nu Skin Brand Affiliate. You can join her team as an affiliate ( and build your own business), or a member to buy product or devices at member prices. She may earn a commission from qualifying product purchases. Products and devices mentioned in this podcast reflect her personal routine and are shared for educational purposes only. They are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent disease, and individual results may vary. She emphasizes  that supplements and skincare devices should complement—not replace appropriate nutrition, movement, sleep or healthcare professionals advice.  Call to Action  Your best healthy-longevity plan is the one designed with you for your lifestyle. Visit askdrgill.com or email askdrgill@gmail.com to begin a conversation about your personal Growing Older Living Younger Roadmap. Subscribe to the podcast, leave a review, and share this episode and the show link with someone ready to invest in extending their healthspan.  Website: www.askdrgill.com  Podcast: Growing Older Living Younger on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other platforms Join the evolving Growing Older Living Younger Community

Caring for a child takes time, money and flexibility – all things that can be hard to come by when you're also trying to work a full time job. Connecticut has taken steps to ease that pressure, including a paid family and medical leave program and a new investment in early childhood education. But families still face high costs, limited availability and childcare schedules that don't always line up with the demands of work. This hour, we ask: What would it take to build a caregiving system that actually works for Connecticut families? Guests: Amanda Aronson: Founder and principal consultant of StoryB Erin Choquette: Chief executive officer of the CT Paid Leave Authority Representative Kate Farrar: Deputy Majority Leader serving West Hartford Adrienne Billings-Smith: leader of employee development & community engagement and the Title VI coordinator for the town of West Hartford Support the show: http://wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What does hand-eye coordination have to do with following Jesus?In this powerful message, Pastor Brady Black explores what it means to function as the Body of Christ and why every person has a unique and indispensable role in God's Kingdom. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 12, we are reminded that the church is made up of many different parts, but we are all one body, working together toward the same goal: Jesus.Through a football illustration, Pastor Brady shows how something as simple as catching a ball requires the entire body to work together. In the same way, the church needs every person to be activated, aligned, and willing to play their part.This message challenges us to confront two major hurdles: “How can God use me?” and “How can God use them?”Your value isn't determined by your visibility, position, experience, age, or recognition. What may seem insignificant or unseen can be indispensable in the Kingdom of God. God has intentionally placed gifts, purpose, and value within each of us, and He wants to use us both inside and outside the church.Pastor Brady also challenges us to rethink how we view the next generation. Instead of pushing young people to the sidelines until they are older or more experienced, we can make room for them to lead, serve, grow, and be used by God right now. At the same time, the next generation needs adults who will mentor them, encourage them, and help them cross the finish line God has placed before them.Finally, we are reminded of what it means to be a healthy Body of Christ. When one person suffers, we all suffer. When one person is honored, we all rejoice. We are called to notice people, care for one another, carry one another's burdens, and activate our faith by stepping into the needs around us.Key Scriptures:1 Corinthians 12:12-251 Timothy 4:12In this message:• The Body of Christ and unity• Finding your value in God's Kingdom• Why visibility doesn't determine value• Discovering how God can use you• Serving and activating your gifts• The importance of every person in the church• Empowering the next generation• Mentoring and investing in young people• Caring for people who are hurting• Living as a healthy Body of Christ• Alignment, collaboration, and shared purpose• Following Jesus beyond the walls of the churchWhether you feel overlooked, unqualified, unseen, or unsure of how God could use you, this message is a reminder that you are valuable, you have a part to play, and the Body of Christ needs you.If you've just made a decision for Christ, please respond HERE: https://www.one.church/jesusTo Support this Ministry: https://www.one.church/giveWebsite: https://www.one.church/One Church Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/onedotchurchOne Church Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/onedotchurchGreg Ford Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregoryafordOne Church is on a mission to ignite a movement that reaches adisconnected culture.#onechurch #gregford #purpose

Today, don't wait for a tragedy to start showing love to one another. Step out and do it today! -------- Thank you for listening! Your support of Joni and Friends helps make this show possible. Joni and Friends envisions a world where every person with a disability finds hope, dignity, and their place in the body of Christ. Become part of the global movement today at www.joniandfriends.org Find more encouragement on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube.

The Human Equation with Joe Pangaro – Caring for an elderly parent brings emotional, physical, and financial demands that reshape family life. Planning ahead, maintaining connection, and offering consistent compassion help preserve dignity, reduce isolation, and remind aging parents that they remain valued, loved, and deeply connected to family and community life...

Hey, Survivor! Are you in a season of caregiving?  A card-carrying member of the sandwich generation?  You're not alone! In this episode, I'm sharing some lessons I'm learning while co-caring for my mom, who is living with dementia.  I get into the emotional realities of caregiving, ambiguous loss and anticipatory grief, narcissistic and toxic family dynamics, and self-care. If you, or someone you know, are struggling to care for the caregiver, this episode is for you. Know who you're dealing with.  Know who you are.

How does a congregation's care for her church workers impact the congregation and the recruitment of future church workers? David Kuschel (Assistant Vice President of Ministry Engagement, Concordia Plan Services) and Kelly Menke (Ministry Wellness Advisor, Concordia Plan Services) join Andy and Sarah for our Set Apart to Serve series to talk about how they get to care for church workers in their roles with Concordia Plan Services, what care looks like from various facets of wellness, how congregations can care for their workers, how appropriate compensation contributes to church worker health and joy, how caring for church workers impacts the overall health and joy of a congregation, the relationship between church worker wellness and worker recruitment, and some tips for caring for church workers. Find Concordia Plan Services at concordiaplans.org. Resources mentioned in this episode: Compensation Decision Support Tool - concordiaplans.org/employers/resources/compensation-decision-support-tool Wellness Champion Center - concordiaplans.org/employers/keep-my-ministry-well/wellness-champion-center Christ's church will continue until He returns, and that church will continue to need church workers. Set Apart to Serve (SAS) is an initiative of the LCMS to recruit church workers. Together, we pray for workers for the Kingdom of God and encourage children to consider church work vocations. Here are three easy ways you can participate in SAS: 1. Pray with your children for God to provide church workers. 2. Talk to your children about becoming church workers. 3. Thank God for the people who work in your congregation. To learn more about Set Apart to Serve, visit lcms.org/set-apart-to-serve. Have a topic you'd like to hear about on The Coffee Hour? Contact us at: listener@kfuo.org.

Episode Summary In this episode, Danielle, Rebecca, and Jenny explore how political instability reaches far beyond elections—entering the body, the grocery store, the workplace, and the relationships people have with their neighbors. Jenny describes the physical relief she experienced crossing from the United States into Canada, revealing how much fear and vigilance her body had been carrying. Danielle brings the conversation into everyday economic life through rising food prices, unreliable food systems, and the growing need for neighborhood mutual-aid networks. The hosts examine fear as an intentional political strategy—one that convinces people to distrust their neighbors, align themselves with concentrated power, and blame marginalized communities for hardships created by corporations, billionaires, and inequitable systems. They connect today's racialized scapegoating to a longer American history of separating poor and working-class white people from Black and brown communities who might otherwise build collective power. Against this manufactured isolation, the hosts offer mutual aid as both resistance and repair. Directly feeding families, knowing one's neighbors, verifying frightening information, and forming relationships across difference can interrupt stereotypes and restore a sense of shared humanity. At the same time, they wrestle honestly with whether local action can become large enough to produce meaningful structural change. Ultimately, the episode argues that fear keeps people divided, while mutual aid helps them remember their interdependence—and potentially recover their collective power. 1. The body crossing a border “When we drove across the border, I—not totally unexpectedly, but uncontrollably—just started crying. I knew my body was holding a lot being in the States, and just stepping away and crossing into another land, immediately my body was like, ‘Okay, you can rest a little bit for the next two weeks.' It's been mostly restful. It's also been complicated, because it feels like such a gift to my body, while also recognizing what my body—as an American in a car with American plates—represents to people here.” —Jenny, 01:27 2. Food insecurity inside an affluent community “We have a lot of mutual-aid projects going in our little neck of the county. Neighborhoods of people are collecting set lists of things because food banks are overwhelmed. They collect it, we put it in a bag, and then some random things get tossed in—paper towels, toilet paper, toothpaste, whatever is needed. We've been trying to provide canned meat as well. Last month, we had twenty-five or twenty-seven bags go out, and over two hundred people were fed. This month, we're hoping to do double. We're in a pretty affluent area, and there's still a high need for food help.” —Danielle, 06:34 3. The promise of proximity to power “So much of it is determined by the people making the most money. Billionaires are doing just fine right now. I think it's the same kind of myth that created whiteness—the idea that if I align myself with the people who hold the most power, I'm going to be okay. Maybe that works for a little while. It's so much more appealing to believe that the next president is going to make eggs cheaper and make all my problems go away than to say, ‘We actually have to face this entire system and figure out how to shift it so that it becomes equitable and sustainable.' That is much slower and harder work.” —Jenny, 11:46 4. Caring about the person beside us “Even if I don't individually take on changing the world or fixing the entire system, there is a simpler, localized perspective: I actually give a damn about the person standing next to me. I care that something, even if it isn't affecting me directly, is affecting them. If we could care about that alone, we wouldn't fall for the lie that because something doesn't negatively affect me, I can afford to ignore it. It might be much more personal than taking on the whole system. It begins with deciding that I care about the humanity and safety of the person standing next to me.” —Rebecca, 13:02 5. A culture that locks itself in “What the documentary boiled down to was the culture of fear that is so rampant in the States. If you travel to many places outside the United States, not everybody walks around with this same paranoia, fear, or distrust. Someone said, ‘We view you locking your door not as locking someone out, but as locking yourselves in.' I've been sitting with that. How do we get people to stop fearing their neighbor before we can get them to care for their neighbor? If you are constantly fed messages telling you that your neighbor is out to get you, it becomes really difficult to reach that place of care.” —Jenny, 14:21 6. Bringing change down to the neighborhood “I think the answer is to pull it down from the rafters—to take it out of this abstract space and bring it into your own neighborhood and your own sphere of influence. Then you realize that your next-door neighbor, who doesn't look like you, is actually a fairly all-right person. You've known them for however long. You know their kids. If you allow yourself to do that, the individual humanity of another person can challenge every stereotype, every preconceived notion, and every othering ideology you hold about an entire group. If you let that sit with you, you might find yourself responding differently.” —Rebecca, 17:07 7. Mutual aid as a form of wholeness “I'm big on mutual direct aid. I really believe in it. I feel so whole and pure doing it—it feels genuinely good. I know it's not always possible, and I'm not saying there isn't a place for nonprofits or other forms of support. But mutual aid was one of the main things that happened in Minnesota: it began knitting together people who didn't agree with one another about everything. Even within social-justice movements, we have a thousand different opinions. But what can you coalesce around? What feels good? What feels right?” —Danielle, 18:11 8. Questioning where our fear comes from “The powers that be leverage fear. They weaponize fear on purpose to accomplish whatever their goal is. We have to ask: Is my fear actually well placed in this moment? Do I have personal, real-life information that tells me my fear is legitimate, or am I basing it on something someone else told me? Is it inconsistent with my own experience? If I see something on social media, my knee-jerk reaction is to check it against two or three other sources and see whether it is grounded in any level of truth. Maybe we could all do that a little more often.” —Rebecca, 19:01 9. Fear is designed to prevent solidarity “The campaign of fear is targeted at making sure that coalescing doesn't happen. The fear is not simply saying, ‘Your vote doesn't matter' or ‘Your voice doesn't matter.' It is saying, ‘You are not like the person standing next to you, and it would be to your disadvantage to align yourself with them.' That is intentional. It is calculated. And it is a tactic as old as this country. What is happening under this administration isn't actually a new set of tactics. It is someone intentionally bringing those tactics back to the front of the room.” —Rebecca, 27:39 10. Dividing people who might otherwise hold power together “Convincing working-class or poor white people that their enemy is everybody else is not new. After Reconstruction, poor and sharecropping white people were taught that there was no value in aligning themselves with newly freed Black people. Together, they outnumbered the ruling class. If they had pooled their resources and voted for a particular way of life, this could have been a very different country. There was a targeted, intentional campaign to separate the groups and villainize newly freed people. Part of the campaign is about values, but eventually they criminalize anything that looks like assistance—anything that looks like help. I would be on the lookout for that next.” —Rebecca, 29:44 11. Scapegoating versus collective power “When so many people are barely making it, people want a scapegoat. Pointing to that scapegoat feels easier, even though their problems are being caused by corporations and billionaires who are pinning people against one another rather than allowing us to work collectively to change things. In France, workers will simply not go to work, and they remind the government, ‘We run this country. You want your trains to run? Don't mess with us.' There is a sense that labor threads the culture and society together—and that people must be adequately compensated for their labor if we want a society that isn't drowning in credit-card debt, bills, and expensive beef.” —Jenny, 34:42 Well, first I guess I would have to believe that there was or is an actual political dialogue taking place that I could potentially be a part of. And honestly, I'm not sure that I believe that.

Samadhi, the Blood Moon & the Art of Letting Go | The 8th Limb of YogaWhat if letting go isn't the end of something—but the final step toward becoming who you're meant to be?In the finale of the Eight Limbs of Yoga summer series, Kadie explores Samadhi, the eighth and final limb of yoga: a state of deep meditative absorption where the separation between the person practicing, the practice itself, and the object of meditation begins to dissolve.And the timing couldn't feel more aligned.With the Blood Moon eclipse, the transition into Virgo season, and fall approaching, this episode is an invitation to look honestly at what you're carrying—and what you may finally be ready to release.Kadie walks back through all eight limbs of yoga and explores how the practice moves us from how we live in the world, to how we care for ourselves, to the body and breath, and eventually inward toward concentration, meditation, and Samadhi.But this isn't just a conversation about ancient yoga philosophy.Kadie gets personal about grief, relationships, discipline, running, writing her book, and recognizing the patterns we sometimes have to take responsibility for before we can actually change them. She shares why writing has become one of the places where she experiences deep absorption and purpose—and why this season of her life is becoming less about searching outside of herself and more about becoming.This episode also explores the symbolism of the changing seasons, Traditional Chinese Medicine's connection between autumn, the lungs, grief, and letting go, and how small daily disciplines can help us move toward the life we say we want.Because maybe transformation isn't one giant moment.Maybe it's what happens when you keep showing up.What are you being asked to release so you can become who you already know you're capable of being?You don't have to have the entire next chapter figured out.Start with one practice. One choice. One moment of showing up for yourself.And keep going.00:00 — Welcome + the finale of the Eight Limbs of Yoga series01:21 — The eclipse, Pisces Full Moon + why this moment feels significant03:56 — How the Eight Limbs lead us inward05:43 — Pranayama, Pratyahara, Dharana + Dhyana07:08 — Understanding Samadhi, the eighth limb08:42 — Writing, purpose + experiencing absorption10:30 — Asking the hard questions about the life you want12:33 — The eclipse as a closing chapter14:09 — Letting go of patterns, beliefs + old cycles15:47 — Virgo season, repetition + discipline17:08 — Traditional Chinese Medicine, autumn, breath + grief19:40 — Moving with grief instead of remaining stuck inside it20:54 — Taking responsibility for our own relationship patterns22:25 — Caring for the four layers of ourselves23:45 — Book update: Phase Three + trusting the process26:16 — Creative flow as another glimpse of Samadhi27:18 — Choosing transformation over searching for a relationship28:25 — The habits supporting this next season31:11 — Why discipline can eventually create ease31:31 — Keep showing up—even when it isn't perfectDoing the hard, disciplined things is often how we create space for the easier things.The work isn't about becoming perfect.It's about becoming more conscious of how you live, what you carry, what you choose—and what you're finally ready to let go of.If this episode resonates with you, share it with someone moving through their own season of transformation, and make sure you're following the show so you don't miss what's coming next.Ryze Code for 15% off use code KADIECHRON15: https://www.ryzesuperfoods.com/?transaction_id=1022b75c21a6174cdf70c1d124980e5am club book link: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1443460710?&linkCode=sl2&tag=kchron777-20&linkId=3d4c6e92ed33a5bd17157ee0cdf9fad6&language=en_US&gaOptInStatus=true&ref_=as_li_ss_tlGlutathione Bundle: https://enroll.joinamble.com/start-online-visit/anti-aging?referral-campaign=kadiechron&referral-source=affiliate

Patrick Regan OBE is author of Sunday Times bestseller "Small Steps for Big Change", Director of Brighter Days, and a wellbeing advocate. Patrick shares meaningful experiences in his life that helped him understand how to manage overwhelm. He describes the importance of setting boundaries and living our values during today's ongoing changes. Patrick explains how self-awareness helps people take small steps, make intentional choices and lead differently. He advocates for compassionate leaders who emphasise human connection and psychological safety, while addressing systemic causes of burnout. Patrick highlights his practices of creating space and thinking differently.     KEY TAKEAWAYS   [01:10] Patrick's life is impacted when facing a school incident as a youth worker during his gap year.   [01:56] Patrick helps at the school and discovers how trauma and violence shape young people's lives.   [02:55] Trying to solve unfixable problems leads to Patrick absorbing others' pain.   [04:22] Comparing suffering can prevent people from recognising and addressing their own needs.   [05:12] Multiple family health crises compound Patrick's stress.    [06:04] Patrick has to face his own health crisis.   [07:21] Health is Patrick's Achilles heel; his knee pain fuels unresolved anxiety.   [08:02] Everyone bears the burden as Patrick wants to feel useful, but his capacity is limited.   [08:46] Embracing limitations is a sign of maturity that ultimately supports flourishing.   [09:58] Boundaries allow people to care for themselves and others at the same time.   [10:46] Caregivers can suffer "secondhand smoke" supporting someone through serious difficulties.   [11:31] Effective boundaries are personal, evolving, and shaped by individual needs and situations.   [13:23] Men's mental health requires more attention, conversation, and accepting vulnerability.   [14:51] Being courageous requires vulnerability to enable connection and recognise you're not alone.   [15:40] Suppressed emotions eventually surface, making human connection vital to deal with issues.   [18:10] Belonging matters more than fitting in, particularly when people need meaningful support.   [18:55] Regular check-ins with trusted friends create a valuable personal support network.   [18:47] Asking for "eight minutes" can signal an urgent need to feel heard and shift perspective.   [20:11] Honest conversations are important especially where role models are missing.   [21:08] Small changes reduce stress responses, enabling sustainable habits for long-term transformation.   [23:38] Compassionate leaders create psychological safety so people feel able to speak up and contribute.   [24:16] Patrick explains compassion as a fierce and courageous word.   [24:28] Wellbeing tools cannot change organizational cultures that burn people out.   [25:16] Questions for workplaces to address to improve culture, behaviours, and reduce burnout.    [27:29] Organizational values are meaningful when they actively guide decisions and daily actions.   [28:10] Patrick and his wife practice their belief that success is living up to your personal values.   [31:30] Different experiences shape values, confront biases, and deepen understanding of humanity.   [32:56] Listening to understand, not respond, helps people connect across different perspectives.   [35:12] Caring for others needs to coexist with self-compassion and managing the inner critic.   [37:00] Patrick comes up with "Start small, create space, think differently" when totally exhausted.   [38:23] Gratitude shifts attention toward good experiences without denying that difficulties exist.   [38:46] Creating mental space allows questioning of inner critique and listening to more constructive voices.   [39:17] Self-awareness is a fundamental characteristic of effective leadership.   [39:27] Power can be used with and for people rather than being exercised over them.   [41:53] Social media echo chambers weaken abilities to debate, disagree and understand other's views.   [43:39] Patrick seeks critical soft skills, valuing character and chemistry more than competence.   [44:00] Younger generations seek 'JOMO' (Joy of Missing Out) not sacrificing wellbeing and family.   [44:40] Connecting young people with their passions to unlock energy, creativity, and contribution.   [45:41] Creative problem-solving requires intentional space away from constant overwhelm and competing demands.       RESOURCES     Patrick Regan OBE on LinkedIn   Patrick's book "Small Steps for Big Change"   Patrick's book "Brighter Days"   Brighter Days website       QUOTES     "I think success is actually living true to your values."     "How do we use our power 'with' and our power 'for', rather than our power 'over', which is the traditional use of power."   "My favourite definition on boundaries is 'boundaries are how I love you and love me simultaneously."    "So you want to create that psychological safety within your organisation because that actually leads to more creativity and innovation and people feeling seen, valued and heard."   "Compassion? That's quite a weak word? Well, actually, it's a fierce word, it's a courageous word."    "Embracing your limitations is a sign of maturity. And actually helps you flourish ultimately."   "Let's think differently. Let's think creatively. For that, you need space."

Beth Pinsker and L. Annette Binder explore caring for aging parents, from the financial realities of elder care to Alzheimer's, memory, love and loss.

How do you stop caring what people think when everyone is watching? Preventive wellness strategist and founder Michal Renée joins viral creator Robiiiworld for a conversation about online hate, fear of judgment and why being seen isn't the same as being known.You know the skits. You don't know everything happening off-camera. Robiiiworld revisits his baptism backlash and opens up about love, caring for his father and becoming the black sheep his family now depends on. Michal shares why fear of judgment kept her off the internet for two years, even after her life had changed.Together, they unpack the visibility wound: wanting to show up as yourself, but bracing for people to hold your past against you. We're talking faith, mental health, ambition and finding your purpose without waiting for everybody to understand it. God is still working on you. The comments are not your performance review.

Show SummaryOn today's episode, we're having a conversation with Navy Veteran Dr. Erik Won, President and Chief Medical Officer of Wave Neuroscience, an organization utilizing advanced neuroimaging and magnetic resonance therapy to help veterans recover from post-traumatic stress. DisclaimerThis podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and does not establish a doctor-patient relationship. The views and opinions expressed by the guest are entirely his own and do not reflect the views, policies, or official positions of his employer or company. Content is not intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.  Wave supplies MeRT to licensed clinics who provide treatment to patients. Talk to your physician to see if MeRT is right for you. Episode Partner:Our sponsor this week is Aetna, a trusted health care company, committed to serving Veterans, military families, and caregivers through meaningful, community-centered care. Provide FeedbackAs a dedicated member of the audience, we would like to hear from you. If you PsychArmor has helped you learn, grow, and support those who've served and those who care for them, we would appreciate hearing your story. Please follow this link to share how PsychArmor has helped you in your service journey Share PsychArmor StoriesAbout Today's GuestDr. Erik Won is President and Chief Medical Officer of Wave Neuroscience, Inc; a biotechnology company that has innovated breakthrough technologies called Magnetic e-Resonance Therapy (MeRT) and Synchronized Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (sTMS). MeRT recently received FDA Breakthrough Technology designation and FDA clearance for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders. These approaches utilize computational neuroanalytics and brain imaging to customize treatment protocols with the aim of restoring optimal neurological function.These modalities represent a form of precision-guided medicine that has been researched or is currently being used by premier institutions such as US Special Operations Command, Stanford University School of Medicine, Duke University - Human Performance Opti-Lab, University of Southern California (USC) Center for Neurorestoration, the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) - David Geffen School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Brown University, Air Force Research Laboratory, and the Texas A&M Institute for Bioscience and Technology.Erik joined Wave Neuroscience after serving as the Chief Physician and Chief Technology Officer (Health Services) for the Boeing Company. He also served as a US Navy Flight Surgeon for Marine Medium Helicopter Squadron 268, and received the distinction of serving as the ACE Flight Surgeon for the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. Dr. Won has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, textbooks, and presented in numerous academic conferences. He completed his residency at the Harvard OEM combined residency program and was appointed Chief Resident. He received a Masters in Public Health (MPH) from the Harvard School of Public Health and Masters in Business Administrations (MBA) from the University of Southern California, Marshall School of BusinessLinks Mentioned During the EpisodeWave Neuroscience WebsiteBrain Treatment Center WebsitePsychArmor Resource of the WeekThis week's PsychArmor Resource of the Week is the PsychArmor course Brain Health & Wellness Learning Series – PTSD. Nearly everyone goes through a traumatic event at least once during their lifetime. Military service members and Veterans are especially vulnerable to the lasting effects of post-traumatic stress due to the nature of their duties and experiences. While this can be a difficult diagnosis to navigate, it is treatable, and social support is one of the leading factors for lasting recovery. Having someone to trust and confide in while feeling heard and validated is a vital part of the healing process. This series on post-traumatic stress disorder explores the presentation and diagnosis of PTSD, its impact on both the Veterans you support and the lives of those around them, and effective treatment modalities, so you'll be better equipped to provide meaningful support. You can find the resource here: https://learn.psycharmor.org/courses/WWP-BHW-PTSD Contact Us and Join Us on Social Media Email PsychArmorPsychArmor on XPsychArmor on FacebookPsychArmor on YouTubePsychArmor on LinkedInPsychArmor on InstagramTheme MusicOur theme music Don't Kill the Messenger was written and performed by Navy Veteran Jerry Maniscalco, in cooperation with Operation Encore, a non profit committed to supporting singer/songwriter and musicians across the military and Veteran communities.Producer and Host Duane France is a retired Army Noncommissioned Officer, combat veteran, and clinical mental health counselor for service members, veterans, and their families.  You can find more about the work that he is doing at www.veteranmentalhealth.com  

The CopDoc Podcast - Season 10 - Episode 175 GUEST: Chris Hsiung, Undersheriff, San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, and Executive Director, The CurveEPISODE SUMMARY:Rank does not make a leader. That is the premise Chris Hsiung and I worked through in this conversation, and it shapes everything else we talked about.Chris has spent more than 30 years in policing, most of it with the Mountain View Police Department, where he rose from patrol officer to chief. He now serves as Undersheriff with the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office and leads The Curve, a nonprofit he co-founded with Simon Sinek to help police leaders build cultures grounded in trust and purpose. We talked about what it actually takes to change a department's culture, and why that work starts with what leaders do, not what they say.Chris put it simply: culture equals values plus behavior. A lot of agencies have values painted on the wall and printed on the cruiser. Few agencies have leaders whose daily behavior matches those words. We got into what happens when that gap goes unaddressed, why leaders need people who will tell them the truth instead of what they want to hear, and how Chris learned to lead by taking off the stars and getting into the jail, onto the ride-along, into the training room, alongside the people he was asking to trust him.This one is for chiefs, sheriffs, sergeants, and anyone tired of waiting for a promotion before they start leading.KEY TOPICS DISCUSSED:Why rank grants authority but not leadership, and the difference between the twoCulture by design versus culture by default, and what happens when leaders leave culture to chanceHow to build change from the middle of an organization by working with early adopters instead of trying to convince everyone at onceWhy "everything is green" reporting should worry a leader more than it comforts oneWhat it means to get out of the office: riding along, training with your people, learning the job from the ground upHow Chris's own mistakes and uncertainty as a young leader shaped the leader he becameWhy a healthy culture is one of the strongest recruitment and retention tools an agency hasINSIGHTS FROM THE CONVERSATION:Chris made a case that leadership starts long before anyone pins on a badge or a stripe. Waiting for the title is the wrong strategy. He also pushed back on the idea that a leader can understand an organization from behind a desk. His answer to reading an agency's real condition was blunt: go find out for yourself, in person, without the rank showing.On trust, Chris was direct about the danger of an organization where nobody tells the boss bad news. If every report comes back green, that is not evidence things are fine. It is often evidence people are afraid to say otherwise, and a leader steering by false readings will not see the iceberg coming.He closed with a simple answer to a hard question: what should policing never stop doing? Caring. Everything else in this conversation, the culture work, the trust building, the willingness to admit mistakes, comes back to that one word.KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR LISTENERS:Audit the gap between your agency's stated values and your own daily behavior. That gap is your culture, whether you intended it or not.Do not try to convince the whole organization at once. Find your early adopters and let their results do the persuading.If everyone tells you things are fine, ask why. Build channels where people can safely tell you when they are not.Spend time outside your office, in uniform-optional settings, doing the work your people do. You cannot lead what you do not understand.Treat your own mistakes and uncertainty as material, not liabilities. Vulnerability, handled honestly, builds more trust than the appearance of having it all figured out.ABOUT CHRIS HSIUNG:Chris Hsiung currently serves as Undersheriff with the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office, a role he stepped back into in November 2025 to support Sheriff Ken Binder during a period of organizational rebuilding. He is a retired police chief with more than 30 years of public safety experience in the San Francisco Bay Area, most of it with the Mountain View Police Department, where he worked as a detective and SWAT team member before being appointed chief in 2020.Chris is a founding board member and Executive Director of The Curve, a national nonprofit he co-founded with Simon Sinek and a network of police chiefs and sheriffs to modernize leadership development in policing. He co-chairs the IACP Human and Civil Rights Committee and holds board advisory roles with the University of Virginia Center for Public Safety and Justice, the Future Policing Institute, and the Crisis Ready Institute. He is a nationally recognized speaker and writer on organizational culture and adaptive leadership.RESOURCES MENTIONED:The Curve (thecurve.org)Hey there! Send us a message. Who else should we be talking to? What topics are important? Use FanMail to connect! Let us know!Contact us: copdoc.podcast@gmail.com Website: www.copdocpodcast.comIf you'd like to arrange for facilitated training, or consulting, or talk about steps you might take to improve your leadership and help in your quest for promotion, contact Steve at stephen.morreale@gmail.com

"Listening is not just being silent." Connect With Our SponsorsSolventum - https://go.solventum.com/clarityGreyFinch - https://greyfinch.com/jillallen/A-Dec - https://www.a-dec.com/orthodonticsSmileSuite - https://getsmilesuite.com/ Summary On this episode of Hey Docs! Podcast, Jill sits down with Daniel “Danny” Bobrow, CEO of AIM Dental Marketing, about why persuasive communication is often misunderstood in dentistry and orthodontics and how teams can improve case acceptance and trust without feeling salesy. Danny shares how his work evolved from dental marketing into training practices on communication, including his Art of First Impressions and the Persuasion Blueprint, built around three sequential steps: caring, connection, and collaboration. He explains concepts like the “care gap,” the illusion of transparency, and why patients decide emotionally then justify logically, offering examples for handling cost questions, improving first-call conversions, and using scripts that convey empathy while guiding calls. They discuss the need for leadership commitment, consistent practice through role play, better listening, and collaboration techniques that build patient ownership and compliance. Connect With Our Guest Danny Bobrow - https://www.dannybobrow.com/AIM Dental Marketing - https://americandentalmarketing.com/ Takeaways Danny's journey into healthcare marketing began due to family influence.Many doctors lack training in practice management and marketing.Persuasion in healthcare should align with patient care.Emotional communication is key to patient engagement.Building trust is essential for successful patient relationships.Doctors often resist learning about persuasive skills.Commitment from practice owners is crucial for team success.Role-playing can help develop communication skills.Caring must be communicated effectively to bridge the care gap. Commitment and consistency are crucial for team training.Listening involves more than just being silent; it's about engagement.Attuning to your audience enhances persuasive communication.Collaboration empowers patients and fosters ownership in their care.Expert override can hinder effective communication with patients.Good communication transforms transactional interactions into meaningful relationships.Taking time with patients pays dividends in practice success.Chapters 00:00 Introduction06:16 Why Doctors Resist Persuasion08:12 Persuasion Without Being Sales-y11:08 Caring Connection Collaboration17:53 Phone Call First Impressions21:49 Role Play and Team Buy In25:56 Why Change Feels Hard29:58 Attune To Your Audience31:30 Coaching Modules And Practice33:34 TAFI Call Control Script36:06 Collaboration And Ownership41:13 Expert Override Pitfalls42:44 Slow Down And Be Present44:01 Where To Learn More Episode Credits:  Hosted by Jill AllenProduced by Jordann KillionAudio Engineering by Garrett LuceroAre you ready to start a practice of your own? Do you need a fresh set of eyes or some advice in your existing practice?Reach out to me- www.practiceresults.com.    If you like what we are doing here on Hey Docs! and want to hear more of this awesome content, give us a 5-star Rating on your preferred listening platform and subscribe to our show so you never miss an episode.    New episodes drop every Thursday!   

In this episode of Love Your Love Muscle, Christina from Way to Yourself returns for a conversation about one of today's biggest challenges: caring without becoming overwhelmed. Together, we explore how constant news, social media, and global events affect our nervous system and attention. The discussion begins with a short self-regulation practice before moving into practical ways to stay compassionate, present, and resilient without disconnecting from the world. A thoughtful conversation about attention, emotional balance, and finding a healthier way to care. For those interested in joining Christina's Sunday sessions on Zoom here is the link: https://us05web.zoom.us/j/89010334631?pwd=0ToDKdxgXFLSpFZrwltnYOmOGsF6Ms.1 The sessions are at 8pm CET. Join our community on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TMGmeditations?fan_landing=true Follow Seb on Vero True Social: https://vero.co/seb_tmg Follow Seb on Mastodon: https://mastodon.cosmicnation.co/@seb_tmg Join the conversation on Telegram: https://t.me/TMGCommunity

What happens when healthcare stops treating people like people? Mike Gormley and Dave VanVickle are joined by nurse and nurse educator Stacy Gilson to discuss nursing as a vocation, the challenges facing healthcare workers today, and the importance of seeing the person behind the patient. They explore moral distress, the dehumanization of healthcare, COVID-19, pharmaceuticals, and how Catholics can bring compassion, truth, and the works of mercy into the medical field. We want to hear from you! Email us at eksb@ascensionpress.com with your questions/comments Don't forget to text “EKSB” to 33-777 to get the shownotes right to your inbox! You can also find the full shownotes at www.ascensionpress.com/EveryKneeShallBow

Getting older comes with a lot of gifts, and one of the best ones is realizing just how many things you used to stress about that genuinely don't matter anymore. This episode is a direct follow-up to last week's on confidence and being alone, and it's a little different than usual...no script, no notes, just me riffing on the 15 things I've intentionally stopped caring about that have made my life SO much happier.Topics covered:

What if your homeschool needs to change because life has changed? Flexible homeschooling gives you permission to adjust your lessons, priorities, and expectations without feeling like you are failing your children.In this episode, you'll discover how to keep learning meaningful when life gets hard, even if your normal homeschool schedule is impossible right now. You'll learn how everyday life, books, nature, conversations, and relationships can still provide rich educational experiences.✅3 priorities to preserve when life feels overwhelming✅Why a minimum viable homeschool may be exactly what you need✅How everyday life can become meaningful education✅Why your relationship with your children is not an interruption✅How 2–3 minutes of quiet prayer can help you find directionWant help simplifying your homeschool during a difficult season? Grab the resources below by clicking the links.Resources for YouDon't Worry PrayersHomeschool Encouragement CircleRead Aloud Magic PackJim Hodges Audio BooksShow Notes:What If Homeschool Doesn't Look Like Homeschool for a While?Sometimes we sit down with our carefully planned homeschool planner and schedule — and then life happens. Someone gets sick. A parent needs care. You move. A child isn't sleeping. You have appointments every week, sometimes every single day. And you can't make homeschool look like what you're picturing in your mind.What if the most faithful thing you can do in this season isn't to figure out how to get your old homeschool back — but to figure out what homeschool needs to look like for now?You Are Not a FailureWhen life falls apart and you're trying to homeschool, the guilt pressure is real. I'm not doing enough. I'm not doing it right. My kids are not going to be prepared for adult life. I'm a failure.That is not true. Let me just say it again. You are not a failure. You are doing exactly what God has called you to do. You just need to press into the season of life you're actually in right now. Give yourself permission to acknowledge this — this is a hard season. You don't have to pretend everything is normal when it isn't.Hard seasons may require fewer subjects, shorter lessons, more read-alouds, more audiobooks, more independent work, and more learning through everyday life. That is not quitting. That is adjusting.What Are Two or Three Things You Want to Preserve?If life is falling apart, I want to encourage you — what are two or three things you want to preserve in your homeschool right now? Not five subjects, not ten activities. Two or three things. Let those become your priorities. Everything else is secondary.For me, personally, thinking back to when we were homeschooling, I know what I would choose. The first would be Bible. The second would be reading — reading aloud to my children, and my kids reading on their own if they knew how. Because I believe with reading you can cover almost anything. If those were the only two things I got done every day for an entire month because I was in a hard season of life, I would say — okay. It'd be hard, because I'm a Type A person. But that's where I would be.Think minimum viable homeschool instead of perfect homeschool. Keep the basics moving without trying to maintain your ideal schedule. Reading plus one meaningful thing might be all you get done during a difficult day. And that's enough.Maria Montessori Started Without the Perfect AnythingMaria Montessori's first children's house opened in 1907 in a very poor neighborhood in Rome. She was serving about 50 kids ages 2 through 6 who had been left without adequate care from their parents. She didn't begin with the perfect classroom or perfect curriculum. She observed the kids and created an environment around what they actually needed — real-life activities, independence, exploration, and allowing kids to work at their own pace.Sometimes our job isn't to force our original plan to work. It's to observe our kids and our circumstances and ask — what do they need right now?Don't Underestimate Real Life as LearningA sick child can learn about the body by taking care of their body. Moving to a new place can involve geography, budgeting, planning, writing, and research about where you're going. Caring for grandparents teaches compassion and responsibility. Cooking gives you math, reading, science, and lots of practical skills.A difficult season can still be an educated season. Don't write it off.If you're in this season of life, make a life as school list. Write down three things your kids can learn from the season you're in right now. If it's moving — map the new area, calculate the distance, write about the experience, start a travel journal. Real life provides so many educational opportunities. Take advantage of it.Charlotte Mason was educated at home as an only child, and her later educational philosophy was built on a broad education through books, nature, history, literature, and experiences — not dry facts. If you're moving, you can read books in the car. You can visit new parks. You can look at the history of the area. You can find literature set in the places you're driving through. That's natural. That's real learning.Protect Your RelationshipsIt's not we have to get school done. That becomes a checklist. If everyone is exhausted, no one is going to learn anything and there is no lesson there. Use this time to read together. Eat lunch together. Go outside for a walk. Go to the backyard, eat lunch in the fort, or have an outside picnic.Even that can be educational — you can look at the nature around you, listen to what you hear, see what's happening, and go back inside and research some of those things. But more than anything, your relationship with your children is not an interruption to your homeschool. It is the most essential part of it.Pray — and Read the PsalmsHard situations require prayer. Two things — pray and read the Psalms. The Psalms are soothing to the soul when things are hard. Open up and just start reading, and it will be calming.Go to God and ask for peace and wisdom. I would encourage you to have silent prayer — put a timer on for two or three minutes, ask God what He wants you to do in your situation, and then be quiet and listen. Write down any thoughts you receive during that time. When it's over, evaluate them. If those thoughts don't contradict the Bible, I would say go for it.That is what I do pretty much every morning right here at this table as I plan my day. When I started it with a genuine desire — God, what do you want me to know today, what do you want me to do today — it changed my prayer life. And I think it will change yours, especially in a hard season.A hard situation does not mean you failed at homeschooling. Sometimes faithfulness looks like doing less and knowing what matters most. Your homeschool can change as seasons change in your life. That's not failure — that's wisdom.I have a few things to help you right now. The Don't Worry Prayers are scripture-based prayers moms can use when they're in the middle of a hard situation and feeling worried. I'll put a link in the show notes. Our new Homeschool Encouragement Circle is centered around what matters most — that's the theme, and I'll leave a link to that as well. And if you'd like help with read-alouds, the Read Aloud Magic pack gives lists of books and shows you how to use read-alouds in any season of life. All links are in the show notes.

Okay you guys, I'm 32, I'm a mom, and there are officially some things I simply do not care about anymore

For three years, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has worked with global humanitarian and nongovernmental organizations as part of its Caring for Women and Children Initiative Consortium.The first week of August of this year, leaders from seven of those organizations met in Salt Lake City to review learnings from the past year’s work and to evaluate what can be done next year to continue to bless families and communities around the world.Relief Society General President Camille N. Johnson sat down with some of those leaders at the Church’s newly opened Humanitarian Center on Thursday, Aug. 6, to talk about how the group has worked together and the outcomes they have seen in the lives of those they have served.On this episode of the Church News podcast, President Johnson and others speak with Church News editor Jon Ryan Jensen and share examples of the successes seen three years into this initiative.“[The Church’s] members are committed to lifting and caring for all of God’s children,” President Johnson said. “And we’re happy to have the opportunity to collaborate together to make miracles happen in the lives of women and children.”

Tokyo-born Lisa Katayama took her parenting techniques with her to Northern California and found that what Japanese culture had to offer was quite useful when it came to raising kids. We discussed the pain points of parenting, how she puts her ideas into practice, and how she pulled off writing a book in the midst of all of it. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Polly Stokes on Caring for Hazel, Finding Peace, and Trusting God In this episode, Becky Davidson talks with Polly Stokes about caring for her 17-month-old daughter, Hazel, who has profound medical complexity following bacterial meningitis at birth. Polly shares honestly about the realities of medical caregiving, the emotional and spiritual challenges of watching her child suffer, and learning to surrender control and trust God with Hazel's life. She also shares how her marriage, church, friends, and community have carried her through the hardest days. Through it all, Hazel's joyful spirit—lovingly nicknamed “Happy Hazel”—has reminded Polly of the beauty and joy that can still be found in difficult seasons. Polly offers encouragement to other exhausted moms: read Scripture, ask the hard questions, stop comparing your motherhood to others, and make space for rest. Want to learn more about how you can help sponsor an episode? Click here.https://forms.gle/Zi2SWGwP29arNDAm9

I have a confession. Of the six principles I teach in Self-Assured Motherhood, soul-care is the one where I'm still not where I want to be. I've taken good care of my mind and my spirit over the years, but when work gets busy, the first things to go are exercise, sleep, and eating well, and I'm starting to feel the cost of that in my body as I get older. I say soul-care rather than self-care on purpose. Self-care has gotten a bad rap over the last few years, and I understand why. It has come to sound like bubble baths and expensive skin care, which can be an overwhelming (and not always helpful) thing to hand a woman who is truly worn out and struggling. A soul is body, mind, and spirit together, and caring for all three is a much bigger and more useful thing to talk about. This is day four of the Back-to-School Check-In for Moms, a six-part series walking through each principle of the Self-Assured Motherhood framework, one short episode at a time. Caring for your soul can be bubble baths, but it can also be eating regular meals, and scheduling your mammogram. It can be learning something interesting, and it can be making sure to schedule a much needed nap. Soul-care is how we make sure we have the energy and bandwidth we need to take care of those we love and thrive in our lives. In this episode you'll hear:

Caring about people is a key, and in this episode, John St.Pierre and Rich Hoffmann just riff on what that actually looks like.They share the small, specific habits they actually use: DoorDash deliveries for someone having a rough day, handwritten cards (one a week adds up to 52 a year), TSP feedback, truthful, specific, positive, instead of a vague compliment, and time-delayed texts that follow up on what someone told you mattered to them.They also introduce the happiness equation, expectations minus reality equals your level of happiness, and close with the idea that grounds all of it: self-care is not selfish.

Enjoy this full chapter about working on Monkey Island, from Jeff's newest book. Monkey Farm: A Summer Among the Macaques  Audiobook: Libby Libro.fm Spotify Amazon  Audible  Apple Books  Google Play  Kobo  Barnes and Noble eBook (DRM-free): Bookshop.org  Kobo  Kindle Barnes and Noble  Canadian friends: I set the retail price at par - $10CAD and $10USD. Anything more is bullshit. Keep looking if a site (like Amazon) is charging exchange rate.  It's the least I can do to make up for our bad behavior down here.  International (list created with gemini):  Rakuten Kobo (Global / Ireland) E-Book (EPUB 3) Ireland / European Union €8.99 Retail / Pre-order Rakuten Kobo Ireland Listing   Rakuten Kobo (Belgium / French) Digital Audiobook Belgium / France Direct Purchase Rakuten Kobo Belgium Audio Listing   Rakuten Kobo (Netherlands) E-Book Netherlands Direct Purchase Rakuten Kobo Netherlands Listing   Rakuten Kobo (Denmark) E-Book Denmark Direct Purchase Rakuten Kobo Denmark Listing   Rakuten Kobo (Turkey) E-Book Turkey Direct Purchase Rakuten Kobo Turkey Listing   Rakuten Kobo (Belgium / Dutch) E-Book Belgium Direct Purchase Rakuten Kobo Belgium Dutch Listing   Booktopia E-Book Australia Direct Purchase (AUD) Booktopia Product Listing   Storytel (Indonesia Storefront) Digital Audiobook Global / Southeast Asia Monthly Subscription Streaming Storytel Indonesia Listing   Storytel (France Storefront) Digital Audiobook France / Europe Monthly Subscription Streaming Storytel France Listing   Storytel (Iceland Storefront) Digital Audiobook Iceland Monthly Subscription Streaming Storytel Iceland Listing   Bol.com Digital Audiobook Netherlands / Belgium Kobo Plus Subscription / Purchase Bol.com Product Listing   Rakuten Books Japan Digital E-Book Japan Direct Purchase (JPY) Rakuten Japan Product Listing   Nextory E-Book & Audiobook Switzerland / Europe Monthly Subscription Streaming Nextory Product Listing The full chapter follows, enjoy and let me know what you think... Chapter 11 - Monkey Island My summer among the macaques ended with a hangover, fresh stitches and a new tattoo. The story of how that happened began before dawn at a boat dock on Saint Helena Sound.  The skills I'd acquired at the Yemassee clinic, specifically treating lacerations and fight wounds, had qualified me to work on Morgan Island when needed. The Monkey Farm maintained a colony of rhesus macaques on the island under a contract with the government. The macaques had been relocated to South Carolina from a government breeding facility in Puerto Rico fifteen years prior, after monkeys carrying the Herpes-B virus escaped into the community.  After my boss recommended me to the Morgan Island team, the occupational health lab tested me for tuberculosis and hepatitis. The monkeys on the island were disease-free, and the humans who worked there were screened to make sure they didn't infect the animals. The lab also re-tested me for Herpes-B virus, carried by many of the macaques I worked with. Herpes-B was harmless to the monkeys, but could kill me. The re-test confirmed I hadn't been infected by an accidental needle stick the month before. After I stuck myself with that used needle, I rushed back to the clinic and scrubbed the wound with iodine and a stiff brush for ten minutes, then flushed the wound with water for another twenty minutes. Either the monkey hadn't carried B virus or the infection-control procedure worked. Good news! With blood tests out of the way, I was given the dates I would work on Morgan Island and instructions to take the morning boat from Eddings Point. My boss dictated directions. "Take the Carteret Street bridge from Beaufort on the mainland to Lady's Island. Continue on the Sea Island Parkway. Pass Datha, Distant, Warsaw and Polawana Islands. Keep going on to Saint Helena Island. Turn left on Eddings Point Road, go a couple miles across the causeway to Eddings Point Landing. Boat leaves at 6:30 am sharp. Be early because they'll leave you at the dock if you're one minute late." A winding pre-dawn drive across the archipelago of Saint Helena Sound got me to the dock just after 6:00 am. A car and two pickup trucks were already parked in an oyster shell lot between the narrow causeway and the salt marsh. The trucks lit the marsh with their headlights. The beams followed a walkway of planks laid between pilings out to open water where I could just make out a boat tied to a floating dock. Three people I'd never met were ferrying boxes of supplies and bags of Purina Monkey Chow from the trucks to the boat. I got out of my own truck with a duffel bag holding my coveralls and boots. Unsure what do do next, I went and stood next to the walkway, thinking maybe I could help. The three men ignored me as they sleepily went about their stevedoring.  The veterinarian I was to assist that day climbed out of a nearby station wagon and trudged slowly over, a bag similar to mine slung over her shoulder. We exchanged sleepy good mornings. She wore a dark knit watch cap. It was September, and the air was thankfully cool after a shatteringly hot Lowcountry August. That heat pushed me down with a heavy weight from dawn to dusk. It was hardest in coveralls, boots and a mask, but even on my days off I stayed indoors in the air conditioning. That August was the first time in my life I didn't want to go outside, even to swim since the body temperature water did nothing to cool me down. Thankfully, September broke the spell. That morning the breeze off the salt marsh was brisk and fresh. We stayed out of the way while the crew finished loading the boat. The one in charge, a big man I hadn't met, turned off the headlights in one, then the other truck. Big Man motioned to us to follow as he crossed the walkway to join the two people already on the boat. His heavy steps made the planks bounce gently between the pilings. I stepped down a short ramp from the fixed walkway to the floating dock. I followed the veterinarian who had already climbed aboard the boat.  Free from the glare of headlights, my eyes started to adjust to the pre-dawn light. The simple workboat was sturdily built of white fiberglass. It had a windshield on top of a tiny cabin in the bow. The steering wheel and throttle were mounted next to a ship's compass bolted to the top of the cabin. The letters and numbers of the compass glowed from a soft yellow light inside the compass housing. I could see that we were pointed roughly north. The inboard motor repeated a quiet rumble under an engine box piled with supplies. Big Man quickly untied the lines, bow and stern, and climbed into the boat to take the wheel.  He pushed the throttle forward and spun the wheel to the left. The boat rose smoothly on plane as we motored into Jenkins Creek. My eyes now fully adjusted, I could see the glow of sunrise build in the sky to our right, and there was enough ambient light to see our surroundings. We looked up at the top of tall marsh grass speeding by on either side of the Creek. Five months earlier in May, the grass was a green fringe barely above the tidal marshes at the confluence of the Ashepoo, Combahee, and Edisto rivers. The three rivers gave their water and their names to the ACE Basin, a pristine 350,000 acre nursery estuary in Saint Helena Sound.  Smack dab in the middle of the ACE Basin sat Morgan Island, the only completely undeveloped island in the estuary. Undeveloped, but not uninhabited.  The others on the boat didn't say much as we wound through the creeks and rivers on our way to Morgan Island. Between the early hour and the routine of what was regular duty for everyone else, I was left to watch and wonder. We shot out of Jenkins Creek into the wider Morgan River then turned east. Our bow was pointed toward the sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean beyond. The top edge of the sun broke above the watery horizon. A dorsal fin broke the surface of the water in front and to the right of the boat. A shark! No, sharks don't surf. It was a porpoise. The sleek marine mammal caught a ride on the wave of water pushed aside by our bow until we turned to head north up Parrot Creek next to Morgan Island.  Morgan Island is technically six square miles, but only one square mile is high and dry. The rest is marsh. We motored in a long clockwise loop around the island's northern perimeter. At a buoy with a flashing green light, we turned south into the mouth of an unnamed tidal creek that led to the interior. After ten minutes winding through the creek, Big Man pulled back on the throttle. The boat slowed and we putted slowly toward the forested upland of Morgan Island. I pushed to the front of the cockpit to spot the throngs of free-range macaques that must've been gathered on shore to greet us. But weren't. Instead, a sleepy woman took our lines and tied our boat to a simple wooden pier that jutted out of bushes and trees that lined the shore beyond. A second boat was tied up on the other side of the dock, nearly identical to ours but older and more weathered. It was covered in morning dew and had been there all night. The veterinarian motioned me to climb out so the crew could unload. The tide crested during the trip out, so it was a short step up from the boat to the dock. We carried our duffel bags down the dock, walking alongside the woman who'd come to meet us. She wore the dark blue coveralls of an animal care technician. She seemed to wake up and nodded a greeting to me.  "Welcome to Monkey Island son! I'm Dianne, you're in for a big day today!" I still didn't know what I was in for, only that my clinical skills had improved to the point where I could 'go out to Morgan for census.' The low morning sun lit the dock, but it was still dark under the trees on shore. I stepped off the pier onto the island proper. The ground was sand mixed with bits of dry organic matter fallen from a dense canopy above. When we stepped into the shadows of the trees we also stepped onto a dense mat of dead leaves, palmetto fronds, and pine needles. The branches of the pine and live oak trees above interlocked with each other to provide support against strong ocean winds. This mesh of branches was a distinguishing characteristic of the island's maritime forest. A perfect habitat for the rhesus macaques I had yet to see.  We walked up a trail to a decrepit cabin with a low, sagging metal roof. A tall radio antenna shot straight up from the peak of the roof. It's thin outline was visible against the large white plastic tank of an improvised water tower behind the cabin. The cabin itself was painted a drab light brown that blended with the forest. More so because the paint peeled up in places as if to mimic leaves. A screened porch spanned the front of the building. Through its dusty screen I could see an old plaid couch and a worn yellow vinyl recliner. The veterinarian stepped on to the porch through a crooked screen door. I followed her past the junky furniture through a weathered wood doorframe into the cabin. Its old door was propped open by a rusty metal bucket full of sand bristling with cigarette butts. Most of the cabin was one big room. A slightly less decrepit couch and recliner stood against the back wall next to a kitchen area that held a round wooden table and a few matching chairs.  A makeshift office area was to the right of the door. A dented gray metal desk under a cracked sliding glass window held a serious looking two-way shortwave radio set. A thick wire snaked out of the window to the antenna on the roof. The transmitter was surrounded by stacks of paperwork and binders. Above it was a map of the island marked with circles and squares. To the left, open doors led to two small bedrooms on either side of a bathroom. An ancient toilet, the kind with a long chain dangling from a tank on the wall was visible through the bathroom door. The place looked and felt like a remote ranger station on a wildlife preserve, which it sort of was.  A weathered man who could've been forty or sixty sat at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee. He looked up from a piece of paper on the clipboard in front of him as the veterinarian walked over.  "Mornin' doc. I see you brought the new kid. Hey kid, I'm Jack. Well, I went out this morning and another ten monkeys jumped in the corral last night. That makes 182. Looked like about a third don't have tattoos, but I couldn't get an exact count." Jack's voice held the soft lilt acquired by someone who'd lived here for a while, but wasn't from the Deep South. The veterinarian acknowledged his update and told me to go into the bathroom and change into boots and coveralls. I came out to find Jack gone from the cabin and the vet in her coveralls waiting for me by the door. We walked out to where two of the crew from the boat stood with Diane and Jack between a couple of ancient vehicles I hadn't noticed earlier. The sun shone through the trees on an ancient flat-fender jeep. I loved it at first sight. Either Army surplus or an early civilian model. It was protected from the salt air by multiple coats of whatever leftover paint had been on hand at the time. Where the last coat of beige flaked off, I could see light orange and hints of robins egg blue beneath that. Its windshield frame was long gone. A hole gaped where one headlight had fallen out. There was no roll bar or rear seat. Stuffing poked through the cracked vinyl upholstery of a driver's seat behind a wide metal steering wheel. The passenger had to make do with an old couch cushion set on the floor of the vehicle. A surplus Army trailer painted the same leftover kaleidoscope was hitched to the jeep. It's pickup truck-sized bed held boxes of veterinary supplies.  The other vehicle was an old pickup truck so dented and rusted I couldn't tell you more about it. I admired it anyway. As I stood wondering at the make of the truck, a movement back by the jeep caught my eye. I had to stare for a moment before I could spot the young adult rhesus macaque. He crept across the forest floor, halfway to the jeep trailer from the nearest tree trunk. Big Man was in a nearby storage shed even more decrepit than the cabin, where he stowed the last of the supplies from the boat. Everyone else had their backs to the monkey. The macaque crept steadily closer to the trailer, eyes wide, mouth open. I didn't know any better so I just watched. When he got to the trailer, he stood on his hind legs and peered over the side. A hand darted out and snatched a packet of sterile gauze just as Big Man came out of the shed, saw him and yelled. "Yo! Monkey! Git!"  The macaque streaked away from the trailer in a three-legged dash, the white paper packet of gauze held to his chest with one hand. I continued to stare dumbly as the other four turned around and watched the thief disappear up into the tree canopy. Big Man chuckled as he walked toward our group.  "That one's still at it, huh? Guess he didn't jump into the corral last night."  I finally found my words and asked if that was something to look out for the rest of the day.  Big Man replied. "Not really. Every so often one of 'em gets more curious than scared and hangs around the cabin. They love to get their hands on anything new and different, so the census trailer is better 'n bananas. No big deal so long as they don't steal anything sharp. You put the syringes and scissors on the bottom, right Jack?" Jack nodded, a smile on his face. Big Man stopped next to Jack who handed him a clipboard. Big Man started the morning briefing. He introduced me as Jeff, there to help the veterinarian. No other introductions as everyone knew everyone except me and it was clear I was the vet's problem.   "Ok, me and Karl are on island the next three nights. Jack and Dianne are good to stay overtime this morning, but'll take the day boat back this afternoon as soon as we're finished with census. Dianne, how's everything doing?" "Batteries are at eighty percent this morning, generator ran fine last evening. Propane is good, water tank's three quarters full, next water delivery in a week. The water transfer pump is still on the fritz, but I know what part it needs and'll pick that up before I'm out here next. Did a radio check this morning with Yemassee. Y'all brought plenty of food so you're good for three days." He nodded his thanks, then looked down at the clipboard.  "Ok, Monkeys are in Corral C on the southwest side of the island. As of Jack's final check this morning, a total of 182 animals jumped in over two days." He flipped the top sheet over and went through a checklist on the second page. "Ok, cages, sawhorses and plywood are already staged out at the corral. Lights, scales and measuring tapes are in the pickup. So are census records, tattoo equipment and portable generators. Trailer's loaded with vet supplies, gauntlets, and gloves." He looked at his watch, then at us.  "It's 7:45, we need to set up by 8:30 so we can census all 180 macaques before noon. 1:00 at the latest if there are hiccups. It's cool now, but the temp is gonna get into the eighties later this afternoon. We don't wanna add heat to the stress they're already under. No breaks, lunch after, ok? Everyone good?" Heads nodded, mine included even though I didn't know what would come next.  "Ok, boat crew with me in the truck, last night's island crew in the jeep. We'll go on ahead and set up." Big Man looked at me and the veterinarian. "Y'all walk and meet us there. Take the loop trail and you can't miss it. We'll have your station set up by the time you get there. " I was bummed to not get a ride in the old Army jeep. As I watched it pull away down the rough trail, it bounced over a deep rut. The jeep's rear corner hopped violently because the leaf spring was broken and the body sat hard on the rear axle. Maybe a walk in the woods was better.  The veterinarian used the walk to fill me in. Our black rubber boots were nearly silent on sand mixed with pine needles as we walked next to a rutted vehicle trail that looped around the perimeter of the island. The veterinarian started with background. "Pretty crazy place, huh? The government put a breeding colony of 1,400 rhesus macaques on this island in the 80's. It's more than self-sustaining because now there're about 3,000 of them. I say 'about' because they live free-range in dozens of social groups. There's no way to do a complete count when they roam freely over hundreds of acres. There are four corrals around the island, A, B, C and D. We do census in March, June, September and December. The island staff bait one of the corrals with fruit and biscuits for two days. Monkeys living in the area jump down into the corral for fruit and can't climb back out. Take today's census. 182 macaques jumped into Corral C. We treat that group as a sample from all the monkeys living on the island. Then we use statistics to estimate the total population." She looked up from the ground ahead to see if I followed. I nodded in understanding. "Ok, great. During the census today, the staff will inspect, weigh and measure each monkey that jumped into the corral. Every monkey with a chest tattoo has its own census chart in a binder where its weight and such are recorded each time it's captured. If a monkey doesn't have a tattoo, it means it's never been seen in the census. The animal gets a tattoo and a new census chart with its first weight, length, sex, age and health exam. When it's caught again in a future census, its information is recorded on the same chart. Get why it's called a census?" I got it. The official census in the United States worked sort of the same way. Every ten years, census takers go door to door in a neighborhood and record a bunch of information. Not every door, but enough to create a reliable sample. Experts then do the math to estimate the population of the neighborhood, the state and the whole country. I said as much to the veterinarian.  "Yes! Exactly! Now, I'm not involved because this is primatology stuff, but as I understand it, data we gather today is sent to Yemassee to be entered into the computer database. From that the population on the island gets estimated pretty accurately. Growth and especially replacement rate too, because animals are shipped out to supply federal research labs." I followed what she was saying, but had questions. I asked if the monkeys ever escaped from the island, and most important to me, why I was there.  "Escapes happen but they're rare. Macaques swim, but don't like to cross open water. They're often on the beach or in the marsh hunting for crabs. If they see something floating out in the water their curiosity means they might swim out to it. They've been spotted riding tangled up mats of marsh grass. One was spotted floating on a tree trunk that fell from the island in a storm."  The image of an adventurous monkey riding a floating log made me smile. That was one theory for how the remote Galapagos Islands were populated by tortoises and iguanas.  We walked past a big corral situated on the inland side of the vehicle trail. A big letter "D" was stenciled in black spray paint on the galvanized metal wall. A huge set of double doors stood open on one end. The corral was empty except for a few broken branches and a feeder stand. We were closer to our destination at Corral C. The veterinarian walked a bit faster while she explained my duties for the census.  "When the monkeys jump into the baited corral, they come from different family groups. The  monkeys today could be from five, six different troops. That means they're gonna fight. You're here to treat fight wounds. I'll check the animals for disease, teeth issues, joint problems, skin conditions and reproductive health. The rest of the crew will tattoo, weigh, measure and update census charts in the binders. If there aren't many fight wounds, you're gonna work the tattoo table. How's that sound?" That sounded intense but doable. Except for the tattoo part. I told her I knew nothing about tattoos. She smiled and reassured me that if I could stitch up three layers of tissue I could use a tattoo gun.  Now I understood why the head vet complimented my suture technique by telling me I was ready to go out to the island. I was going to be a field medic that morning. But one macaque at a time was one thing. 180 was quite another, especially with the time pressure I could sense building in the operation. The dull gray metal of another corral appeared through the trees ahead. So did a flurry of human activity. I inhaled sharply and felt my eyes grow wide in a surge of nervous anticipation.  **** Corral C stood on the southwest side of the island in an area dense with pine trees instead of the mix of oaks elsewhere. The trees were mature, two or more feet thick at the base. Their ramrod-straight trunks were spaced wide apart like columns in a giant warehouse. The trunks supported an interlocked roof of pine needles above. The ground was covered in a thick, uniform mat of fallen pine needles. The forest was shadowy and mysterious. A complete lack of underbrush indicated we would stay in the shade even when the sun was high overhead.   The low light combined with the sound-deadening effect of the pine forest made the scene next to the corral surreal. The island crew moved through the quiet, dim woods with a quick economy of motion, feet silent on the carpet of pine needles. They had just finished setting up the census equipment and were returning boxes and crates to the truck and trailer parked off to one side.  A single long table stretched between the tree trunks. The table was made of four foot by eight foot sheets of plywood laid across a row of tall sawhorses. The table stood above my waist, chest high on the shorter members of the crew. The veterinarian led me toward one end of the table.  Mobile exam lights were clamped to the end closest to us, off for now. 25 yards away at the opposite end of the table, a row of three ring binders stood upright like books on a shelf. Hanging scales were suspended from a metal bar mounted above the table next to a collection of measuring tapes and a stack of metal clipboards. Electric hair clippers and a half dozen ink-stained electric tattoo guns were plugged into a long industrial power strip in the middle of the table. A thick yellow extension cord ran from the power strip to portable generators off among the trees. The veterinarian stepped up to the section of table under the lights. It was covered in a sheet of translucent plastic. A crate held dozens of clipboards, each with a blank form. A wire mesh basket held two dozen 100 milliliter bottles of ketamine. Boxes of 50 milliliter syringes stood next to the basket. 50 milliliters was bigger than I was used to for injectables. The veterinarian checked over her section of the table and directed me to do the same the next section over.  "Ok Jeff, I'll do triage here under the lights, you'll be right next door treating fight wounds. If there's something you can't handle, or that needs both of us, I'll step over. I want you to make sure your table has all the supplies we use in the operating room back in Yemassee. You think anything's missing, you tell me."  My section held a neat arrangement of clinical supplies, already laid out by the island crew. Boxes of sterile surgical gloves in white paper wrappers. Squeeze bottles of iodine, alcohol and sterile water. A pile of blue and white absorbent pads. A deep stainless steel tray held scalpels, surgical scissors, clamps and forceps submerged in alcohol. Boxes of different kinds of individually-wrapped sutures, needle threaded and ready to go in each handy packet. Bottles of injectable antibiotics and one milliliter syringes. A dozen tubes of topical antibiotic ointment. Electric hair clippers plugged into the power strip the next section over. The island team didn't miss a thing as far as I could tell. In fact, I noticed there were many multiples of each item, more than could possibly be required. The redundancy held for the rest of the equipment. Six tattoo guns, two lights, two scales, two generators. We were a fifteen minute drive away from the base camp. An hour by boat and car from Yemassee. Census of 180 monkeys had to happen in four hours or less. Once we started, we couldn't afford to have something break. I shared my realization with the veterinarian who walked me through what was going to happen.  "Yeah, you got it. Once this train leaves the station it doesn't stop for any reason. Monkeys'll get run into the cages. You chemically restrain 'em two cages at a time. Once they're unconscious, the crew'll bring em over to me for triage and a health exam. You'll stitch up any fight wounds I find. We pass them to tattoo, then they get weighed, measured, and charted. I'll tell you when to anesthetize the next two cages. We don't stop until we're through all 182." I looked at the long table again. It made more sense. The table was an assembly line for the census process. Clinical evaluation under the lights at one end, then on to stitches, tattoos, weight, height, and record keeping at the other end.  "You focus first on anesthetizing monkeys when I tell you, second on treating any fight wounds. Fresh sterile gloves for every monkey, do your best to maintain a sterile field but we're out here in the woods so… be practical. There'll be a ton of activity around you, so don't get distracted. Ok, looks like it's go time."  I followed her gaze to where Jack stood next to Corral C. I'd barely noticed the corral while I took in the census assembly line. Next to Jack, one end of a long line of metal cages was bolted to the corral wall. The cages were attached end to end in a single row that extended about fifty yards from the hatch in the corral into the trees. Each rectangular cage was about two feet tall, eighteen inches wide, and three feet long. A pair of vertically-sliding metal doors at the junction between the cages stood open. With the doors between the cages lifted up into the open position, the row of cages formed a fifty yard long continuous tunnel, one end secured to the hatch into the corral, the other end closed off.  With a nod from Jack, Dianne pulled the starter cord on a generator. It roared to life with one pull and she walked back toward the census table. As the electricity began to flow, both exam lights came on. An electric hair trimmer buzzed and vibrated on the tattoo table, its switch stuck in the on position. I quickly stepped over and turned it off. The veterinarian and I readied ourselves by putting on blue rubber exam gloves. She told me to set up the ketamine.  "Fill a syringe so you're ready. Check the concentration on the bottle, should be 10 milligrams of ketamine in every milliliter. I know you know this, but we always cross check right? Dose at 10 milligrams of ketamine per kilogram of body weight. That means one milliliter of ketamine in the syringe for every kilogram the monkey weighs. No time to change needles between animals, administer multiple doses from the same syringe. Every macaque on the island has an identical serotype, they all carry the same viruses. Watch your technique, you don't want a needle stick all the way out here."  As I drew 40 milliliters of ketamine into each of two big syringes, Big Man walked to the closed-off end of the cage tunnel. He walked back toward the corral, double-checking the cage-to-cage connections. When he got to Jack, he looked at his watch, then over at the rest of us where we stood by our stations. He yelled over the noise of the generator. "Ok! Everybody ready?" I nodded and assumed the rest of the team did too because Big Man nodded at Jack. Jack reached down and grabbed a loop of rope on the hatch in the corral wall. He jerked it and the hatch slid straight up. Now there was an opening from the corral into the tunnel of cages. For a moment nothing happened. Then a single monkey shot through the hatch and ran down the cage tunnel at full speed.  Three heartbeats later, the remaining 181 monkeys streamed through the hatch in a continuous head-to-tail line. The hole in the side of the corral was their way out, they had no idea it led to confinement instead of the forest. The metal cages rattled from the force of this freight train of monkeys running as fast as they could down the tunnel. When the macaque leading the train reached the end of the line, he came to a stop next to the solitary monkey that ran out first. The rest piled up behind them, shoving them together into an awkward embrace. The momentum of the monkey train pressed the 182 macaques into a solid column of red fur, limbs, and angry faces. The rattle of metal on metal stopped as suddenly as it started. Jack pushed the hatch closed to cut off the possibility of retreat back into the corral. He and Big Man gently pushed the sliding doors closed at each junction between cages, sometimes giving quiet encouragement to the monkeys to "get out of the way." When they got to the end, the 182 monkeys were divided three or four at a time in each of the 50 cages. I looked over at the veterinarian at her station. She'd taken off her watch cap and tied her hair up. Her face was all business in the harsh white of the exam lights. She nodded back at me.  "Two cages. One milliliter per kilogram intramuscular. Go."  My hyper focus kicked in. I started to estimate weight and calculate doses as I walked over to the two cages at the end of the row. I was sure a small young female was three kilograms. That meant three milliliters. I uncapped the needle, pointed the syringe up and flicked it with an index finger. A bubble rose to the top. I pushed the plunger until the air bled out and a droplet of ketamine sparkled at the tip of the needle.  The female rhesus was squeezed into a cage with three others. She helpfully squirmed away to hide her vulnerable face and belly from me, so it was straightforward to inject three milliliters into the muscle of her thigh. Next was a medium sized male, nine kilograms. After injecting nine milliliters, the plunger was at 27. A smaller male looked to weigh seven kilograms so his dose of seven left 20. The fourth macaque in the cage was another young female. Four kilograms, four milliliters. I finished the first cage with 16 milliliters of ketamine left in my syringe. The three kilogram female, the first monkey I'd anesthetized, was already getting drowsy so I kept going through the second cage. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.  Somewhere behind me somebody yelled out the time.  "8:40! We have until 9:00!" It was Big Man over at the census table next to the scales. He called out the time I finished anesthetizing the first macaques. This let everyone know how much time we had to get them through the census process. Anthony, one of the crew from the boat appeared next to me. "Go on, head back and get ready. I'll watch 'em and bring them over when they're unconscious." Back at my fight wound station, I ran my eyes over the supplies one last time, plucked a packet of sterile surgical gloves out of the box and spread a blue and white pad on the table in front of me. Back at the cages Anthony unfastened two latches on the top edge of the cage and folded the whole side down. A random unconscious arm and a leg or two flopped out when the cage opened up. He gently picked up the little three kilogram female and carried her over to the veterinarian, then hustled back to shuttle the remaining macaques from cage to table. The vet did a thorough check for wounds and broken bones. Finding none, she proceeded with the health exam, jotting down quick notes about teeth, eyes and skin on a clipboard taken from the crate next to her. She raised her voice a bit to be heard over the generator. "Young adult female, no fight trauma, no tattoo." Someone, maybe Jack, took the clipboard and whisked the monkey away to the tattoo table. I heard a shaver start to buzz. The veterinarian was through the next monkey in a flash. This one already had a tattoo so was taken to the scales. The third monkey had been in a fight. "Young adult male, fresh laceration on right rear upper thigh, no health issues, no tattoo." She beckoned for me to come take the animal. I carried him to my table and gently laid him down on the pad. The wound on his rear thigh meant he'd been running away from a more aggressive male when he got it. It'd been about five minutes since I knocked him out, so I needed to move quickly. The laceration was new, through the top layer of skin, about an inch and a half long. A small amount of blood had just begun to clot at one end. I used my electric clippers to shave the hair away from the cut. I squirted iodine on the wound and the skin around it, then wiped it away with gauze. Next, I opened up the appropriate suture packet and set it next to the monkey.  Time to get mostly sterile. I put fresh surgical gloves on over my blue rubber exam gloves. I chose a pair of forceps from the metal tray full of alcohol and set about stitching up the wound. I don't remember the details of suturing, only that at the time I was proud of my ability to close a wound leaving only neat knots under the skin. The absorbable suture material would hold until the wound healed, then dissolve into the surrounding tissue. The macaque couldn't tear his stitches out. This was a big deal, since Monkey Island was no place for the cone of shame you see on a dog or cat. The wound wasn't deep or old enough to warrant injectable antibiotics, so I finished with a smear of topical ointment. The vet saw me strip off the surgical gloves.  "Good job Jeff. One down, but we gotta keep moving, I have another one here for you."  Someone from the tattoo table appeared and took  the young male to get his first ink. I put down a fresh absorbent pad and picked up my next patient from the veterinarian's table.  This one was in worse shape but would be ok. The wound was a deep tear with three flaps of skin instead of a simple laceration. It was on his left shoulder, which meant he faced his foe when it happened. The wound was older too, probably from a full two days ago when the corral was first baited. I had to shave away clumps of hair matted together by thick clots of blood before I could tell if there were signs of infection. Some of the tissue was dead, necrotic, so I used scissors to trim it away. The tear was wide at the surface, but had made a small hole in the deepest third layer of skin. I could see muscle and tendons through the opening. I used different kinds of sutures to close each of the three layers, starting with the deepest subcutaneous and working my way back up.  By the time I finished stitching up the monkey with the bad tear in his shoulder, two more were in line behind it. The veterinarian joined me at my station and we took care of those two together. Half of the initial eight monkeys had fight wounds. If that kept up it was going to be a long day. As it turned out, less than a quarter had some sort of wound, none of them worse than the tear I'd just treated and most required only a few stitches. Thankfully no broken bones. Still, that was forty macaques, so the rest of the morning was a blur of ketamine injections and wound closures.  A couple of times the action slowed enough for me to step over to the tattoo table. I wasn't qualified to give a young monkey its first chest tattoo, but they let me freshen up the faded letters and numbers on older animals. I shaved away the soft hair and disinfected the monkey's skin with alcohol. The tattoo guns seemed ancient, but they all worked. A small electromagnet vibrated a needle up and down in a guide. I dipped the tip of the gun in black ink then gently ran the buzzing needle over the skin and wiped away the small amount of blood that rose to the surface. It was harder than it looked. The unconscious monkeys seemed to always be in an awkward position. Their elastic skin moved around easily. I don't know how many tattoos I made better, but I didn't make any worse. A few years later I got my own first tattoo. The artist used exactly the same equipment and procedure we used on Monkey Island. The five person island crew took turns doing all the jobs. They busily weighed each monkey, measured bodies, arms and legs. They noted evidence of recent pregnancy. The sexual maturity of young monkeys was observed and logged. Whoever was doing the measurements calmly called out a constant stream of information to record keepers who listened and wrote it down on the correct chart. Every macaque went through the census process in less than twenty minutes. That meant they still had some time to sleep off their chemical restraint before rejoining the family group they left when they jumped into the corral for a banana days before.  When a macaque had been through the entire process, it was still unconscious from the ketamine. Or at least in the immobile and dissociated state ketamine causes. The animal was carried out into the forest and laid gently on its side in a warm spot of sunshine. Still close enough to keep an eye on, but far enough away from the census table so they wouldn't freak out when they woke up. Since the animals were in a vulnerable state, each monkey was placed a safe distance away from other macaques also recovering from anesthesia. At the peak, there must've been forty monkeys spread across the soft pine needles of the forest floor. I did my best not to anthropomorphize the macaques in my time with them. I followed the policy against seeing them as primate relatives. My colleagues had a harder time keeping their emotional distance. Animal care and more so behavioral care technicians interacted with the macaques when they were more endearing. Hungry. Curious. Nurturing. Annoyed. Caring. Playful. I was a veterinary technician. We interacted with the macaques when they were defensive or aggressive. When their behavior was closer to what you think of as 'wild animal.' It was easier for me to see them that way.  But the one time I felt kinship with my fellow primate? When I watched them wake up from anesthesia in the forest. It was quite the scene. A young male monkey, let's call him Chad, slept peacefully on his right side on a bed of soft pine needles in a spot of warm sunlight. Chad was big for his age and his muscular arms and legs had been arranged gently to one side. His head rested at a comfortable angle, though his mouth was open and his tongue drooped out. He was perfectly still for many minutes, as if he would sleep forever. Then movement. A leg extended slowly, almost a stretch. An arm pulled in and curled against his chest. After a moment, Chad lifted his head an inch off the ground, eyes closed, tongue still out, then laid it back down. Head back up, this time mouth closed and eyes half open as he became aware of his situation. Chad lifted his head higher and opened his eyes all the way. He pulled his arm under him to push himself up. His head and torso wobbled unsteadily, propped on that arm. A groggy expression of surprise came over Chad's face as if he had no idea where he was or how he got there. His eyes rolled from side to side.  After a long moment propped on one arm, Chad shifted his weight onto his butt. Monkeys usually sit on their haunches with their legs gathered underneath, so he looked silly with his legs splayed out to the sides. He planted his other arm and clumsily pulled one leg at a time underneath his butt, still supporting himself with his arms planted on the ground. Chad stayed in this 'dude where am I' position for a while as the fog wore off. His expression drifted between drugged, confused and a grimace of distaste from his dry mouth.  When he picked his hands up off the ground and could balance upright, Chad started to come around cognitively. He could take in his surroundings, though still he still wobbled unsteadily at times. His face took on a very clear 'where the hell am I and how did I get here?' expression. The ketamine wore off faster now. Chad looked down at his chest where it stung from the tattoo gun. His face grew concerned as he lifted a hand to touch his fresh ink.  Chad looked up with a pained almost regretful expression as he processed the fact he had a new tattoo. His hand went from his chest up to his left shoulder. He turned his head to peer down at fresh stitches in a two inch laceration. Chad seemed less puzzled about the fight wound than the tattoo. At this point the acute effects had faded. Chad wasn't wobbling any more, at least while he remained seated. He looked around again, this time he noticed the half dozen other unconscious monkeys nearby. His eyes grew wide. That was not good. At all. Time to get out of there. Chad lurched up on all fours. The sudden transition to vertical caused him to sway left, then right.  He evened out, and after one last look back at his unconscious cousins, Chad walked off into the forest with a hangover, fresh stitches, and a new tattoo.  ***** Find out what happened next in the full book Monkey Farm: A Summer Among the Macaques!        

You will die. Your data will not.The afterlife of our information is a recent phenomenon, and some of the companies with the most to sort through are still just figuring it out.As far back as 2007, Facebook was forced to reckon with mass grief when users asked the company to maintain the profile pages of the 32 victims killed by a school shooter at Virginia Tech that year. Those pages became de facto memorials for loved ones to fill with comments, and today, memorialization has become a full-fledged feature on both Facebook and Instagram. Platforms like YouTube, Pinterest, and LinkedIn—launched with likely zero strategy for a user's death—now have procedures for next-of-kin to request that a deceased person's account be deactivated.Now, think about all the other ways your data can linger after death.Every year, people accumulate more and digital stuff—email addresses, social media profiles, contact lists, domain names, subscription services, online banking accounts, and the phones, laptops, and tablets that hold it all—and every year, as that digital stuff accumulates, it compounds into ever more problems for someone else to sort out. Here, a small industry of digital estate planners have cropped up, helping families retrieve and preserve anything valuable, no matter how digital, from Spotify playlists, to poignant social media posts that mattered, to the photos stored on a phone.And where retrieval fails, artificial intelligence has offered an attempt at comfort. The chatbot service Replika launched in 2015 after its founder uploaded a dead friend's text messages. HereAfter AI reportedly let users upload voice recordings to power a chatbot that sounded and spoke like the deceased. Film studios have pursued the same idea for entertainment, seeking to portray deceased actors in future films.Surprisingly, almost none of this activity is governed by law, said Tamara Kneese, author of the 2023 book “Death Glitch: How Techno-Solutionism Fails Us in This Life and Beyond.”“By and large, there is not a great legal mechanism for protecting the privacy rights of the dead,” said Kneese. “It may not be just that a grieving loved one decides to use a bunch of your data from all of your podcasts to create a chatbot to simulate interacting with you after you're dead, but it may be that a company chooses, in some way, to use an aspect of your personality, of your demeanor, of your voice, of your likeness after your death without anyone really being aware.”Today, on the Lock and Code podcast with host David Ruiz, we speak with Kneese—Senior Research Scientist at Partnership on AI—about who owns a person's data after they die, why every platform has invented its own private policy for the dead, and how the technology built to keep the dead close can vanish just as suddenly as they did.Or worse yet, as Kneese warned for those relying heavily on certain technologies in grief:“The company gets sold to someone else or disappears, goes bankrupt, and you no longer have that outlet or place for interaction when you're mourning another time.”Tune in today.You can also find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and whatever preferred podcast platform you use.For all our cybersecurity coverage, visit Malwarebytes Labs at malwarebytes.com/blog.Show notes and credits:Intro Music: “Spellbound” by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Outro Music: “Good God” by Wowa (unminus.com)Further reading:Fartein Hauan Nilsen, “Caring for the Algorithm: Care, Love, and the Relational Personhood of Chatbots,” Somatosphere, February 26, 2026Fartein Hauan Nilsen, “Therapeutic ideology and AI personhood: an anthropological inquiry into AI companionship,” a chapter from “Handbook on Anthropology and Artificial Intelligence,” Edward Elgar Publishing, July 21, 2026University of Birmingham, “New Model Rules mark meaningful step towards digital inheritance laws,” July 16, 2026Edina Harbinja, “Governing Digital Immortality: Artificial Intelligence, Deadbots and the Law,” Edward Elgar Publishing, to be published September 2026Lilian Edwards and Edina Harbinja, “Protecting Post-Mortem Privacy: Reconsidering the Privacy Interests of the Deceased in a Digital World,” May 2013, revised November 2013Lilian Edwards, Edina Harbinja, and Marisa McVey, “Governing Ghostbots,” Computer Law & Security Review, November 2023SAG-AFTRA, “SAG-AFTRA Statement on Today's Passing of California Assembly Bill 1836,” August 31, 2024Listen up—Malwarebytes doesn't just talk cybersecurity, we provide it.Protect yourself from online attacks that threaten your identity, your files, your system, and your financial well-being with our exclusive offer for Malwarebytes Premium for Lock and Code listeners.

Learn the three things the body of Christ is uniquely designed to provide every human being.Donate: https://store.intouch.org/donate/generalSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Enjoy the episode? Send us a text!Doing nothing feels safe.It isn't.When your marriage starts falling apart, most people freeze. You don't want to make it worse. You don't want the conflict. You don't know what to say. So you wait and hope it settles on its own.It almost never does.You really only have three options when trouble shows up. Do nothing. Get the wrong help. Get the right help.In this video, Dr. Joe Beam walks through all three, and why the second one does more damage than most people realize.The wrong help is rarely obvious. It's the friend who's still angry about her own divorce. It's family who love you too much to be objective. It's a counselor carrying bitterness she's never dealt with. It's a good-hearted couple online who saved their own marriage and now assume yours looks like theirs.None of those people are villains. They just aren't equipped to help you.A testimony is not a method. Caring is not a plan.He also covers what to actually look for. The right education. Values that match yours, or at least get respected. Someone who treats the marriage as the client instead of picking a side. And the questions to ask before you book a single session, including how they calculate the success rate they advertise.One warning worth repeating. If someone diagnoses your spouse without ever meeting your spouse, walk away.Most people don't wait because they stopped caring. They wait because they're hoping it resolves itself.Get help early. Even if your spouse isn't there yet.If you're struggling in your marriage, don't wait. Get our FREE resource: The 7 Steps to Rescue Your Marriage

Taking care of your body is important. Caring for your soul matters more. Pastor Colin talks about where to begin in caring for your soul, and why it matters so much.

You Will Never Care What People Think Of You | David GogginsThis episode was created by analyzing David Goggins's tips and tools that made him the best version of himself. We hope these tools, tips, and secrets will help you to become the best version of yourselves.David Goggins is an American ultramarathon runner, ultra-distance cyclist, triathlete, motivational speaker, and author. He is a retired United States Navy SEAL and former United States Air Force Tactical Air Control Party member who served in the Iraq War. His self-help memoir, Can't Hurt Me, was released in 2018. ►Credits:Speaker Credits: David GogginsInstagram- Daily_motivationsorgFacebook- @daily_motivationsorgSupport us PayPal

Parenting special needs children (while bringing many blessings) can also feel like entering the ultimate survival challenge with your spouse. Stress is heightened, and grief is often difficult to bear. Todd and Kristin speak about this struggle and how they pulled through some of the most difficult relational challenges and emotional barriers in their marriage. They bring a message of hope for marriages weighed down by the emotional burdens of life and parenting.Receive a copy of the "How to Build a Thriving Marriage as You Care for Children with Disabilities" bundle and an audio download of "Strengthening Your Marriage While Caring for a Child with Special Needs" for your donation of any amount! Plus, receive member-exclusive benefits when you make a recurring gift today. Your monthly support helps families thrive.Get more episode resources Do you have a story or comment on how Focus on the Family impacted you or your family? Leave a message for Jim Daly!If you enjoyed listening to Focus on the Family with Jim Daly, please give us your feedback.

Why does caring feel so exhausting right now?Tony Nader breaks down why so much of what drains us was never actually caring, it was carrying someone else's pain, outcome, or opinion as if it were our own. This conversation goes beyond compassion fatigue advice into the actual mechanism your nervous system uses to confuse a stranger's problem with your own life. Nader also walks through a real-time way to tell, in the moment, which one you're actually doing.What you'll learn:• Why caring and carrying feel the same but aren't• Your nervous system can't tell news from your life• The 10-second test that reveals when you're carryingTony Nader is a Harvard and MIT-trained physician and the successor to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, leading Transcendental Meditation organizations worldwide. His empirical research on the nervous system has been published widely, and his new book, The Power of Caring, applies decades of that research to a simple question: why sustainable caring depends on regulation, not willpower.Find Tony's book “The Power of Caring” and all links at: mindlove.com/467Want to practice caring without carrying, with people who actually get it? Join the free Mind Love Collective for monthly themed calls and weekly challenge accountability. mindlove.com/joinSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.