Podcasts about Epilepsy

FILM FEST TIX: https://buytickets.at/thedopeyfoundation/2216905 PATREON: www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast workithealth.com/dopey This week on Dopey Wednesday,! We begin with a Father's Day rant about dads texting each other, calls his father Alan live on the show, argues about masculinity, the Knicks championship, post-Knicks withdrawal, the Dopey Film Festival, and whether Seymour is allowed to come. Dave also reads Patreon and Spotify comments about Todd's sister Allie, Todd's apartment, Dopey socks, and listener reactions. Then the episode shifts into a live Workit Health/Dopey event with the great Amy “Dopey Dres” Dresner, author of My Fair Junkie. Amy talks brutally and hilariously about long-term recovery when life does not magically become beautiful: losing her father, mother, and cat in a short period of time, checking herself into a psych ward with ten years sober, surviving suicidal ideation, epilepsy, seizures, brain meds, isolation, grief, and the nightmare comedy of American healthcare. Dave and Amy get into harm reduction, MAT, 12-step recovery, writing through trauma, being funny in the middle of misery, shame, forgiveness, isolation, suicidal thoughts, and why connection is still the only real way out. It's classic Dopey: funny, dark, honest, messy, sad, useful, and somehow hopeful. All that and more on a weird new dopey! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Send comments and feedback In this episode of Sharp Waves, host Nancy welcomes renowned neurologist and neuro-oncologist Dr. Katie Peters from the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center to discuss the important connection between brain tumors and epilepsy. Dr. Peters shares her expertise on how brain tumors can contribute to seizure disorders, the challenges patients face, and the latest approaches to diagnosis, treatment, and care. Whether you're a healthcare professional, patient, caregiver, or simply interested in neuroscience, this insightful conversation offers valuable perspectives on navigating these complex neurological conditions. Tune in for an engaging discussion with one of the field's leading experts.  Sharp Waves episodes are meant for informational purposes only, and not as clinical or medical advice.Let us know how we're doing:  info@ilae.orgThe International League Against Epilepsy is the world's preeminent association of health professionals and scientists, working toward a world where no person's life is limited by epilepsy. Visit us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Send us Fan MailWhat happens when the body suddenly stops cooperating with the life you've carefully built?In this conversation, we explore a woman's journey from artist to patient advocate, the lessons learned while living with epilepsy, the importance of caring for and listening to our bodies, and what it means to seek care in a health system focused on profit.Today's guest, Holly Eckert, grew up in a small mountain town in Idaho and discovered her love for dance in childhood. Healthy, strong, and thriving into her mid-thirties, Holly's life took an unexpected turn when she began experiencing uncontrollable seizures. Epilepsy quickly disrupted everything she thought she knew about her body, her future, and the healthcare system she depended on for answers.What followed was not only a search for healing but also a deep investigation into the strengths and shortcomings of modern medicine in the United States. Determined to share what she learned, Holly transformed her experience into a powerful memoir, SEIZED: Searching for Health in the United States. This was one of the most beautiful conversations I've had so far, in 3 years of podcasting. Enjoy!BUY HOLLY'S BOOK: Seized, Searching for Health in the United StatesDownload my FREE eBook: A Weekend of Feeling GreatSchedule a FREE Discovery call Sign up for my free weekly newsletter: HEREBuy my book Living Your Best Life in CollegeTake the 2-minute Wellness QuizIf you enjoyed this episode, please FOLLOW, RATE, REVIEW & SHARE!! Rates and reviews help the message get to more people! Thanks!Good is What Makes You Feel Well is Mamma Terra's PodcastCONNECT WITH MAMMA TERRA HEALTH COACHING:Instagram: @mammaterrahcFacebook: MammaTerra.HCLinkedIn: Anna ResendeIntro Music "Levitar" credits to Ricardo Ulpiano, Thiago Peixoto, Marcelo Luciano Menino, and Anderson Rodrigo de Oliveira.Podcast art credits to Caroline Kohls Thanks for tuning in!

Could medical ketogenic therapy improve more than seizures?! Like anxiety and depression? Dr. Manny Bagary shares how clinciains assess whether ketogenic therapy is working, including its potential effects on anxiety, mood, cognition and quality of life. He also talks about common misconceptions, cholesterol worries, potential pregnancies, and why so many adults with epilepsy still struggle to access specialist ketogenic therapy services. This is episode 2 of 2 with Manny.This episode is sponsored by Kanso, a brand by Dr. Schär, who had no influence over the editorial content or discussion. Learn more about Kanso here: kanso.com/enChapters

Welcome back to When Words Fail Music Speaks, the show where we combat depression and despair with the healing power of music. I'm your host, James Cox, and today's episode is a truly moving one.We sit down with Mike Gomoll, the visionary founder of Joey Song, a non‑profit born from tragedy and turned into a beacon of hope. After his son Joey was diagnosed with a rare, devastating form of epilepsy—Dravet syndrome—Mike and his family faced unimaginable loss. Rather than letting grief win, they channeled their love of music into a mission: raise awareness, fund research, and support families navigating epilepsy.Mike shares his journey from a college nightclub manager at Madison's legendary Headliners, through a long corporate stint at IBM, to becoming the driving force behind a series of benefit concerts that have raised over a million dollars. He explains how music became Joey's sole language, how “when words fail, music speaks” became the rallying cry for his cause, and why a night of rock legends—Butch Vig, Rick Nielsen, members of the Goo Goo Dolls, the Bangles, and more—volunteer their time to perform for a good cause.We'll hear stories of spontaneous on‑stage magic, the unique “super‑group” covers that turn classic hits into unforgettable tributes, and Mike's vision for expanding Joey Song beyond Madison. Along the way, we'll demystify epilepsy, bust common myths, and discover why a simple “D”—Joey's cue to dance—could be the world's most powerful message.If you've ever wondered how one family turned personal tragedy into a movement that harnesses the universal language of music, this episode is for you. Grab your headphones, get ready to feel inspired, and remember: when words fail, music speaks. Let's dive in.

New research from Turkey reveals that fifty hertz electromagnetic fields -- the same frequency from power lines -- actually improved learning and memory in epileptic rats while reducing brain oxidative stress. This episode explores groundbreaking research that challenges our assumptions about electromagnetic field effects. We examine how frequency, intensity, and biological context create dramatically different outcomes in EMF exposure studies. In This Episode How power line frequency EMF improved cognitive function in epileptic animals Why this study reveals the complexity of electromagnetic field effects What this means for our understanding of EMF research Featured Study Read the full study: Effect of ELF-EMF on cognitive functions, analgesia, and oxidative stress in rats with PTZ-induced epilepsy See all studies at shieldyourbody.com/research

Medical Ketogenic Therapy can reduce seizures in some people - but how does it actually work?! Dr. Manny Bagary explains the nitty gritty of ketones, interactions, how they might affect brain excitability, what's going on with neurotransmitters, mitochondria, inflammation, and even the gut microbiome! He also shares how ketogenic therapy might improve cognition, when a person should be offered it, and how it can help with status epilepticus! This is episode 1 of 2 with Manny.This episode is sponsored by Kanso, a brand by Dr. Schär, who had no influence over the editorial content or discussion. Learn more about Kanso here: kanso.com/enChapters

This CEO Is Advancing Neuroscience, Reducing Pain, & Treating Epilepsy – Meet Dave Rosa, CEO, NeuroOne Medical Technologies $NMTCGuest: Dave Rosa, CEO, NeuroOne Medical Technologies $NMTCDave's BioDave Rosa is an entrepreneur with three decades of experience in the medical device industry spanning a variety of technologies and products. In addition to CEO roles with early-stage medical device companies, Mr. Rosa's background also includes senior roles with C.R. Bard Inc., Boston Scientific Inc., and St. Jude Medical, where his responsibilities included marketing, product development and business development. He has been named as an inventor on multiple medical device patents, serves on seven corporate boards, and has raised $200M in the capital markets. Mr. Rosa holds an MBA from Duquesne University and a BS in Commerce and Engineering from Drexel University.Mr. Rosa currently serves as the President and CEO of NeuroOne (Nasdaq: NMTC), a medical technology company that develops high-definition, minimally invasive diagnostic and therapeutic devices based on its unique thin film electrode technology. NeuroOne, Nasdaq: NMTCWebsitehttps://nmtc1.comCompany Bio NeuroOne Medical Technologies Corporation is a medical technology company focused on improving surgical care options and outcomes for patients suffering from neurological disorders. NeuroOne markets a minimally invasive and high-definition/high-precision electrode technology platform with four FDA-cleared product families: Evo(R) Cortical Electrodes, Evo(R) sEEG Electrodes, OneRF(R) Ablation System (for brain), and OneRF(R) Trigeminal Nerve Ablation System. These solutions offer the potential to reduce the number of hospitalizations and surgical procedures, lower costs, and improve patient outcomes by offering combination diagnostic and therapeutic functions. The Company is engaged in research and development for drug delivery and spinal cord stimulation programs.

In 2010, Michael Gomoll's 4-year-old son Joe died after battling a rare form of epilepsy, Dravet's Syndrome, his entire life. After years of misdiagnosis and wrong medications, Joe was finally able to be seizure-free. Upon his passing, they as a family decided they needed to do what they could to help "the next family". Somewhere, there is a set of parents in a neurologist's office getting a terrifying and confusing diagnosis. They need them to know there is a community out there that understands and is fighting for them. Website: https://www.joeyssong.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joeyssong Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joeyssong Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Joeys-Song You may also contact Professor of Perseverance through email, Jamesperduespeaks@comcast.net #epilepsy #perseverance #overcomingadversity #lifemission #motivational

Roy Cherry from The Epilepsy Center of Northwest Ohio joined Fred this morning with details on the Practically Golf Fundraiser being held Friday June 26th in Promenade Park

Epilepsy is a brain condition that causes repeated episodes of sudden, brief changes in the brain's electrical activity causing seizures or convulsions. It's thought 50-million people have the condition, which can't be cured. The right treatment can alleviate symptoms but diagnosis and treatment is limited in many countries.Consultant neurologist Sofia Eriksson is from Sweden and works in the UK at University College London Hospital where she used to be the hospital's clinical lead for epilepsy. She's president elect of the British Association of Neurologists. Sofia says it's important more people talk openly about the condition to help stop people who have it feeling so isolated.Betty Barbara Nsachilwa had her first seizure when she was 13 years old. It took 18 months to find the right medication that has kept her seizures under control since. She says she's been lucky to have the support of her family and colleagues but says many others in Zambia face discrimination and stigma. Betty Barbara co-founded the Epilepsy Association of Zambia in 2001 to increase awareness and education about the condition and support others living with epilepsy.(Image: (L) Betty Barbara Nsachilwa, courtesy Betty Barbara Nsachilwa. (R) Sofia Eriksson, credit Hannah Lovell.)

A groundbreaking study found that fifty hertz electromagnetic fields -- the same frequency as power lines -- actually improved memory and reduced brain damage in epileptic rats. This episode explores research that challenges our assumptions about EMF effects and reveals why the story of electromagnetic fields and health is far more complex than simple good-versus-bad narratives. We examine what this means for our understanding of EMF biology and how context matters more than we realized. In This Episode How power line frequency EMF improved cognitive function in epileptic animals Why this study challenges simplistic views of electromagnetic field effects What the research reveals about dosage, timing, and biological context in EMF science Featured Study Read the full study: Effect of ELF-EMF on cognitive functions, analgesia, and oxidative stress in rats with PTZ-induced epilepsy See all studies at shieldyourbody.com/research

What happens when life suddenly changes—and you're forced to choose between fear and faith?In this episode of Undeniable, Persaius Friesen shares her honest and inspiring journey through epilepsy, depression, and discovering a faith that became truly her own.From feeling trapped in darkness and isolation after her diagnosis, to hearing God speak through worship, prayer, and community, Persaius opens up about how God carried her through some of the hardest seasons of her life."The past three years that I've had epilepsy, my faith has grown drastically."This is a story about perseverance, stepping out in faith, and discovering that God is present, even in the darkest moments.

Overcoming Loss & Fighting Epilepsy With Music | Michael Gomoll Joey Gomoll died in 2010, just shy of his 5th birthday, after battling a rare form of epilepsy called Dravet's Syndrome his entire life. Upon his passing, his family started  a charity called Joey's Song to help raise money to fund research grants focused on finding treatments and cures for rare, intractable, pediatric epilepsies. In the 15-plus years since Joey's death, Joey's Song has grown from a few acoustic guitars in a sports bar to a multi-day concert series featuring Grammy winners and Rock n Roll Hall of Famers (Members of bands like Cheap Trick, Guns N Roses, The Go-Go's, The Bangles, Tears For Fears, Garbage, Portugal.The Man, Goo Goo Dolls, Eve 6, Everclear and many more). This amazing collection of musicians gathers every January in Madison, WI. They volunteer their time and talent, and form a series of supergroups throughout the weekend for a one-of-a-kind concert event.Since its inception, Joey's Song has been a part of over $ 2 million raised and has had over 10,000 attendees in just the last two years.Links:https://www.joeyssong.org/https://www.instagram.com/joeyssongTagspodcast for creatives,creative podcast,podcast creator interviews,professional podcast,creative podcasts,podcast host interviews,creative podcast ideas,Child Loss,epilepsy,Event Management,Family,Fundraising,Live Music,Music Festivals,Music Interviews,Music Production,Overcoming AdversitySupport PEG by checking out our Sponsors:Download and use Newsly for free now from www.newsly.me or from the link in the description, and use promo code “GHOST” and receive a 1-month free premium subscription.The best tool for getting podcast guests:https://podmatch.com/signup/phantomelectricghostSubscribe to our Instagram for exclusive content:https://www.instagram.com/expansive_sound_experiments/Subscribe to our YouTube https://youtube.com/@phantomelectricghost?si=rEyT56WQvDsAoRprRSShttps://anchor.fm/s/3b31908/podcast/rssSubstackhttps://substack.com/@phantomelectricghost?utm_source=edit-profile-page

Medical ketogenic therapy has more than 100 years of evidence behind it - so why is it still often treated as a last resort?! Ketogenic dietitian Neha Kaul explains how success can go beyond potential seizure reduction, and how the diet may affect cognition, mood and overall quality of life. Neha also covers common misconceptions, safety concerns, and what it really takes to make the diet work in everyday life.This episode is sponsored by Kanso, a brand by Dr. Schär and had no influence over the editorial content or discussion. Learn more about Kanso here: kanso.com/enChapters

Send comments and feedbackIn this Sharp Waves podcast episode “Epilepsy and Functional/Dissociative Seizures,” Wesley Kerr, MD, PhD, a statistician and epileptologist at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, joins Shruti Iyer, MD, a third year neurology resident at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, to discuss their recently published study on categorizing the probability of epilepsy in patients already diagnosed with functional dissociative seizures (FDS). The conversation highlights how this proposed framework may help clinicians better identify patients who could have coexisting epilepsy and improve diagnostic accuracy and treatment planning. The episode also notes that functional dissociative seizures were previously, and in some settings are still, referred to as psychogenic non epileptic seizures (PNES).You can access the research article here. Sharp Waves episodes are meant for informational purposes only, and not as clinical or medical advice.Let us know how we're doing:  info@ilae.orgThe International League Against Epilepsy is the world's preeminent association of health professionals and scientists, working toward a world where no person's life is limited by epilepsy. Visit us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Title: Thalamic Monitoring and Stimulation for Epilepsy Guest Faculty: Mark Richardson, MD Hosts: Chris Newman, MD and Seth Oliveria, MD In this episode of the Controversies in Neurosurgery podcast, we welcome Dr. Mark Richardson to discuss the growing use of thalamic monitoring and thalamic stimulation to understand and treat epilepsy. We review current clinical applications including patient selection during stereoEEG monitoring procedures and indications for thalamic deep brain stimulation and/or responsive neurostimulation for epilepsy. We also consider future applications of these techniques.

Darius made Kelly a mama at eighteen years old. Then he made her a nurse. And years later, after he was gone, he made her something else entirely, a certified grief counselor, an entrepreneur, and the founder of something beautiful that would not exist without him. That is the thread running through this entire conversation. Our children become our purpose. And when we find that purpose, they are wrapped up inside it completely. Darius Anthony was Kelly's oldest, born on Christmas Day, a gift announced to the world on the day the world was already celebrating. He was a class clown, a party in a person, a young man who dreamed of making a dent in the universe, not just for himself, but for other people. He became a realtor working specifically with first-time homebuyers, bought his own first home, and was preparing to flip it for someone just like them. He was 28 years old, thriving, and full of plans. On January 3rd, 2023, he died in his sleep from SUDEP, Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy. He had been diagnosed with epilepsy at eighteen, managed it well, and was living his life fully. Kelly and her husband were on a cruise ship in Mexico when the call came. Before January 3rd, 2023 and after. That is how Kelly divides her life now. In this conversation, Kelly speaks honestly about the grief journey. The permission a dear friend gave her to simply stop and just be. The Visionary Dreamer Award at his college that his colleagues announced at his funeral they were renaming in his honor. The autopsy report that arrived without warning on her second day back at work, and the ashes returned in what she can only describe as a biohazard container. Two moments that made her think: the death care industry has to do better. So she built something better. Timely Presence sends heirloom quality gifts on the predictable hard days, the birthday, the holiday season, the anniversary of the death, so that the people who love grieving families can show up right on time. Gifts that are not sad, Kelly says. Gifts that are reminders of love. Learn more at thetimelypresence.com. And perhaps the most beautiful moment in this conversation is near the end, when Kelly tells the story of Darius's best friend, who brought a framed photo of Darius to his own house closing. Because there was no way to do that moment without him. That is what it looks like when a life leaves a mark so deep that the people who loved him carry him forward into every milestone he never got to have. Darius made Kelly a mama, a nurse, and now a purpose. He is wrapped up in all of it.

Send comments and feedbackNearly one-third of people with autism also have epilepsy. Researchers aren't sure why. For people on the spectrum, epilepsy can prompt unique challenges. Seizure symptoms can be misinterpreted as common autistic behaviors. Treatment may also be difficult due to the stress of a clinical setting, or the impact of anti-seizure medications on autism symptoms. Currently, some experts argue that there is a lack of research in assessing these care pathways.  To learn more about diagnosis and treatment for people with autism and epilepsy, Joy Mazur spoke to Dr. Colin Reilly and Dr. Stéphane Auvin.Related studies/links:Epilepsy in patients with autism: links, risks and treatment challenges Besag FMC, et al., 2017Neurobehavioral Comorbidities in Children with Active Epilepsy: A Population-Based Study Reilly C, et al., 2014Traditional and non-traditional treatments for autism spectrum disorder with seizures: an on-line survey Frye RE, et al., 2011Epilepsy and autism - National Autistic Society Sharp Waves episodes are meant for informational purposes only, and not as clinical or medical advice.Let us know how we're doing:  info@ilae.orgThe International League Against Epilepsy is the world's preeminent association of health professionals and scientists, working toward a world where no person's life is limited by epilepsy. Visit us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Connecticut family therapist “Arlene,” a pseudonym, recently contacted the show to tell the story of her cousin, “Dee,” also a pseudonym, who told her in 1979 about her encounters with aliens. Dee reported that she enjoyed her interactions with the beings. They cured her children of physical disabilities, and also created a half-alien, half-human child using Dee's eggs.Support Extraterrestrial Reality/Quirk Zone on Patreon:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/Extraterrestrial_Reality⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out my YouTube channel:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quirk Zone - YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Extraterrestrial Reality Book Recommendations:Link to ROSWELL: THE ULTIMATE COLD CASE: CLOSED: https://amzn.to/3O2loSILink to COMMUNION by Whitley Strieber: https://amzn.to/3xuPGqiLink to THE THREAT by David M. Jacobs: https://amzn.to/3Lk52njLink to TOP SECRET/MAJIC by Stanton Friedman: https://amzn.to/3xvidfvLink to NEED TO KNOW by Timothy Good:  https://amzn.to/3BNftfTLink to UFOS AND THE NATIONAL SECURITY STATE, VOLUME 1:  https://amzn.to/3xxJvlvLink to UFOS AND THE NATIONAL SECURITY STATE, VOLUME 2: https://amzn.to/3UhdQ1lLink to THE ALLAGASH ABDUCTIONS: https://amzn.to/3qNkLSgUFO CRASH RETRIEVALS by Leonard Stringfield: https://amzn.to/3RGEZKsFLYING SAUCERS FROM OUTER SPACE by Major Donald Keyhoe: https://amzn.to/3S7WkxvCAPTURED: THE BETTY AND BARNEY HILL UFO EXPERIENCE by Stanton Friedman and Kathleen Marden: https://amzn.to/3tKNVXn#ufos #aliens #vegas aliens #ufo podcast

Connecticut family therapist “Arlene,” a pseudonym, recently contacted the show to tell the story of her cousin, “Dee,” also a pseudonym, who told her in 1979 about her encounters with aliens. Dee reported that she enjoyed her interactions with the beings. They cured her children of physical disabilities, and also created a half-alien, half-human child using Dee's eggs.Support Extraterrestrial Reality/Quirk Zone on Patreon:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/c/Extraterrestrial_Reality⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Check out my YouTube channel:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Quirk Zone - YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Extraterrestrial Reality Book Recommendations:Link to ROSWELL: THE ULTIMATE COLD CASE: CLOSED: https://amzn.to/3O2loSILink to COMMUNION by Whitley Strieber: https://amzn.to/3xuPGqiLink to THE THREAT by David M. Jacobs: https://amzn.to/3Lk52njLink to TOP SECRET/MAJIC by Stanton Friedman: https://amzn.to/3xvidfvLink to NEED TO KNOW by Timothy Good:  https://amzn.to/3BNftfTLink to UFOS AND THE NATIONAL SECURITY STATE, VOLUME 1:  https://amzn.to/3xxJvlvLink to UFOS AND THE NATIONAL SECURITY STATE, VOLUME 2: https://amzn.to/3UhdQ1lLink to THE ALLAGASH ABDUCTIONS: https://amzn.to/3qNkLSgUFO CRASH RETRIEVALS by Leonard Stringfield: https://amzn.to/3RGEZKsFLYING SAUCERS FROM OUTER SPACE by Major Donald Keyhoe: https://amzn.to/3S7WkxvCAPTURED: THE BETTY AND BARNEY HILL UFO EXPERIENCE by Stanton Friedman and Kathleen Marden: https://amzn.to/3tKNVXn#ufos #aliens #vegas aliens #ufo podcast

Dr. Sally Mathias, a neurologist and epileptologist at the Kentucky Neuroscience Institute, joins us to discuss epilepsy in older people. How prevalent are seizures in the elderly population and what most commonly causes them? Dr. Mathias also discusses her unique role helping veterans with epilepsy in the Lexington VA Healthcare system.

New research reveals that fifty hertz electromagnetic fields -- the same frequency as electrical power systems -- actually improved memory and reduced brain damage in epileptic rats. I'm diving into a fascinating study that challenges our assumptions about EMF effects. Turkish researchers found that power line frequency EMF exposure enhanced cognitive function and provided antioxidant protection in epileptic brain tissue. This counterintuitive finding highlights how much we still don't understand about electromagnetic field interactions with living systems. In This Episode How fifty hertz EMF improved learning and memory in epileptic rats Why this study challenges simple assumptions about EMF effects What this means for understanding EMF exposure in context Featured Study Read the full study: Effect of ELF-EMF on cognitive functions, analgesia, and oxidative stress in rats with PTZ-induced epilepsy See all studies at shieldyourbody.com/research

This month Sam Berkovic becomes the 21st president of the Australian Academy of Science. He chats with Robyn Williams about the challenges for science and the Academy.

In this panel discussion, Dr. Caitlin Hoffman speaks with Jennifer O'Connor on her daughter Claire's experiences with seizures and how she was treated through epilepsy surgery. Dr. Hoffman provides an initial overview of the complexities of seizures and epilepsy in child development. Then, Jennifer discusses Claire's condition and shares their family's heartfelt journey through fear, hope, and healing. Finally, the panelists highlight the role of surgery in managing the condition and why it can be a valuable treatment for controlling seizures and restoring quality of life.

A groundbreaking study found that fifty hertz electromagnetic fields -- the same frequency from power lines -- actually improved learning and memory in epileptic rats while reducing brain oxidative stress. This research challenges our assumptions about EMF effects and reveals how frequency, intensity, and biological context all matter when studying electromagnetic field interactions with living systems. In This Episode How fifty hertz EMF improved cognitive function in epileptic animals Why this study challenges simplistic views of electromagnetic field effects What this means for understanding power line frequency exposure Featured Study Read the full study: Gülmez K, Demirkazık A, Taşkıran AŞ See all studies at shieldyourbody.com/research

The link between sleep and epilepsy is powerful, complex, and often overlooked. We know that sleep loss and disruptions can trigger seizures in epileptic patients. We also know that repeated seizures during sleep can fragment sleep and reduce the brain's ability to recover. In this episode, we sit down with Dr Shukla, a neurologist specializing in Epilepsy and Sleep, and discuss the intersection of sleep and epilepsy. We talk about the link between sleep disorders and epilepsy, how doctors diagnose sleep-related issues in epilepsy and why treating sleep problems can be an important part of seizure management. Dr. Garima Shukla is a Professor of Neurology, specializing in Epilepsy and Sleep Medicine; and faculty at the Center for Neuroscience studies at the Queen's University in Kingston, ON, Canada. Her prior appointment was as Professor of Neurology at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India. Her research focuses on clinical and neurophysiological aspects of the sleep-epilepsy-cognition interface and epilepsy co-morbidities as well as neurological sleep disorders, particularly phenotypes and course of Restless legs syndrome. Her team is currently investigating the role of wake and sleep high-density EEG source localization in predicting overall epilepsy outcomes (seizure control, cognition and mood). Authors: Golnar Taheri, Eve Racette Email: thinktwicepodcast@outlook.com Instagram: @thinktwice_podcast LinkedIN: Think Twice Podcast Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ThinkTwicePodcast Disclaimer: Think Twice is a podcast for general information and entertainment purposes only. The content discussed in the episodes does not reflect the views of the podcast committee members or any institution they are affiliated with. The use of the information presented in this podcast is at the user's own risk and is not intended to replace professional healthcare services.

Making jokes about a medical condition - even if it's your own - can sometimes fall flat. 

Are you ready to stop being a victim of your diagnosis and become the master of your own body?In this powerful episode of Mind Body Medicine for Self-Healers, host Sarah Dawkins welcomes Karen Zuzu Armes, an international holistic health educator and founder of the School of Natural Medicine. Zuzu shares the science-backed, practical strategies she used to reverse "permanent" conditions: epilepsy, scoliosis and arthritis.We Explore:The GABA Connection: How Zuzu ended 34 years of seizures by repairing her nervous system with GABA-rich foods and healthy oils.The Truth About Topical Oils: Why coconut oil won't absorb into your skin and why Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the secret "humectant" for delivering minerals like magnesium into your body.Reversing Scoliosis: A deep dive into Myofascial Release, the "Angel of Pain" and how stretching and oxygenation can literally straighten the spine.Healing Arthritis with Alkalinity: Why arthritis only thrives in an acidic environment and how Zuzu used collagen and a pH-balanced diet (80/20 rule) to clear spinal inflammation.The Frequency of Emotion: The fascinating link between stuck emotions and physical organs, why anger lives in the liver and sorrow in the lungs.The "Master of Your Body" Mindset: Zuzu's ultimate tip for anyone facing a health crisis and how to find your "inner pharmacy."Key Highlights & Timestamps:03:33 Why your nervous system is made of the oils you eat.11:10 Reversing scoliosis at age 55 through fascia manipulation.20:46 The ultimate list of GABA-rich foods (from almonds to shiitake mushrooms).25:50 Debunking the Coconut Oil Myth: Why it's not the best carrier for topical healing.28:55 The emotional roots of arthritis: How releasing trauma can heal the joints.30:40 Organ frequencies: Understanding how the liver, kidneys, and heart vibrational frequencies with specific emotions.33:10 "Where focus goes, energy flows"—Zuzu's final message on self-belief.Karen's Bio Karen “ZuZu” Ziemer Armes is a holistic health educator, author and speaker known for her practical, science-backed approach to helping people restore and sustain vibrant health. After reversing her own epilepsy, scoliosis, and arthritis through holistic strategies, ZuZu has dedicated decades to empowering others to reclaim their health. She has presented more than 2,500 seminars, authored four health books and guided thousands through transformative, action-oriented education.ZuZu is the co-founder and co-owner of Holistic Health Educators (HHE) and Lilly Fields Retreat Center, where she leads a global holistic health education platform serving over 45,000 wellness seekers worldwide. Her work focuses on gut and cellular healing, sustainable energy and integrative longevity, blending lived experience with accessible science to inspire confidence, awareness, and lasting health transformation.Connect with Zuzu www.ZuZuUnleashed.comhttps://www.instagram.com/lillyfieldscenter/ https://www.facebook.com/LillyFieldsWC/Who am I? Sarah Dawkins is a passionate Holistic Health and Healing Coach, international speaker and author of Heal Yourself. She's also a multi-award-winning entrepreneur and the award-winning host of the uplifting podcast Mind Body Medicine for Self Healers with Sarah Dawkins.With over 20 years' experience as a Registered Nurse, Sarah combines her deep understanding of conventional medicine with her own powerful self-healing journey to create a truly integrative approach. Having overcome multiple chronic health challenges herself, she now supports others in uncovering and addressing the root causes of their symptoms, helping them restore balance, reclaim their energy and create lasting, vibrant wellness.www.sarahdawkins.com#epilepsytreatment #scoliosistreatment #arthritisrelief #naturalhealing

What does it look like when life changes in an instant—and a family learns to navigate the unimaginable? In this episode of Inside the Children's Hospital, Katie Taylor sits down with Marah, a mom of four, who shares her daughter Abigail's journey after a cardiac arrest at just nine days old. What began as a healthy twin pregnancy quickly shifted into a complex medical path involving a NICU stay, life support, and long-term care needs. As Marah and her husband entered the world of medical parenting, they faced fear, uncertainty, and overwhelming decisions. Through it all, they leaned on their care team, family support, and each other—learning how to advocate, adapt, and ultimately find moments of joy within the journey. This conversation highlights the realities of raising a medically complex child, the power of community, and how resilience is built over time. You'll hear: What it was like navigating a sudden cardiac arrest in a newborn The early days in the NICU and learning to care for a medically complex child How Marah advocated for family presence and support during hospitalization The transition from crisis to confidence in managing trach and G-tube care How community, connection, and shared experiences shaped their journey The emotional realities of ongoing medical challenges, including epilepsy This is a story of advocacy, growth, and finding strength in the most unexpected places. What You'll Learn in This Episode Why learning CPR and emergency preparedness can be life-saving for families How to advocate for your child and communicate your needs with care teams The role of multidisciplinary care in managing complex medical conditions What life at home can look like with medical equipment and home nursing support How community and peer support impact long-term coping and resilience The importance of asking for help and building a sustainable support system How perspectives can shift from grief to gratitude over time   Key Takeaways Even in the most overwhelming moments, support, advocacy, and connection can carry families forward—and help transform crisis into a new kind of strength.   Connect with Marah Instagram: In Good Complexity Resources Mentioned Emergency Preparedness for Families Infant & Child CPR (American Red Cross) https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/cpr/performing-cpr/child-baby-cpr Trach & G-Tube Care Resources Feeding Tube Awareness Foundation https://www.feedingtubeawareness.org Building Community & Support Parent to Parent USA https://www.p2pusa.org Trach Support Mom's of Trach Babies https://www.facebook.com/groups/momsoftrachbabies/   Connect with Us Subscribe: Never miss an episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Visit insidethechildrenshospital.com to search stories and episodes easily Follow us on Instagram for updates and opportunities to connect with other parents Download SupportSpot: receive Child Life tools at your fingertips. Leave a Review: It helps other families find us and access our resources! Medical information provided is not a substitute for professional advice—please consult your care team. Pediatric Health, Medical Parenting, NICU Journey, Infant Cardiac Arrest, Medically Complex Child, Children's Hospital, Pediatric Critical Care, Family-Centered Care, Patient Advocacy, Tracheostomy, G-Tube Feeding, Epilepsy in Children, Special Needs Parenting, Caregiver Support, Resilience

An unhinged director/A cursed jumpscare video   Patreon (Get ad-free episodes, Patreon Discord Access, and more!) https://www.patreon.com/user?u=18482113 PayPal Donation Link https://tinyurl.com/mrxe36ph MERCH STORE!!! https://tinyurl.com/y8zam4o2 Amazon Wish List https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/28CIOGSFRUXAD?ref_=wl_share Dead Rabbit Radio Archive Episodes https://deadrabbitradio.blogspot.com/2025/07/ episode-archive.html https://archive.ph/UELip Dead Rabbit Radio Recommends Master List https://letterboxd.com/dead_rabbit/list/dead-rabbit-radio-recommends/   Help Promote Dead Rabbit! Dual Flyer https://i.imgur.com/OhuoI2v.jpg "As Above" Flyer https://i.imgur.com/yobMtUp.jpg "Alien Flyer" By TVP VT U https://imgur.com/gallery/aPN1Fnw "QR Code Flyer" by Finn https://imgur.com/a/aYYUMAh   Links: Twiztid - Freek Show - Do You Really Know? https://youtu.be/ZdNgcsPwCME?si=WZNRYcBRo4iucLGL Twiztid - "Ghost" [Official Music Video] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5Gpi9eFgdI&list=WL&index=3 Serial Killer Collection Blu-ray 2017 Cult Horror Andrea Hall Mel Heflin https://archive.ph/jcx03 Bill Zebub https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1754496/?ref_=tt_ov_2_1 Scienceless Fiction Trailer 3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlCt4eZkYjc SCIENCELESS FICTION Fight Scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Luom5GScwI Assmonster Blooper with Bill Zebub https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kddnu3egay0 Star Trek parody by Bill Zebub https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObWNeZXh-TU Something I witnessed as a child that I've never been able to explain (Jumpscare Demon Possession Jump Scare story) https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueScaryStories/comments/1qhor9t/something_i_witnessed_as_a_child_that_ive_never/ Archive https://archive.ph/p9FfT Out-of-body experiences associated with seizures https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3923147/ Out of body? https://www.reddit.com/r/Epilepsy/comments/1co0ooz/out_of_body/ Donald Trump and the "Amazing" Alex Jones https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/donald-trump-and-the-amazing-alex-jones Alex Jones and Donald Trump: How the Candidate Echoed the Conspiracy Theorist on the Campaign Trail https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/alex-jones-and-donald-trump-how-the-candidate-echoed-the-conspiracy-theorist-on-the-campaign-trail/ Wishmaster 2 - The Lawyer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMMPwGst8X4 Revelation Road 2: The Sea of Glass and Fire https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2825924/   ------------------------------------------------ Logo Art By Ash Black Opening Song: "Atlantis Attacks" Closing Song: "Bella Royale" Music By Simple Rabbitron 3000 created by Eerbud Thanks to Chris K, Founder Of The Golden Rabbit Brigade Dead Rabbit Archivist Some Weirdo On Twitter AKA Jack YouTube Champ: Stewart Meatball Reddit Champ: TheLast747 The Haunted Mic Arm provided by Chyme Chili Discord Mods: Mason, Rudie Jazz Forever Fluffle: Cantillions, Samson, Gregory Gilbertson, Jenny The Cat http://www.DeadRabbit.com Email: DeadRabbitRadio@gmail.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/DeadRabbitRadio Facebook: www.Facebook.com/DeadRabbitRadio TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@deadrabbitradio Dead Rabbit Radio Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/DeadRabbitRadio/ Paranormal News Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ParanormalNews/ Mailing Address Jason Carpenter PO Box 1363 Hood River, OR 97031 Paranormal, Conspiracy, and True Crime news as it happens! Jason Carpenter breaks the stories they'll be talking about tomorrow, assuming the world doesn't end today. All Contents Of This Podcast Copyright Jason Carpenter 2018 - 2025

I bust through the third wall or whatevs in Episode 10 of TSC Talks 3.0 Research. Dropped the whiteboard til the end. Summed up the 9 episodes and added a bit on the end about CPTSD, TAND and the fact that the entire family system is drawn into the grid as data churnin' emotin' node. Used the Google AI to investigate the theories I had on amplification of TSC by multiple factors for purpose and product and it proved true based on the research plus lived experience thus far.Source Links for Further ResearchI. Rare Disease Advocacy and Funding (Conflicts of Interest)[TSC Alliance: Corporate Policies](https://www.tscalliance.org/about-tsc/corporate-policies/)[TSC Alliance: COVID-19 Vaccine Position Statement](https://www.tscalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/TSC-Alliance-COVID-19-Vaccine-Position-Statement-Update-August-2021-FINAL.pdf)[TSC Alliance: Phenotypic Variability Research](https://www.tscalliance.org/tsc-matters/phenotypic-variability-in-tuberous-sclerosis-complex-tsc/)[TSC Alliance: 2024 Talking Points](https://www.tscalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/2024-Talking-Points-Final.pdf)[NORD: Mission and Values](https://rarediseases.org/about-us/mission-values/)[NORD: Research Grant Programs](https://rarediseases.org/advancing-research/research-grant-programs/) [EURORDIS: Our Funding](https://www.eurordis.org/who-we-are/our-funding/)[Mass General: Herscot $50 Million Gift](https://giving.massgeneral.org/stories/herscots-make-50-million-gift-to-mass-general)[NEJM: Industry Support for Patient Advocacy](https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsr1610625)II. Gene Therapy (CRISPR), Risks, and Regulation [FDA: Cellular & Gene Therapy Products](https://www.fda.gov/vaccines-blood-biologics/cellular-gene-therapy-products)[CRISPR-Cas9 Off-Target Effects (Synthego)](https://www.synthego.com/blog/crispr-off-target-editing/)[CRISPR: Genome Engineering Advantages and Limitations (Taconic)](https://www.taconic.com/resources/crispr-genome-engineering-advantages-limitations)[FDA: Regulatory Distinctions for Cell and Gene Therapies (LinkedIn)](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fda-vs-ema-key-regulatory-distinctions-cell-gene-therapies-ywzye) [Informed Consent and Clinical Trials (PMC)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2659702/) [Immune Evasion in Engineered CRISPR Enzymes (Broad Institute)](https://www.broadinstitute.org/news/scientists-engineer-crispr-enzymes-evade-immune-system) [The Ethics of Gene Editing (Innovative Genomics)](https://innovativegenomics.org/crisprpedia/crispr-ethics/)III. Vaccines, Toxins, and Environmental Amplification [TSC Drug Market & Prevalence (OpenPR)](https://www.openpr.com/news/3536609/tuberous-sclerosis-complex-drug-market-2034-epidemiology)[Vaccines and the Rise in Pediatric Cancer (The Vaccine Reaction)](https://thevaccinereaction.org/2018/05/is-there-a-link-between-vaccines-and-the-rise-in-pediatric-cancer/) [Study of Vaccinated and Unvaccinated Children (Weston A. Price)](https://www.westonaprice.org/health-topics/vaccinations/chronic-disease-a-study-of-vaccinated-and-unvaccinated-children/#gsc.tab=0)[Role of Environmental Toxins in Epigenetic Dysregulation (PLM Institute)](https://plminstitute.org/plmi-blog/the-role-of-environmental-toxins-in-epigenetic-dysregulation/) [Childhood Vaccination Schedule Explosion (Twitter - NVICLoeDown)](https://twitter.com/NVICLoeDown/status/1687176816774033408) [COVID-19 Vaccine Added to Childhood Schedule (Children's Health Defense)](https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/childhood-covid-vaccine-schedule/) [The Role of Environmental Exposures in Genetic Disease (PMC)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4021822/)IV. Alternative and Holistic Approaches[Ketogenic Diet Inhibits the mTOR Pathway (AESnet)](https://aesnet.org/abstractslisting/the-ketogenic-diet-inhibits-the-mammalian-target-of-rapamycin-(mtor)-pathway)[Ketogenic Diet for Epilepsy in TSC (PMC)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5540690/) [Curcumin Inhibits mTOR Activity (ScienceDirect)](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0944711318304860)[Natural Treatment for TSC (Inspire Forum)](https://www.inspire.com/groups/tuberous-sclerosis-complex/discussion/natural-treatment-for-tsc/)[Natural Products and Patenting (PMC)](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8521639/) [Anti-Inflammatory Living (Holistic Health Code)](https://www.holistichealthcode.com/articles/unlocking-metabolic-health)contact Jill: pjlacy6@gmail.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/tsc-talks--1666046/support.

Dr. Wilner would love your feedback! Click here to send a text! Thanks!Many thanks to Phillip Pearl, MD, for joining me on this episode of The Art of Medicine with Dr. Andrew Wilner. Dr. Pearl is a pediatric neurologist and Director of Epilepsy and Clinical Neurophysiology at Boston Children's Hospital, in Boston, MA. He is also a serious musician and has performed in the Longwood Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Pearl is a member of the Music and Health Institute at the Berklee College of Music. Dr. Pearl's love of music has even overflowed to his wife, who is now taking piano lessons! Dr. Pearl's new book, Please click "Fanmail" and share your feedback!If you enjoy an episode, please share with friends and colleagues. "The Art of Medicine with Dr. Andrew Wilner" is now available on Alexa! Just say, "Play podcast The Art of Medicine with Dr. Andrew Wilner!" To never miss a program, subscribe at www.andrewwilner.com. Follow me on Instagram: @andrewwilnermdX: @drwilnerlinkedin.com/in/drwilner Please rate and review each episode. To contact Dr. Wilner or to join the mailing list: www.andrewwilner.comThis production has been made possible in part by support from “The Art of Medicine's” wonderful sponsor, Locumstory.com, a resource where providers can get real, unbiased answers about locum tenens. If you are interested in locum tenens, or considering a new full-time position, please go to Locumstory.com.Or paste this link into your browser:https://locumstory.com/?source=DSP_directbuy_drwilnerpodcast...

Send comments and feedbackWhat is autoimmune-associated epilepsy, and how is it different from acute seizures with an autoimmune cause? How can clinicians best diagnose and treat these conditions? Sharp Waves reporter Dr. Maryam Nabavi-Nouri spoke with Dr. Claude Steriade.Claude Steriade, MD, CM is originally from Quebec City, Canada. She completed medical school at McGill University in Montreal, followed by an adult neurology residency at the University of Toronto. Dr. Steriade then completed a two-year epilepsy fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic before joining the epilepsy center at New York University. Relevant articles:Acute symptomatic seizures secondary to autoimmune encephalitis and autoimmune-associated epilepsy: Conceptual definitionsDiscerning the Role of Autoimmunity and Autoantibodies in Epilepsy: A Review --This episode was reported by Dr. Maryam Nabavi-Nouri, and edited and produced by Nancy Volkers. Sharp Waves episodes are meant for informational purposes only, and not as clinical or medical advice.Let us know how we're doing:  info@ilae.orgThe International League Against Epilepsy is the world's preeminent association of health professionals and scientists, working toward a world where no person's life is limited by epilepsy. Visit us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

A medical mystery/A cat man haunts an cruel boy/A ghost girl who hates drugs Fan Art by Cretin Cave Productions Dead Rabbit Radio Movie night April 24th 7pm PST Join the Patreon, Free or Paid, for more info! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=18482113 Dead Rabbit Radio Movie Morning April 25th 9am PST Follow me on  https://www.youtube.com/@DeadRabbitRadio or any of my socials for more info! Patreon (Get ad-free episodes, Patreon Discord Access, and more!) https://www.patreon.com/user?u=18482113 PayPal Donation Link https://tinyurl.com/mrxe36ph MERCH STORE!!! https://tinyurl.com/y8zam4o2 Amazon Wish List https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/28CIOGSFRUXAD?ref_=wl_share Dead Rabbit Radio Archive Episodes https://deadrabbitradio.blogspot.com/2025/07/ episode-archive.html https://archive.ph/UELip Dead Rabbit Radio Recommends Master List https://letterboxd.com/dead_rabbit/list/dead-rabbit-radio-recommends/ Help Promote Dead Rabbit! Dual Flyer https://i.imgur.com/OhuoI2v.jpg "As Above" Flyer https://i.imgur.com/yobMtUp.jpg "Alien Flyer" By TVP VT U https://imgur.com/gallery/aPN1Fnw "QR Code Flyer" by Finn https://imgur.com/a/aYYUMAh Links: Brian Blackwood https://brian-blackwood.com/ EP 1410 - Dream Girl (Suicide Ghost Ghost Ages Brother Guardian Angel episode) https://deadrabbitradio.libsyn.com/ep-1410-dream-girl Facts & Statistics About Epilepsy https://www.epilepsy.com/what-is-epilepsy/statistics Maine CDC's Post https://www.facebook.com/MaineCDC/posts/1-in-10-people-will-have-a-seizure-at-some-point-in-their-lifelearn-how-to-provi/821187703381435/ Epilepsy https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/epilepsy/symptoms-causes/syc-20350093 Hood River County Public Service Announcements https://www.hoodrivercounty.gov/index.asp?SEC=AF40862A-8B0E-4107-B2B4-956029C71941&DE=11E4744C-DDC6-4DBD-8F95-B86EFBB310E6 Seizure Management in Creutzfeldt-jakob Disease https://aesnet.org/abstractslisting/seizure-management-in-creutzfeldt-jakob-disease Probable sporadic Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease mimicking focal epilepsy https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6369248/ Two Deaths in Oregon County Linked to Fatal Brain Disorder https://www.neurologyadvisor.com/news/two-deaths-oregon-county-fatal-brain-disorder/ Hood River County health officials say 2 deaths linked to rare brain disease https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igGoljRxpi0&t=1s I threw a sick cat at sea and haunted me afterwards later that night https://archive.ph/x4H19 I threw a sick cat at sea and haunted me afterwards later that night [ Removed by moderator ] https://www.reddit.com/r/Paranormal/comments/1ryo7v5/removed_by_moderator/ Spooky Stories and Personal Experiences: The Thread (Ghost Girl Ghost Ages Dryad Butthole story) https://archive.ph/qiIyI Peganum harmala https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peganum_harmala Syrian rue tea: a recipe for disaster https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18803088/ ------------------------------------------------ Logo Art By Ash Black Opening Song: "Atlantis Attacks" Closing Song: "Bella Royale" Music By Simple Rabbitron 3000 created by Eerbud Thanks to Chris K, Founder Of The Golden Rabbit Brigade Dead Rabbit Archivist Some Weirdo On Twitter AKA Jack YouTube Champ: Stewart Meatball Reddit Champ: TheLast747 The Haunted Mic Arm provided by Chyme Chili Discord Mods: Mason, Rudie Jazz Forever Fluffle: Cantillions, Samson, Gregory Gilbertson, Jenny the Cat http://www.DeadRabbit.com Email: DeadRabbitRadio@gmail.com Facebook: www.Facebook.com/DeadRabbitRadio TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@deadrabbitradio Dead Rabbit Radio Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/DeadRabbitRadio/ Paranormal News Subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ParanormalNews/ Mailing Address Jason Carpenter PO Box 1363 Hood River, OR 97031 Paranormal, Conspiracy, and True Crime news as it happens! Jason Carpenter breaks the stories they'll be talking about tomorrow, assuming the world doesn't end today. All Contents Of This Podcast Copyright Jason Carpenter 2018 - 2026

This week on the podcast I'm very lucky to be sitting down with ultra marathon runner and father of 2, Rafael Garcia. Rafael walks us through his daughters battles with epilepsy from the very beginner and how this has inspired his work with 1in25. Next month Raf will be running from Sydney to Canberra to raise awareness about Epilepsy as well as carry some other families story to parliament house. 1IN25 Foundation is a Gold Coast-based Australian charity (registered 2025) supporting families living with epilepsy, founded on the statistic that 1 in 25 Australians will be diagnosed with the condition. Head over to 1in25.co to find out more!COOLDAD MERCH IS LIVE! HOODIES, SHIRTS, HATS: www.cooldadco.comCoolDadCollective is a place for real, relatable stories and experiences around fatherhood to so you know that you are not alone. None of us really know what we're doing but we're all just trying to our best. Join the community for weekly episodes around the different aspects of fatherhood and becoming a dad! Join the CoolDadCollective Cool Dads on facebook now!https://www.facebook.com/groups/904683901198809/Got a question about fatherhood? Send it in!If you're really enjoying the podcast swing it a rating and review where ever your listening or share the link with another dad!

This week, I interviewed Zuzu Armes, the "Cell Health Protector."  She shares her experience in reversing her own epilepsy, scoliosis, and arthritis with natural methods.  She is one of the leading voices in herbal medicine and natural health, an author and a hands on practitioner at  Lilly Fields Retreat Center in Georgia.  Be sure to check out https://www.zuzuunleashed.com/Also, I am back on Youtube Please subscribe to my channel: @judsoncarroll5902   Judson Carroll - YouTubeBlind Boy Fuller Corrine, What Makes You Treat Me So? Guitar (Piedmont Blues Fingerstyle Tutorial)Learn how to play “Corrine, What Makes You Treat Me So” in the style of Blind Boy Fuller with this detailed Piedmont blues guitar lesson. This tutorial breaks down the signature lick, syncopated rhythm, and fingerstyle techniques that make this classic blues tune both beautiful and challenging.https://youtu.be/JwigpO6GD5gEmail: judson@judsoncarroll.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/southern-appalachian-herbs--4697544/supportRead about The Spring Foraging Cookbook: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-spring-foraging-cookbook.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CRP63R54Medicinal Weeds and Grasses of the American Southeast, an Herbalist's Guidehttps://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/05/medicinal-weeds-and-grasses-of-american.htmlAvailable in paperback on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C47LHTTHandConfirmation, an Autobiography of Faithhttps://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2023/05/confirmation-autobiography-of-faith.htmlAvailable in paperback on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C47Q1JNKVisit my Substack and sign up for my free newsletter:https://judsoncarroll.substack.com/Read about my new other books:Medicinal Ferns and Fern Allies, an Herbalist's Guide https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/11/medicinal-ferns-and-fern-allies.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BMSZSJPSThe Omnivore's Guide to Home Cooking for Preppers, Homesteaders, Permaculture People and Everyone Else: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-omnivores-guide-to-home-cooking-for.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGKX37Q2Medicinal Shrubs and Woody Vines of The American Southeast an Herbalist's Guidehttps://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/06/medicinal-shrubs-and-woody-vines-of.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B2T4Y5L6andGrowing Your Survival Herb Garden for Preppers, Homesteaders and Everyone Elsehttps://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/04/growing-your-survival-herb-garden-for.htmlhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B09X4LYV9RThe Encyclopedia of Medicinal Bitter Herbs: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-encyclopedia-of-bitter-medicina.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B5MYJ35RandChristian Medicine, History and Practice: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2022/01/christian-herbal-medicine-history-and.htmlAvailable for purchase on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B09P7RNCTBHerbal Medicine for Preppers, Homesteaders and Permaculture People: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/2021/10/herbal-medicine-for-preppers.htmlAlso available on Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B09HMWXL25Podcast:  https://www.spreaker.com/show/southern-appalachian-herbsBlog: https://southernappalachianherbs.blogspot.com/Free Video Lessons: Herbal Medicine 101 - YouTube https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7QS6b0lQqEclaO9AB-kOkkvlHr4tqAbs

The history of Tuberous Sclerosis Complex.they're juicing it.Some queries related to the complexity of epigenetic variables and the overlords decision to focus on genetics only for the sake of "simplicity"...Just my opinion?I welcome all listeners and critical thinkers.

Ever struggled with your health and wanted an alternative option for treatment? That's what lead this mother-daugther duo, Karen (Zuzu) and Amy Armes to develop and create Holistic Health Educators (HHE) and Lilly Fields Retreat Center In this episode of the Mind Movement Health podcast they share their personal journeys into holistic health and the importance of understanding women's health. They discuss the significance of gut health, nutrition, and the integration of Eastern and Western medicine. The conversation emphasizes the role of movement, the benefits of retreats, and the importance of organic food in maintaining health. The episode concludes with practical advice for listeners on how to take charge of their health and well-being.   Timestamps: (00:00) Introduction to Holistic Health and Family Dynamics (02:49) Karen's Journey to Natural Health (05:49) Understanding the Body and Holistic Approaches (09:12) Gut Health: Myths and Realities (12:09) Nutrition for Gut Healing (15:11) Overcoming Skepticism in Holistic Health (18:00) Integrating Eastern and Western Medicine (21:07) The Role of Retreats in Health Transformation (27:42) The Transformative Power of Retreats (30:11) Building Connections Through Shared Experiences (31:46) Foundational Health Habits for Wellness (34:34) The Importance of Movement in Health (39:00) The Role of Nutrition in Health (46:55) Mindset and Emotional Health as Key Drivers (53:15) Connecting with ZuZu and Amy   More about Karen (Zuzu) and Amy Karen “ZuZu” Ziemer Armes is a holistic health educator, author, and speaker known for her practical, science-backed approach to helping people feel at home in their bodies—often calling her talks “bodcasts.” After reversing her own epilepsy, scoliosis, and arthritis through holistic strategies, ZuZu has dedicated decades to empowering others to reclaim their health. She has presented over 2,500 seminars, authored four health books, and led thousands through transformative, action-oriented classes. Together with her daughter Amy, a Johns Hopkins–trained MPH, ZuZu is co-founder and co-owner of Holistic Health Educators (HHE) and Lilly Fields Retreat Center. As a mother-daughter leadership team, they guide a global holistic health education platform serving more than 45,000 wellness seekers worldwide, with a shared focus on gut and cellular healing, sustainable energy, and integrative longevity. ZuZu and Amy combine lived experience, accessible science, and a welcoming, empowering approach to inspire confidence, awareness, and lasting health transformation.   Connect with Karen and Amy: https://www.instagram.com/lillyfieldscenter/ https://www.facebook.com/LillyFieldsWC/ www.ZuZuUnleashed.com www.LillyFieldsCenter.com  

The Anneliese Michel exorcism remains one of the most disturbing and controversial cases in modern religious history—a story of alleged demonic possession, failed medical treatment, Catholic ritual, and a young woman whose death still fuels arguments about faith, mental illness, epilepsy, and neglect. In this episode of Terrifying & True, we go beyond the sensational “real exorcism” legend and into the documented tragedy behind the case: a deeply religious woman in West Germany, months of ritual intervention, a body wasting away in plain sight, and the horrifying question of what happens when conviction replaces care. We trace the full arc of the case, from Anneliese Michel's early medical struggles and reported seizures to the growing belief that she was possessed, the Church-approved exorcism rites carried out by Fathers Ernst Alt and Arnold Renz, and the devastating collapse that ended in her death on July 1, 1976. The episode also follows the aftermath: the criminal trial, the role of her parents, the suspended sentences for negligent homicide, and the reason this case still endures as one of the darkest intersections of Catholic exorcism, psychological suffering, and preventable death. Inside this episode:Who Anneliese Michel was before the case became world-famousEpilepsy, psychiatric symptoms, and spiritual interpretationHow the possession narrative took holdThe months-long Catholic exorcism ritesWhy medical treatment stoppedHer death from malnutrition and dehydrationThe 1978 trial of her parents and the priestsWhy the real horror is more disturbing than the legendIf you're drawn to true exorcism stories, real demonic possession cases, Catholic horror, paranormal true crime, religious mystery, and the devastating gray area where belief and mental illness collide, this episode is essential listening. The Anneliese Michel case is frightening not because it might prove a demon was in the room—but because a suffering young woman was, and the people around her could no longer see her clearly enough to save her.We're telling that story tonight.

Childhood epilepsy, medical treatment, and the power of a mother and son working together. Filmmaker Emma Matthews and her son Louis Petit have created a new film, along with his father Chris Petit. D is for Distance focuses on Louis's own experience of severe, drug‑resistant epilepsy. He suffered hundreds of seizures, frightening drug withdrawals and years of uncertainty — until they travelled to the Netherlands to get medical cannabis. Their film opens today at the British Film Institute in London. Emma and Louis join Anita Rani, along with Professor Finbar O'Callaghan from the Epilepsy Research Institute.The sale of second hand clothing is forecast to rise this year to £217bn globally. Here in the UK it's estimated the market has grown to more than £7bn, and nearly one in four fashion transactions. So why are women turning to resale sites like Vinted and Depop? Consumer expert Kate Hardcastle, founder of Insight With Passion, tells us where this growth is coming from and discusses future trends. Composer Tansy Davies tells Anita about The Passion of Mary Magdelene, which has just premiered at The Barbican in London and will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Saturday 4 April at 10.30pm. The piece tells the story of the crucifixion through Jesus's most important female follower and the first person to witness the resurrection. Tansy talks about why she wanted to focus on Mary and examines the conflicting views about Mary Magdalene.In her new book Herlands, BBC global reporter Megha Mohan explores the history of women-led communities both physically and virtually, from co-housing for older women in Paris to the controversial feminist online trolls of South Korea. Megha travelled around the globe to hear from the women who created and care for these communities, which offer refuge, resilience, and connection to the land. Producer: Melanie Abbott Editor: Sarah Crawley

Dr. Derek Stitt and Dr. Page B. Pennell discuss antiseizure medication management during pregnancy and postpartum, based on the MONEAD study.  Show citation:  Pennell PB, Li D, Kerr WT, et al. Antiseizure Medication Dosing Strategy During Pregnancy and Early Postpartum in Women With Epilepsy in MONEAD. Neurology. 2026;106(2):e214483. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000214483 

Dr. Derek Stitt talks with Dr. Page B. Pennell about antiseizure medication management during pregnancy and postpartum, based on the MONEAD study.  Read the related article in Neurology®.  Disclosures can be found at Neurology.org. 

She sings! She acts! She hosts the epilepsy walk! She is a WARRIOR! This week on Talk About It, Greg sits down with a guest who is SO overdue for an interview that we can't believe she hasn't been on yet! Audrey Kaller is a singer and an actress who is racking up quite an impressive stretch in her young career with a brand new single, "Mood Swing Lover" coming out alongside a great performance on ABC's The Rookie debuting this weekend. What is most impressive, though, is that she is relentless in talking openly about her epilepsy diagnosis, and advocating everywhere she goes for seizure first aid and awareness. Audrey recalls her journey with epilepsy from the age of 13, when she had her first grand mal seizure at her friend's bat mitzvah, and into college when her sorority sisters abandoned her on the front lawn during an episode where she was having multiple seizures that risked her life. Additionally, we hear her brand new single in FULL, and Greg recaps the incredible Walk for Epilepsy that just happened at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, hosted by Audrey! Team Talk About It! was out there and we hear from an inspiring young couple whose infant son was diagnosed with epilepsy. This is a packed episode, and you don't want to miss a minute of it! Talk About It with Greg Grunberg is excited to be sponsored by Neurelis and by Jazz Pharmaceuticals. 

When Commander Riker is working his way through some deleted scenes of a TNG episode, he skips ahead to the good part on the holodeck where Shran shows up to ask for Captain Archer's help. But after diverting the NX-01 to rescue Shran's daughter, we lose a beloved character and Riker finally feels ready to defy Admiral Pressman's orders. What do the FoDs deserve? Who is fair game on the holodeck? When does HIPAA not apply? It's the episode that wants to talk Dr. Star Trek into a new drink. Support the production of The Greatest Generation Get a thing at podshop.biz! Sign up for our mailing list! Follow The Game of Buttholes: The Will of the Riker - Quantum Leap The Greatest Generation is produced by Wynde Priddy Social media is managed by Rob Adler and Bill Tilley Music by Adam Ragusea & Dark Materia Friends of DeSoto for: Labor | Democracy | Justice Discuss the show using the hashtag #GreatestGen and find us on social media: YouTube | Instagram | Bluesky And check out these online communities run by FODs:  Reddit | USS Hood Discord | Facebook group | Wikia | FriendsOfDeSoto.social Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kelly Cervantes is a writer, speaker, blogger, and rare disease advocate who lost her 3-year-old daughter to a severe form of epilepsy in 2019.  Her newest book, "The Luckiest: A Memoir of Love, Loss, Motherhood, and the Pursuit of Self," is a memoir detailing her personal growth through life's ultimate turmoil.

Dr. Hoffman continues his conversation with Dr. Bret Scher, medical director of the Coalition for Metabolic Health.

What makes a character so compelling that readers will forgive almost anything about the plot? How do you move beyond vague flaws and generic descriptions to create people who feel pulled from real life? In this solo episode, I share 15 actionable tips for writing deep characters, curated from past interviews on the podcast. In the intro, thoughts from London Book Fair [Instagram reel @jfpennauthor; Publishing Perspectives; Audible; Spotify]; Insights from a 7-figure author business [BookBub]. This show is supported by my Patrons. Join my Community and get articles, discounts, and extra audio and video tutorials on writing craft, author business, and AI tools, at Patreon.com/thecreativepenn This episode has been created from previous episodes of The Creative Penn Podcast, curated by Joanna Penn, as well as chapters from How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book. Links to the individual episodes are included in the transcript below. In this episode: Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' trifecta, how to hook readers on the very first page Define the Dramatic Question: Who is your character when the chips are down? Absolute specificity. Why “she's controlling” isn't good enough Understand the Heroine's Journey, strength through connection, not solo action Use ‘Metaphor Families' to anchor dialogue and give every character a distinctive voice Find the Diagnostic Detail, the moments that prove a character is real Writing pain onto the page without writing memoir Write diverse characters as real people, not stereotypes or plot devices Give your protagonist a morally neutral ‘hero' status. Compelling beats likeable. Build vibrant side characters for series longevity and spin-off potential Use voice as a rhythmic tool Link character and plot until they're inseparable Why discovery writers can write out of order and still build deep character Find the sensory details that make characters live and breathe More help with how to write fiction here, or in my book, How to Write a Novel. Writing Characters: 15 Tips for Writing Deep Character in Your Fiction In today's episode, I'm sharing fifteen tips for writing deep characters, synthesised from some of the most insightful interviews on The Creative Penn Podcast over the past few years, combined with what I've learned across more than forty books of my own. I'll be referencing episodes with Matt Bird, Will Storr, Gail Carriger, Barbara Nickless, and Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer. I'll also draw on my own book, How to Write a Novel, which covers these fundamentals in detail. Whether you're writing your first novel or your fiftieth, whether you're a plotter or a discovery writer like me, these tips will help you create characters that readers believe in, care about, and invest in—and keep coming back for more. Let's get into it. 1. Master the ‘Believe, Care, Invest' Trifecta When I spoke with Matt Bird on episode 624, he laid out the three things you need to achieve on the very first page of your book or in the first ten minutes of a film. He calls it “Believe, Care, and Invest.” First, the reader must believe the character is a real person, somehow proving they are not a cardboard imitation of a human being, not just a generic type walking through a generic plot. Second, the reader must care about the character's circumstances. And third, the reader must invest in the character's ability to solve the story's central problem. Matt used The Hunger Games as his primary example, and it's brilliant. On the very first page, we believe Katniss's voice. Suzanne Collins writes in first person with a staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short declarative sentences—that immediately grounds us in a survivalist mentality. We care because Katniss is starving. She's protecting her little sister. And we invest because she is out there bow hunting, which Matt pointed out is one of the most badass things a character can do. She even kills a lynx two pages in and sells the pelt. We invest in her resourcefulness and grit before the plot has even begun. Matt was very clear that this has nothing to do with the character being “likable.” He said his subtitle, Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love, doesn't mean the character has to be a good person. He described “hero” as both gender-neutral and morally neutral. A hero can be totally evil or totally good. What matters is that we believe, care, and invest. He demonstrated this beautifully by breaking down the first ten minutes of WeCrashed, where the characters of Adam and Rebekah Neumann are absolutely not likable, but we are completely hooked. Adam steals his neighbour's Chinese food through a carefully orchestrated con involving an imaginary beer. It's not admirable behaviour, but the tradecraft involved, as Matt put it—using a term from spy movies—makes us invest in him. We see a character trying to solve the big problem of his life, which is that he's poor and wants to be rich, and we want to see if he can pull it off. Actionable step: Go to the first page of your current work in progress. Does it achieve all three? Does the reader believe this is a real person with a distinctive voice? Do they care about the character's circumstances? And do they invest in the character's ability to handle what's coming? If even one of those three is missing, that's your revision priority. 2. Define the Dramatic Question: Who Are They Really? Will Storr, author of The Science of Storytelling, came on episode 490 and gave one of the most powerful frameworks I've ever heard for character-driven fiction. He explained that the human brain evolved language primarily to swap social information—in other words, to gossip. We are wired to monitor other people, to ask the question: who is this person when the chips are down? That's what Will calls the Dramatic Question, and it's what he believes lies at the heart of all compelling storytelling. It's not a question about plot. It's a question about the character's soul. And every scene in your novel should force the character to answer it. His example of Lawrence of Arabia is unforgettable. The Dramatic Question for the entire film is: who are you, Lawrence? Are you ordinary or are you extraordinary? At the beginning, Lawrence is a cocky, rebellious young soldier who believes his rebelliousness makes him superior. Every iconic scene in that three-hour film tests that belief. Sometimes Lawrence acts as though he truly is extraordinary—leading the Arabs into battle, being hailed as a god—and sometimes the world strips him bare and he sees himself as ordinary. Because it's a tragedy, he never overcomes his flaw. He doubles down on his belief that he's extraordinary until he becomes monstrous, culminating in that iconic scene where he lifts a bloody dagger and sees his own reflection with horror. Will also used Jaws to demonstrate how this works in a pure action thriller. Brody's dramatic question is simple: are you going to be old Brody who is terrified of the water, or new Brody who can overcome that fear? Every scene where the shark appears is really asking that question. And the last moment of the film isn't the shark blowing up. It's Brody swimming back through the water, saying he used to be scared of the water and he can't imagine why. Actionable step: Write down the Dramatic Question for your protagonist in a single sentence. Is it “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you brave enough to love again?” or “Will you sacrifice your principles for survival?” If you can't answer this with specificity, your character might still be a sketch rather than a person. 3. Get rid of Vague Flaws, and use Absolute Specificity This was one of Will Storr's most important points. He said that vague thinking about characters is really the enemy. When he teaches workshops and asks writers to describe their character's flaw, most of them say something like “they're very controlling.” And Will's response is: that's not good enough. Everyone is controlling. How are they controlling? What's the specific mechanism? He gave the example of a profile he read of Theresa May during the UK's Brexit chaos. Someone who knew her said that Theresa May's problem was that she always thinks she's the only adult in every room she goes into. Will said that stopped him in his tracks because it's so precise. If you define a character with that level of specificity, you can take them and put them in any genre, any situation—a spaceship, a Victorian drawing room, a school playground—and you will know exactly how they're going to behave. The same applies to Arthur Miller's Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman, as Will described it: a man who believes absolutely in capitalistic success and the idea that when you die, you're going to be weighed on a scale, just as God weighs you for sin, but now you're weighed for success. That's not a vague flaw. That's a worldview you can drop into any story and watch it combust. Will made another counterintuitive point that I found really valuable: writers often think that piling on multiple traits will create a complex character, but the opposite is true. Starting with one highly specific flaw and running it through the demands of a relentless plot is what generates complexity. You end up with a far more nuanced, original character than if you'd started with a laundry list of vague attributes. Actionable step: Take your protagonist's flaw and pressure-test it. Is it specific enough that you could place this character in any situation and predict their behaviour? If you're stuck at “she's stubborn” or “he's insecure,” keep pushing. What kind of stubborn? What kind of insecure? Find the diagnostic sentence—the Theresa May level of precision. 4. Understand the Heroine's Journey: Strength Through Connection Gail Carriger came on episode 550 to discuss her nonfiction book, The Heroine's Journey, and it completely reframed how I think about some of my own fiction. Gail explained that the core difference between the Hero's Journey and the Heroine's Journey comes down to how strength and victory are defined. The Hero's Journey is about strength through solo action. The hero must be continually isolated to get stronger. He goes out of civilisation, faces strife alone, and achieves victory through physical prowess and self-actualisation. The Heroine's Journey is the opposite. The heroine achieves her goals by activating a network. She's a delegator, a general. She identifies where she can't do something alone, finds the people who can help, and portions out the work for mutual gain. Gail put it simply: the heroine is very good at asking for help, which our culture tends to devalue but which is actually a powerful form of strength. Crucially, Gail stressed that gender is irrelevant to which journey you're writing. Her go-to examples are striking: the recent Wonder Woman film is practically a beat-for-beat hero's journey—Gilgamesh on screen, as Gail described it. Meanwhile, Harry Potter, both the first book and the series as a whole, is a classic heroine's journey. Harry's power comes from his network—Dumbledore's Army, the Order of the Phoenix, his friendships with Ron and Hermione. He doesn't defeat Voldemort alone. He defeats Voldemort because of love and connection. This distinction has real practical consequences for writers. If you're writing a hero's journey and you hit writer's block, Gail said, the solution is usually to isolate your hero further and pile on more strife. But if you're writing a heroine's journey, the solution is probably to throw a new character into the scene—someone who has advice to offer or a skill the heroine lacks. The actual solutions to writer's block are different depending on which narrative you're writing. As I reflected on my own work, I realised that my ARKANE thriller protagonist, Morgan Sierra, follows a hero's journey—she's a solo operative, a lone wolf like Jack Reacher or James Bond. But my Mapwalker fantasy series follows a heroine's journey, with Sienna and her group of friends working together. I hadn't consciously chosen those paths; the stories led me there. But understanding the framework helps me write more intentionally now. Actionable step: Identify which journey your protagonist is on. Does your character gain strength by being alone (hero) or by building connections (heroine)? This will inform every plot decision you make, from how they face obstacles to how your story ends. 5. Use ‘Metaphor Families' to Anchor Dialogue and Voice One of the most practical techniques Matt Bird shared on episode 624 is the idea of assigning each character a “metaphor family”—a specific well of language that they draw from. This gives each character a distinctive voice that goes beyond accent or dialect. Matt explained how in The Wire, one of the most beloved TV shows of all time, every character has a different metaphor family. What struck him was that Omar, this iconic character, never utters a single curse word in the entire series. His metaphor family is pirate. He talks about parlays, uses language that feels like it belongs in Pirates of the Caribbean, and it creates this incredible ironic counterpoint against his urban setting. It tells us immediately that this is a character who sees himself in a tradition of people that doesn't match his immediate surroundings. Matt also referenced the UK version of The Office, where Gareth works at a paper company but aspires to the military. So all of his language is drawn from a military metaphor family. He doesn't talk about filing and photocopying; he talks about tactics and discipline and being on the front line. This tells us that the character has a life and dreams beyond the immediate scene—and it's the gap between aspiration and reality that makes him both funny and believable. He pointed out that a metaphor family sometimes comes from a character's background, but it's often more interesting when it comes from their aspirations. What does your character want to be? What world do they fantasise about inhabiting? That's where their language should come from. In Star Wars, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a spiritual hermit, but his metaphor family is military. He uses the language of generals and commanders, and that ironic counterpoint is part of what makes him feel so rich. Actionable step: Assign each of your main characters a metaphor family. It could be based on their job, their background, or—more interestingly—their secret aspirations. Then go through your dialogue and make sure each character is consistently drawing from that well of language. If two characters sound the same when you strip away the dialogue tags, this is the fix. 6. Find the Diagnostic Detail: The Diagonal Toast Avoid clichéd character tags—the random scar, the eye patch, the mysterious limp—unless they serve a deep narrative purpose. Matt Bird on episode 624 was very funny about this: he pointed out that Nick Fury, Odin, and eventually Thor all have eye patches in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Eye patches are done, he said. You cannot do eye patches anymore. Instead, look for what I'm calling the “diagonal toast” detail, after a scene Matt described from Captain Marvel. In the film, Captain Marvel is trying to determine whether Nick Fury is who he says he is. She asks him to prove he isn't a shapeshifting alien. Fury shares biographical details—his history, his mother—but then she pushes further and says, name one more thing you couldn't possibly have made up about yourself. And Fury says: if toast is cut diagonally, I can't eat it. Matt said that detail is gold for a writer because it feels pulled from a real life. You can pull it from your own life and gift it to your characters, and the reader can tell it's not manufactured. He gave another example from The Sopranos: Tony Soprano's mother won't answer the phone after dark. The show's creator, David Chase, confirmed on the DVD commentary that this came from his own mother, who genuinely would not answer the phone after dark and couldn't explain why. Matt's practical advice was to keep a journal. Write down the strange, specific things that people do or say. Mine your own life for those hyper-specific details. You just need one per book. In my own writing, I've used this approach. In my ARKANE thrillers, my character Morgan Sierra has always been Angelina Jolie in my mind—specifically Jolie in Lara Croft or Mr and Mrs Smith. And Blake Daniel in my crime thriller series was based on Jesse Williams from Grey's Anatomy. I paste pictures of actors into my Scrivener projects. It helps with visuals, but also with the sense of the character, their energy and physicality. But visual details only take you so far. It's the behavioural quirks—the diagonal toast moments—that make a character feel genuinely alive. That said, physical character tags can work brilliantly when they serve the story. As I discuss in How to Write a Novel, Robert Galbraith's Cormoran Strike is an amputee, and his pain and the physical challenges of his prosthesis are a key part of every story—it's not a cosmetic detail, it's woven into the action and the character's psychology. My character Blake Daniel always wears gloves to cover the scars on his hands, which provides an angle into his wounded past as well as a visual cue for the reader. And of course, Harry Potter's lightning-shaped scar isn't just a mark—it's a direct connection to his nemesis and the mythology of the entire series. The rule of thumb is: if the tag tells us something about the character's interior life or connects to the plot, it's earning its place. If it's just there to make the character visually distinctive, it's probably a crutch. Game of Thrones takes character tags further with the family houses, each with their own mottos and sigils. The Starks say “Winter is coming” and their sigil is a dire wolf. Those aren't just labels—they're worldview made visible. Actionable step: Start a “diagonal toast” notebook. Every time you notice something strange and specific about someone's behaviour—something that feels too real to be made up—write it down. Then gift it to a character who needs more texture. 7. Displace Your Own Trauma into the Work Barbara Nickless shared something deeply personal on episode 732 that fundamentally changed how I think about putting pain onto the page. While starting At First Light, the first book in her Dr. Evan Wilding series, she lost her son to epilepsy—something called SUDEP, Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy. One day he was there, and the next day he was gone. Barbara said that writing helped her cope with the trauma, that doing a deep dive into Old English literature and the Viking Age for the book's research became a lifeline. But here's what's important: she didn't give Dr. Evan Wilding her exact trauma. Evan Wilding is four feet five inches, and Barbara described how he has to walk through a world that won't adjust to him. That's its own form of learning to cope when circumstances are beyond your control. She displaced her genuine grief into the character's different but parallel struggle. When I asked her about the difference between writing for therapy and writing for an audience, she drew on her experience teaching creative writing to veterans through a collaboration between the US Department of Defense and the National Endowment for the Arts. She said she's found that she can pour her heartache into her characters and process it through them, even when writing professionally, and that the genuine emotion is what touches readers. We've all been through our own losses and griefs, so seeing how a character copes can be deeply meaningful. I've always found that putting my own pain onto the page is the most direct way to connect with a reader's soul. My character Morgan Sierra's musings on religion and the supernatural are often my own. Her restlessness, her fascination with the darker edges of faith—those come from me. But her Krav Maga fighting skills and her ability to kill the bad guys are definitely her own. That gap between what's mine and what's hers is where the fiction lives. Barbara also said something on that episode that I wrote down and stuck on my wall. She said the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul. I've been thinking about that ever since. On my own wall, I have “Measure your life by what you create.” Different words, same truth. Actionable step: If you're carrying something heavy—grief, anger, fear, regret—consider how you might displace it into a character's different but emotionally parallel struggle. Don't copy your exact situation; transform it. The emotion will be genuine, and the reader will feel it. 8. Write Diverse Characters as Real People When I spoke with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673—Sarah is Choctaw and a historical fiction author honoured by the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian—she offered a perspective that every fiction writer needs to hear. The key message was to move away from stereotypes. Don't write your American Indian character as the “Wise Guide” who exists solely to dispense mystic wisdom to the white protagonist. Don't limit diverse characters to historical settings, as though they only exist in the past. Place them in normal, contemporary roles. Your spaceship captain, your forensic scientist, your small-town baker—any of them can be American Indian, or Nigerian, or Japanese, and their heritage should be a lived-in part of their identity, not the sole reason they exist in the story. I write international thrillers and dark fantasy, and my fiction is populated with characters from all over the world. I have a multi-cultural family and I've lived in many places and travelled widely, so I've met, worked with, and had relationships with people from different cultures. I find story ideas through travel, and if I set my books in a certain place, then the story is naturally populated with the people who live there. As I discuss in my book, How to Write a Novel, the world is a diverse place, so your fiction needs to be populated with all kinds of people. If I only populated my fiction with characters like me, they would be boring novels. There are many dimensions of difference—race, nationality, sex, age, body type, ability, religion, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, class, culture, education level—and even then, don't assume that similar types of people think the same way. Some authors worry they will make mistakes. We live in a time of outrage, and some authors have been criticised for writing outside their own experience. So is it too dangerous to try? Of course not. The media amplifies outliers, and most authors include diverse characters in every book without causing offence because they work hard to get it right. It's about awareness, research, and intent. Actionable step: Audit the cast of your current work in progress. Have you written a mono-cultural perspective for all of them? If so, consider who could bring a different background, perspective, or set of cultural specifics to the story. Not as a token addition, but as a real person with a real life. 9. Respect Tribal and Cultural Specificity Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer on episode 673 was emphatic about one thing: never treat diverse groups as monolithic. If you're writing a Native American character, you must research the specific nation. Choctaw is not Navajo, just as British is not French. Sarah described the distinct cultural markers of the Choctaw people—the diamond pattern you'll see on traditional shirts and dresses, which represents the diamondback rattlesnake. They have distinct dances and songs. She said that if she saw someone in traditional dress at a distance, she would know whether they were Choctaw based on what they were wearing. She encouraged writers who want to write specifically about a nation to get to know those people. Go to events, go to a powwow, learn about the individual culture. She noted that a big misconception is that American Indians exist only in the past—she stressed that they are still here, still living their cultures, and fiction should reflect that present reality. I took a similar approach when writing Destroyer of Worlds, which is set mostly in India. I read books about Hindu myth, watched documentaries about the sadhus, and had one of my Indian readers from Mumbai check my cultural references. For Risen Gods, set in New Zealand with a young Maori protagonist, I studied books about Maori mythology and fiction by Maori authors, and had a male Maori reader check for cultural issues. Research is simply an act of empathy. The practical takeaway is this: if you're going to include a character from a specific cultural background, do the work. Use specific cultural details rather than generic signifiers. Sarah talked about how even she fell into stereotypes when she was first writing, until her mother pointed them out. If someone from within a culture can fall into those traps, the rest of us certainly can. Do the research, try your best, ask for help, and apologise if you need to. Actionable step: If you're writing a character from a specific culture, identify three to five sensory or behavioural details that are particular to that culture—not the generic version, but the real, researched, lived-in version. Consider hiring a sensitivity reader from that community to check your work. 10. Give Your Protagonist a Morally Neutral ‘Hero' Status Matt Bird was clear about this on episode 624: the word “hero” simply means the protagonist, the person we follow through the story. It's a functional role, not a moral label. We don't have to like them. We don't even have to root for their goals in a moral sense. We just have to find them compelling enough to invest our attention in their problem-solving. Think of Succession, where every member of the Roy family is varying degrees of awful, and yet the show was utterly compelling. Or WeCrashed, where Adam Neumann is a narcissistic con artist, but we can't look away because he's trying to solve the enormous problem of building an empire from nothing, and the tradecraft he employs is fascinating. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, readers must want to spend time with your characters. They don't have to be lovable or even likable—that will depend on your genre and story choices—but they have to be captivating enough that we want to spend time with them. A character who is trying to solve a massive problem will naturally draw investment from the audience, even if we wouldn't want to have tea with them. Will Storr extended this idea by pointing out that the audience will actually root for a character to solve their problem even if the audience doesn't actually want the character's goal to be achieved in the real world. We don't really want more billionaires, but we invested in Adam Neumann's rise because that was the problem the story posed, and our brains are wired to invest in problem-solving. This connects to something deeper: what does your character want, and why? As I explore in How to Write a Novel, desire operates on multiple levels. Take a character like Phil, who joins the military during wartime. On the surface, she wants to serve her country. But she also wants to escape her dead-end town and learn new skills. Deeper still, her father and grandfather served, and by joining up, she hopes to finally earn their respect. And perhaps deepest of all, her father died on a mission under mysterious circumstances, and she wants to find out what happened from the inside. That layering of motivation is what turns a flat character into a three-dimensional one. The audience doesn't need to be told all of this explicitly. It can emerge through action, dialogue, and the choices the character makes under pressure. But you, the writer, need to know it. You need to know what your character really wants deep down, because that desire—more than any external plot device—is what drives the story forward. And your antagonist needs the same depth. They also want something, often diametrically opposed to your protagonist, and they need a reason that makes sense to them. In my ARKANE thriller Tree of Life, my antagonist is the heiress of a Brazilian mining empire who wants to restore the Earth to its original state to atone for the destruction caused by her father's company. She's part of a radical ecological group who believe the only way to restore Nature is to end all human life. It's extreme, but in an era of climate change, it's a motivation readers can understand—even if they disagree with the solution. Actionable step: If you're struggling to make a morally grey character work, make sure their problem is big enough and their methods are specific and interesting enough that we invest in the how, even if we're ambivalent about the what. 11. Build Vibrant Side Characters Gail Carriger made a point on episode 550 that was equal parts craft advice and business strategy. In a Heroine's Journey model, side characters aren't just fodder to be killed off to motivate the hero. They form a network. And because you don't have to kill them—unlike in a hero's journey, where allies are often betrayed or removed so the hero can be further isolated—you can pick up those side characters and give them their own books. Gail said this creates a really voracious reader base. You write one series with vivid side characters, and then readers fall in love with those side characters and want their stories. So you write spin-offs. The romance genre does this brilliantly—think of the Bridgerton books, where each sibling gets their own novel. The side character in one book becomes the protagonist in the next. Barbara Nickless experienced this firsthand with her Dr. Evan Wilding series. She has River Wilding, Evan's adventurous brother, and Diana, the axe-throwing research assistant, and her editor has already expressed interest in a spin-off series with those characters. Barbara described creating characters she wants to spend time with, or characters who give her nightmares but also intrigue her. That's the dual test: are they interesting enough for you to write, and interesting enough for readers to demand more? As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, characters that span series can deepen the reader's relationship with them as you expand their backstory into new plots. Readers will remember the character more than the plot or the book title, and look forward to the next instalment because they want more time with those people. British crime author Angela Marsons described it as readers feeling like returning to her characters is like putting on a pair of old slippers. Actionable step: Look at your supporting cast. Is there a side character who is vivid enough to carry their own story? If not, what could you add—a specific hobby, a distinct voice, a compelling backstory—that would make readers want more of them? 12. Use Voice as a Rhythmic Tool Voice is one of the most important elements of novel writing, and Matt Bird helped me think about it in a technical, mechanical way that I found really useful. He pointed out that the ratio of periods to commas defines a character's internal reality. A staccato rhythm—lots of periods, short sentences—suggests a character who is certain, grounded, or perhaps survivalist and traumatised. Katniss in The Hunger Games has a period-heavy voice. She's in survival mode. She doesn't have time for complexity or qualification. A flowing, comma-heavy style suggests someone more academic, more nuanced, or possibly more scattered and manipulative. The character who qualifies everything, who adds sub-clauses and digressions, is a different kind of person from the character who speaks in declarations. This is something you can actually measure. Pull up a passage of your character's dialogue or internal monologue and count the periods versus the commas. If the rhythm doesn't match who the character is supposed to be, you've found a mismatch you can fix. Sentence length is the heartbeat of your character's persona. And voice extends beyond rhythm to the words themselves. As I discussed in the metaphor families tip, each character should draw from a distinctive well of language. But voice also encompasses their relationship to silence. Some characters talk around the thing they mean; others say it straight. Some are self-deprecating; others are blunt to the point of rudeness. All of these choices are character choices, not just style choices. I find it useful to read my dialogue aloud—and not just to check for naturalness, but to hear whether each character sounds distinct. If you could swap dialogue lines between two characters and nobody would notice, you have a voice problem. One practical test: cover the dialogue tags and see if you can tell who's speaking from the words alone. Actionable step: Choose a key passage from your protagonist's point of view and read it aloud. Does the rhythm match the character? A soldier under fire should not sound like a philosophy professor at a wine tasting. Adjust the ratio of periods to commas until the voice feels right. 13. Link Character and Plot Until They're Inseparable Will Storr made the case on episode 490 that the number one problem he sees in the writing he encounters—in workshops, in submissions, even in published books—is that the characters and the plots are unconnected. There's a story happening, and there are people in it, but the story isn't a product of who those people are. He said a story should be like life. In our lives, the plots are intimately connected to who we are as characters. The goals we pursue, the obstacles we face, the same problems that keep recurring—these are products of our personalities, our flaws, our specific ways of being in the world. His framework is that your plot should be designed specifically to plot against your character. You've got a character with a particular flaw; the plot exists to test that flaw over and over until the character either transforms or doubles down and explodes. Jaws is the perfect example. Brody is afraid of water. A shark shows up in the coastal town he's responsible for protecting. The entire plot is engineered to force him to confront the one thing he cannot face. Will pointed out that the whole plot of Jaws is structured around Brody's flaw. It begins with the shark arriving, the midpoint is when Brody finally gets the courage to go into the water, and the very final scene isn't the shark blowing up—it's Brody swimming back through the water. Even a film that's ninety-eight percent action is, at its core, structured around a character with a character flaw. This is the standard I aspire to in my own work, even in my action-heavy thrillers. The external plot should be a mirror of the internal struggle. When those two are aligned, the story becomes irresistible. Will also made an important point about series fiction, which is where most commercial authors live. I asked him how this works when your character can't be transformed at the end of every book because there has to be a next book. His answer was elegant: you don't cure them. Episodic TV characters like Fleabag or David Brent or Basil Fawlty never truly change—and the fact that they don't change is actually the source of the comedy. But every episode throws a new story event at them that tests and exposes their flaw. You just keep throwing story events at them again and again. That's a soap opera, a sitcom, and a book series. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, character flaws are aspects of personality that affect the person so much that facing and overcoming them becomes central to the plot. In Jaws, the protagonist Brody is afraid of the water, but he has to overcome that flaw to destroy the killer shark and save the town. But remember, your characters should feel like real people, so never define them purely by their flaws. The character addicted to painkillers might also be a brilliant and successful female lawyer who gets up at four in the morning to work out at the gym, likes eighties music, and volunteers at the local dog shelter at weekends. Character wounds are different from flaws. They're formed from life experience and are part of your character's backstory—traumatic events that happened before the events of your novel but shape the character's reactions in the present. In my ARKANE thrillers, Morgan Sierra's husband Elian died in her arms during a military operation. This happened before the series begins, but her memories of it recur when she faces a firefight, and she struggles to find happiness again for fear of losing someone she loves once more. And then there's the perennial advice: show, don't tell. Most writers have heard this so many times that it's easy to nod and then promptly write scenes that tell rather than show. Basically, you need to reveal your character through action and dialogue, rather than explanation. In my thriller Day of the Vikings, Morgan Sierra fights a Neo-Viking in the halls of the British Museum and brings him down with Krav Maga. That fight scene isn't just about showing action. It opens up questions about her backstory, demonstrates character, and moves the plot forward. Telling would be something like: “Morgan was an expert in Krav Maga.” Showing is the reader discovering it through the scene itself. Actionable step: Look at the main plot events of your novel. For each major turning point, ask: does this scene specifically test my protagonist's flaw? If not, can you redesign the scene so that it does? The tighter the connection between character and plot, the more powerful the story. 14. The ‘Maestra' Approach: Write Out of Order If you're a discovery writer like me, you may feel like the deep character work I've been describing sounds more suited to plotters. But Barbara Nickless gave me a beautiful metaphor on episode 732 that reframes it entirely. Barbara described her evolving writing process as being like a maestra standing in front of an orchestra. Sometimes you bring in the horns—a certain theme—and sometimes you bring in the strings—a certain character—and sometimes you turn to the soloist. It's a more organic and jumping-around process than linear writing, and Barbara said she's only recently given herself permission to work this way. When I told her that I use Scrivener to write in scenes out of order and then drag and drop them into a structure later, she was genuinely intrigued. And this is how I've always worked. I'll see the story in my mind like a movie trailer—flashes of the big emotional scenes, the pivotal confrontations, the moments of revelation—and I write those first. I don't know how they hang together until quite late in the process. Then I'll move scenes around, print the whole thing out, and figure out the connective tissue. The point is that discovery writers can absolutely build deep characters. Sometimes writing the big emotional scenes first is how you discover who the character is before you fill in the rest. You don't need a twenty-page character worksheet or a 200-page outline like Jeffery Deaver. You need to be willing to follow the character into the unknown and trust that the structure will emerge. As Barbara said, she writes to know what she's thinking. That's the discovery writer's credo. And I would add: I write to know who my characters are. Actionable step: If you're stuck on your current chapter, skip it. Write the scene that's burning in your imagination, even if it's from the middle or the end. That scene might be the key to unlocking who your character really is. 15. Use Research to Help with Empathy Research shouldn't just be about factual accuracy—it's a tool for finding the sensory details that create empathy. Barbara Nickless described research as almost an excuse to explore things that fascinate her, and I feel exactly the same way. I would go so far as to say that writing is an excuse for me to explore the things that interest me. Barbara and I both travel for our stories. For her Dr. Evan Wilding books, she did deep research into Old English literature and the Viking Age. For my thriller End of Days, I transcribed hours of video from Appalachian snake-handling churches on YouTube to understand the worldview of the worshippers, because my antagonist was brought up in that tradition. I couldn't just make that up. I had to hear their language, feel their conviction, understand why they would hold venomous serpents as an act of faith. Barbara also mentioned getting to Israel and the West Bank for research, and I've been to both places too. Finding that one specific sensory detail—the smell of a particular location, the specific way an expert handles a tool, the sound of a particular kind of music—makes the character's life feel lived-in. It's the difference between a character who is described as living in a place and a character who inhabits it. As I wrote in How to Write a Novel, don't write what you know. Write what you want to learn about. I love research. It's part of why I'm an author in the first place. I take any excuse to dive into a world different from my own. Research using books, films, podcasts, and travel, and focus particularly on sources produced by people from the worldview you want to understand. Actionable step: For your next piece of character research, go beyond reading. Watch a documentary, visit a location, talk to someone who lives the experience. Find one sensory detail—a smell, a sound, a texture—that you couldn't have invented. That detail will make your character feel real. Bonus: Measure Your Life by What You Create In an age of AI and a tsunami of content, your ultimate brand protection is the quality of your human creation. Barbara Nickless said that the act of producing itself is a balm to the soul, and I believe that with every fibre of my being. Don't be afraid to take that step back, like I did with my deadlifting. Take the time to master these deeper craft skills. It might feel like you're slowing down or going backwards by not chasing the latest marketing trend, but it's the only way to step forward into a sustainable, high-quality career. Your characters are your signature. No AI can replicate the specificity of your lived experience, the emotional truth of your displaced trauma, or the sensory details you've gathered from a life of curiosity and travel. Those are yours. Pour them into your characters, and they will resonate for years to come. Actionable Takeaway: Identify the Dramatic Question for your current protagonist. Can you state it in a single sentence with the kind of specificity Will Storr described? Is it as clear as “Are you ordinary or extraordinary?” or “Are you the only adult in the room?” If you can't answer it with that kind of precision, your character might still be a sketch. Give them a diagonal toast moment today. Find the one hyper-specific detail that proves they are not an imitation of life. And then ask yourself: does your plot test your character's flaw in every major scene? If you can align those two things—a precisely defined character and a plot that exists to test them—you will have a story that readers cannot put down. References and Deep Dives The episodes I've referenced today are all available with full transcripts at TheCreativePenn.com: Episode 732 — Facing Fears, and Writing Unique Characters with Barbara Nickless Episode 673 — Writing Choctaw Characters and Diversity in Fiction with Sarah Elisabeth Sawyer Episode 624 — Writing Characters with Matt Bird Episode 550 — The Heroine's Journey with Gail Carriger Episode 490 — How Character Flaws Shape Story with Will Storr Books mentioned: The Secrets of Character: Writing a Hero Anyone Will Love by Matt Bird The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr The Heroine's Journey by Gail Carriger How to Write a Novel: From Idea to Book by Joanna Penn You can find all my books for authors at CreativePennBooks.com and my fiction and memoir at JFPennBooks.com Happy writing! How was this episode created? This episode was initiated created by NotebookLM based on YouTube videos of the episodes linked above from YouTube/TheCreativePenn, plus my text chapters on character from How to Write a Novel. NotebookLM created a blog post from the material and then I expanded it and fact checked it with Claude.ai 4.6 Opus, and then I used my voice clone at ElevenLabs to narrate it. The post Writing Characters: 15 Actionable Tips For Writing Deep Character first appeared on The Creative Penn.

Dr. Halley Alexander talks with Dr. Abel Sandmann about seizure rates and risk factors in patients with cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) during long-term follow-up without CCM intervention.  Read the related article in Neurology®.  Disclosures can be found at Neurology.org. 

Mens Room Question: What is the craziest thing to happen to or at your house?