January 14, 2025 • 39 mins
Today, Doug Pike interviews Dr. Dona Murphy about dementia. Pike also speaks with Duolingo's VP of Learning and Curriculum Bozena Pajak about learning a new language.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this, Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today? Well, this show is
all about you. This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to
do for fun. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed Decisions for a healthier,
happier life.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And Bronze Roofing Repair or replacement. Bronze Roofing has you covered?
And now fifty plus with Doug Pike. All right, welcome aboard.
Walk in here and find out that this little micro
or the headphone button isn't working. Let me see if
this other one works. One second, I'll run this down here,
plug it in here, and yes, that's working. I don't
(01:07):
know what's wrong with this one. We need to get
Tom in here right away. Well, this is a crisis,
a broadcast crisis. I say that I've already worked around.
By the way, it seems like you fix the problem easily. Well, somebody,
somebody of lesser skill and talent and experience than me
might come in afterward. And just not know how to
(01:29):
move that wire two and a half feet. Wow, you
can you just never know around He set the bar
so high, don't I. There's not even a punchline worthy
of that. That just that's yeah, I can't top that.
I'll just move on. Welcome to Tuesday next. In a
(01:49):
procession of days on which the weather folks around here
are counting down to something that they're just nearly all
calling a hard free for the greater Houston area. This
hard freeze, this just apocalyptic dive in temperatures, is going
(02:10):
to take us all the way down, all the way
down to twenty eight maybe twenty seven degrees. Now up north,
the farther north you go, the colder it gets. That's
just how the world works. But for us, twenty seven
to twenty eight, and I guess that's in the middle
of Houston, maybe twenty three, twenty two up in the woodlands,
(02:32):
maybe thirty one, thirty two on the coast. But the
official mark is just and this is according to the
weather forecasters on television, because after all, they do have
to rely on sizzle to sell their glitzy commercials. Twenty
(02:53):
seven that's in Minnesota. That's spring it's gonna be cold. Okay, no,
it's gonna freeze, but not chicken, little cold, chicken, Little
should keep her mouth shut on this one. Unless the
estimates drop four or five more degrees down, then it
might become a hard freeze. But no otherwise. In the meantime,
(03:15):
just go in your attic and make sure everything that
needs to be wrapped is wrapped same outside. To cover
up those bell valves on the sprinkler system, that's an
expensive mistake. That's a very expensive mistake, and it sometimes
can take quite a bit of time to get them recovered.
In a truly hard freeze, cover the spigots around the house.
(03:37):
That's gonna cost you three or four bucks at home
depot or Low's or wherever you want to buy those
little insulated foam heavy thick, well not thick foam, but
dense foam covers for those things. There's a little trick
I used to to keep those things even more efficient
than they are out of the box. By the way,
(03:58):
no need to hoard toilet paper or water or anything
else for this when groceries as usual, And speaking of
the attic. Since the weather note is courtesy of texas
iaq dot net. Maybe think about getting your duckwork clean
for the new year. That's the website again, texas iaq
dot net. Onto the markets now from Houston gooldexchange dot com.
(04:18):
All four indicators in the green for a pleasant change,
and by legitimate margins too. Now are they at record highs? No,
nowhere close to the best that I can remember, but
nonetheless up and rising. The last time I looked, which
was about nine thirty this morning, Oil also on the
(04:39):
plus side, had retreated a good bit down more than
a buck, and still headed in that direction. At that
early look. Gold up I think four dollars whatever it was.
Speaking of Houston Gold Exchange, I swung by there recently
to pick up something and walked into Brad Schwis doing
what he called a pretty big deal even in his business.
(05:01):
A family from somewhere, I don't know where they were
in from, but they had come over there to sell
their collection of silver coins, which means basically means dimes
and quarters and halfs minted before nineteen sixty four. And
what they had was a pretty significant bundle that weighed
(05:23):
around three hundred pounds. There were bags of coins on
the counters that were just everywhere that didn't stay long
after the deal was cut either, that's a security issue.
If my math is correct at current prices for silver
per troy ounce, well you do the math. It's a
(05:45):
big number, a pretty impressive watch this will? Have you
been listening to what I was talking about? Yeah, you're
talking about goal No, I'm not God, No silver will
silver coins, the sixty four and early your dimes and quarters? Okay,
all right? And so I'm gonna bundle that up by
(06:05):
saying that was a pretty impressive chunk of change. You
like that that? Where would that be? On a one
to ten? I mean to I'll give you you're just
not in a go. I'll give you a point two
five for a quarter? How about a twenty five? How
(06:25):
about a two point five? How about we move on?
You're gonna wish your name will was Tiberville? Why and it? Well,
there's a guy in France. This guy's ninety one years old,
and he just donated ten million bucks in euros I
(06:45):
guess to a small town in France, all because the
town's name is also his last name. Can you can
you imagine how many phone calls and emails he's gonna
get from Tiberville, Old Scotland and Tiberville, Arkansas and all
the Hey, you got anything left, we could use a
(07:07):
couple of those. Yeah, ten point two million dollars in total.
They left or he has given them from his estate
because it's where his family came from. Obviously, well not obviously,
but anyway, that's where his family originated, and he just
thought that'd be a nice thing to do, because, after all, he,
(07:28):
like most of us, had ten point two million dollars
just laying around collecting dust. That's off to the people
in that town. What do you think of town? It's
probably a very small town. Will, How could they best
spend ten point two million dollars? I don't know. I mean,
I've never heard of the town, so I've never been
(07:50):
to that. Maybe it's Beaumont. Then maybe Bob Beaumont gave
Beaumont ten point two million dollars. What would they spend
it on? Wisely? Not in the city down starting over? Yeah,
it's terrible. Will, My gosh, you're piece of work man.
All right, Anyway, we'll move on. UT Health Institute on
(08:13):
Aging is that and always will be that, collaborative of
more than a thousand providers now healthcare providers who have
gone back and regent will not re educated greater educated
themselves as to how their specific knowledge of their specific
medical field can be applied to seniors. They make us
(08:37):
live longer, better, healthier, happier lives. That's what they do
all day, every day when they do it all over
town too. Most of them do most of their work
around the med center, as you might imagine the epicenter
of healthcare around here in the Southwest basically, but these
people also work, many of them do at least in
outlying areas so that you don't have to drive into
(08:59):
the media center to see somebody who has all that training.
To learn more about the Institute on Aging and how
it works, go to their website. You can find tons
of information. There, so many resources that will help you
solve any medical mystery you have, and a lot of
just lifestyle mysteries that you might have about where to
(09:20):
find something, where to go to meet new people. All
these different things are covered at ut Health Institute on
Aging utch dot edu slash aging. That's the website utch
dot edu slash aging.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Now they sure don't make them like they used to.
That's why every few months we wash them, check us
fluids and spray on a fresh code O wax. This
is fifty plus with Dougpike.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Hi, welcome back fifty plus. Thanks for listening. I certainly
do appreciate it. We are going to in this segment,
we're going to talk about dementia from a different and
in most cases, truly troubling aspect for a lot of families. Dementia,
as you well know, impacts just countless families in the
United States, and one of the real realities of these
conditions is that they are prohibitively expensive to manage and treat.
(10:19):
And to explain I'm going to bring in doctor Donna Murphy,
neurologist and longtime advocate for affordable care, which is channeling
great part to through prognose Us, a company she founded
that provides low cost access to experts in the field.
Welcome aboard, doctor.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Murphy, Thanks so much for having me my pleasures.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Dementia is a hard word for any family here in
reference to a loved one. Once that diagnosis is made,
one of the first few things that are going to
cost the family money that they didn't intend to have
to spend.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Oh gosh, I mean, it's a little bit complicated answer
to this question because people come in to diagnosis at
different stages of disease. Often, unfortunately, it is a little
bit more advanced than we would like. When people ultimately
able to secure a formal diagnosis, often they are presenting
(11:15):
to a physician for that formal diagnosis because things have
gotten so bad behaviorally that they feel the person cannot
live on their own independently. At that point. It may
also be the case that they are not really capable
of making their own decisions, in which case you've kind
of missed the window on taking care of some key
(11:37):
legal issues that really require in this disease that a
trusted family member or chosen family be identified as a
surrogate decision maker when you still have capacity to make
that designation. If you miss that window of opportunity in dementia,
it can be very costly to pursue legal guardianship over
(11:58):
that individual. You'll have to get an attorney. In most cases,
it will take six to eight months, many thousands of dollars,
So it can get a lot more complicated if you
wage just from the perspective of the legal and financial
matters that people are going to have to navigating.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, right there. What you're talking about is people who
tend to kind of hang out in denial for just
a little too long, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
I mean it's many things. Denial is definitely a part
of it. There is still a lot of stigma misunderstanding
about this disease that there are also other issues, like,
you know, depending on you know, your background, you might
have language access issues, you might not have the money
to see a specialist, you might be living in a
rural part of the country where you don't have those
(12:42):
specialists readily available, and so there are so many things
that contribute to delays in diagnosis that I think it's
important for families to understand that. Nevertheless, you know, you
should be motivated to get this diagnosis as soon as possible,
because it really will then kind of, I think you'll
you'll be more educated. I think ideally you'll be more
(13:03):
educated and more motivated to put the things in place
to actually drive down the cost of the disease long term.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
As many interviews as I've done on dementia, this is
I think it may be the first one where we've
really dived into the flip side of the actual condition
that somebody's in and going to the family members who
are going to end up having to pay for this somehow.
What about it. Let's say the person is still able
to live at home with other people with family members.
(13:30):
Talk about some of the expenses of that. For example,
I wrote down this, and maybe I'm off base, maybe
I'm not, but you might even have to invest in
some sort of security system that enables you not only
to know if that person happens to walk out the
front door, but where they're going. Would you recommend some
sort of some sort of tag that that person puts
(13:51):
in their wallet or whatever.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Yeah, So there are so many costs that I think
people don't don't anticipate with this disease. I will say
that most people you know, up to eighty percent of
people in the United States would prefer to stay like
in the community, in a home setting where they're comfortable,
what's familiar to them, right. They want to do that.
We don't want to be an institutional care. Almost nobody
(14:14):
cared for that, right. So when you start losing the
ability to do that safely on your own, to live independently,
then yes, it's often family who steps in, and people
will move in with their family members. Then you have
to start thinking as a family. You have to start
thinking about what do I need to do to now
adapt this household and make sure everything's safe for them.
Right So, people with dementia lose their ability to, you know,
(14:37):
over time, to cook safely on the on the stovetop.
They lose their ability to sometimes they have balance issues
right to maybe bathe or shower safely. So you have
to maybe install some grab bars and have some you know,
slip mats there. You have to make all kinds of
adjustments in your house. Sometimes you might if they are
having mobility issues also, which is truer of some of
(14:59):
the dimensions and the other and all of them. As
they advance they start to have more mobility issues, you
might have to install ramps right like there, So you
might have to do all of these home adjustments. And
as you say, because there is this tendency for some
people to wander, they in order to keep them within
your home so that they don't wander out and get
(15:19):
lost somewhere, which can be very dangerous for them, you
may have to install now technology to keep an eye
on them remotely, right like. And you at the beginning
of the disease, you are able to leave people unsupervised with,
especially with the kind of monitoring. As the disease progresses,
it becomes a bit more challenging to leave them unsupervised
(15:40):
and then just frankly dangerous to do so. And so so, yeah,
then you have to start thinking about who am I
going to have to help me watch them actually in person?
That is you know, twenty five to thirty dollars an hour, right,
and those costs are usually not picked up by insurance policy,
so largely out here.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Oh my word, that's so tough. It's important also, I
think to emphasize, Donna or doctor Murphy, excuse me, that
the importance of realization that, Okay, this started today and
it's going to last through this person's lifetime, and that
person is probably going to live longer than their parents
did because of the medical technology we have today, right exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
And I think people that appreciate that either this disease
can last five years, it can last fifteen to twenty years.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
That's how lot that Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
On average, it costs Americans three hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Oh my word. Yeah, that's a lot of money that
people aren't expecting to have to spend on anything like that,
and entire life savings could be wiped out in just
a matter of a handful of years, couldn't That's right?
Oh my goodness, doctor Donna Murphy on fifty plus, the
greater this senior population of ours gets, and a lot
of us in this audience, just like I said, we're
going to live a lot longer than our parents did.
(17:02):
How are all these additional people with cognitive difficulties going
to impact our healthcare system?
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah? I mean, right now we have about seven million
people who have dementia in the United States, and we
expect that number to more than double in the next
twenty five years. The government is, you know, trying to
do some things. There is a new Medicare program in
place that is really thinking kind of holistically about this problem,
about the health of not just the person who has
the disease, but of the person caring for them, who
(17:31):
you know, I think unsurprisingly their health actually is impacted
because of how difficult it is to actually manage this
disease at home, and so, you know, being attentive to
both of those things. The government has invested in this
new kind of pilot program for the next eight years
through Medicare, and it's great that we have some programs
like this coming online, but I will say it is
(17:52):
not nearly enough. The government response is not going to be.
It doesn't matter even who is in office in a
lot going.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
To ever in the last minute, doctor Murphy tell me
about prognosis.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Prognosis is a community fundamentally of caregivers who connect with
one another and connect with our expert team. And we
consider actually our caregivers experts in and of themselves because
they are expert in the care of their loved ones.
And we meet every week by zoom. So it's convenient,
it's consistent, it's credible because you have people who are
(18:24):
trained into mention, including myself on many of those calls.
We always have a facilitator who's a community health worker
at least, but I'm also on many of the calls,
so you can ask your medical scientific questions. But also
what most people are connecting for is just that shared experience,
right like understanding that you're not alone where you feel
otherwise so abandoned by the medical establishment, by organizations, by
(18:46):
even your family. You can connect in this space every
week and know that you are supported and you are
not alone.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Prognosus prognos Us dot com. I went to the website
and looked around, and it's just a fantastic thing that
you guys are doing there, and I'm so glad that
that's available to this audience and anybody else around here too,
Doctor Donna Murphy, thank.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
You, thank you so much, my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Prog knows us p R O G N O s
U S dot com. Go take a look at that
if you're dealing with somebody in the family that's got
dementia so terrible. All right, we're gonna take a little
break here. We'll be back with more of fifty plus
right after this Aged to Perfection. This is fifty plus
(19:35):
with Doug Pike. All right, welcome back to fifty plus.
Thanks for listening, serving you appreciate it, and thanks to
doctor Murphy for sharing those tips on managing dementia care.
(19:56):
We'll shift in shift gears in this section. I guess
to talk about doing something not many of us probably
even think about at our ages, but it would be
a great way to start the new year the more
I think about it. With time to achieve a pretty
cool goal, and that would be learning another language. According
to du Lingo. Nearly half of us would be interested
(20:17):
in doing that, and to help, I will bring in
Bojanga Payek, VP of Learning and Curriculum for du A
Lingo Bonjou. We'll excuse me, vill Cooleman. I'll get that
one right. My high school German teacher would have just
cringed if she'd heard me, how are you today?
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Good?
Speaker 4 (20:37):
That was perfect?
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Thank you? Yeah, I slipped on that w in the mercy.
I just felt horrible. I'd thought about it more than
once on the way into this interview, too, and I
botched it. I tried to, I looked up well, I
almost had time to look it up and say it
in Japanese as well, something hyo or I don't know anyway,
(20:58):
So I don't know that one.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
So language learning is really not about perfection. Do you
communicate it?
Speaker 2 (21:05):
That's fine, And that's such a good That's a perfect
way to start this, because I think a lot of
people are fearful, and my wife's in this category. She
knows a little bit of Spanish, but her pronunciation isn't perfect,
so she's hesitant to speak it around the house. And
my son's third year Spanish speaker in high school now
and he's pretty good at it, but he just doesn't
(21:27):
do it because I think he is concerned about the
same thing. And it really doesn't matter so long as
ultimately you kind of get your message across to the
person you're communicating with.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Right, That's right, That's exactly right. And as adult, really
we are not doing ourselves with a service by just
table touching ourselves and not being willing to use the language. Really,
we should look at children who seems like they learn
language so easily their first language, but take them years
(22:01):
to become proficient. But what they do well is they
are not afraid to use the language. They are not
afraid to make mistakes, they are not embarrassed. They just
want to communicate. And as adults that that's what we
can do better. We are often just so embarrassed and
we we have a hard time not being in control.
(22:22):
We just want to be perfect. We want to understand
every single word we hear. We want to know the
exact verb conjugation, oh my god. But like I said earlier,
communication is not about perfection. And if we just relax
a bit, it a bit, if we if we had
fun with it, we would actually learn better. So that's
(22:43):
like kids do.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I think, yeah, that's that's a really great point bringing
up the kids, because I don't know any three year
olds who have mastered the English language. But they'll sure,
they'll sure jabber it up with you trying to get
a message across, won't they. And that's how they learn.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
That's right, that's how they learn. And they do make
a lot of mistakes.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
I think we all know.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
All the cute mistakes that the children make.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
But that is that's that is how for parents of
young children, be careful what you say around the house
because they will repeat it at some point, right, that's right.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
They will remember they are really focussed learning the language.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
So for somebody who's interested in learning French or Spanish
or whatever, just to say they did and has plenty
of free time, how what's the timeline and dedication to
the task to become just casually conversational with the new
words and phrases.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
It really doesn't have to take long. Of course, it
can take years too to fully learn a language, to
be completely proficient, but it really can only take a
few weeks to learn a few basic words the base
sentences to start to be able to start a conversation. Really,
the most important thing is to build a habit, and
(23:56):
you can start very small, just doing something day, even
if it's just a few minutes. And you can do
very simple things like listening to music in the language
you're learning, or watching movies or shows in that language
with subtitles on, or you can use some more structured
tools like YouTube urses on for language learning or language
(24:22):
learning apps like like Duellingo.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, the language learning apps appeal to me because I
if I chose to to become more proficient in a language,
I would want to expedite it. I'd want to get there.
That's just the way I am. If I if I
latch onto it, I'm gonna I'm gonna go after it
pretty hard until I get to the end. Except for
cleaning my garage, that's another story. So and what if
somebody was in let's say, all of a sudden, I
(24:47):
had the opportunity to go to Munich or Rome in
six months and and didn't have a lot of free time.
Could I could I get to clumsy tourist level before then?
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Definitely? So yes, like you're saying, the apps are really
great for that because you can just download them on
your phone, you can start using them even if you
don't have much time. Your schedule is pretty busy. It's
pretty easy to fit it into your schedule because lessons
in language learning apps like DUELINGA they are pretty short.
It just takes a few minutes to complete a single lesson,
(25:20):
So even if you're just waiting in line for something,
you can do a lesson. And so this way you
can actually learn quite a bit just by fitting in
those small chunks here and there, And you don't need
to dedicate a whole hour or somewhere for a class,
which might be harder to do.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
I could see doing it in the car, just driving around.
So Bodjango Payak from dual Lingo on fifty plus here.
And as if speaking another language weren't reward enough for
learning it, there's also and then this piggybacks beautifully into
the interview I did earlier on dementia. Exercising our brains
with learning like this, if we can can boost cognitive
(26:02):
power and provide other health benefits, talk about that.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
That's right. So research shows that life long bilingualism has
tremendous brain health benefits. It keeps your mind sharp, it
improves your memory, multitasking can even delay the onset of Alzheimer's,
and now there's emerging research showing that even the process
of learning a language later in life can have similar
(26:26):
benefits for brain health.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
It really this is because language.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Learning is a great mental workout. Well, you know, all
your languages that you know are active in your brain
at the same time, and so your brain has to
work really hard to just use the language that's appropriate
in a given moment. So, for example, my native language
is Polish, but I also speak English and Spanish, and
(26:51):
right now my brain has to work really hard to
keep Polish and Spanish under control God, so that I
can speak English. Later. What I call my sister, well,
I'll have to switch to Polish. And when I say
hi to my friend from Mexico, I might want to
do that in Spanish. This kind of switching between languages
is hard for the breed. And if it's hard a
(27:15):
workout for your brain, yeah, it just means that your
brain has to work just a little bit harder and
that helps its function better as we age.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
My brain just might have to sit down and take
a break every now and then. One of the motivations,
one of the motivations I would have in knowing other languages. Honestly,
in this melting pot where we live, would be secretly
knowing what people in businesses are saying to each other
in their native tongue about me in their business. That
(27:48):
would be kind of fun. And then maybe being able
to say, why'd you say that about me? That would
be kind of cool.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
That would be pretty nice.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
And they wouldn't know whether you at that point, they
wouldn't know whether you understood anymore or not. That's the
only phrase you'd need to learn to have them stop
talking about you and their language. That'd be kind of fun.
So the audience, the audience, oh gosh, yeah, that's all
you need.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
The audience is wondering, I'm sure how much these dual
lingo courses cost. So can you just give us an
idea and how they're delivered?
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Well, the al Ango actually is completely free.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Come on. You need to download.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Download a lingo on your phone and go to your
app store and you can start using it. All the
course content is free. There is a subscription that you
can pay for that gives you a few extra things
and get rid of the ads. But but you don't
have to do that. It's it's free to use.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
I get the ads, get started. I can get the
ads in the language I'm trying to speak. That would
be just a double benefit, wouldn't it. All Right? We
are Unfortunately, we're out of time, and I'm gonna challenge
myself to call you back in about six months and
be able to have the at least half the interview
in a different language. I'm not sure which one I'm
gonna pick, but it'll be a fun one. Yeah, thank you,
(29:12):
my goodness. Bojango Peyek from Duo Lingo on fifty plus.
This was fun, and I will I'm gonna get after it.
I am, thank you so very much, oh my pleasure.
We have got to take a little break here on
the way out. I will you know what, I'm just
gonna I'm just gonna run this one out to you,
will dry, and then when we get back, I'll let
(29:34):
you join the party more fifty plus. Right after this,
once life without a Net, I suggest to go to bed,
sleep it off.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Just wait until this show's over, Sleepy. Back to Doug
Pike as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Well, I'm back fifty plus. Thanks for listening on this. Well,
we can't see outside. It was nice this morning, except
there was just this blanket of thin clouds, kind of
like a cheap blanket, I guess, more like gauze than
like a blanket. It didn't block the moon, as the
moon was trying to find its way down below the horizon,
(30:23):
but what it did was just diffuse the light that
it emitted, and so it was a little weird looking
but not horrible. Moving into headlines of the day, and
I'm not sure, well the headline of the day, I think,
and I'll do this and depending on where I am
after this, maybe go to a couple more or maybe
(30:43):
let will help lighten it up with us. Those fires
around Los Angeles now blamed for twenty four deaths and
still sixteen people missing, And in a story this morning,
there's a theory going around now at least and has
been for a little while, that it was holiday fireworks
(31:07):
that started that Palisades fire. Could have been other sources,
could have been other triggers, but fireworks would kind of
make sense under the conditions out there, which combine strong wind,
low humidity, low moisture in everything that would burn out
there because it's been so dry for a while. And
then people setting off fireworks that could land anywhere and
(31:31):
under those conditions break out and become the wildfires that
at least one of those fires is has been considered
being caused by the fireworks. Now, bear in mind that
and the other fires. I don't nobody's even talked about
a cause for them, but that just popped up in
a story this morning. Bear in mind that legal fireworks,
(31:54):
if they are. I don't even know if they're legal
around Pacific Palisades are anywhere in California, but I guess
that's kind of the way it goes on Fourth of
July and New Year's Day and the preceding four or
five days in the days two or three days after. Anyway,
even if they had been the source, I think there's
almost there's at least as much fault in the state
(32:16):
not practicing good forestry, plain and simple, not clearing that
underbrush with either prescribed burns or dozing or whatever to
remove that kindling, that thick blanket of dry nothing on
the ground, highly flammable stuff. It's like leaving giant pat
(32:36):
giant potholes in the highway and then blaming the drivers
for having the wheels knocked off their cars. It just
makes no sense. And honestly, let's just get them through
it first, then we'll try to make sense of it.
Pray for those people. Seriously, politics aside, and I don't
care who it is out there who lost their home
to a fire. That's horrible. I don't think that should
(32:59):
have to anyone. It shouldn't and I'm gonna stop short
of saying it it didn't have to, but it shouldn't
have happened to anybody. And to keep your current briefly
at least evacuation orders now in place for one hundred
and five thousand people in Los Angeles. That's about the
size of sugar Land population wise. I don't know how many,
(33:23):
how many square miles that is eighty seven thousand more
people in warning zones and forty nine thousand people in
that state in that region anyway, without power. This is
just tragedy of epic proportion and nothing less or more
from Alabama. And I'm just stay ready. We'll keep your
(33:44):
helmet on. Okay, I might have to put you in
the game. Here in Alabama, a robber armed with a
knife tried to rob a store clerk. Clerk, he said, correctly,
who as it turns out, was armed with a handgun,
and it didn't turn out well for the robber who
was shot and killed. In one of what Florida state,
there's a criminology professor there who says there's about seven
(34:08):
hundred and sixty thousand defensive gun uses annually in our country.
Any gun people and entities that challenge anything to do
with private ownership of guns say that number isn't right,
but they don't have any or well, there's little, if
any evidence that to prove that that number is inflated.
(34:30):
And even if it's only saving, even if it's only
used five times, that's five times where the person who
was being accosted might have been robbed or raped or
shot or whatever. Many defensive uses I'd contend even go unreported.
There's probably more. Somebody poses a threat to another somebody
(34:54):
and that second somebody produces a gun and the first
turns and run away, no shots fired, no blood drawn
on either side. It's a good outcome that likely goes
unreported because who wants to deal with that right? Who
wants to call the police and say I had to
draw my gun on somebody that who wants to be
(35:19):
presumed guilty until they can prove justification for trying to
save their own lives in a split second, I want
to get a medal for de escalating that situation without
having to pull the trigger. That I think would more
be more appropriate. Uh. Back to California for just a second.
Vice President Kamala Harris told Californians recently, the one these
(35:44):
people who they've lost everything, they were impacted by these
fires as greatly as they can be without losing their lives.
And two dozen people already have had that happen to them,
and she just told them, in a very long word
salad to boil it all down. She told them to
be patient, be patient. What a staggering lack of understanding.
(36:08):
Maybe we should have told them, We should tell these
Californians maybe to contact the people in North Carolina who
were devastated by Hurricane Helene to share their well brace
for some sarcasm here, to share the North Carolinian's exposure
to the federal government and how quickly it responded when
(36:30):
it came time to help them. Ends of sarcasm. Unbelievable.
This I found interesting too, Will and you can jump
in here, Jimmy. I heard Jimmy talking over on kat
Urch this morning about how the adult here, the average
adult only feels healthy about sixteen days a month. Is
(36:52):
that about right for you? Or do you feel healthy
more often than that? You're an adult? Yeah, I am
an adult. So how many days do you feel like? Yeah,
I'm pretty I'm good.
Speaker 5 (37:02):
I feel fine most of the time. I feel like
mostly when I wake up is usually the worst part
of the day for me, and I'll maybe just have
a bit of a scratchy throat, Yeah, maybe a little with.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Your mouth open. It's just dry, right, probably.
Speaker 5 (37:24):
But that's about it, you know, I mean usually if
I take a shower, it'll get a way.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Yeah, So it's not you don't have sixteen days feeling
good and fifteen feeling horrible or even feeling sick. You
just wake up, you take your shower, and you're gone
and you're good. I'm the same way. My guess, honestly,
is that most people, most of the people that they surveyed,
weren't yet fifty, and certainly weren't sixty. Because by the
time we get to our age, stuff hurts, stuff creaks,
(37:55):
stuff just stiffens up. Every day, well maybe not every
day in some cases, but feeling one hundred percent isn't
something many of us experience anymore. And that's okay. We're
comfortable with where we are. I make the best I
can out of what I've got, and I feel pretty good,
and I don't really dwell on if something, if I
move wrong and something pops or something twists, or something
(38:18):
starts to hurt, I kind of ignore it unless it
persists for more than about three or four days, because
I'm pretty comfortable feeling like anything I do, short of
exposing a bone somehow that I break, it's just gonna
It's gonna go away. I've got issues with my back,
and if I move wrong or if I pick up
(38:40):
something too heavy the wrong way, whatever, it's gonna hurt
a little bit, but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna
get worked up over it. All right, Well, let's some
let's see we took care of all of that. I
didn't put headlines on these. I'm just gonna, oh, this
is a good one. In the last minute, ninety seven
percent of Americans will say that sick of something, What
(39:02):
are you sick of? I'm sick of something for sure.
Forty seconds isn't gonna be enough. Why don't just write
down a list and we'll go over on one by
one tomorrow. All right, that sounds good, we want to
do that. I honestly don't know where I would start either.
(39:22):
I'm sick of bad manners. Okay, I'm sick of bad manners.
I'm sick of people ignoring they won't even make eye contact.
I talked about that last week. It just it perplexes
me why people can't just exercise common decency and civility
amongst other humans. And the only thing I can look at,
I guess, is social media. So if you excuse me now,
(39:45):
I'm gonna go check Facebook. We'll be back tomorrow. Thanks
for listening, Audios
Remember when it was impossible to misplace the TV remote
because you were the TV remote. Remember when music sounded
like this, Remember when social media was truly social?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey John, how's it going today? Well, this show is
all about you. This is fifty plus with Doug Pike.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
Helpful information on your finances, good health, and what to
do for fun. Fifty plus brought to you by the
UT Health Houston Institute on Aging, Informed Decisions for a healthier,
happier life.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
And Bronze Roofing Repair or replacement. Bronze Roofing has you covered?
And now fifty plus with Doug Pike. All right, welcome aboard.
Walk in here and find out that this little micro
or the headphone button isn't working. Let me see if
this other one works. One second, I'll run this down here,
plug it in here, and yes, that's working. I don't
(01:07):
know what's wrong with this one. We need to get
Tom in here right away. Well, this is a crisis,
a broadcast crisis. I say that I've already worked around.
By the way, it seems like you fix the problem easily. Well, somebody,
somebody of lesser skill and talent and experience than me
might come in afterward. And just not know how to
(01:29):
move that wire two and a half feet. Wow, you
can you just never know around He set the bar
so high, don't I. There's not even a punchline worthy
of that. That just that's yeah, I can't top that.
I'll just move on. Welcome to Tuesday next. In a
(01:49):
procession of days on which the weather folks around here
are counting down to something that they're just nearly all
calling a hard free for the greater Houston area. This
hard freeze, this just apocalyptic dive in temperatures, is going
(02:10):
to take us all the way down, all the way
down to twenty eight maybe twenty seven degrees. Now up north,
the farther north you go, the colder it gets. That's
just how the world works. But for us, twenty seven
to twenty eight, and I guess that's in the middle
of Houston, maybe twenty three, twenty two up in the woodlands,
(02:32):
maybe thirty one, thirty two on the coast. But the
official mark is just and this is according to the
weather forecasters on television, because after all, they do have
to rely on sizzle to sell their glitzy commercials. Twenty
(02:53):
seven that's in Minnesota. That's spring it's gonna be cold. Okay, no,
it's gonna freeze, but not chicken, little cold, chicken, Little
should keep her mouth shut on this one. Unless the
estimates drop four or five more degrees down, then it
might become a hard freeze. But no otherwise. In the meantime,
(03:15):
just go in your attic and make sure everything that
needs to be wrapped is wrapped same outside. To cover
up those bell valves on the sprinkler system, that's an
expensive mistake. That's a very expensive mistake, and it sometimes
can take quite a bit of time to get them recovered.
In a truly hard freeze, cover the spigots around the house.
(03:37):
That's gonna cost you three or four bucks at home
depot or Low's or wherever you want to buy those
little insulated foam heavy thick, well not thick foam, but
dense foam covers for those things. There's a little trick
I used to to keep those things even more efficient
than they are out of the box. By the way,
(03:58):
no need to hoard toilet paper or water or anything
else for this when groceries as usual, And speaking of
the attic. Since the weather note is courtesy of texas
iaq dot net. Maybe think about getting your duckwork clean
for the new year. That's the website again, texas iaq
dot net. Onto the markets now from Houston gooldexchange dot com.
(04:18):
All four indicators in the green for a pleasant change,
and by legitimate margins too. Now are they at record highs? No,
nowhere close to the best that I can remember, but
nonetheless up and rising. The last time I looked, which
was about nine thirty this morning, Oil also on the
(04:39):
plus side, had retreated a good bit down more than
a buck, and still headed in that direction. At that
early look. Gold up I think four dollars whatever it was.
Speaking of Houston Gold Exchange, I swung by there recently
to pick up something and walked into Brad Schwis doing
what he called a pretty big deal even in his business.
(05:01):
A family from somewhere, I don't know where they were
in from, but they had come over there to sell
their collection of silver coins, which means basically means dimes
and quarters and halfs minted before nineteen sixty four. And
what they had was a pretty significant bundle that weighed
(05:23):
around three hundred pounds. There were bags of coins on
the counters that were just everywhere that didn't stay long
after the deal was cut either, that's a security issue.
If my math is correct at current prices for silver
per troy ounce, well you do the math. It's a
(05:45):
big number, a pretty impressive watch this will? Have you
been listening to what I was talking about? Yeah, you're
talking about goal No, I'm not God, No silver will
silver coins, the sixty four and early your dimes and quarters? Okay,
all right? And so I'm gonna bundle that up by
(06:05):
saying that was a pretty impressive chunk of change. You
like that that? Where would that be? On a one
to ten? I mean to I'll give you you're just
not in a go. I'll give you a point two
five for a quarter? How about a twenty five? How
(06:25):
about a two point five? How about we move on?
You're gonna wish your name will was Tiberville? Why and it? Well,
there's a guy in France. This guy's ninety one years old,
and he just donated ten million bucks in euros I
(06:45):
guess to a small town in France, all because the
town's name is also his last name. Can you can
you imagine how many phone calls and emails he's gonna
get from Tiberville, Old Scotland and Tiberville, Arkansas and all
the Hey, you got anything left, we could use a
(07:07):
couple of those. Yeah, ten point two million dollars in total.
They left or he has given them from his estate
because it's where his family came from. Obviously, well not obviously,
but anyway, that's where his family originated, and he just
thought that'd be a nice thing to do, because, after all, he,
(07:28):
like most of us, had ten point two million dollars
just laying around collecting dust. That's off to the people
in that town. What do you think of town? It's
probably a very small town. Will, How could they best
spend ten point two million dollars? I don't know. I mean,
I've never heard of the town, so I've never been
(07:50):
to that. Maybe it's Beaumont. Then maybe Bob Beaumont gave
Beaumont ten point two million dollars. What would they spend
it on? Wisely? Not in the city down starting over? Yeah,
it's terrible. Will, My gosh, you're piece of work man.
All right, Anyway, we'll move on. UT Health Institute on
(08:13):
Aging is that and always will be that, collaborative of
more than a thousand providers now healthcare providers who have
gone back and regent will not re educated greater educated
themselves as to how their specific knowledge of their specific
medical field can be applied to seniors. They make us
(08:37):
live longer, better, healthier, happier lives. That's what they do
all day, every day when they do it all over
town too. Most of them do most of their work
around the med center, as you might imagine the epicenter
of healthcare around here in the Southwest basically, but these
people also work, many of them do at least in
outlying areas so that you don't have to drive into
(08:59):
the media center to see somebody who has all that training.
To learn more about the Institute on Aging and how
it works, go to their website. You can find tons
of information. There, so many resources that will help you
solve any medical mystery you have, and a lot of
just lifestyle mysteries that you might have about where to
(09:20):
find something, where to go to meet new people. All
these different things are covered at ut Health Institute on
Aging utch dot edu slash aging. That's the website utch
dot edu slash aging.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
Now they sure don't make them like they used to.
That's why every few months we wash them, check us
fluids and spray on a fresh code O wax. This
is fifty plus with Dougpike.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
Hi, welcome back fifty plus. Thanks for listening. I certainly
do appreciate it. We are going to in this segment,
we're going to talk about dementia from a different and
in most cases, truly troubling aspect for a lot of families. Dementia,
as you well know, impacts just countless families in the
United States, and one of the real realities of these
conditions is that they are prohibitively expensive to manage and treat.
(10:19):
And to explain I'm going to bring in doctor Donna Murphy,
neurologist and longtime advocate for affordable care, which is channeling
great part to through prognose Us, a company she founded
that provides low cost access to experts in the field.
Welcome aboard, doctor.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
Murphy, Thanks so much for having me my pleasures.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Dementia is a hard word for any family here in
reference to a loved one. Once that diagnosis is made,
one of the first few things that are going to
cost the family money that they didn't intend to have
to spend.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Oh gosh, I mean, it's a little bit complicated answer
to this question because people come in to diagnosis at
different stages of disease. Often, unfortunately, it is a little
bit more advanced than we would like. When people ultimately
able to secure a formal diagnosis, often they are presenting
(11:15):
to a physician for that formal diagnosis because things have
gotten so bad behaviorally that they feel the person cannot
live on their own independently. At that point. It may
also be the case that they are not really capable
of making their own decisions, in which case you've kind
of missed the window on taking care of some key
(11:37):
legal issues that really require in this disease that a
trusted family member or chosen family be identified as a
surrogate decision maker when you still have capacity to make
that designation. If you miss that window of opportunity in dementia,
it can be very costly to pursue legal guardianship over
(11:58):
that individual. You'll have to get an attorney. In most cases,
it will take six to eight months, many thousands of dollars,
So it can get a lot more complicated if you
wage just from the perspective of the legal and financial
matters that people are going to have to navigating.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, right there. What you're talking about is people who
tend to kind of hang out in denial for just
a little too long, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
I mean it's many things. Denial is definitely a part
of it. There is still a lot of stigma misunderstanding
about this disease that there are also other issues, like,
you know, depending on you know, your background, you might
have language access issues, you might not have the money
to see a specialist, you might be living in a
rural part of the country where you don't have those
(12:42):
specialists readily available, and so there are so many things
that contribute to delays in diagnosis that I think it's
important for families to understand that. Nevertheless, you know, you
should be motivated to get this diagnosis as soon as possible,
because it really will then kind of, I think you'll
you'll be more educated. I think ideally you'll be more
(13:03):
educated and more motivated to put the things in place
to actually drive down the cost of the disease long term.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
As many interviews as I've done on dementia, this is
I think it may be the first one where we've
really dived into the flip side of the actual condition
that somebody's in and going to the family members who
are going to end up having to pay for this somehow.
What about it. Let's say the person is still able
to live at home with other people with family members.
(13:30):
Talk about some of the expenses of that. For example,
I wrote down this, and maybe I'm off base, maybe
I'm not, but you might even have to invest in
some sort of security system that enables you not only
to know if that person happens to walk out the
front door, but where they're going. Would you recommend some
sort of some sort of tag that that person puts
(13:51):
in their wallet or whatever.
Speaker 3 (13:53):
Yeah, So there are so many costs that I think
people don't don't anticipate with this disease. I will say
that most people you know, up to eighty percent of
people in the United States would prefer to stay like
in the community, in a home setting where they're comfortable,
what's familiar to them, right. They want to do that.
We don't want to be an institutional care. Almost nobody
(14:14):
cared for that, right. So when you start losing the
ability to do that safely on your own, to live independently,
then yes, it's often family who steps in, and people
will move in with their family members. Then you have
to start thinking as a family. You have to start
thinking about what do I need to do to now
adapt this household and make sure everything's safe for them.
Right So, people with dementia lose their ability to, you know,
(14:37):
over time, to cook safely on the on the stovetop.
They lose their ability to sometimes they have balance issues
right to maybe bathe or shower safely. So you have
to maybe install some grab bars and have some you know,
slip mats there. You have to make all kinds of
adjustments in your house. Sometimes you might if they are
having mobility issues also, which is truer of some of
(14:59):
the dimensions and the other and all of them. As
they advance they start to have more mobility issues, you
might have to install ramps right like there, So you
might have to do all of these home adjustments. And
as you say, because there is this tendency for some
people to wander, they in order to keep them within
your home so that they don't wander out and get
(15:19):
lost somewhere, which can be very dangerous for them, you
may have to install now technology to keep an eye
on them remotely, right like. And you at the beginning
of the disease, you are able to leave people unsupervised with,
especially with the kind of monitoring. As the disease progresses,
it becomes a bit more challenging to leave them unsupervised
(15:40):
and then just frankly dangerous to do so. And so so, yeah,
then you have to start thinking about who am I
going to have to help me watch them actually in person?
That is you know, twenty five to thirty dollars an hour, right,
and those costs are usually not picked up by insurance policy,
so largely out here.
Speaker 2 (16:02):
Oh my word, that's so tough. It's important also, I
think to emphasize, Donna or doctor Murphy, excuse me, that
the importance of realization that, Okay, this started today and
it's going to last through this person's lifetime, and that
person is probably going to live longer than their parents
did because of the medical technology we have today, right exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
And I think people that appreciate that either this disease
can last five years, it can last fifteen to twenty years.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
That's how lot that Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
On average, it costs Americans three hundred thousand dollars.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
Oh my word. Yeah, that's a lot of money that
people aren't expecting to have to spend on anything like that,
and entire life savings could be wiped out in just
a matter of a handful of years, couldn't That's right?
Oh my goodness, doctor Donna Murphy on fifty plus, the
greater this senior population of ours gets, and a lot
of us in this audience, just like I said, we're
going to live a lot longer than our parents did.
(17:02):
How are all these additional people with cognitive difficulties going
to impact our healthcare system?
Speaker 3 (17:09):
Yeah? I mean, right now we have about seven million
people who have dementia in the United States, and we
expect that number to more than double in the next
twenty five years. The government is, you know, trying to
do some things. There is a new Medicare program in
place that is really thinking kind of holistically about this problem,
about the health of not just the person who has
the disease, but of the person caring for them, who
(17:31):
you know, I think unsurprisingly their health actually is impacted
because of how difficult it is to actually manage this
disease at home, and so, you know, being attentive to
both of those things. The government has invested in this
new kind of pilot program for the next eight years
through Medicare, and it's great that we have some programs
like this coming online, but I will say it is
(17:52):
not nearly enough. The government response is not going to be.
It doesn't matter even who is in office in a
lot going.
Speaker 2 (17:59):
To ever in the last minute, doctor Murphy tell me
about prognosis.
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Prognosis is a community fundamentally of caregivers who connect with
one another and connect with our expert team. And we
consider actually our caregivers experts in and of themselves because
they are expert in the care of their loved ones.
And we meet every week by zoom. So it's convenient,
it's consistent, it's credible because you have people who are
(18:24):
trained into mention, including myself on many of those calls.
We always have a facilitator who's a community health worker
at least, but I'm also on many of the calls,
so you can ask your medical scientific questions. But also
what most people are connecting for is just that shared experience,
right like understanding that you're not alone where you feel
otherwise so abandoned by the medical establishment, by organizations, by
(18:46):
even your family. You can connect in this space every
week and know that you are supported and you are
not alone.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
Prognosus prognos Us dot com. I went to the website
and looked around, and it's just a fantastic thing that
you guys are doing there, and I'm so glad that
that's available to this audience and anybody else around here too,
Doctor Donna Murphy, thank.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
You, thank you so much, my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Prog knows us p R O G N O s
U S dot com. Go take a look at that
if you're dealing with somebody in the family that's got
dementia so terrible. All right, we're gonna take a little
break here. We'll be back with more of fifty plus
right after this Aged to Perfection. This is fifty plus
(19:35):
with Doug Pike. All right, welcome back to fifty plus.
Thanks for listening, serving you appreciate it, and thanks to
doctor Murphy for sharing those tips on managing dementia care.
(19:56):
We'll shift in shift gears in this section. I guess
to talk about doing something not many of us probably
even think about at our ages, but it would be
a great way to start the new year the more
I think about it. With time to achieve a pretty
cool goal, and that would be learning another language. According
to du Lingo. Nearly half of us would be interested
(20:17):
in doing that, and to help, I will bring in
Bojanga Payek, VP of Learning and Curriculum for du A
Lingo Bonjou. We'll excuse me, vill Cooleman. I'll get that
one right. My high school German teacher would have just
cringed if she'd heard me, how are you today?
Speaker 3 (20:37):
Good?
Speaker 4 (20:37):
That was perfect?
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Thank you? Yeah, I slipped on that w in the mercy.
I just felt horrible. I'd thought about it more than
once on the way into this interview, too, and I
botched it. I tried to, I looked up well, I
almost had time to look it up and say it
in Japanese as well, something hyo or I don't know anyway,
(20:58):
So I don't know that one.
Speaker 4 (21:01):
So language learning is really not about perfection. Do you
communicate it?
Speaker 2 (21:05):
That's fine, And that's such a good That's a perfect
way to start this, because I think a lot of
people are fearful, and my wife's in this category. She
knows a little bit of Spanish, but her pronunciation isn't perfect,
so she's hesitant to speak it around the house. And
my son's third year Spanish speaker in high school now
and he's pretty good at it, but he just doesn't
(21:27):
do it because I think he is concerned about the
same thing. And it really doesn't matter so long as
ultimately you kind of get your message across to the
person you're communicating with.
Speaker 4 (21:37):
Right, That's right, That's exactly right. And as adult, really
we are not doing ourselves with a service by just
table touching ourselves and not being willing to use the language. Really,
we should look at children who seems like they learn
language so easily their first language, but take them years
(22:01):
to become proficient. But what they do well is they
are not afraid to use the language. They are not
afraid to make mistakes, they are not embarrassed. They just
want to communicate. And as adults that that's what we
can do better. We are often just so embarrassed and
we we have a hard time not being in control.
(22:22):
We just want to be perfect. We want to understand
every single word we hear. We want to know the
exact verb conjugation, oh my god. But like I said earlier,
communication is not about perfection. And if we just relax
a bit, it a bit, if we if we had
fun with it, we would actually learn better. So that's
(22:43):
like kids do.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
I think, yeah, that's that's a really great point bringing
up the kids, because I don't know any three year
olds who have mastered the English language. But they'll sure,
they'll sure jabber it up with you trying to get
a message across, won't they. And that's how they learn.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
That's right, that's how they learn. And they do make
a lot of mistakes.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
I think we all know.
Speaker 4 (23:01):
All the cute mistakes that the children make.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
But that is that's that is how for parents of
young children, be careful what you say around the house
because they will repeat it at some point, right, that's right.
Speaker 4 (23:14):
They will remember they are really focussed learning the language.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
So for somebody who's interested in learning French or Spanish
or whatever, just to say they did and has plenty
of free time, how what's the timeline and dedication to
the task to become just casually conversational with the new
words and phrases.
Speaker 4 (23:35):
It really doesn't have to take long. Of course, it
can take years too to fully learn a language, to
be completely proficient, but it really can only take a
few weeks to learn a few basic words the base
sentences to start to be able to start a conversation. Really,
the most important thing is to build a habit, and
(23:56):
you can start very small, just doing something day, even
if it's just a few minutes. And you can do
very simple things like listening to music in the language
you're learning, or watching movies or shows in that language
with subtitles on, or you can use some more structured
tools like YouTube urses on for language learning or language
(24:22):
learning apps like like Duellingo.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
Yeah, the language learning apps appeal to me because I
if I chose to to become more proficient in a language,
I would want to expedite it. I'd want to get there.
That's just the way I am. If I if I
latch onto it, I'm gonna I'm gonna go after it
pretty hard until I get to the end. Except for
cleaning my garage, that's another story. So and what if
somebody was in let's say, all of a sudden, I
(24:47):
had the opportunity to go to Munich or Rome in
six months and and didn't have a lot of free time.
Could I could I get to clumsy tourist level before then?
Speaker 4 (24:57):
Definitely? So yes, like you're saying, the apps are really
great for that because you can just download them on
your phone, you can start using them even if you
don't have much time. Your schedule is pretty busy. It's
pretty easy to fit it into your schedule because lessons
in language learning apps like DUELINGA they are pretty short.
It just takes a few minutes to complete a single lesson,
(25:20):
So even if you're just waiting in line for something,
you can do a lesson. And so this way you
can actually learn quite a bit just by fitting in
those small chunks here and there, And you don't need
to dedicate a whole hour or somewhere for a class,
which might be harder to do.
Speaker 2 (25:41):
I could see doing it in the car, just driving around.
So Bodjango Payak from dual Lingo on fifty plus here.
And as if speaking another language weren't reward enough for
learning it, there's also and then this piggybacks beautifully into
the interview I did earlier on dementia. Exercising our brains
with learning like this, if we can can boost cognitive
(26:02):
power and provide other health benefits, talk about that.
Speaker 4 (26:06):
That's right. So research shows that life long bilingualism has
tremendous brain health benefits. It keeps your mind sharp, it
improves your memory, multitasking can even delay the onset of Alzheimer's,
and now there's emerging research showing that even the process
of learning a language later in life can have similar
(26:26):
benefits for brain health.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
It really this is because language.
Speaker 4 (26:30):
Learning is a great mental workout. Well, you know, all
your languages that you know are active in your brain
at the same time, and so your brain has to
work really hard to just use the language that's appropriate
in a given moment. So, for example, my native language
is Polish, but I also speak English and Spanish, and
(26:51):
right now my brain has to work really hard to
keep Polish and Spanish under control God, so that I
can speak English. Later. What I call my sister, well,
I'll have to switch to Polish. And when I say
hi to my friend from Mexico, I might want to
do that in Spanish. This kind of switching between languages
is hard for the breed. And if it's hard a
(27:15):
workout for your brain, yeah, it just means that your
brain has to work just a little bit harder and
that helps its function better as we age.
Speaker 2 (27:25):
My brain just might have to sit down and take
a break every now and then. One of the motivations,
one of the motivations I would have in knowing other languages. Honestly,
in this melting pot where we live, would be secretly
knowing what people in businesses are saying to each other
in their native tongue about me in their business. That
(27:48):
would be kind of fun. And then maybe being able
to say, why'd you say that about me? That would
be kind of cool.
Speaker 4 (27:53):
That would be pretty nice.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
And they wouldn't know whether you at that point, they
wouldn't know whether you understood anymore or not. That's the
only phrase you'd need to learn to have them stop
talking about you and their language. That'd be kind of fun.
So the audience, the audience, oh gosh, yeah, that's all
you need.
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (28:14):
The audience is wondering, I'm sure how much these dual
lingo courses cost. So can you just give us an
idea and how they're delivered?
Speaker 4 (28:22):
Well, the al Ango actually is completely free.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Come on. You need to download.
Speaker 4 (28:29):
Download a lingo on your phone and go to your
app store and you can start using it. All the
course content is free. There is a subscription that you
can pay for that gives you a few extra things
and get rid of the ads. But but you don't
have to do that. It's it's free to use.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
I get the ads, get started. I can get the
ads in the language I'm trying to speak. That would
be just a double benefit, wouldn't it. All Right? We
are Unfortunately, we're out of time, and I'm gonna challenge
myself to call you back in about six months and
be able to have the at least half the interview
in a different language. I'm not sure which one I'm
gonna pick, but it'll be a fun one. Yeah, thank you,
(29:12):
my goodness. Bojango Peyek from Duo Lingo on fifty plus.
This was fun, and I will I'm gonna get after it.
I am, thank you so very much, oh my pleasure.
We have got to take a little break here on
the way out. I will you know what, I'm just
gonna I'm just gonna run this one out to you,
will dry, and then when we get back, I'll let
(29:34):
you join the party more fifty plus. Right after this,
once life without a Net, I suggest to go to bed,
sleep it off.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
Just wait until this show's over, Sleepy. Back to Doug
Pike as fifty plus continues.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Well, I'm back fifty plus. Thanks for listening on this. Well,
we can't see outside. It was nice this morning, except
there was just this blanket of thin clouds, kind of
like a cheap blanket, I guess, more like gauze than
like a blanket. It didn't block the moon, as the
moon was trying to find its way down below the horizon,
(30:23):
but what it did was just diffuse the light that
it emitted, and so it was a little weird looking
but not horrible. Moving into headlines of the day, and
I'm not sure, well the headline of the day, I think,
and I'll do this and depending on where I am
after this, maybe go to a couple more or maybe
(30:43):
let will help lighten it up with us. Those fires
around Los Angeles now blamed for twenty four deaths and
still sixteen people missing, And in a story this morning,
there's a theory going around now at least and has
been for a little while, that it was holiday fireworks
(31:07):
that started that Palisades fire. Could have been other sources,
could have been other triggers, but fireworks would kind of
make sense under the conditions out there, which combine strong wind,
low humidity, low moisture in everything that would burn out
there because it's been so dry for a while. And
then people setting off fireworks that could land anywhere and
(31:31):
under those conditions break out and become the wildfires that
at least one of those fires is has been considered
being caused by the fireworks. Now, bear in mind that
and the other fires. I don't nobody's even talked about
a cause for them, but that just popped up in
a story this morning. Bear in mind that legal fireworks,
(31:54):
if they are. I don't even know if they're legal
around Pacific Palisades are anywhere in California, but I guess
that's kind of the way it goes on Fourth of
July and New Year's Day and the preceding four or
five days in the days two or three days after. Anyway,
even if they had been the source, I think there's
almost there's at least as much fault in the state
(32:16):
not practicing good forestry, plain and simple, not clearing that
underbrush with either prescribed burns or dozing or whatever to
remove that kindling, that thick blanket of dry nothing on
the ground, highly flammable stuff. It's like leaving giant pat
(32:36):
giant potholes in the highway and then blaming the drivers
for having the wheels knocked off their cars. It just
makes no sense. And honestly, let's just get them through
it first, then we'll try to make sense of it.
Pray for those people. Seriously, politics aside, and I don't
care who it is out there who lost their home
to a fire. That's horrible. I don't think that should
(32:59):
have to anyone. It shouldn't and I'm gonna stop short
of saying it it didn't have to, but it shouldn't
have happened to anybody. And to keep your current briefly
at least evacuation orders now in place for one hundred
and five thousand people in Los Angeles. That's about the
size of sugar Land population wise. I don't know how many,
(33:23):
how many square miles that is eighty seven thousand more
people in warning zones and forty nine thousand people in
that state in that region anyway, without power. This is
just tragedy of epic proportion and nothing less or more
from Alabama. And I'm just stay ready. We'll keep your
(33:44):
helmet on. Okay, I might have to put you in
the game. Here in Alabama, a robber armed with a
knife tried to rob a store clerk. Clerk, he said, correctly,
who as it turns out, was armed with a handgun,
and it didn't turn out well for the robber who
was shot and killed. In one of what Florida state,
there's a criminology professor there who says there's about seven
(34:08):
hundred and sixty thousand defensive gun uses annually in our country.
Any gun people and entities that challenge anything to do
with private ownership of guns say that number isn't right,
but they don't have any or well, there's little, if
any evidence that to prove that that number is inflated.
(34:30):
And even if it's only saving, even if it's only
used five times, that's five times where the person who
was being accosted might have been robbed or raped or
shot or whatever. Many defensive uses I'd contend even go unreported.
There's probably more. Somebody poses a threat to another somebody
(34:54):
and that second somebody produces a gun and the first
turns and run away, no shots fired, no blood drawn
on either side. It's a good outcome that likely goes
unreported because who wants to deal with that right? Who
wants to call the police and say I had to
draw my gun on somebody that who wants to be
(35:19):
presumed guilty until they can prove justification for trying to
save their own lives in a split second, I want
to get a medal for de escalating that situation without
having to pull the trigger. That I think would more
be more appropriate. Uh. Back to California for just a second.
Vice President Kamala Harris told Californians recently, the one these
(35:44):
people who they've lost everything, they were impacted by these
fires as greatly as they can be without losing their lives.
And two dozen people already have had that happen to them,
and she just told them, in a very long word
salad to boil it all down. She told them to
be patient, be patient. What a staggering lack of understanding.
(36:08):
Maybe we should have told them, We should tell these
Californians maybe to contact the people in North Carolina who
were devastated by Hurricane Helene to share their well brace
for some sarcasm here, to share the North Carolinian's exposure
to the federal government and how quickly it responded when
(36:30):
it came time to help them. Ends of sarcasm. Unbelievable.
This I found interesting too, Will and you can jump
in here, Jimmy. I heard Jimmy talking over on kat
Urch this morning about how the adult here, the average
adult only feels healthy about sixteen days a month. Is
(36:52):
that about right for you? Or do you feel healthy
more often than that? You're an adult? Yeah, I am
an adult. So how many days do you feel like? Yeah,
I'm pretty I'm good.
Speaker 5 (37:02):
I feel fine most of the time. I feel like
mostly when I wake up is usually the worst part
of the day for me, and I'll maybe just have
a bit of a scratchy throat, Yeah, maybe a little with.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Your mouth open. It's just dry, right, probably.
Speaker 5 (37:24):
But that's about it, you know, I mean usually if
I take a shower, it'll get a way.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Yeah, So it's not you don't have sixteen days feeling
good and fifteen feeling horrible or even feeling sick. You
just wake up, you take your shower, and you're gone
and you're good. I'm the same way. My guess, honestly,
is that most people, most of the people that they surveyed,
weren't yet fifty, and certainly weren't sixty. Because by the
time we get to our age, stuff hurts, stuff creaks,
(37:55):
stuff just stiffens up. Every day, well maybe not every
day in some cases, but feeling one hundred percent isn't
something many of us experience anymore. And that's okay. We're
comfortable with where we are. I make the best I
can out of what I've got, and I feel pretty good,
and I don't really dwell on if something, if I
move wrong and something pops or something twists, or something
(38:18):
starts to hurt, I kind of ignore it unless it
persists for more than about three or four days, because
I'm pretty comfortable feeling like anything I do, short of
exposing a bone somehow that I break, it's just gonna
It's gonna go away. I've got issues with my back,
and if I move wrong or if I pick up
(38:40):
something too heavy the wrong way, whatever, it's gonna hurt
a little bit, but I'm not gonna I'm not gonna
get worked up over it. All right, Well, let's some
let's see we took care of all of that. I
didn't put headlines on these. I'm just gonna, oh, this
is a good one. In the last minute, ninety seven
percent of Americans will say that sick of something, What
(39:02):
are you sick of? I'm sick of something for sure.
Forty seconds isn't gonna be enough. Why don't just write
down a list and we'll go over on one by
one tomorrow. All right, that sounds good, we want to
do that. I honestly don't know where I would start either.
(39:22):
I'm sick of bad manners. Okay, I'm sick of bad manners.
I'm sick of people ignoring they won't even make eye contact.
I talked about that last week. It just it perplexes
me why people can't just exercise common decency and civility
amongst other humans. And the only thing I can look at,
I guess, is social media. So if you excuse me now,
(39:45):
I'm gonna go check Facebook. We'll be back tomorrow. Thanks
for listening, Audios
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.