RealTalk MS

RealTalk MS

Jon Strum cuts through all the jargon and breaks down the latest multiple sclerosis news. You'll meet the scientists who are creating tomorrow's MS treatments today. You'll hear from the experts discussing how the latest tweaks and changes to our healthcare laws will impact your MS treatment. And we'll be talking to the courageous MS warriors who are out there advocating on behalf of the MS community every day, as well as the men and women who are committed to living their best lives with MS and living their best lives as MS caregivers. If you're dealing with multiple sclerosis in your life -- as a patient, caregiver, family member, or friend -- join us each week for RealTalk MS.

Episodes

March 16, 2026 34 mins
175 MS activists are heading to Washington, D.C. next week for the National MS Society's Public Policy Conference. Their mission: to bring the concerns of the MS community directly to lawmakers on Capitol Hill. 

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It's MS Awareness Week, and this year we're diving into a theme that hits home for millions: Unseen MS. Multiple sclerosis is a master of disguise; it can be entirely invisible to the naked eye while remaining profoundly life-altering for the person living it.

You know them by their trade names such as Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound. This class of medications is known as GLP-1 receptor agonists. And while they are best known for managing diabetes and promoting weight loss, researchers are finding that these drugs are also effective in a broad range of other health conditions. S...

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Welcome back to the third and final part of our coverage of the 2026 ACTRIMS Forum. This week's episode bridges the gap between groundbreaking clinical research and the nuanced reality of living with MS every day.

First, we'll dive into the "before" and "after" of a diagnosis, starting with Dr. Helen Tremlett's insights into the MS prodrome—those subtle, early signs that appear year...

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Welcome back to Part Two of our coverage of the 2026 ACTRIMS Forum. This week, we shift our focus to emerging therapies and clinical insights that are re-shaping the future of MS care. From the latest information on stem cell transplantation to evolving treatment strategies to the labels used to describe MS, we're breaking down the complex science into the conversations that matter most to the MS community.

...

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Last week, over 1,400 scientists and clinicians gathered in San Diego, California, at the 2026 Americas Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis annual meeting, better known as the ACTRIMS Forum.  This week, in Part One of our coverage, you'll hear from three of the experts who presented their research at the ACTRIMS Forum.

 The A...</p></p></p></p></p><p></div> <button class= Read more

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This past December, the FDA issued a Complete Response Letter to drug manufacturer Sanofi in response to Sanofi's application seeking approval for Tolebrutinib, the first in a new category of investigational disease-modifying therapies to undergo FDA review. 
 

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The first coordinated global research strategy to prevent MS has been announced. This week, Dr. Bruce Bebo, the National MS Society's Executive Vice President and Chief Research & Medical Affairs Officer, joins me to explain what MS prevention looks like and how experts plan to achieve this remarkable goal.

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One of the more confusing aspects of MS is that it can present differently from one person to the next. A research team at University College London may have uncovered a reason for that when they identified two new, and quite different, subtypes of MS. 
 

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January 12, 2026 29 mins
I don't have to remind anyone who listens to this podcast that the cost of MS disease-modifying therapies is obscenely high. And we're not just talking about relatively new medications. Older medications -- some decades old -- continue to increase in price without any rational explanation for why or how.
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Scientists are expanding our understanding of MS at an unprecedented pace. This week, Dr. Leorah Freeman discusses why, as new discoveries and medications enter clinical practice, neurologists and MS specialists should ask themselves 3 important questions when considering a patient's treatment plan.

Dr. Leorah Free...</p></p></p></p></p></p><p><strong></div> <button class= Read more

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We're closing out the year by revisiting the most listened-to episode of RealTalk MS in 2025. And it shouldn't come as a major surprise that this year's most listened-to episode was our review of the largest MS research conference in the world, ECTRIMS.  

Bruce Bebo and Kristine Werner Ozug

The holiday season gives me the opportunity to indulge in what's become a RealTalk MS tradition. I reserve the last two episodes in December to revisit the most popular conversations that I've had over the past year. 

Dr. Riley Bove

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As the year draws to a close, we wanted to share some of the most compelling conversations we've had over the past 12 months. And rather than make my own picks, we went through the hundreds of emails we've received over the past year from the RealTalk MS listener community to see which topics really connected with you

Best conversati...</p></p></p></p></p></p><p><a style=

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This special episode of RealTalk MS is sponsored by EMD Serono and is only intended for a U.S. audience. EMD Serono is the healthcare business of Merck, KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, in the United States and Canada. Please note this episode is only intended for a U.S. audience.

Professor Elisabeth Celius and Amanda Montague

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Michael Jordan never won an NBA championship until he was paired with the right coach. Then, he won six. Could working with a coach change your MS journey?

Amy Behimer

In this week's episode, health & wellness coach Amy Behimer explains what health coach...

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Welcome to a RealTalk MS special series on MS clinical trials. This special series is made possible through a generous grant from Sanofi.

In this final episode of this series, you'll meet Jan Janisch-Hanzlik. Jan lives with MS and is a participant in one of the clinical trials evaluating the safety and efficacy of CAR-T cell therapy for MS. 

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At the age of 14, Michaela Janssen Pohl became a caregiver for her mother, who lives with MS.

Parents with MS

I think most of us can agree that just being a teenager carries with it more than enough challenges. Those adolescent years are the years whe...

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Almost everyone with MS is aware of their sensitivity to heat. But cold weather presents a whole different set of challenges that we don't always think about. This week, I'm talking with Dr. James Stark about safely navigating cold-weather conditions when you're living with MS. 

Dr. James Stark

Welcome to a RealTalk MS special series on MS clinical trials. This special series is made possible through a generous grant from Sanofi.

In today's episode, you'll meet two participants from the TEAMS Study, a research study at the University of Illinois Chicago's UI Health, in conjunction with the University of Alabama Birmingham School of Public Health.

TEAAMS is an acronym for Targeted Exercise for Afri...

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