The Heart of Hospice Podcast
The Heart of Hospice podcast is dedicated to helping personal and professional caregivers who are caring for someone with serious illness. We're here to provide information and education so people can make informed choices about end of life care.
Episodes
Christy Byrne Yates of Alz Authors has experienced all the unique challenges of sandwich caregiving. Caring for both of her parents with neurodegenerative diseases (dementia and Alzheimer’s disease) while she raised young kids taught her lessons she now shares with other caregivers. In this open and honest conversation, Christy shares the good times and the struggles of her caregiving experience. Christ...
We’re getting back to the basics of hospice care with Hospice Social Worker Lisa Pahl to talk about who’s on the hospice team and what each person brings to the care of patients and caregivers. This episode focuses on the core members of the hospice interdisciplinary team (doctor, nurse, social worker, and chaplain) as well as hospice aides (Certified Nurse Assistants) and hospice volunteers. Each person on...
Carrie Aalberts (AKA the Dementia Darling) supports dementia caregivers with her heart and soul, and a whole lot of strength. With a Master of Science specializing in Gerontology and over a decade of hands-on experience in various care settings, Carrie has established herself as a leading voice in dementia education and support. As the founder of Dementia Darling, she has cultivated an online community of more than 63,000 foll...
It’s National Healthcare Decisions Day 2025! This episode features clips from some of our favorite guests, highlighting wisdom and thoughts about advance care planning for the end of life. You’ll hear some of the brightest and best voices working in the end of life care industry talk about managing hard conversations about dying and death, funeral planning, and choosing a proxy or medical power of attorney who will speak for...
We’re getting back to the basics of hospice - talking about starting hospice care, and what you can expect from a hospice admission. Hospice nurse Beth Cavenaugh helps to navigate this topic. There are a lot of moving parts that compose the admission to hospice care.
Here are some of the main things you should know about hospice admissions:
Patty Webster of The Conversation Project is talking with me about the swoopers and seagulls that are sometimes part of the caregiving experience. As part of her caregiving journey with her dad and siblings, Patty realized that she had been a “swooper”, offering her opinions about her dad’s care during an intermittent visit. Here’s what Patty says she learned:
- Supporting the primary caregiver is an important part of care...
In this fourth and final episode of our special series in partnership with Stanford Healthcare, our guest Susan Evans shares the ins and outs of caregiving, and talks about her work to support other caregivers dealing with the challenges of Alzheimer’s Disease. As a caregiver, Susan worked to ensure her dad was safe and well cared for. She and her brother incorporated humor into their caregiving journey, and now she works to...
Dr. Jocelyn Jiao and Social Worker Mike Polisso of the Stanford Healthcare Palliative Team know the value of getting to know patients and families from the start of the care relationship.
As part of an interdisciplinary team providing neuropalliative care for people and families living with serious neurological illnesses, they’re supporting patients and caregivers and training other healthcare workers in palliative care.
H...
With courage and vulnerability, Sheralin Samuels shares her experience as a caregiver for her mom, and their journey through Early Onset Alzheimer’s disease.
Here are a few highlights from this episode, created in partnership with Stanford Health Care:
- Sheralin’s mom Carlys began showing symptoms in 2012, and a definitive diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease wasn’t found until about 10 years later.
- Carlys spent a year in ho...
This episode is the first in a 4-part special series in partnership with Stanford Healthcare, sponsorsored by Kensington Senior Living.
Grant Smith, M.D. and Emily Linderman, BCC from the Palliative Care team at Stanford Health Care are sharing all the basics of palliative care - when to start it, who can benefit from it, and what a PC team does for patients and caregivers.
Here are a few highlights from our conversation:
...Social Worker Rosie Gaston brings energy and compassion to the care of people and families dealing with life-limiting illness. As a passionate clinical social worker, she’s worked for over a decade supporting individuals, families, and professionals through the intricate journey of end-of-life care. Rosie founded A Better Ending in 2022 to focus on personalized support, community education, and fostering professional develop...
Dr. Robert Klitzman has learned the truth about the value of spiritual care through his professional practice and his own lived experience. As an author, he’s written over 180 articles and books on critical issues in bioethics regarding doctor-patient relationships and communication, research, and other areas. Robert realized the whole-person impacts of a traumatic grief event after the death of his sister in the Twin Tower ...
My guest Gabby Jimenez and I are busting the hospice myths to get to the truth about end of life care. Because there are so many misconceptions about hospice care, many people don’t choose to have care from a hospice team or they delay hospice care until very close to death. It’s important to know the truth about all the aspects of hospice care - how medicines are managed, how morphine is really used for someone who’s dying, w...
Dr. Fred Mirarchi is working to create personalized, specific advance care plans for patients, accommodating every stage of life and end of life wish. After seeing clinicians in the hospital struggle to determine exactly what patients’ wishes were, Fred realized documentation of advance directives didn’t truly communicate clearly. He and the team at Mideo Health have developed a best-practice model for documenting health car...
Serene-Meshel Dillman’s documentary series Take Me Out Feet First captures the courage and compassion of people choosing Medical Aid in Dying. In the six part series, Serene features the end of life journeys of people dealing with terminal illness, as well as both her own parents. The struggles, grief, joy, and determination of those dying patients and their families shine through in the films. Serene’s vision is to educate...
After being a caregiver for her parents and husband, Jennifer O’Brien is empowering caregivers so they come through it healthy physically, emotionally, financially, and mentally. In her new book Care Boss, Jennifer has designed strategies and resources to support caregivers. Her 35+ years in healthcare leadership, partnered with all her years as an unpaid family caregiver, equipped her to write the guidebook that caregivers ca...
In this second episode in a two part series featuring Dr. Harvey Chochinov, we’re talking about The Platinum Rule. Providing care through the lens of the end of life provider doesn’t fully recognize the personhood of the patient. Dr. Chochinov teaches us about The Platinum Rule - treating others the way they want to be treated, instead of how we would want to be treated if the situation was ours.
Connect with Dr. Harvey Ch...
Dr. Harvey Chochinov is teaching us how to go beyond providing healthcare to provide health-caring for the people we serve. Patients are people before they need to engage with the healthcare system. That personhood should be supported and validated with compassion and dignity. Dr. Chochinov has also led a large program of research on dignity within the healthcare setting, which includes the development and study of Dignity ...
Death Doula Darnell Lamont Walker is listening to the dying and speaking up to advocate for their needs. As a Death Doula who is also male and black, Darnell works to facilitate conversations about death in the black community. He’s a unique blend of skills and talents - an Emmy-nominated children’s writer, a documentary filmmaker, and a death doula.
Darnell is a listener, a companion to people with serious illness. He’s ...
As a nurse and End of Life Doula, Kacie Gikonyo cares for the dying while working to make a lasting impact on end-of-life support. Kacie realized during the pandemic that she was called to work with the dying. She trained with INELDA (the International End of Life Doula Association) to become an End of Life Doula. Her special area of doula practice is with younger persons with a terminal illness, focusing on end of life con...
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