Brain Friends
Brain Friends: The Podcast is a survivor-led show about stroke, brain health, aphasia, recovery, and health equity. Hosted by Angie Cauthorn, a two-time stroke survivor and aphasia advocate, Brain Friends takes complicated medical and research topics and turns them into everyday clarity. The show is for survivors, care partners, families, clinicians, researchers, and anyone trying to understand what life after stroke can really look like. Brain Friends began with me and my friend and co-host, Dr. D. Seles Gadson, a neuroscientist, speech-language pathologist, and champion for equity in aphasia care. Dr. Seles’s work focused on health disparities, representation, and making science useful for real communities. Her voice still opens and closes every episode, and her legacy remains part of the show’s foundation. Since launching in June 2022, Brain Friends has reached listeners in more than 100 countries, with conversations that center stroke recovery, aphasia, cognition, communication, prevention, brain health, and the real-life “now what?” after a neurological event. Regular segments include: The Breakdown: Clear explanations of stroke, aphasia, brain health, research, and recovery topics. Smart Cookie: The thoughtful question Angie asks guests about brain health, recovery, equity, or what they wish more people understood. OTC with the Commish: “On The Clock” style recovery talk, where Angie uses football draft energy to break down the moves, tools, and first-round picks that matter. The Check-In: Short, honest reflections on life after stroke, recovery, advocacy, and what comes next. Brain Friends is not here to give medical advice or empty inspiration. It is here to make the science clearer, the recovery road less lonely, and the next step easier to see. Welcome to Brain Friends.
Episodes
What does it actually mean to recover language after a stroke? Not just pass a test, but tell a story, hold a conversation, explain what happened to you at the airport.
In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Brielle Stark, a neuroscientist and aphasia researcher at Indiana University Bloomington, to talk about discourse: the kind of language we use every day to describe our lives, our memories, and what matters to us. ...
Dr. Rachel Forman is a stroke neurologist at Yale School of Medicine. She treats stroke, researches it, and takes that knowledge into communities through Stamp Out Stroke -- sixty-plus events and counting. She recommends this podcast to her patients.
In this conversation: blood pressure and why most people do not know they have a problem until something goes wrong. Why only one in five stroke survivors check their bl...
Two world-class researchers walked into this conversation because of one woman. They did not have to. They chose to.
Dr. Peter Turkeltaub is a neurologist at Georgetown University Medical Center. MD. PhD. He directs the Cognitive Recovery Lab, where his research focuses on the neural mechanisms of language recovery after stroke. He is Dr. Seles friend and co-author Dr. Charles Ellis Jr. holds a PhD and CCC-SLP ...
A stroke can feel like a lightning strike on the brain’s power grid—which is why the new 2026 AHA/ASA acute ischemic stroke guidelines focus on speed, clarity, and better systems at every step. We sit down with the chair of the writing group, Dr. Sean Pabakaron, to translate cutting-edge research into actions families, clinicians, and first responders can take right now. No jargon, no fluff—just th...
A friendship became a movement when a survivor searching for culturally competent therapy met a clinician who refused to treat equity like an optional add-on. What started as a phone call turned into Brain Friends—a space where lived experience and rigorous science work side by side to make aphasia, stroke recovery, and neuroplasticity feel human, practical, and possible.
We walk through the real story:...
Words don’t just disappear; sometimes the path to them does. We explore what aphasia really is—evidence of brain injury—and why that framing changes everything for survivors, caregivers, and clinicians. Instead of waiting at a broken bridge, we focus on building new routes: consent-based support, yes/no prompts, two-choice options, functional descriptions, and shared signals that turn help into par...
A face that slips, a word that won’t come, an arm that won’t lift—tiny moments that point to massive truths about how the brain works, heals, and sometimes declines. I invited Dr. Roy Hamilton, neurologist, neuroplasticity researcher, and one of the clearest teachers in our field, to help us untangle aphasia, dementia, and stroke with practical language and unforgettable analogies.
We start ...
Dr. Seles shares her harrowing experience of being in Israel when war broke out in October, capturing both the fear of the situation and the remarkable perspective it gave her on American privilege.
• Dr. Seles traveled to Israel with a church group of 60 people including her mother
• She was baptized in the Jordan River by her childhood pastor who had originally baptized her 20+ years ago
• Plans chang...
Hey Brain Friends, Celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Seles is at the heart of today's episode. I'm sharing the original recording of our neuroplasticity episode from 2022 that didn't make the cut. We had so much fun recording this but when we went to edit, the levels were not good. updates to the platform, there is a fix now. LOL We explore the concept of neuroplasticity and its role in recovery and personal gr...
In this brief episode of Brain Friends, Angie shares the devastating news of the passing of her beloved friend and co-host, Dr. Davetrina Seles Gadson, after a courageous battle with cancer.
Dr. Seles, a brilliant and compassionate neuro nerd and speech-language pathologist, brought a unique blend of expertise and warmth to Brain Friends. Her insights and genuine concern for the aphasia community deeply resonat...
In this episode of Brain Friends, we delve into the complexities of cognitive function and its disorders.
Angie shares her personal journey with cognitive impairment following a stroke, highlighting the challenges of aphasia and adapting to a "new normal."
Dr. Seles provides insights into the differences of cognitive testing, explaining why certain tests are designed for specific population...
Language assessments after stroke are not all the same, and the type of test a clinician chooses directly affects what gets measured and what gets missed. This episode breaks down the difference between impairment-based assessments like the Western Aphasia Battery and participation-based assessments like the Communication Activities of Daily Living, and explains why that distinction matters for survivors. Dr. ...
In this episode of Brain Friends, we share a behind-the-scenes conversation between Angie and Dr. Seles on Anomia. Together we weigh the benefits of recognizing the different types of Anomia and the challenges with diagnosis.
Anomia is a fluent aphasia characterized by word-finding difficulty or the inability to name objects.
Should we classify Anomia differently? What can Speech-Language P...
Black stroke survivors with aphasia face compounding barriers to care, and the research is clear on what needs to change. This episode breaks down five concrete actions clinicians, researchers, and care partners can take right now: implicit bias training, workforce diversity, representation in research, health literacy support, and patient-reported outcomes. Hosted by Angie of Brain Friends: The Podcast. Resou...
Aphasia affects nearly 2 million Americans, yet most people have never heard of it. This episode makes the case for why awareness is not just a campaign, it is a survival issue. From diagnosis to discharge to community reintegration, gaps in knowledge cost survivors time, access, and outcomes. For everyone in the aphasia ecosystem who believes the information gap is a problem worth solving.
In this episod...
Stroke recovery does not happen alone. This episode brings Angie's husband & care partner Kiehl Cauthorn into the conversation for an honest look at what aphasia support actually requires. Together they break down the difference between a caregiver and a care partner, walk through the stages of care in post-stroke aphasia recovery, and address the real work of advocating with insurance companies on a survi...
Primary progressive aphasia is not the same as stroke-related aphasia, and the difference matters for diagnosis, treatment, and family planning. In this episode, Dr. Davetrina Seles Gadson breaks down the complexities of PPA, how it differs from other aphasia types, and why frontotemporal dementia is often part of the conversation. Angie Cauthorn adds plain language analogies that make the distinctions clear f...
Alexia is an acquired reading disorder with difficulty seeing and reading words or understanding the meaning of written words. "Agraphia" is the loss of a previous ability to write.
Angie discovers new terms related to her aphasia and the connection in the brain.
Dr. Seles shares clinical stories on navigating alexia in therapy and the role speech-language pathologists play in helping survi...
Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to reorganize and rebuild after injury, and it is central to every aphasia recovery story. This episode goes beyond the basics, examining what the latest research reveals about how and when the brain changes, what conditions support recovery, and what that means for survivors in the long term. A follow-up to Season 1's neuroplasticity episode, built for listeners ready to...
Aphasia treatment is more than speech therapy exercises. This episode breaks down the full landscape of aphasia rehabilitation, from automatic speech tasks to errorless learning, and examines how treatment settings shape what survivors actually receive. Dr. Seles addresses health equity in aphasia care and the role implicit bias plays in clinical decision-making. Angie shares her own treatment journey and make...
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