The Dementia Collective

Why do so many men struggle to ask for help when caring for someone living with dementia?

In this episode of The Dementia Collective, Andrew Karesa sits down with Ron Beleno, caregiver advocate and leader in the aging and dementia space, to explore the role men play in dementia caregiving and why many feel pressure to handle the responsibility alone.

Ron begins by sharing his own caregiving journey after his father was diagno...

What does it mean to love someone whose personality is changing and to slowly realize it is not them?

In this episode, Andrew Karesa sits down with Erin Chalmers, co-anchor of Global Edmonton Morning News, daughter, caregiver, and Board Member of the Alzheimer Society of Alberta and Northwest Territories, to talk about her mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis and the quiet shift from confusion to clarity that many families experience.

Erin...

What if the problem isn’t whether Canada has a dementia strategy, but whether families can actually feel it?

In this episode, Andrew Karesa sits down with Dr. Saskia Sivananthan to examine the gap between Canada’s National Dementia Strategy and the lived reality of families, clinicians, and communities trying to navigate brain change.

Drawing on her experience working at the intersection of research, policy, and national coor...

What happens to joy when dementia enters the picture? When routines change, roles shift, and caregiving becomes heavier than anyone expected, is joy still possible, or does it quietly disappear?

In this episode of The Dementia Collective, Andrew Karesa sits down with Carrie Aalberts, gerontologist, dementia educator, and founder of Dementia Darling, to explore why joy still matters in dementia care and how it can exist alongside gri...

What if The Notebook was never really a love story?Most people remember it that way.But underneath the romance, the film is doing something much more unsettling.It’s exploring what happens when memory fades… to the point that identity itself begins to break apart.In this video, we look at why The Notebook might actually be one of the most revealing films about dementia, caregiving, and the way we understand a person over time.The s...

What does it mean when a former governor says caregiving was harder than public office?

In this episode, Andrew Karesa sits down with former Wisconsin Governor Martin J. Schreiber, author of My Two Elaines, for a deeply personal conversation about loving, caring for, and slowly losing his wife Elaine after her Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Marty brings a perspective few people can offer. He has lived in the world of leadership, poli...

What happens to faith when memory fades, words disappear, and the person we knew begins to change in ways that feel unfamiliar, or even unsettling?

In this episode of The Dementia Collective, Andrew Karesa sits down with Elisa Bosley, chaplain and founder of SpiritualElderCare.com, to explore how faith, music, and presence continue to matter in dementia care, especially near the end of life.

Elisa begins by sharing her own origin sto...

What if good dementia care was not about getting everything right, but about understanding the person in front of you?

In this episode, Andrew Karesa sits down with Dr. Natali Edmonds, board certified geropsychologist and founder of Dementia Careblazers, to explore what caregivers are rarely told about dementia care, and why striving for perfection often makes the journey harder, not better.

Natali shares her path into geropsychology...

What if Inside Out accidentally explained how memory really works?

Pixar created a world where memories form as glowing spheres, fade over time, and are reshaped by emotion. It’s a beautiful storytelling device.

But it’s also surprisingly close to what researchers understand about how human memory actually works.

In this video, we explore why Inside Out might be one of the most accurate films about memory ever made.

The...

What happens when families sense cognitive change years before dementia is ever named, and are left living in uncertainty while waiting for clarity that arrives too late?

In this episode, Andrew Karesa sits down with Greg McGillis, engineer, entrepreneur, and founder of Brain Care Technologies, to explore why dementia is so often detected only after lives have already been disrupted, and what might change if cognitive decline were n...

What if the most powerful story in Coco isn’t about music at all?

In one quiet moment near the end of the film, Pixar reveals something deeply human about memory, aging, and the fear of being forgotten. When Miguel sings Remember Me to Coco, the song stops being about fame or performance and becomes something far more personal — a bridge back to memory.

In this video, we explore the hidden story inside Coco and why that scene...

What happens when a diagnosis doesn’t just change a life, but quietly changes the way a room responds to you?

In this episode, Andrew Karesa sits down with Phyllis Fehr, an international dementia advocate, registered nurse, author, and human rights leader who has been living with a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s since the age of 53. Phyllis’s relationship with dementia began long before her own diagnosis, shaped by early careg...

What if dementia isn’t just something that happens to us, but something shaped over time by how we live?

In this episode, Andrew Karesa sits down with Dr. Tommy Wood, neuroscientist, physician, and author of The Stimulated Mind, to explore one of the most challenging ideas in brain health: that a significant portion of dementia may be preventable, and that everyday choices play a meaningful role across the lifespan.

Dr. Wood’...

In this Ask the Experts conversation, Governor Martin Schreiber, Ron Beleno, Alfredo Botello, and Spencer Cline explore why so many male caregivers struggle to ask for help. The discussion examines the pressure men often feel to stay strong, handle everything alone, and suppress their own needs, while also unpacking the guilt, silence, and isolation that can come with caregiving.

Disclaimer: The information shared in this podcas...

What if dementia care isn’t about having the right answers, but about responding to the moment you’re in?

In this episode, Andrew Karesa sits down with Teepa Snow, one of the most respected voices in dementia care, to explore what it really means to support someone living with brain change when memory, language, and recognition come and go.

Drawing on more than four decades of experience as an occupational therapist, educator...

What if supporting people living with dementia was not only about care, but about activity, connection, and purpose?

In this episode, Andrew Karesa sits down with Haidong Liang, gerontologist and CEO of WE Seniors and the Westend Seniors Activity Centre, to explore why meaningful activity is critical in dementia care and healthy aging.

Haidong shares how his work bridging research, policy, and real-world community programs ha...

In this short bonus episode of The Dementia Collective, Andrew Karesa turns to the DC universe and one of Batman’s most fascinating ideas: the Lazarus Pit.

Within the mythology of DC Comics, the Lazarus Pit offers an extraordinary promise. When the body begins to fail, the pit restores it. Age recedes. Strength returns. Life begins again.

But beneath that supernatural premise lies a deeper cultural question:

What does our fascination ...

What happens when childhood unfolds alongside loss — not all at once, but slowly, quietly, and long before anyone knows how to name it?

In this episode, Andrew Karesa sits down with Spencer Cline — FTD advocate, former college basketball player, endurance athlete, and AFTD Ambassador — to talk about what it means to grow up while a parent is living with dementia. Spencer’s father began showing symptoms of frontotemporal dementia...

What happens when a system built to protect people becomes the very thing that limits their freedom — and the people inside it are left to carry the emotional weight?

In this episode, Andrew Karesa sits down with Dr. Sharon Kaasalainen — nurse, researcher, and co-lead of the ⁠SPA-LTC palliative care initiative⁠ — to explore what long-term care looks like from the inside, why caregivers often feel shut out of decisions, and how a...