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Kitty talks with Patti Davis, author of Floating in the Deep End: How Caregivers Can See Beyond Alzheimer's. Patti began taking care of her father, former president Ronald Reagan, when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's after leaving office; she later ran support groups for family caregivers. She tells Kitty about the difficult lessons she learned while caring for a person with Alzheimer's and the spiritual groundings that carried her through it.

We have new episodes coming in January, 2022, as Kitty expands from her personal story caring for her dad, to the experiences of many families. Guests this season include author Patti Davis, about caring for her father Ronald Reagan; MacArthur "genius grant" winner Ai-Jen Poo, and caregiver Jacquelyn Joyce Revere, who streams her lessons about caring for her mom on TikTok and YouTube. We also want to hear about your experience taking care of aging relatives. Get in touch with us at 247@tpr.org, and subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts.

Kitty asks her dad what he thinks about death and the afterlife, then turns to a hospice chaplain who has discussions like that for a living.

Kitty talks with another caregiver about keeping their parents socially connected, even as their social skills decline.

After moving in with her dad, Kitty discovers a long list of new responsibilities she needs to figure out, like personal grooming.

What do Michael Che, Sarah Silverman and Kermit the Frog have in common? They're just a few of the celebrities who've helped Hilarity for Charity give direct aid to families caring for someone with Alzheimer's or dementia. HFC, as it's known, is the brainchild of actor Lauren Miller Rogen, who cared for her mom with Alzheimer's at a young age. Lauren enlisted her husband, comedian Seth Rogen, along with her family and friends to put on comedy shows to fundraise and lift spirits. On this episode, Lauren and her dad Scott Miller talk about their experience caregiving and how they're trying to lighten the burden for other caregivers today.

Novelist Walter Mosley has written dozens of popular mystery and crime novels, but none quite like The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, in which a man with Alzheimer's must solve a mystery buried deep in his own fading memory. In this episode, Mosley tells Kitty how caring for his parents with dementia exposed him to the drama of caregiving and later informed his writing. His novel, recently adapted into an Apple TV series starring Samuel L. Jackson, stands out as a rare portrayal in media of the experience of Alzheimer's disease, while still delivering a thrilling crime story.

Investigative journalist Esme Deprez was sitting in a diner in New York when she got a text from her dad, asking her to help him die. Less than a month later, she drove to a pharmacy in Maine to pick up the medicine that would allow him to end his life, using Maine’s new “Aid in Dying” law. Esme tells Kitty about what she learned caring for her dad, epidemiologist Ron Deprez. His experience with ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, gave Esme an education into the choices we can, and cannot make, for ourselves and our loved ones at the end of our lives.

It was 1996 when journalist Howard Gleckman got "the call" — about emergency care for his mother-in-law. Soon he was managing care for three older family members, and found the system impenetrable. He’s since made a career of explaining how long-term care works in the U.S., and how Wall Street investors are helping decide the kind of care your grandmother gets.

On this Mother's Day bonus episode, writer Brian Morton tells Kitty about the difficulties and delights of caring for his mother, a beloved teacher with a fiery personality who remained stubborn and independent even as her health declined. Brian's memoir, Tasha, is both a portrait of his mother and an account of the complexities of dementia care.