Uninvisible Pod with Lauren Freedman
161 episodes - English - Latest episode: 11 months ago - ★★★★★ - 96 ratingsAn award-winning podcast about invisible conditions and chronic invisible illness, featuring interviews with survivors, their loved ones, advocates, and experts in varied healing modalities, from medical to holistic. Hosted by Lauren Freedman, a health coach and patient advocate, who lives with Hashimoto’s disease and sleep disorders, Uninvisible uncovers real stories of survival and humanity – complete with laughter. In truth and with candor, we offer solutions – and challenge the world to change.
uninvisiblepod.substack.com
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Episodes
102: Angels of Epilepsy Founder Natalie Y. Beavers
November 18, 2020 11:00 - 42 minutes - 29.4 MBNatalie Y. Beavers is an award-winning epilepsy survivor, advocate, and founder of the Angels Of Epilepsy Foundation, a non-profit organization that brings awareness, education, and community to epilepsy survivors and their families nationwide. Diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 5, a seizure while she was driving in 2006 caused a life-changing and tragic car accident. Subsequently, doctors informed her that there was damaged tissue on her left temporal lobe and a cyst on her brain. While ...
101: Breast Cancer Survivor Vatesha Bouler
November 11, 2020 11:00 - 50 minutes - 34.6 MBAn educator for over 20 years, Vatesha Bouler is a kindergarten teacher and (almost!) six-year breast cancer survivor. Diagnosed at a relatively young age, her experience pushed her to believe that life must be lived to the fullest — and she walks that walk every day in her advocacy work for others enduring similar experiences. A public speaker and author, she is one of the writers of Beyond Her Reflection, wherein she shares her healthcare story. A woman of faith, she also serves on the Can...
100: SkinTē Founder Bassmina Mroue Talks Endo & Chronic Pain
November 04, 2020 11:00 - 37 minutes - 25.7 MBBassima Mroue is a Lebanese-American entrepreneur with over a decade’s worth of experience working with heavyweights like Nike and Spanx. As a board member of the Sara Blakely Foundation, she is an active supporter of female empowerment — as she so beautifully demonstrates in her 2012 TEDx Portland talk. Passionate for developing purpose-driven brands, inspiring women, and destigmatizing self-care, Bassima calls upon her diverse professional experience to revolutionize the way we approach be...
099: ENDO Black Founder Lauren Kornegay
October 28, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 42.2 MBWhen she first met her new gynecologist, Lauren R. Kornegay was introduced to a disorder that was unfamiliar to her at the time: endometriosis. Diagnosed at the age of 20, she experienced the pain, struggles, exhaustion, and confusion that accompany the disease. This led her on a search to find someone who looked like her — who was also living with the same diagnosis. Each time, she came up empty-handed. Due to a lack of representation and acknowledgement of Black women affected by endometri...
098: Nkem Osian on Uterine Fibroids, IPV, and HIV/AIDS Advocacy
October 21, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 48.2 MBNkem Osian is a Public Health Analyst at the United States Department of Health and Human Services, where she analyzes and monitors Ryan White HIV/AIDS Programs in Los Angeles County. In this role, she ensures the uninsured, underinsured, and vulnerable individuals with HIV have access to optimal, life-saving treatment and care. In addition, Nkem is a patient advocate and member of the board of The White Dress Project (WDP), an organization focused on raising national awareness about the ute...
AIDS Activist & Drag Entertainer Jahlove Serrano
October 14, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 72.3 MBJahlove Serrano is a health educator, youth advocate, HIV/AIDS activist, androgynous model/runway coach, drag Queen, background dancer, and choreographer to the stars. He's a Guatemalan/American native of the Bronx, New York, and contracted HIV a couple of days shy of his 16th birthday. Upon diagnosis — and as he learned more about the experiences that led to diagnosis — he decided to take a leadership role in his community with the public admission of his HIV status. Working in the field of...
097: AIDS Activist & Drag Entertainer Jahlove Serrano
October 14, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 54.2 MBJahlove Serrano is a health educator, youth advocate, HIV/AIDS activist, androgynous model/runway coach, drag Queen, background dancer, and choreographer to the stars. He's a Guatemalan/American native of the Bronx, New York, and contracted HIV a couple of days shy of his 16th birthday. Upon diagnosis — and as he learned more about the experiences that led to diagnosis — he decided to take a leadership role in his community with the public admission of his HIV status. Working in the field of...
096: Giuliani Alvarenga on Public Health, Legislation, & HIV
October 07, 2020 10:00 - 42 minutes - 28.9 MBGiuliani Alvarenga is an award-winning writer and law student living in New Orleans. A familiar face to those who have watched Trust Me, I’m Sick, they are HIV-undetectable and have a Bachelor's degree in English Literature and Gender & Women's Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Giuli is also affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and a student liaison for the American Bar Association's Health Law Section. They are also involved in immigration rights as a pu...
095: Charles Sanchez Is An AIDS Activist Who is Not Sad, Sick, or Dying
September 30, 2020 10:00 - 43 minutes - 30.1 MBCharles Sanchez is a Mexican-American, gay, HIV+ writer, performer, director and advocate living in New York City. He is one of the co-founders of Skipping Boyz Productions, and conceived, writes and stars in the award-winning musical comedy web series Merce. In 2003, he was diagnosed with AIDS and began his journey to becoming an activist and advocate. He has attended the national AIDSWatch conference in Washington D.C. four times and has been featured in public service videos for the CDC’s...
094: SikCell Founder Ade Adeyokunnu
September 23, 2020 10:05 - 33 minutes - 23 MBA native of Nigeria, Ade Adeyokunnu emigrated with his family as a child and grew up in Maryland. Currently living in the Philadelphia area (and a newlywed!), he’s been passionate about sickle cell disease advocacy for as long as he can remember — perhaps because both he and his younger sister, Bukky, both live with the diagnosis. It’s what drove him to create SikCell, the first online community for people living with sickle cell disease, in 2009. When living with what can feel like an isola...
093: Photographer Bukky Ade on Life with Sickle Cell
September 23, 2020 10:00 - 44 minutes - 30.7 MBBukky Adeyokunnu is a self-taught portrait photographer and filmmaker. Born in Lagos, Nigeria and bred in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Bukky tells visual stories of women, health, and the immigrant experience. She began her journey in 2015 and has since become a Dean’s Collection artist, been featured in xoNecole for The Warrior Series, a photo series which captures how three strong women triumph over sickle cell disease, and local exhibitions including Washington D.C.’s Mayor Muriel Bo...
092: Stem Cell Transplant Recipient Revée Agyepong is Sickle-Cell-Free
September 16, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 53.3 MBRevée Agyepong is a registered nurse specializing in neonatal intensive care and based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She currently works in the Pediatric Hematology Clinic at the Stollery Children’s Hospital as the Sickle Cell Disease Nurse…which is fitting, considering that until recently, she was living with sickle cell disease herself. In late 2017, she received an allogenic stem cell transplant to cure sickle cell anemia, thanks to her sister’s bone marrow donation. After 25 years of hos...
091: Sabrina Marie Vera on Life w/ Rare Blood Disorder HHT
September 09, 2020 10:00 - 59 minutes - 41.1 MBSabrina Marie Vera is a proud first-generation college graduate, Puerto Rican woman, and HHT survivor. She and her family suffer from Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT), a rare genetic blood disease that took brother Robert’s life 15 years ago. HHT affects about 1.4 million people worldwide and has no cure. Sabrina graduated from Pomona College with a B.A. in Politics as a proud Gates Millennium, Chicago Posse, and Coca-Cola scholar. For her senior project “How the Marginalized Mobi...
090: Amanda DeJesus is the Chef With A Heart (Transplant)
September 02, 2020 10:00 - 51 minutes - 35.6 MBAmanda DeJesus was the recipient of a heart transplant at the age of 15. Inspired by her need to eat heart-healthy, she developed a passion for cooking and trained as a chef, graduating from the Art Institute of Houston in Texas. With her friend and stroke survivor Kelly Fucheck, she is co-host of the podcast Unfiltered Survivors. In 2017, Amanda served as a spokeswomen for the American Heart Association’s Go Red for Women campaign; she continues to volunteer with the AHA, and is also affili...
089: Liver Transplant, Purpose, & Activism w/ Journalist Kendall Ciesemier
August 26, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 46.4 MBKendall Ciesemier is the executive producer of multimedia for the ACLU. A multi-award-winning reporter, producer, writer, and social entrepreneur, she founded Kids Caring 4 Kids — an organization that empowers young people and helps provide access to clean water, healthcare, food, and education to children living in Zambia, Kenya, and South Africa — at the age of 11. While attending Georgetown University, she co-founded OWN IT, a national women’s initiative that empowers and inspires college...
088: Mental Health Care, Grief, & Accessibility w/ Tori S. Dixon, MS LPC
August 19, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 48.7 MBTori S. Dixon (MS, LPC) is the owner and practicing clinician of Graceful Journey Counseling in Arlington, Texas. A licensed professional counselor with a background in funeral direction, her specialty has naturally become grief and loss; she practices from the belief that any barrier to mental wellness is ultimately attributed to some sense of loss. Whatever the loss, she believes that grace and space to acknowledge and properly grieve loss is the first step on the road to true healing and ...
087: Advocating for Youth Mental Health w/ Letters To Strangers’ Diana Chao
August 12, 2020 10:00 - 54 minutes - 37.8 MBTW: This episode includes mention of suicidal ideation and behavior, as well as discussion of a suicide attempt that the guest survived. Diana Chao is a 21-year-old first-generation Chinese-American immigrant from southern California. During her sophomore year of high school, bipolar disorder nearly ended her life…and inspired her to create non-profit Letters To Strangers (L2S), which uses the healing power of the written word to create awareness of mental health and illness, and spread co...
086: Dana Kelsey on Adults w/ Autism
August 05, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 41.8 MB@Autism_IRL is an Instagram account created by WEGO-award-winner Dana Kelsey, who works alongside her parents as a full-time caregiver for her autistic adult brother, Robert. Dana has a background as a behavior analyst, and has been working professionally with the autistic community for 10 years. Her passion for this line of work was sparked by a personal tragedy involving Robert’s mistreatment. In 2017, Dana made the decision to leave her professional career and move back to Central New Yor...
085: Asperger’s, Autism, ADHD, OCD, & Dyslexia w/ Daniel Jones
July 29, 2020 10:00 - 57 minutes - 39.1 MBDaniel Jones is the founder of The Aspie World (TAW), an internationally-recognized patient leadership platform that works to help the world understand autism — from an autistic person’s perspective. It has become the UK’s #1 resource for Asperger’s syndrome, ADHD, OCD, and dyslexia. With a YouTube audience of over 100k and over 8 million views, Dan has become an influencer and public speaker — and a leading voice in the autism community. Diagnosed on the spectrum at the age of 26, Dan’s lif...
084: Autism, ADHD, & #BDLM w/ Artist & Activist Jen White-Johnson
July 22, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 49.2 MBJennifer White-Johnson is a designer, photographer, art activist, and art educator. Her work focuses on the intersection of content and caregiving with an emphasis on redesigning ableist visual culture. In this interview, Jen shares her experience living with Graves’ disease and undiagnosed ADHD, as well as her son’s diagnosis of autism at age 2. When Knox was diagnosed on the spectrum, Jen began to examine the absence of Black disabled children in digital and literary media. This motivated ...
083: Fibroid Awareness & Medical Racism w/ Tanika Gray Valbrun
July 15, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 47 MBTanika Gray Valbrun is an award-winning journalist and women’s health educator. She is the founder of non-profit The White Dress Project, an organization dedicated to bringing awareness, raising funding, and increasing education about uterine fibroids. Tanika lives with uterine fibroids herself, one of the 80% of Black women in the US to develop them. As the founder of The White Dress Project, Tanika has successfully worked with doctors, health advocates, and elected officials in multiple st...
082: Aoede on Life w/ Dermatomyositis & Creating to Heal
July 08, 2020 10:00 - 53 minutes - 36.7 MBLisa Sniderman, aka Aoede, is an award-winning quirky folk-pop musician, playwright, author, and filmmaker from San Francisco. She’s been honored with more than 85 awards for songwriting, audiobooks, films, stage plays, and books since 2012 — all while living from rare autoimmune disorder dermatomyositis (or DM, as she calls it), a progressive muscle weakness disease. Her memoir, A Light in the Darkness: Transcending Chronic Illness through the Power of Art and Attitude chronicles her decade...
081: Docu-series Trust Me, I’m Sick Illustrates Spoonie Life
July 01, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 49 MBTrust Me I’m Sick is a docu-series produced in partnership with nonprofit Suffering the Silence that explores how chronic illness affects the everyday lives of five people living in Los Angeles, California. Ezra (18), Giuliani (29), Henriette (50), Matt (32), and Cassandra (28) share intimate stories about how lupus, HIV, and other conditions shape their relationships, careers and visions for the future. In this episode, Lauren sits down with creators and co-producers Sarah Stewart (living w...
080: A Chronic Voice’s Sheryl Chan on Facing Mental Health & Mortality w/ Multiple Diagnoses
June 24, 2020 10:00 - 53 minutes - 36.7 MBSheryl Chan is the writer behind A Chronic Voice, a blog that aims to articulate lifelong illnesses through various perspectives. She herself lives with multiple diagnoses, which include autoimmune disorder antiphospholipid syndrome, Sjögren's syndrome, epilepsy, lupus (SLE) and more. Beginning with a mini stroke at the age of 14, Sheryl’s experience was followed by multiple blood clots in the lungs and legs, a gore-tex band for a heart valve (she then developed PSVT — paroxysmal supra ventr...
079: Girls Chronically Rock’s Keisha Greaves on Life w/ Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy
June 17, 2020 10:00 - 43 minutes - 29.7 MBKeisha Greaves is the founder of fashion label Girls Chronically Rock, and is a motivational speaker and former Massachusetts State Ambassador for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA). Diagnosed as a graduate student with limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, she is now largely wheelchair-bound. As a patient advocate, she worked with Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker to have September 30th officially proclaimed as Limb-Girdle Muscular Dystrophy Awareness Day in the city of Cambridge, MA. He...
078: AP Young on Hashimoto’s, Osteoarthritis, Black Maternal Health, & Being a Special Needs Mom
June 10, 2020 10:01 - 1 hour - 50.5 MBAlicia Young (aka AP) is a writer, blogger and public speaker who lives her life out loud and unfiltered. She has built her platform to include in-depth, first-hand experiences of mental health concerns, body diversity, being a special needs mom (one of her sons has Tourette’s syndrome, ADHD, and is on the autism spectrum), and navigating life with chronic illness and disability (including autoimmune disease and osteoarthritis). Like Lauren, she was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease — but b...
077: That Crohn’s Life w/ Annelise Bretthauer
June 10, 2020 10:00 - 34 minutes - 23.8 MBAnnelise Bretthauer is a certified financial planner (CFP) professional living in Oregon. Diagnosed with dyslexia as a teen, she’s always turned to hard work to overcome adversity. But that hard work only paid off so much…until she got sick. In 2017, Annelise was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Faced with career overhaul and a choice between her passion and her health, she redesigned her life around her diagnosis to better serve both her body and her growing client list. In her own words, “I...
076: Ostomates Double Baggin’ It: Two Best Friends Without Buttholes!
May 27, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 49.3 MBDanielle Gulden and Joe Teeters are IBD warriors and permanent ileostomates. They’re comedians, speakers, advocates and Two Best Friends without Buttholes! Danielle has had ulcerative colitis (UC) for over 27 years. After going through nearly every IBD medication available, going to the bathroom 20-25 times per day, and having a toilet installed in her car (this is not a joke, folks!), she finally kicked her diseased colon to the curb in 2007. Her ostomy (and her stoma named Stella) saved he...
075: Tina Aswani Omprakash, Own Your Crohn’s
May 20, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 48.8 MBTW/CW: This episode features graphic description of rectovaginal surgery, as well as discussion of suicidal ideation. Tina Aswani Omprakash has been a Crohn’s patient for 14 years, and is the award-winning patient expert and advocate behind Own Your Crohn’s. Her aim is to normalize the rhetoric around chronic illnesses and disabilities in order to help patients own their ailments to live fuller, happier lives. Having endured multiple surgeries and overcome the stigma of her disease amo...
074: Sarah Ramey, Author of The Lady’s Handbook for Her Mysterious Illness
May 13, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 59.2 MBSarah Ramey (also known by her musical pseudonym Wolf Larsen) is a writer and musician living in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of Bowdoin College, received an MFA in creative nonfiction writing from Columbia University in 2007, and worked on President Obama’s 2008 campaign. A recipient of the 2018 Whiting Creative Nonfiction Writing Grant, she is also the author of the new memoir The Lady’s Handbook For Her Mysterious Illness, a searingly funny and achingly candid retelling of her journe...
073: Pretty Couch Potato’s Lauren Reimer on Life w/ CIPO
May 06, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 46 MBLauren Reimer is a blogger, content creator, and chronic illness community leader based in Fayetteville, Arkansas. At the age of 13, she was diagnosed with Chronic Intestinal Pseudo-Obstruction (CIPO), which means that her digestive tract acts as though it is obstructed — even when it is not. Lacking peristalsis, the worm-like movement that moves food, fluid, and air through her digestive tract, her body is unable to absorb adequate amounts of nutrients from eating alone. As such, she relies...
072: PCOS Advocate & Model Lorna Alexis, Founder of Cystum of Curves
April 29, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 42.8 MBLorna Alexis is the influencer, model, blogger, and creator of Cystum of Curves. An advocate living with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), the word “cystum” is derived from the word cyst, a characteristic of the syndrome. PCOS is known to cause weight gain and make that weight even harder to lose — so instead of letting PCOS get her down, Lorna decided to use her diagnosis as a platform for inspiration and motivation for others as she navigates the world … with curves. In this honest, re...
071: Women’s Health w/ OB/GYN Jessica Shepherd, MD
April 22, 2020 10:00 - 46 minutes - 32.2 MBDr. Jessica Shepherd is an OB/GYN and women’s health expert, founder of Her Viewpoint (an online women’s health forum with a focus on addressing what she calls “below the belt” topics in a stigma-free setting), and the host of the new wellness podcast Breathe & Bloom. You may recognize her from her many TV appearances: as a frequent contributor on The Today Show, Dr. Oz, Steve Harvey, CBS News, and FOX News, among others. As an OB/GYN, she practices in Dallas and was previously at the Univer...
070: Disabled Hikers’ Syren Nagakyrie
April 15, 2020 10:00 - 42 minutes - 29.2 MBSyren Nagakyrie (she/they) is the founder of Disabled Hikers, a community and resource for those living with disabilities (and their loved ones) that enables and empowers them to access nature. An activist for accessibility and inclusion, they come from a working-class background and have struggled to retain adequate healthcare for most of their life. Syren lives with multiple invisible conditions, including hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS), dysautonomia (postural orthostatic tachyc...
069: Sleep Disorders + ENT Know-How w/ Otolaryngologist Dr. Madan Kandula
April 08, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 44.9 MBOtolaryngologist Dr. Madan Kandula is considered Wisconsin’s thought leader for breathing and snoring/sleep apnea solutions. An expert in ear, nose, and throat medicine, his knowledge of healthy breathing has propelled him — alongside his wife, who is an audiologist — to found ADVENT, the largest independent ENT practice in Wisconsin, where they provide their patients with solution-based treatments without the uncertainty, dismissive attitude, and long waits that are often the norm. As such,...
068: The Sound of Sickle’s Chris Abdullahi
April 01, 2020 10:00 - 1 hour - 46.5 MBChris Abdullahi is the founder of The Sound of Sickle, a non-profit organization that raises awareness of sickle cell diseases (SCD) and blood donations in the UK. He has spoken about sickle cell awareness on various platforms, including Google, Facebook, Guys and St. Thomas’ Hospital, and the BBC, and works closely with the NHS Blood Donations team to curate events and sign up new black blood donors. He also lives with hemoglobin SS disease, the most common and severe type of sickle cel...
067: Disability Attorney Andrew Kantor on Patient Advocacy & Playing To Win
March 25, 2020 10:00 - 59 minutes - 40.6 MBAndrew Kantor is an Associate at Kantor & Kantor, LLP. The son of the founding namesake attorneys, his practice is focused primarily on helping individuals obtain wrongfully-denied disability and life insurance benefits in both ERISA and non-ERISA (bad faith) policies. A client-centered attorney, he has emerged as one of the US’s leading experts on fighting disability denials, with a particular focus on chronic-fatigue-related illnesses like ME/CFS and Lyme disease. Andrew serves on the Boar...
066: Life on the Autism Spectrum with Rebranding Autism’s Jen Msumba
March 18, 2020 10:00 - 45 minutes - 31.3 MBIf Jen Msumba of Rebranding Autism isn’t a staple on your social media feed, then take our advice and get her good vibes on your radar. Jen lives on the autism spectrum, and has been through hell and back in her journey to comprehensive care and self-realization. Much of her success has been in facing personal challenges, and seeking the joy in all things to live a full and varied life. An accomplished musician, she has risen to prominence in the patient leadership community through her YouT...
065: Living Kidney Donation w/ I’m Just Kidneying’s Amanda Nicastro
March 11, 2020 10:00 - 37 minutes - 25.6 MBAmanda Nicastro is a writer and actor based in NYC. In 2014, her sister Brenna needed a new kidney. While Amanda wasn’t a match, she was able to find an exchange program that allowed her to donate a kidney for someone in need, and for Brenna to receive a kidney that met her body’s needs. While Amanda isn’t the most comfortable with the idea of being a “hero” — a title often bandied about in response to her “sacrifice” — she decided to use this overwhelmingly positive response to her actions ...
064: Inside Fibromyalgia w/ Melissa Talwar
March 04, 2020 11:00 - 40 minutes - 27.8 MBMelissa Talwar was diagnosed with fibromyalgia at the age of 14. 20+ years later, living in chronic pain and regularly becoming bed-bound, she watched her symptoms stabilize and her decline subside at her discovery of biohacking and functional medicine. Not long after, she went on to establish the International Support Fibromyalgia Network, a non-profit patient-led organization created to fulfill the unmet needs of the fibromyalgia community. #SupportFibro believes in collaboration. It is op...
063: Inside Bipolar w/ Natasha Tracy
February 26, 2020 11:00 - 48 minutes - 22.4 MBNatasha Tracy is an award-winning writer, speaker, and social media consultant who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 20. The author of The Bipolar Burble blog (named a top-10 health blog by Healthista, Health.com, Healthline, and others) and Breaking Bipolar for HealthyPlace.com, she aims to bring quality, insightful, and evidence-based information on bipolar disorder and related illnesses to the public while engaging with the mental health community. She is considered a subj...
062: Sylvie Leotin on Life as a Cancer Patient
February 19, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 46.4 MBSylvie Leotin is many things. She started her career in France as a gold-medal ballerina, later moving to Silicon Valley as one of the first women to research at Stanford Robotics Laboratory. She has held positions in engineering, products, marketing, sales, business development, and communications; she is the founder and CEO of Tech Atelier, a multidisciplinary strategy agency advising startups and beyond. A contributor to media, academic, and literary publications, she holds an MS in Engin...
061: Author & Celebrity Journalist Dibs Baer on Life w/ Rheumatoid Arthritis
February 12, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 42.5 MBDibs Baer is a New York Times best-selling author and celebrity journalist. The author/co-author of six books, including, most recently, Lady Tigers in the Concrete Jungle: How Softball and Sisterhood Saved Lives in the South Bronx, she was formerly the executive editor of InTouch Weekly, and has worked on staff at numerous other publications. While she has been published extensively across varied media, she’s best known for her celebrity interviews. Dibs and Lauren connected over a piece Di...
060: Sneha Dave, Founder of Health Advocacy Summit and CCYAN
February 05, 2020 11:00 - 46 minutes - 31.8 MBA senior at Indiana University majoring in chronic illness advocacy and journalism, Sneha Dave is no stranger to #SpoonieLife. Diagnosed at the age of six with ulcerative colitis (UC), she is the founder of Health Advocacy Summit (HAS), an organization that hosts events in various cities around the country to provide education, insight, and community to an often underserved patient population affected by chronic illness: young adults transitioning from pediatric to adult care. HAS’s sister o...
059: The Heal Hive’s Brooke Geahan on Healing Lyme with Bee Venom
January 29, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 51.7 MBWhen Lauren first sat down to chat with Brooke Geahan (also known as Everyday Expert, per her Instagram handle) she mentioned Brooke’s “9 lives” — it seems she has this many, as Brooke has come through skin and cervical cancer, Lyme disease and comorbid tick-borne illnesses, pernicious anemia, SIBO, chronic EBV, atrophic gastritis, and autoimmune issues (RA, Hashimoto’s, and Celiac, to name a few), among other conditions. In her research since first being diagnosed, Brooke has come to believ...
058: Kelsey Darragh on Ableism, Mindset, & Life w/ Chronic Pain and Anxiety
January 22, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 51.3 MBKelsey Darragh is a writer, comedienne, and former Buzzfeed producer. She currently hosts the podcast Confidently Insecure, and is a regular on Dating: No Filter, where she boldly shares some of her best and worst dating escapades (season 3 premieres Feb 4th on E!). You may also remember her from a series she did with former guest Lara Parker – Can We Cure – which took them both to a laser clinic in Florida to explore chronic pain management therapies. Kelsey may be funny as hell, but she ...
057: Author Emily Dwass on “How Medical Bias Endangers Women’s Health”
January 15, 2020 11:00 - 56 minutes - 38.6 MBEmily Dwass is a writer living in Los Angeles. Having written for numerous publications about food, health, and cultural issues (including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, LA Weekly, Chicago Tribune, and USA Today), she also served as the “Kid Health” columnist for the Los Angeles Times for four years. She has also written several feature scripts and been a writer on TV shows produced by Disney and Lifetime, among others. A writer by training and trade, she holds a degree in creative...
056: The Endo Educator on the Nature of Women’s Pain
January 08, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 41.7 MBAtlanta native Samantha Denäe is a former magazine writer and entertainment blogger-turned novelist, poet, and screenwriter. At the age of 24, she was diagnosed with endometriosis – and turned this devastating revelation into a gift, making it her mission to educate women around the world through partnerships with the Endometriosis Foundation of America and The ENPOWR Project’s Endo Edukit, among others. An outspoken advocate for women living with endometriosis, she bares all in educationa...
045: Lara Parker on Life with “Vagina Problems”
January 01, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 58.6 MBLara Parker is a writer living in Los Angeles. She rose to popularity after publicly discussing her issues living with endometriosis and comorbid conditions, including vaginismus, vulvodynia, vulvar vestibulitis, PMDD, pelvic floor dysfunction, and interstitial cystitis, among others. You may remember her from the short-form docuseries Can We Cure, in which she and fellow Buzzfeed producer Kelsey Darragh tried laser therapy in an attempt to treat their chronic pain (new flash: Lara still u...
055: Lara Parker on Life with “Vagina Problems”
January 01, 2020 11:00 - 1 hour - 44 MBLara Parker is a writer living in Los Angeles. She rose to popularity after publicly discussing her issues living with endometriosis and comorbid conditions, including vaginismus, vulvodynia, vulvar vestibulitis, PMDD, pelvic floor dysfunction, and interstitial cystitis, among others. You may remember her from the short-form docuseries Can We Cure, in which she and fellow Buzzfeed producer Kelsey Darragh tried laser therapy in an attempt to treat their chronic pain (new flash: Lara still u...