This Caregiver's Podcast Recommendations

To curiously explore, reframe, inspire and rekindle hope

Hello, all you lovely Carer Mentor readers and friends! Thank you for spending some of your precious time and energy here.

I’m Victoria (She/her/hers). You can read more about why I’m publishing Carer Mentor here: Who Started Carer Mentor and Why?’

These Podcast recommendations are part of the ‘ComfortZone’ section inspired after a busy, difficult October and November (read Creating a 'ComfortZone' and rekindling inspiration and hope.)

Two articles are already available to help you navigate through December:

• This Caregiver's Watchlist. 'Feel the feels', escape reality or be transported by music.

• Inspiration 'Ten Annual Review Questions.'

TIPS:

• I review Spotify and other podcast sources several times monthly and download a few episodes to keep my library primed.

• I choose podcasts on different topics and durations: up to 30 minutes, 1 hour, and over an hour.

• I mainly listen to episodes while exercising on the treadmill. However, my library is primed for hospital rooms, short walks, waiting rooms or making beds!

My main mood-switcher is music, but a podcast more forcefully directs my brain.

These podcasts counterbalance the ‘weight of the world’¹ with insightful lived experiences that nourish my soul and rekindle my hope.

For our sanity, we need to discover how to navigate these mental stresses. What works and feels right for you? Music? Movement? Yoga?

Thinking can be its own heavy weight. So, don’t forget to move out of your head now and again.

I recommend bookmarking this article. The list of recommendations will grow!

Please Remember to ‘❤️’ LIKE the article to guide others to these resources

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The Directory

• Brené Brown’s ‘Unlocking Us‘

• On Being with Krista Tippett

• ‘Where Should We Begin with Esther Perel’

• ‘A Slight Change of Plans’ with Maya Shankar.

• Shankar Vedantam’s ‘Hidden Brain’

• Shankar Vedantam’s ‘My Unsung Hero’

• Courtney E Martin and Carvell Wallace host ‘How To’ Slate Podcasts

• ‘Meditative Story’

More over the following weeks…

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One hour-plus episodes

• Dr Brené Brown: Strong Back, Soft Front, Wild Heart (2 January 2020) (52 minutes)

• 'Burnout and how to complete the stress cycle. Emily and Amelia Nagoski' (October 14, 2020) (1h 3m) Dr. Brené Brown's 'Unlocking Us' podcast. This is the article I wrote in December 2023, containing notes and the podcast link. It helped me understand why my 20-60 minute treadmill exercise has been vital. Figuring out where and how to slot this in is tricky, but first thing in the morning works for me. Movement enabled me to step through the stress literally.

• A Slight Change of Plans (Apr 22 and 24, 2024) Maya Shankar. Spotify links: Life, Interrupted with Suleika Jaouad Part 1 and Part 2

• Befriending Your Inner Voice (July 1, 2024) (52m) Hidden Brain’s Shankar Vedantam interviews Ethan Kross, author of ‘Chatter the Voice in Our Head (and How To Harness It).’

  I shared this podcast in an article in May 2024: 'Moving your inner voices out.'

  You know that negative voice that goes round and round in your head, keeping you up at night? When that negative inner voice gets switched on, it’s hard to think about anything else. Psychologist Ethan Kross has a name for it: chatter. In this favorite conversation from 2022, we talk with Ethan about how to keep our negative emotions from morphing into chatter.

• Grief, Laughter, and Sisterhood: Losing Our Mom and Holding Onto Each Other (October 23, 2024)(53m) Dr. Brené Brown's 'Unlocking Us' podcast. I avoided this podcast, but having listened to it now, I recommend this to any Caregiver who relates to ‘this stuff’s just hard…hard.’ Three sisters (Brené is the eldest, and there’s a brother between her and the twins, her sisters) discuss their characters and how they felt about caring for their mother, who had dementia, and navigating caregiving. I’m recommending this because I guffawed twice, or three times, whilst I was on the treadmill. Laughter —a natural sign of resonance! Let me know if you did too!

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Thirty-plus minute episodes

• ‘How to Care for and Ageing Parent’ Carvell Wallace interviews cohost Courtney E Martin, her brother Chris Martin and Dr Allison Applebaum. (Duration 50 minutes)

  Click here for my thoughts on the podcast

• Maya Shankar. A Slight Change of Plans Why It’s So Tough To Be Kind To Yourself (42 mins) Dr. Kristin Neff (Originally published 26 June 2023, Republished 25 November 2024)

  Show Notes on Spotify: Kristin Neff is a pyschologist and the author of ‘Self Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself’. Her pioneering research busts cultural myths about self compassion and shows it’s an effective motivational tool.

  Kristin talks with Maya about how to get past the idea that caring for ourselves is selfish and offers simple practices for being kinder to ourselves.

  Carer Mentor Article: Managing the Mental Load

• Esther Calling - Self Love Isn’t Something I Grew Up With. (25 September 2023) (40 minutes) For anyone who straddles two ethnicities or cultures. In a phone call, a South Asian lady (Pakistan-born who moved to the US as a child) discusses values, behaviours and expectations at work and in her new marriage.

  I appreciate Esther’s gentle non-judgmental approach, that helps her client reframe their thoughts/ideas. Esther artfully echoes back/summarises and seeks resonance, without imposing or directing the conversation.

  In case you missed it, here’s the article I wrote for The Asian Writers Collective: Asian Reads | Issue 05. A Personal Journey Through Asian Identity, Caregiving, and Cultural Belonging by myself and Tiffany Chu

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Under thirty minute Episodes

• A story and meditation in one. Staying insightful, playful, and alert. (April 1 2024) (17m34s) This episode heightens senses to be more alert, discerning and to consider the moment of ‘reveal’ that culminates in an insight. Using April fools as a vehicle to reframe our thinking. An interesting and novel guided meditation on cultivating insights.

• Ben Gome’s Story My Unsung hero (Jan 30, 2024) 3m 44

  I love these little vignettes of hero-stories. They restore my faith in our ability to be there, for each other - strangers! - when it really counts. HOPE and INSPIRATION!❤️ I binge a few of these at a time! AND replay.

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A few thoughts..

A few days of ‘podcast treadmill-ing’ is helping to shift the mental constipation of ‘gunky-yuck’ feelings.

Perhaps hearing lived experiences is making me feel more connected.

I’m not sure because I’m trying not to overanalyse it. It’s just a relief to feel more balanced, and in turn open-hearted.

Podcasts and Watchlist additions will continue over December.

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Thank you!

1. Weight of the world. We’re all feeling a version of this. My heart goes out to many people right now. We need advocacy, activism and action to improve systems to remove the pressures and weight! We need leaders who care about the most vulnerable, marginalised groups and…well just care more! But right now, I’m not focused on ‘the systems’, I’m focused VERY close to home, with friends who need support. So, daily podcasts and treadmill-ing!