Episodes

If you’ve ever caught yourself snapping after being asked the same question for the tenth time, only to immediately ask yourself, "Am I a terrible caregiver?"—you are far from alone. In this episode of Dementia Dakota, host Jen Fink sits down with board-certified physician, health coach, advocate, and author Dr. Frank Spinelli. Together, they take a deep, compassionate dive into one of the heaviest and most unspoken emotional burdens in caregiving: the difference between caregiver guilt (I did ...

What if the key to slowing—or even reversing—cognitive decline isn’t a new pharmaceutical drug, but a physical setting on a wearable device? For decades, billions of dollars have been poured into biological and chemical treatments for memory loss, often leaving caregivers with high costs, difficult side effects, and limited options. In this episode of Dementia Decoded, host Jen Fink sits down with Chuck Papageorgiou, engineer, tech pioneer, and CEO of neuroM Therapeutics, to explore a completel...

What happens when a real-life financial heist unfolds inside your own family—at the expense of someone you love? In this jaw-dropping episode, we sit down with technology and finance veteran Charles "Chip" Wallace, author of The Caregiver's Game: Unraveling Financial Deceit in the Shadows of Dementia. Chip shares the terrifying true story of how an in-home caregiver used pandemic isolation and his mother’s cognitive decline to execute a systematic, multi-million dollar theft right under the nos...

What happens when living alone isn’t safe anymore, but moving into a facility is off the table? In this episode, Dan Deak, founder and CEO of Home Halo, joins us to share how his mother’s unexpected fall inspired a dignity-first, non-medical in-home care model. Navigating care for an aging parent who prizes their independence is one of the toughest challenges family caregivers face. Most agencies impose rigid shift minimums and high turnover, making parents feel institutionalized in their own l...

Family Dynamics + Downsizing: Surviving the Legal and Emotional Estate Minefield Dementia care is hard enough. But when you add a house full of 47 years of physical belongings, a vague estate plan, and mismatched sibling dynamics, a difficult transition can instantly turn into a family crisis. In this week's episode of Dementia Decoded, I sit down with Heather Nickerson, a former CIA intelligence analyst and the co-founder/CEO of Artifcts.com. Heather’s entire career pivoted from national secu...

When managing an Alzheimer’s or dementia journey, we meticulously audit medications, medical files, and care schedules. But how much time do we spend auditing the physical space where all that care happens? In this episode, I sit down with veteran architect Martin Kimmel, principal and co-founder of Kimmel Architecture, to pull back the curtain on how geriatric environments are engineered. The hard truth is that physical architecture is never neutral—it is either a proactive tool that supports ...

When a fierce, independent parent develops dementia, the traditional support systems treat the journey like a jigsaw puzzle with a missing box top. They tell you to have "caring conversations" or wait for a DMV intervention—passive strategies that fail miserably in the trenches of real-world caregiving. In this episode of Dementia Decoded, I sit down with psychologist, member of the International Memoir Writers Association, and author Dr. Sarah Church Vosburg to unpack the unflinching reality o...

Are you trapped in a grueling cycle of caregiving firefighting, constantly waiting for the next emergency to force your hand? In this episode of Dementia Decoded, we are dismantling one of the heaviest burdens a family caregiver carries: the silent promise to \"never put a loved one in a home.\" Host Jen Fink opens up about the messy reality of late 2016 when her father was hospitalized and moving her mom—who was navigating advanced vascular dementia—into her own home was a bad option for ever...

Why Your Home Might Be a Hidden Danger Zone for Dementia Care Most families wait for a catastrophic fall or a hospital discharge before they think about modifying their home environment—but by then, the emotional and financial cost is already too high. While we want our loved ones to age in place with dignity, navigating the physical realities of cognitive decline requires a proactive strategy. In this episode of Dementia Decoded, we sit down with Erica Sell, a Certified Assistive Technology P...

Tired of fighting a multi-billion-dollar healthcare bureaucracy just to get your loved one basic care? When you become a dementia caregiver, nobody hands you a manual on how to navigate the complex world of insurance. Overnight, you are forced to become an unpaid care coordinator, a benefits expert, and a record keeper—all while watching someone you love decline. The medical system doesn't just create the care needs; its administrative complexity creates an exhausting maze that leaves family ca...

If you’ve ever sat in your car outside a senior living facility, staring at a glossy brochure while your stomach knots with overwhelm, this episode is your lifeline. Most families approach the search for a care community backward—we wait until a middle-of-the-night crisis hits, and then we try to make a massive financial and emotional decision while running on zero sleep and high panic. In this episode, I sit down with senior living expert and former executive director Amanda Bailey to pull bac...

We have a cultural obsession with \"making nice.\" We are told that family is everything, and that during a dementia crisis, siblings should magically set aside decades of baggage and \"come together.\" But what happens when family dynamics are the biggest hurdle to your loved one’s care? What do you do when a sibling views your competence as an affront to their intelligence, or when you are forced into a \"willingly or unwillingly\" power struggle? In this episode, Jennifer sits down with aut...

When you are deep in the trenches of dementia caregiving, biological burnout feels almost inevitable. Sleep is fragmented, stress runs high, and your own health often takes a backseat. But what if the secret to shielding your brain from the chronic stress of caregiving isn’t a luxury spa day, but a fundamental optimization of your gut microbiome and your sleep architecture? In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Scott Blossom to unpack how the gut-brain axis and circadian rhythms dictate caregiv...

Dementia fall prevention is a critical part of caregiving because cognitive decline significantly increases the risk of serious injury. This episode explores the hidden science of mobility and how brain fog affects physical stability and gait. You will learn why walking stops being an automatic process and becomes a manual task for those with memory loss. Understanding the connection between reaction time and safe aging allows caregivers to move from fear to strategy. We dive into the importanc...

When a loved one with dementia calls dozens of times a day, missing a call can trigger a heavy wave of caregiver guilt. But what if technology could step into those gaps—not to replace your presence, but to protect your emotional bandwidth when you physically cannot answer? In this special sponsored episode of Dementia Decoded, Jen Fink sits down with Kirsten Thomas, founder of KindredMind, to explore how AI voice companions grounded in validation therapy are changing the caregiving landscape. ...

When Suzy Macnamara’s husband, Bob, started pulling away at age 52, the initial diagnosis seemed obvious: clinical depression. But as his ability to handle a simple $20 bill vanished and he stopped \"seeing\" objects directly in front of him, Suzy realized they were dealing with a far more complex medical mystery. In this episode of Dementia Decoded, we dive deep into Posterior Cortical Atrophy (PCA)—a rare \"flavor\" of Alzheimer’s that attacks visual processing and spatial skills long before ...

As a caregiver, your focus is entirely on the person in your charge. But what happens when your own body starts to push back? Between lifting, guiding, and the sheer physical toll of daily tasks, caregivers experience injuries and chronic pain at an alarming rate. Yet, when you have to think and act for two people, dulling your senses with heavy pain medications isn't a viable option. You need to stay sharp, and you need to stay on your feet. In this episode, host Jen Fink sits down with Mike H...

When you are in the thick of the sandwich generation squeeze, your instinct is to protect your children or grandchildren by shielding them from the heavy reality of a loved one\'s dementia. But our kids see much more than we realize. In this episode, I sit down with author Sue Lloyd-Davies to discuss the nearly 1.5 million children in the U.S. who act as \"silent sentinels\" in caregiving homes. We decode the hidden impact of cognitive decline on the tween generation and share how moving from \"...

When the clinical checklists and "evidence-based" advice fall short, we must turn toward wisdom-based caregiving to navigate the profound silence that follows a long goodbye. If you are struggling with finding strength in the broken places of your life after a loss, this conversation offers a new way to inhabit your grief without being consumed by it. In this episode, Jen Fink sits down with philosopher and author Thomas Attig to explore how we transition from a world that felt like a "solo gam...

Stop the spin cycle of caregiver resentment and guilt. This episode explores the heavy emotional toll of dementia caregiving and how to reclaim your sanity. Many caregivers struggle with secret anger and shame while navigating Alzheimer’s or other forms of cognitive decline. We dismantle the myth that caregiving must be a sacred journey. Instead, we offer a raw look at the frustration of repetitive questions and lost independence. You will learn the power of the pivot to avoid pointless argumen...

Discover the hidden emotional toll of ambiguous loss and the complex process of grieving the living. This episode explores the heavy reality of caring for someone who is physically present but mentally or emotionally changed. We define what ambiguous loss feels like for caregivers and why it lacks traditional closure. T he conversation breaks down the four tasks of mourning within the context of dementia. You will learn how to move through the pain of the long goodbye without losing yourself. ...

In this solo masterclass, I’m cutting through the noise to discuss a highly strategic, non-pharmacological investment in your caregiving infrastructure: Percy by Chongkers. We explore the clinical evidence supporting weighted sensory companions, from reducing isolation to Halting sundowning anxiety. I share my 3-step Staging Protocol to ensure your loved one accepts the tool. Get Percy by Chongkers Here: https://amzn.to/4ertfal

Tactical dementia caregiving requires a high-stakes mindset to manage the daily pressures of memory loss and cognitive decline. This approach to tactical dementia caregiving focuses on mission readiness and biological resilience for the long-term journey. The conversation explores why caregivers often run out of gas due to chronic stress and systemic burnout. You will learn the specific physiological triggers that put a caregiver’s own health at significant risk. The discussion highlights the c...

When life gets heavy, our immediate instinct is often to retreat. For caregivers navigating a grueling season of dementia or chronic illness, the world has a terrifying way of shrinking down to the four walls of the living room, creating an intense, compounding echo chamber of stress and isolation. But what if the ultimate tool for profound emotional healing—and a powerful shield for brain health—is waiting right outside your front door? In this episode, we are dismantling the somber narrative...