Monthly Archives: January 2018

Cynthia Lim: A Sorrow That’s Always There

January 30, 2018Podcastacquired brain injury, advocacy, anoxic brain injury, brain injury, cardiac arrest, career, caregiver, caregiving, Cynthia Lim, husband, LAUSD, Los Angeles Unified School District, loss, memoir, My Writing Life, retirement, Santa Monica College, son, Wherever You Are, workDianeMcDaniel

Cynthia Lim is author of the forthcoming memoir, Wherever You Are, which chronicles her journey after her husband suffered a cardiac arrest, resulting in brain injury. Cynthia talks about the challenges she faced to help her husband achieve a good quality of life, her determination to maintain normalcy for their sons, and what she misses from her relationship with her husband prior to his disability. She also talks about how writing has helped her to understand her experience and also how painful it was to re-read her journals as she wrote her memoir.

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Carole Yu: Caring for Yourself and Others

January 23, 2018PodcastA-Z West, Andrea Zittel, architect, architecture, Camp Kesem, cancer, Carole Yu, Chef Dara Yu, cooking, Dominique Ansel, entrepreneur, entrepreneurship, fashion, Food Network, George Yu, lung cancer, MasterChef Junior, Momo Los Angeles, Montana Avenue, runner-up, single motherDianeMcDaniel

Entrepreneur and independent business owner Carole Yu talks about coping with her husband’s death from cancer while raising two young daughters. With support from Camp Kesem and other organizations, Carole helped her daughters survive and thrive despite the devastating loss of their father. Carole also talks about how she found the strength to follow through on her own life dreams one step at a time.

Camp Kesem is a nationwide community that supports children through and beyond their parent’s cancer: campkesem.org.

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Richard Hoff and Schuyler Ha: Expanding the Definition of Family

January 17, 2018PodcastChinese, cultural background, culture, Dad, dads, DNA, Eastern European, family, family structure, father, fatherhood, fathers, gay, gender, gender roles, genetics, hearing aids, hearing loss, homosexual, Jewish, mother, parent, parenting, Richard Hoff, Schuyler Ha, surrogacy, surrogateDianeMcDaniel

Richard Hoff and Schuyler Ha share the story of their family, including the many logistics they worked out in order to bring their now 10-year-old daughter into being, the consideration they put into the structure and dynamics of their family, and the environment in which their daughter is being raised. They also talk about the gender dynamics at play in their roles as two male parents and how their personal experiences of otherness has helped them to coach their daughter in understanding the social challenges of her hearing loss and wearing hearing aids.

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Tanya Ward Goodman: An Enthusiastic Embrace of the World

January 9, 2018PodcastAberdeen, Alzheimer's disease, caretaker, children, circus, desert, family, father, grandmother, home, husband, identity, mother, mountain, New Mexico, Ross Ward, South Dakota, step mother, Tinkertown, writer, writingDianeMcDaniel

On today’s show I’m speaking with writer Tanya Ward Goodman, author of Leaving Tinkertown. Our conversation examines how she uses her writing practice, which she likens to the process of composting, to learn her mind and understand experience. We discuss how the experience of taking care of her father during his decline from early onset Alzheimer’s disease, which she chronicles in Leaving Tinkertown, allowed her to develop her own identity and question deeply held beliefs. Tanya also talks about what the experience of caring for her father during his illness and death taught her about what it means to live well.

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Happy New Year! Looking Forward and Back

January 2, 2018Podcast2017, 2018, anticipation, New Year, ovarian cancer, podcast, REAL, Real Cancer, REAL with Diane McDaniel, reflectionDianeMcDaniel

At the start of the New Year, many people make a practice of reflecting on the year that is past and anticipating the year that is to come. These reflections are a story of what has happened to make us who we are, and our anticipations are a story of who we want to become in the New Year.

In keeping with the tradition of the season, in this episode host Diane McDaniel takes a quick look backward at 2017 and forward to 2018.

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