Jessica Zitter, MD ("Extremis," Extreme Measures) is an ICU and palliative care physician, author, speaker and documentarian. Her latest film, "Caregiver: A Love Story", examines the rising public health crisis of family caregiver burden. Jessica joins How We Got Here to discuss her trajectory from medical school student to caregiver advocate. Jessica emphasizes the importance of advance care planning and talks about why it's so hard for us to talk about death. She also describes her grandmother--the first person in her life she realized was a caregiver. Jessica explains that the family caregiving experience was not the original topic she set out to explore with Caregiver: A Love Story and what compelled her to share that story instead. At the end of the episode, Jessica offers a special message of encouragement for family caregivers.
Learn more about Caregiver: A Love Story
This season of How We Got Here is sponsored by Anthem.
Find out the value of your unpaid care work using Caregiving.com's caregiver salary calculator.
How We Got Here Podcast
Whether we’re in it or bearing witness to it, caregiving impacts everyone and profoundly shapes our purpose and identity. How We Got Here is a podcast that enriches our understanding of what it means to give and receive care by talking to people about the circumstances that introduced them to caregiving and how these experiences changed them.
Meet the Hosts
Affectionately known as “The Bow Tie Guy” to a vast network of family caregivers, Chris MacLellan is the Founder and CEO of The Whole Care Network™ and the author of “What’s The Deal with Caregiving?” Chris brings his signature soothing style to How We Got Here.
Christina Best is a writer and editor, and she is currently the editor-in-chief of Caregiving.com. Christina is committed to creating opportunities for caregivers and those that support them to connect and share stories and information.
Bill Odman, the “OD” in ODVOX Productions, is a full-time professional podcast producer and voice-over talent living in the American Midwest. Bill brings a varied and successful background spanning more than 35 years in information technology, management, health care, and performance to voiceover and podcast production projects.
Bill is an Executive Producer for and the “voice” of the Whole Care Network (WCN). You can hear his work on such podcasts as “Healing Ties 2.0” (WCN) and “Your Future Self” (WCN), “PodPourri” (The Ehlers Group), and upcoming podcasts from Caregiving.com, as well as the audiobook Gay Rights and the Mormon Church: Intended Actions, Unintended Consequences (available on Audible and iTunes).