On September 9th 2024 I said goodbye to the listeners of About Health on KPFA radio. I’ve been hosting the show for 9 years. I was very sad to end the show, but I’m ready to move on to other things. It’s been a privilege to host About Health and meet so many dedicated and wise people who joined me on the air over the years. I am also grateful to all of the listeners and callers, and to the other hosts, David Feldman, and Michael Lenoir. Thank you!
If you would like to hear our final show you can listen here:
As I say at the end of most shows: May you be healthy, happy, and live with ease as best you can.
Rona
Here is a picture of some of the people I love spending time with: Maia, Leo, David, Mick, Maceo, and Kai. As the grandma of five, my life is filled with joy. I thank my children for this gift.
Death is a part of life, but many people are afraid to talk about their fears about dying, how they want to live in the present, and their priorities for care at the end of life. Often people find themselves in challenging situations when they are faced with a dying relative or friend, not sure what steps to take to honor the dying person’s wishes.
Are you prepared? Do you have an advanced health care directive and will or trust? Have you talked to your loved ones about your decisions for care at the end of your life? If not, you are not alone.
Guest
Eileen Spillane is the founder of Befriending Death, a platform that offers the signature course “Let’s Chat About Death” as well as 1:1 coaching, a book club, and community gatherings. Her most recent course is Befriending Death, Befriending Your Life: Aligning your wild and precious living with what matters most. Launching on 9/14/2024.
Her motivation to create these courses came from many years as a Critical Care Nurse witnessing unnecessary suffering. Her hope is to normalize conversations around death with a supportive, friendly community, so life and death decisions can be approached long before one is hospitalized. In addition to working as a Registered Nurse for over thirty years, Eileen is a meditation and dharma teacher, and works as an active travel guide for international hiking and biking trips. She is a former Zen Hospice Project volunteer and a trained end of life doula.
My guest, Dr. Ella Faktorovich, spoke of vision health as it relates to different stages of life. We discussed issues such as myopia, computer vision syndrome, presbyopia, cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration and how to keep your eyes healthy.
Dr. Faktorovich is the Director and Founder of Pacific Vision Institute in San Francisco. She received her MD at UCSF Medical School, and competed her Ophthalmology at UCSF Department of Ophthalmology, followed by a two-year fellowship in Refractive and Corneal Surgery at UCLA Jules Stein Eye Institute. Dr. Faktorovich is the founder and remains the Chair of the Annual San Francisco Cataract, Cornea, and Refractive Surgery Symposium dedicated to continuing education of the Bay Area eye doctors in refractive surgery and other aspects of advanced patient eye care. Since its inception in 2001, more than 100 nationally renowned specialists have taught at the Symposium.
Shame is a universal social emotion meant to keep us out of trouble. It may be expressed in many ways including perfectionism or feeling worthless. It can be hard to detect shame since it can bind with other emotions, such as grief, anger, or fear. Shame can be transformed from a self-punishing emotion into an ally supporting our well being and health.
Bret Lyon, PhD, SEP, and Sheila Rubin, MA, LMFT, RDT/BCT, are long-time helping professionals who have devoted the last twenty years of their lives to healing shame. They are the founders and co-directors of the Center for Healing Shame. Through their workshops, they have taught thousands of therapists, coaches, and other helping professionals from all over the world how to more effectively identify and work with shame.
Sheila is a licensed marriage and family therapist, a registered drama therapist, and has taught at JFK University and CIIS, as well as being the eating disorder specialist at a hospital and directing Embodied Life Stories performances. Bret holds doctorates in both psychology and drama and has taught at Tufts University, Pomona College, and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, as well as written and directed plays in regional theater and off-off Broadway.
Sheila and Bret are married and live in Oakland, California. When they are not working to heal the planet through healing shame, Sheila devotes herself to painting, and Bret puts his soul into photographing birds and other wildlife. Please visit healingshame.com to discover more about them and their work.
In celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. we will discuss African American Wellness. The harsh reality is that not all patients are treated equally, and racism has consequences on a person’s health and health care.An Associated Press wire story from 1966, contained Dr. King’s famous quotation regarding injustice in health care—“Of all the forms of in-equality, injustice in health, is the most shocking and in-human.”
My guest today, Dr Michael Lenoir, has been committed to the health and well-being of the African American community for a long time now…believing that “Healthcare is a fundamental right.”
Guest: Dr. Michael Lenoir
Dr. LeNoir has been the CEO of the Ethnic Health America Network, and currently he is CEO and Chairperson of the African American Wellness Project and the host and producer of the Black Doctors Speak Podcast. He is a board-certified, practicing pediatrician in Oakland, and a nationally recognized expert on asthma in inner cities. In the past he served as president of the Ethnic Health Institute at Alta Bates/Summit Medical Center and associate clinical professor in pediatrics at the University of California, San Francisco. He has been an active member of the National Medical Association and was the 114th President. Dr. Lenore was the host of About Health Radio show on KPFA.org for over 20 years.
