We Remember
To live with your own diagnosis or to be a loved one, caregiver, or friend of someone with MBC is to inhabit a community of loss. “We Remember” is our opportunity to give voice to the profound grief we share and to honor and celebrate each person lost to this disease. It’s a chance for the MBC community to express gratitude for the extraordinary and unique ways they made our lives richer.
We Remember
We Remember honors all who died from metastatic breast cancer over the past year—parents, children, spouses and partners. In this episode, the MBC community gives voice to both the grief and the love that endures after each death.
The Legacy of Lisa Laudico
Lisa Laudico, who created and spearheaded the Our MBC Life podcast series, died on August 6, 2022 from MBC. In this episode, Lisa’s friends, family, and colleagues remember her amazing life and celebrate the many ways she fostered connection, resilience, and hope throughout the MBC community.
Psilocybin-assisted Therapy: One Patient vs. the DEA
Welcome to the third and final episode in our series on the potential of psilocybin-assisted therapy to relieve the existential distress of, and help us live as well as possible with, metastatic breast cancer.
In this episode, we speak with two women taking action to increase legal access to psilocybin-assisted therapy in the United States. The first is a patient living with MBC who, along with her doctor, have brought a lawsuit against the Drug Enforcement Agency which is denying her access to psilocybin in the palliative care setting and under existing Right to Try laws for promising investigational medications for the terminally ill. The patient petitioner, Erinn Baldeschwiler, tells us why she joined the lawsuit, what she hopes to gain from psilocybin-assisted therapy, and what it’s been like to deal with all the legal proceedings on top of a progressing MBC diagnosis.
Our second interview in this episode is with the attorney who is leading the legal case to open access to psilocybin under Right to Try legislation, Kathryn Tucker of the Emerge Law Group. Kathryn explains why psilocybin should be immediately available to patients suffering from distress, anxiety, depression under FDA rules and state and federal Right to Try laws. But the DEA is continuing to block access and hold psilocybin on Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substance Act.
It’s confusing, but we explain it all here. Lastly, see the Episode Notes for a current petition to the DEA to step out of the way and grant access to psilocybin for anyone with a terminal illness.
This series has been led by series producer, Dr. Paula Jayne with assistance from co-host Lynda Weatherby, and senior producer and host Lisa Laudico.
Thanks for listening!
Psilocybin-assisted Therapy: Patient Experiences
Welcome to the second episode in our series on the potential of psilocybin-assisted therapy to help us live as well as possible with metastatic breast cancer.
In this episode, we talk to two women with breast cancer who had legal access to psilocybin-assisted therapy. Journalist and writer Erica Rex participated in a clinical trial at Johns Hopkins after being diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. Mari Singfield, a young Canadian woman living with MBC, gained access through an exemption to Section 56(1) of the Canadian Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, a process facilitated by the organization, TheraPsil.
Both women shared with us the process that they went through to gain legal access to psilocybin-assisted therapy, what the treatment was actually like for them, and what, if anything, changed in their lives afterward.
MBC & Parenting Expert Panel
How does one even begin to bring up the topic of metastatic breast cancer to a child? On this third episode of our MBC & Parenting series, we’ll talk to three experts that can give us some insight and guidance on how to talk with our children in the most open and safe ways. First up, Co-host Martha Carlson and Senior Co-host Victoria Goldberg speak with Dr. Leeza Park, psychiatrist, clinical researcher, and Deputy Director for the Comprehensive Cancer Support Program at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. Finally, Senior Co-host and Producer, Lisa Laudico and Co-host Martha Carlson have an illuminating conversation with Morgan Livingstone, Certified Child Life Specialist based in Toronto, Ontario Canada, and Amanda Celeste, Parenting Expert for Project Life, mother, wife, and teacher.
MBC & Parenting: The Kids Are Alright
What does a metastatic diagnosis mean for our children?
Grief, Loss, & Faith
All of us approach life and death in general from the perspective of our faith traditions, our family cultures, and the traditions and culture we choose as adults.
Doing End-Of-Life Right
How does one do things right at the end of life? There are many ways to answer this question, as varied as all of us.
Ambiguous Loss & Dr. Pauline Boss
This is an episode that has something for everyone – not just those of us living with MBC or a terminal diagnosis. It is a privilege to listen to Dr. Boss speak and teach.
Lara MacGregor: How To Decline Well With Hope
This is an interview that doesn’t shy away from the hard conversations that we have when diagnosed with a terminal disease, and gives Lara the opportunity to tell us what it has all felt like for her.
MBC101 - what happens when MBC spreads to the brain?
On 10/12/21 Lianne Kraemer, an MBC patient advocate living with brain mets , and SHARE hosted two brilliant young clinicians from Moffitt in a discussion on management of breast cancer brain metastases. Today we are bringing you this webinar with our additional commentary. We will let you in on a little secret. This episode is a glimpse into how we envision the next season’s Road to a Cure. It will include more content with an educational angle for the newly diagnosed or those who are ready to take a deeper dive with us into the basics. We call it MBC101.
Road to a Cure - drug resistance
It is fitting that our 7th and last stop before the SABCS is back to NYC. Co-hosts Lisa Laudico and Ellen Landsberger talk with Dr Sarat Chandarlapaty, a leading Physician Scientist at MSKCC. As both a physician treating patients and a scientist in the lab, Dr. Chandarlapaty gives us an understanding of translational medicine, transferring what he learns from his patients back into the lab to answer questions that advance the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.
We Remember
Join us for our annual We Remember episode where we have invited our listeners to share the names and stories of the people they have loved and who have died from MBC over these past 12 months. Together we share the grief and loss of everyone who has died from MBC. Thanks for listening.
Road to a Cure - What it Means to Us
The podcast team has embarked upon something quite ambitious. The members of the team have traveled virtually to speak with the leading clinicians and researchers in the field of breast cancer, specifically on the topic of where we are in terms of a cure for metastatic breast cancer. It is impossible to cover it in a neat single episode, so, instead, we created a very special series of episodes that we call “Road to A Cure.” In this premiere episode the members of the creative team share with the audience what it means to live with an incurable disease. We talk about a possibility of a cure, address the real fear of hoping, and tackle these and many other important issues.
The Magic of Palliative Care: Our Stories
Want to know why we call it “magic?” Hear from people living with MBC about their experiences. While they all agree and encourage others to seek Palliative Care they also are aware of the barriers to access. Our guests cover it all. And it gets real.