Helper Listen to Episodes

Jeffrey Omura is an artist, activist, and labor leader running for City Council in District 6 of New York City and we could not back a better candidate! Jeffrey was recently elected to his second term as an officer of Actors’ Equity Association after he helped create and lead #FairWageOnStage, a grassroots movement and campaign demanding higher wages and fairer contracts for Off-Broadway stage managers and actors. As a response to the pandemic, he helped create the #BeAnArtsHero Campaign to orga...

We’re closing out Mental Health Awareness Month with Dana, an introverted oncology nurse & parent - all this to say, she’s got many reasons to be fatigued. In a time where we’re more isolated than ever, Dana has experienced the opposite: she goes to work and is surrounded by people, she comes home and she’s surrounded by people (her husband and three adorable children we might add). With all of these humans around, there’s no opportunity for her to recharge her batteries. However exhausted she m...

This week we talked to Dr. Sadie Whittaker, the Chief Scientific Officer of Solve ME/CFS Initiative- a nonprofit whose mission is to find a cure for & end Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome. The developments with ME/CFS are paving the way to understanding Long Covid. She is also the Chief Scientific Officer of You + Me: a registry and biobank that collects patient-recorded data & biological samples that are passed on to researchers to drive discovery & cure! Sweet! “I’m a big bel...

Continuing with the theme of Mental Health Awareness Month, this week we spoke to Chelsea, the Volunteer Resource Connector for L.A.Work’s TeleSocial Program — a program that our very own host Raymond started! What is TeleSocial, you ask? The L.A.Works TeleSocial Program is a great way to connect isolated & lonely seniors to buddies who will call and check in on them once a week. “During this time of self-quarantine, it is very easy for social distancing to become social isolation…especially for...

Welcome to Mental Health Awareness Month! We've got a series of interviews we really think you'll enjoy. We begin with Kate, a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, specializing in complex trauma and complex PTSD. Some of her work includes the Crisis Intervention Team for the Knoxville police department which involves helping EMT service, fire rescue, and police sheriffs. We describe her as "the helper's helper" and take comfort that there's someone out there to aid our first responders....

We've found a common theme among our April episodes: pivoting in the pandemic. This is exactly what our friend Jason has done (and quite well, we might add!). He owns The Long Room, a friendly neighborhood tavern in the Ravenswood Community of Chicago. Inspiration struck when all the bars & restaurants needed to close down, and he began selling bottled-up cocktails to go, which is not only cool but has kept his business thriving! It's also a great way to keep his staff safe which is a top priori...

Our guest this week is Jill, a compassionate & determined woman with a big heart and too many emotions for one person to contain. Her big heart led her to a position as an early childhood special education teacher in St. Louis, which has taught her a lot about herself: particularly that she's capable of pivoting on a dime to provide the education her students' need and protecting herself and other teachers in the process. She says, "It goes without saying that all of the success with virtual and...

Are you having difficulty locating a vaccine appointment? Do you wish there was a website that contained information for ALL your local pharmacies instead of having 20+ individual tabs open for each one? Well look no further! www.vaccinespotter.org is the one-stop shop for all your vaccine appointment needs! "A tool to help you track down COVID-19 vaccine appointment openings at your state's pharmacies. Updated every minute. Rather than searching around on each pharmacy's website, we'll automati...

After months of devastating loss, Louis said "fuck it" (literally) and enrolled himself in the Pfizer vaccine trial. Louis, a self-described "big ol' meat shield," was more than happy to take this risk, especially because he knows we aren't going to get anywhere with this virus until we start finding some answers. He goes into detail about why he chose to participate, how it went, and what happened after injection. If you want to find out whether or not he received the vaccine or a placebo, tune...