See the challenges of navigating Alzheimer's caregiving

How Alzheimer's caregivers get pulled into their loved one's reality

Caregivers, most often children and spouses, do not just witness a family member's cognitive decline—they also often become drawn into it, navigating a world in which the typical rules of time, order, or logical continuity may not apply.

How Alzheimer's disease affected one family as symptoms progressed

News program 60 Minutes interviewed a couple navigating aging and Alzheimer's over a 10-year period to illustrate the effects of the disease on their lives.

Alzheimer's as a family disease: When children become "parents"

Kitty Eisele's 81-year-old dad went missing while on a snowy, four-hour drive from Minneapolis to Iowa City. It was the first emergency that spelled out the danger of her dad's dementia diagnosis—and captures how Alzheimer’s impacts entire families, with the influx of responsibility that comes with caregiving.

An Alzheimer's patient discusses her condition with children

Alzheimer's is a deadly disease that profoundly changes a person's abilities and personality, which makes it difficult to explain to kids. Responding to potentially uncomfortable questions with honesty (and relatable imagery) about the costs and nature of the disease goes a long way in fostering understanding.

Watch patient stories describing life with macular degeneration

This video series features patients discussing their experiences with the disorder, family members describing caregiving, and other insights about the disease.

What it feels like to live with dementia

This nine-minute short film attempts to answer what it feels like to fade into dementia, as memory, motor skills, and cognition steadily decline. This award-winning short film follows Jos, a married father who worked in hospitality, as he sinks into ,"what feels like a single day. Or is it years?"

After a dementia diagnosis, it's important to plan ahead but also savor the moment

The next steps after a diagnosis include taking lifestyle steps to slow disease progression and completing legal paperwork about long-term medical preferences. It's also important to appreciate the moments and days ahead and find humor in them, when possible. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

Dementia caregiver training programs exist—but they aren't common

Comprehensive dementia care programs go beyond offering support to caregivers. They train people on how to modify their homes, communicate with their loved ones with dementia, and cope with the stress of caregiving, among other skills. Yet despite evidence showing their effectiveness and the economic benefit of avoiding unnecessary emergency room visits, these programs are often poorly funded and difficult to find.

A first-person account of receiving an Alzheimer's diagnosis

Having Alzheimer's is a bit like having a part of your brain sliced away each day, according to author Greg O'Brien. This 34-minute podcast episode introduces O'Brien and his co-host, author David Shenk, as the two embark on a multi-season conversation on Alzheimer's disease and O'Brien's diagnosis.

Women more likely than men to report strain of being a caregiver

A Pew Research Center caregiver analysis from 2026 indicates that, though men and women both say caring for aging parents improved their relationships with their parents, women are more likely than men to report that it had a negative impact on their emotional well-being and physical health.

Financial caregiving 101

In this podcast episode, a financial expert outlines how to prepare to financially take care of an elderly parent before they get sick or an emergency happens. This includes ensuring their payments are automated, getting access codes for their cell phones and accounts, and more.

America's financial burden from dementia in 2025 was $781 billion

That figure, calculated by researchers at the University of Southern California, includes medical and long-term care costs, unpaid family and friend caretaking, lost productivity for patients and their families, and the economic loss in quality of life for patients and their families. In 2025, they estimate there were 5.6 million people living with dementia.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Listen to storytellers explain the legacy of memories shared between children and their mothers

In this podcast, people describe the strength of certain memories, what events stay with them, and when and why grief washes over them. One describes the challenging task of selling her mother's cemetery plots; another, keeping a promise to her son to learn to swim; and in the third, a son discusses the strength of familiar food smells.

'There are only four kinds of people in the world—those who have been caregivers, those who are caregivers, those who will be caregivers, and those who will need caregivers.'

- Former First Lady Rosalynn Carter (1927–2023)

Afterlife traditions help some humans process death

Watch this video discussing concepts of the afterlife presented through an anthropological lens about one family's experience and traditions passed down from one generation to another.

Researchers are exploring neural links between Alzheimer's and autism

Recent DNA sequencing and molecular biology studies suggest that similarities in genes, neural circuitry and patterns of disease warrant further exploration to potentially better understand both conditions and how to treat them. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

Females are diagnosed with MS roughly 3 to 4 times more often than males

This PBS documentary traces a filmmaker's personal journey with MS after being diagnosed at age 26. It encompasses both his efforts to stymie the disease's progression and his search for answers about the disease, when, statistically, he seemed at low risk due to his gender, lack of known family risk, and other factors.

Explore this interactive visualization of the IVF journey as a parent or child

This step-by-step graphic takes the viewer through different challenges and stages of the IVF journey, from a parent's and a child's perspective, including a parent's struggle when other families become pregnant around them, even as IVF is not working for their family.

Explore 'The Presidents' collection

PBS's "The Presidents" collection profiles America's leaders through award-winning documentaries, interviews, and archival footage. The series captures how each president reflected the nation's values, crises, and culture while shaping the office's power and legacy.

How a 2025 Netflix documentary reveals the contested view of the Vietnam War

Brian Knappenberger created a five-part, seven-hour documentary on the war released on the streamer in 2025, the latest in a tradition of hundreds of documentaries covering the event. Expert Thomas Bass, the author of the essay, was invited to be interviewed for the documentary, arguing the conflict's origins are the most crucial aspects to understand. In turn, Bass interviewed Knappenberger—whose father fought in the war—on the Netflix production. Their discussion revealed how streamers mediate historical understanding to a generation that does not have a consensus on what the Vietnam War was.

Hear about 20 years of change for CES

Longtime CES spokesperson Allie Fried discusses how the show has grown in scale, global reach, and ambition. The podcast also highlights recent tech innovations showcased at the show, including an AI baby panda that can sense emotions and robotic companions for Alzheimer’s patients.

'Love on the Spectrum,' a popular Netflix reality show, is following people on the autism spectrum as they navigate romantic relationships

This is one of Netflix's biggest shows, something this podcast says is due partly to the fact that the series both scratches the itch for people who enjoy reality dating viewing and the program is conducted in a nonexploitative, sensitive way that makes viewers truly want the best for the people navigating these situations.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Marina Abramović wanted to create a shared consciousness between audience and performer in ‘The Artist Is Present’

The HBO documentary follows the preparation and execution of Abramović’s 2010 MoMA show, taking a deeper look into the emotional experience. Performing was both physically and emotionally taxing for the artist, and visitors were often moved to tears while connecting with her. (This resource contains some artistic nudity.)

Journey through Norway’s frozen frontier

This 44-minute video takes viewers through the Arctic landscapes of Norway, as they learn about the area’s life and challenges. Viewers can observe the wildlife that thrives in this harsh setting—from reindeer and polar bears to red foxes. They...

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

See how a 2018 fire in Paradise, California, exposed the limits of emergency coordination

This Frontline documentary shows how the Camp Fire stretched and ultimately overwhelmed the complex web of agencies involved in emergency response, including fire suppression, 911 dispatch, law enforcement, and emergency management, with catastrophic results.

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

Watch the cumbersome, but necessary, precautions healthcare workers must take to care for and protect themselves while caring for Ebola patients.

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Explore an interactive map built from more than 100,000 survey responses on where people find joy in their lives

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

After NASA's Voyager 1 captured Earth as a single pixel as it left the solar system in 1990, astronomer Carl Sagan used the image to reflect on humanity's fragility and the responsibility to protect 'the only world we've ever known.'

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

SpongeBob exemplifies Aristotle's philosophy for living well because he understands that happiness doesn't come from external factors like money, recognition, or power.

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

In 2009, the nation was gripped by the story of a missing young boy who was believed to be floating over Colorado in a homemade balloon, until it was revealed that he was at home the whole time.

In 1939, baseball star Lou Gehrig delivered his inspirational 'Luckiest Man' speech after retiring due to the health condition that now bears his name.

Watch contemporary footage covering the US-backed Shah of Iran fleeing the country in the face of the 1979 Iranian Revolution

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Take a 3D tour of the Hajj, Islam's annual pilgrimage to Mecca, undertaken by more than 1.5 million Muslims each year.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

The original copy of the Declaration of Independence is not a pristine document, and even features a smudged anonymous handprint in the bottom left corner.