The NeuroNerds: A Brain Injury Recovery & Pop Culture Show

This is our very first Teen TBI Talk episode as part of our Back To School Series! Co-hosts Joe and Lauren talk with teen TBI survivor Derrius and his mom Kayla about his experience suffering multiple concussions as a child, how they affected him both physically and mentally and what recovery has been like as an adolescent. Lauren being a TBI survivor as well relates to him about all of the emotional and physical affects of a concussion. Plus they discuss prevention and awareness. If you are a teen/child TBI survivor or know someone who has gone through this, please share your story with us and connect with Derrius. Leave us a comment on our socials to connect!

It’s back to school month and we’re kicking it off with a special interview with guest co-host and habit coach, Ella Sofia. After suffering a hemorrhagic stroke at the age of 14, Ella has dedicated her life to learning how to retrain the brain post-brain injury as well as being an advocate for other stroke and brain injury survivors. She talks with our host Joe about being a teenager dealing with school, fitting in and all the other challenges of being an adolescent while going through stroke recovery and rehab. If you’re an adolescent brain injury survivor or the parent of one, what are some challenges you’re facing as you get ready to go back to school? Let us know on our socials. The NeuroNerds are here to help!

It’s our host Joe’s 3-year stroke-iversary August 4th! And he’s celebrating in this episode along with co-host Lauren. They talk about setting new goals, rebirth after a brain injury, plans to connect even deeper with the stroke and brain injury survivor community and just overall showing Joe some love for all the work he does for our community! Please send Joe some stroke-iversary love on our socials! Tag #JoeStrokeiversary

In this very special episode, our host Joe interviews motivational speaker, activist and spiritual healer Tobias Tubbs on-location at Words Uncaged HQ. Tobias helped train Joe’s service dog Stella in the Paws for Life program at Lancaster prison. During this powerful and moving conversation, these two survivors and thrivers talk about service animals and the emotional connection they have with their human counterparts as well as brain injury and rehabilitation on both a spiritual and physical level.

San Diego Comic Con 2019 is over and The NeuroNerds have lots of feelings and reactions to share on all the nerdy news and announcements from the show! Co-hosts Joe and Lauren talk about everything from Marvel, Star Trek, Cosplay, Star Wars, Game of Thrones and more. Plus there is on-site interviews at Comic Con with our NeuroNerd correspondent, Ash Hopson including her interview with friend of the show, actor, Malcolm Barrett where he talks about his role on the new show “The Boys” and his plans to turn his play “Brain Problems” into a TV show! We’re nerding out plus talking about the overstimulation brain injury survivors experience at conferences like Comic Con. Yup, this episode is jam packed! What’s your favorite nerdy announcement from Comic Con? Let us know on our socials!

We’re counting down to San Diego Comic Con 2019 and co-hosts Joe and Lauren are talking in depth about all of the panels and nerdom they’d like to hear about from our NeuroNerd correspondent Ash who will be on-location. (Stay tuned for our next episode will include live interviews with Ash at the show!) Joe and Lauren talk Game of Thrones, Star Wars, Disney, Marvel plus their Amazon Prime picks for Prime Day as well as Lauren’s new obsession with the Amazon Prime show ‘Good Omens’. What are you most excited to see at Comic Con and what will you be getting on Amazon Prime Day? Share with us in the comments on our socials!

This episode features a very special, in-person interview with Tamsen Butler of The Stromies! We’ve had Tamsen on the show before with The Stromies – a collective of 3 stroke survivor friends who created a blog to share their recovery journeys along with featuring other stroke survivor stories. Tamsen and The Stromies do amazing work for the stroke and brain injury survivor community so we are happy to have her on the show again along with her whole family! With Tamsen’s “stroke-iversary” approaching on July 15th, it was the perfect time for her to share her personal stroke story along with her family sharing their experience including the unique perspective of her children, Monet and Abram and how Monet’s quick thinking helped save her mother’s life!

It’s a couple days away from Joe’s birthday (July 3rd), the 4th of July and the premiere of the new Spider-Man movie! The NeuroNerds are talking all about how they have beat their personal struggles with celebrating their birthdays and how their brain injury experiences have been a big part of that! Plus they share how they deal with the overstimulation that comes with July 4th parties and fireworks, how they overcame bullying and became comfortable in their own skin after childhood growing pains.

Our co-host Lauren, is back!! And in honor of her return she and Joe are getting super nerdy. With ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ coming out in a week, Joe and Lauren talk about their theories about the Spider-verse and how Marvel is going to connect the different iterations of Spider-Man on the big screen using alternate realities unleashing the Marvel multiverse! Which of course leads them into a further discussion of alternate realities, science fiction and quantum physics in general. What do you think about the idea of connecting all the Spider-Man movies through the multiverse? Let us know on our socials!

It’s Migraine and Headache Awareness Month and our host Joe is talking all about how migraines and headaches could be signs of stroke or brain injury with guest co-host and producer of the show Felice. They run down all the different kinds of headaches, symptoms and phases of a migraine. Their overall message is to always err on the side of caution so if you’re experiencing your worst headache or first time migraine as an adult, you should go to the doctor ASAP to make sure everything is ok!

In response to last week’s episode, our listeners and stroke/brain injury survivor community has stepped up and supported our host Joe by flooding Twitter with complaints to Valley Presbyterian Hospital asking them to take responsibility and apologize for their negligent care of him during Joe’s stay there. We really appreciate your support so this episode is dedicated to our listeners plus Joe and guest co-host and our producer, Felice, talk about what’s planned for our upcoming episodes this summer. What would you like to hear us talk about on future episodes? Let us know on our socials! And please keep tweeting at Valley Pres. Link to tweet is below.

This is a very personal episode for our host Joe Borges. For the first time, he is sharing the full story behind a traumatic incident that occurred while he was in rehab after his stroke at Valley Presbyterian Hospital on August 26, 2016. This incident has caused a lot of emotional damage and distress including PTSD for Joe so it is extremely difficult to share, but Joe wanted to shed light on hospital negligence and find some closure. Valley Pres committed extreme negligence in not having proper supervision and sending a stroke patient, Joe, out of their hospital onto the streets of Van Nuys in the middle of the night. Joe tells the story along with the help of his girlfriend, caregiver, and co-producer, Felice. Please help us fight back by joining us in telling Valley Pres to admit their wrongdoing and demand justice for Joe. Contact details in our show notes.

This episode is going live on Memorial Day so we wanted to take this time to spotlight veterans and mental health as May is also Mental Health Awareness Month (in addition to Stroke Awareness Month). To help share the soldier’s perspective when it comes to mental health including PTSD post-combat, our host Joe, interviews guest, Tripp Denom. Tripp is a really talented artist and rapper (as you can hear from our special intro to today’s episode, but he’s also a veteran with firsthand experience overseas in combat. Being a self-confessed nerd or “blerd” (black nerd), Tripp and Joe talk everything from PTSD in soldiers as well as characters in Avengers Endgame to breaking up with psychologists to African American characters throughout the years in comics. Do you have any veterans or active-duty soldiers you’re honoring today? Please share in the comments on our Instagram!

We always joke that The NeuroNerds are not experts on brain injury, but rather experts on experiencing brain injury. So when our host Joe, got the opportunity to interview Dr. Karen D. Sullivan, an actual expert, he was more than excited! Dr. Sullivan is a neuropsychologist that specializes in working with patients recovering from brain injuries such as strokes, TBIs, aneurysms and more. In this episode, Joe talks with the doc about PTSD, recovery, and her new book “Interactive Stroke Recovery Guide – 10 Rules of Rehab”. She gives us an insight to the brain injury journey from a caring health professional point-of-view that we haven’t explored yet on this podcast. It’s a very eye-opening episode to say the least. Do you have questions for Dr. Sullivan? Let us know on Instagram and tag @icareforyourbrain.

We’re celebrating Mother’s Day 2019 with bad ass independent woman, mother, stroke/AVM survivor and this episode’s guest co-host Bridget Chiovari. Our host Joe, talks with Bridget about her experience surviving her brain injury while pregnant with her second child in her second trimester! Plus, they talk photography, Game Of Thrones and more about juggling brain injury recovery while being a mother. Do you know any amazing brain injury surviving and thriving moms? Share with us on on our socials!

Host Joe Borges interviews actor Malcolm Barrett along with his best friend, AVM survivor and friend of our show, Thomas Mejia. They talk all about Malcolm’s experience supporting Thomas through multiple craniotomy surgeries and recovery. He has now written a play inspired by this experience called Brain Problems presented by Ammunition Theater Company, running until May 19, 2019. Malcolm is best known for his roles in Better Off Ted, Timeless and Preacher. He has acted in a variety of roles over his career, but obviously, since this is a nerd show, we are nerding out on his roles in cult classics such as Always Sunny In Philadelphia, The Office, The Sopranos, Monk and we think it’s worth mentioning again Preacher. Listen as the cover everything from brain injury recovery, favorite MC’s and the inspiration and creative process behind Brain Problems. If you’re in LA, let us know if you’re going to see Malcolm’s play! Share on our socials!

Spoiler Alert! Co-hosts Joe and Lauren are diving deep into Avengers Endgame this episode. They’re discussing their reactions, reviews and overall feels after watching this epic Marvel movie. So make sure you’ve watched the movie before listening and get ready to dissect and unpack this massive conclusion to 10 years of Marvel Phase One. Also, Joe touches on the recent stroke of director John Singleton. Plus, Lauren is recording her end of this episode remotely from Spain as she preps to celebrate her birthday. Happy birthday Lauren! Wish her a happy birthday on our socials!

Avengers End Game is less than a week away and it’s been a long time coming! Co-hosts Joe and Lauren discuss all their fan theories, predictions and Joe once again sits through Lauren’s “Stucky” fan fiction, goats and all. Plus Lauren gives a few more Game of Thrones predictions for future spinoffs and more. What are your predictions for the new Avengers’ movie and what do you think the future of the MCU will hold? Share with us on Instagram and Twitter!

The Mother of Dragons and Brain Aneurysms, Emilia Clark is back with the rest of the Game of Thrones cast for its 8th and final season and we have lots of predictions to talk about. With the season premiere upon us, winter is finally here and host Joe and guest co-host Felice (plus Lauren joins in on the discussion too!) are going deep into fan theories and more in this episode. What are your fan theories? Share with us on our socials!

The one and only stoner holiday 4/20 is coming up in a couple weeks! And while it is a fun, relaxing holiday, we wanted to get past just the recreational side of cannabis and dive deep into the health benefits of this multifaceted, natural remedy. So our host, Joe, is talking all about the physical and mental health benefits of cannabis, especially for brain injury survivors, in this episode with fellow marijuana enthusiast and previous guest, AVM survivor, Thomas Mejia. With nearly 10 years of experience working in the cannabis industry, Thomas gives us some deeper insight and facts about this amazing plant. What is your strain of choice and what health benefit do you use it for? Please share with us on our socials!

Festival season is upon us and The NeuroNerds are here to help with tips and tricks for brain injury survivors to make it through music festivals like Coachella. Joe went to Coachella last year and shares some tools that helped him cope with overstimulation like meditation and earbuds. Plus, Lauren shares how she deals with the stress and anxiety associated with her dance competitions. What are some tools you use to cope with overstimulation at crowded events and festivals? Please share with us on our socials!

To conclude this year’s Brain Injury Awareness month, Emilia Clarke came out with a heartfelt article documenting her brain injury story and announced her new nonprofit SameYou.org. So, of course, The NeuroNerds have a lot to say about all of this as they reflect on their own apprehensions about sharing their brain injury stories and the responsibility of being a pillar in the brain injury survivor community. Imposter syndrome is revisited and Joe shares some emotional feelings about his own recovery. What’s your brain injury story? Please share in the comments on our socials!

What are the signs of a stroke, TBI, aneurysm & other brain injuries? Co-hosts Joe and Lauren are going over all the signs in this episode in honor of Brain Injury Awareness month. Plus Lauren shows us just how nerdy she is as she dives deep into her love of D&D and Baldur’s Gate. What are some signs of a brain injury? Did we miss any? Please share on our socials.

Captain Marvel is finally here!! And we’re talking all about it in this episode. *SPOILERS AHEAD* Our producer, Felice LaZae is sitting in with our host Joe Borges to breakdown the movie and share their reviews and reactions. They also discuss recent celebrities who have suffered strokes including the sad passing of Luke Perry. Plus they announce The NeuroNerds joining the Gonna Geek Podcast Network! What is your favorite part of the new Captain Marvel movie? Share with us on our socials!

It’s our second time celebrating Brain Injury Awareness on The NeuroNerds podcast and obviously it’s very special to us and our brain injury survivor community. Co-hosts Joe and Lauren re-introduce themselves to our audience, give us a year in review for the podcast, their individual stroke and TBI recovery progress and talk about plans for future episodes and video content. If you are a brain injury survivor, how is your recovery journey going? Let us know on our socials!

It’s our 1-year anniversary! And in honor of the occasion this episode features a special guest interview with SimpleCast COO, Jeanine Wright. In addition to being an executive, investor, attorney and mom, Jeanine also has a brain condition called a cavernous angioma and she shares her story with co-hosts Joe and Lauren plus of course she let’s us in on what her favorite nerdom is. The NeuroNerds podcast is actually hosted on SimpleCast’s platform so it was a real treat to record this episode at their studio! After a year of The NeuroNerds, what’s your favorite episode? Please share with us on our socials!

Spring is bringing an explosion of nerdom on TV and movies and co-hosts Joe and Lauren have a lot of feelings, hopes and theories to talk about. In this episode, they discuss all the new Marvel movies coming out like Captain Marvel, Avengers End Game and more; the Game of Thrones final season; and more big TV and movie moments we’ve all been waiting for. Plus they talk about all the brain injury and PTSD references that are being featured in TV and film. Some spoiler alerts are ahead. What shows and movies are you most looking forward to? Please let us know on our Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!

The latest season of Netflix and Marvel’s The Punisher is really putting a spotlight on TBI’s through the main villain, Billy Russo aka Jigsaw’s experience recovering from his brain injury. So naturally, our co-hosts Joe and Lauren are discussing this in detail along with touching on John Wick, PTSD and Joe’s most recent frustrations with his memory post-stroke. What are some of your biggest challenges post brain injury? Please share with us on our socials.

It’s our 50th episode! Which means we’re just a few episodes away from our 1-year anniversary! In this episode Joe interviews another one of his #BrainBuddies, Jamie Coyle, creator of Stroke Survivors Never Quit. Former hockey player turned activist, Jamie suffered an adolescent stroke. She shares her recovery journey, dealing with people who don’t understand her deficits and how helping other survivors is her mission. Plus her partner, Kayla joins in to give some insight on being a support system for a loved who has suffered from a stroke. If you are a family member, partner or caregiver to a stroke survivor, what are some ways you support your loved one through their recovery journey and “new normal” life post-stroke?

In this episode our host Joe, interviews the creators of Stroke of Genius – stroke survivor, filmmaker and producer, Kyle Mengelkamp and his creative partner Liam Alexander. They talk about recovery, dealing with bullies, their new creative venture with Arianna Huffington’s new Thrive platform and their plans to share stories and build a community centered around triumph. What is your story of triumph? Share with us on our socials.