You're listening to The West Wing Weekly. I'm Rishikesh Hereway.

And I'm Joshua Molina.

Today we're talking about the long goodbye. It's episode 13 of season 4.

It was written by John Robin Bates. It was directed by Alex Graves and it first aired on January 15,

2003. This episode deals with CJ going home to Dayton for her 20th high school reunion

and also dealing with her father who is in the early onset of Alzheimer's.

No Aaron Sorkin to be found on the writing credits.

This episode is an anomaly because it was guessed written by playwright John Robin Bates.

And coming up we're going to discuss the long goodbye with John Robin Bates.

Okay, Robby Bates. Very exciting.

This episode is a strange one because Aaron hasn't written it. It's also one where we've

gotten a lot of notes from people in advance of our watching because Western fans who have

loved one with Alzheimer's or some form of dementia have been really affected by its portrayal

in this episode. I find this a very moving episode. I like the little detour we get into CJ's life.

Before we speak to Robby Bates, I thought it'd be important to get a little context on Alzheimer's.

It's not something that I knew a lot about and it's obviously a huge part of this episode.

So to give us some more context and some more information, here's Robert Eggy of the Alzheimer's

Association. I'm Robert Eggy, Chief Public Policy Officer at the Alzheimer's Association.

Going into this episode, my understanding of Alzheimer's is really just anecdotal.

Things that I know from family members of friends and watching things like this episode of the West

Wing. In your opinion, do you feel like the show generally portrayed the disease accurately

in the long goodbye? Well, my sense from watching this episode was that it was an accurate way

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