You're listening to How to Be a Better Human.

I'm your host, Chris Duffy.

Today's episode is all about how to be a caregiver.

What do you do when you're the one making sure that the people you love get what they need?

How do you support someone if they're the one that's doing the caretaking?

You know, this is a role that almost all of us will have to play at one point

or another in our lives, and yet it's one that so few of us have any sort of training to do.

Today's guest, Courtney Martin, has been writing and thinking about care for our kids, for our

parents, for our partners, for our communities, for the world, for our country. She's been

thinking about all those different forms of care for years now.

And she's been doing that as a writer and a journalist, but she is currently living through it

in an entirely new and much more personal way.

Here is a clip where Courtney explains what I'm talking about.

I am from a practical perspective.

I'm a classic sort of sandwich generation caregiver, right? So I have two daughters, nine and 12 years old. And I live with my mom, who's in her late 70s and has some disabilities and some chronic illnesses. And I also am the primary caregiver for my dad who is in a memory care facility.

He has advanced dementia.

So I'm meaning I'm sort of the point person on all things care for my dad, like coordinating with doctors, you know, making sure he has everything he needs when he's there, visiting him frequently.

So caregiving is just like a massive part of my life.

I cannot tell you how often I have sent someone an email with a link to something that Courtney

has written and said, you have to read this. I'm so excited to talk to her because I think she's

brilliant. But I also think that she is able to

talk about care with all of its complications and nuances in a way that just about no one else can.

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