Uploaded December 2019 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
"Instant Joy "
Narrated by Joyce Calvert, Jane Dahlgren, Cailin Lechner, and Madhu Manivannan
Interviewed by Phaedra Bell, Atlantic Fellow
Read by Madhu Manivannan, UCSF Memory and Aging Center, and Dvera Saxton, Atlantic Fellow
The hear/say project began as a collaboration between the Memory and Aging Center (MAC) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Voice of Witness in 2016. Our goal was to forge space for patients, caregivers, doctors, family members, researchers, nurses, artists, and more to share “stories of aging, dementia, art, work, and life.” We wanted to shed light on the personal and rarely heard day-to-day experiences of aging and dementia, and through the oral history process, reduce the stigma and othering that occurs by perpetuating a “single story.”
The project expanded in 2018 to include the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) and work directly with the Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health, an international cohort dedicated to protecting the world’s aging populations from threats to brain health. The expansion also included the making of a short documentary film with Cynthia Stone Media. The hear/say project aspires to help others see the meaning and beauty in the experiences of others – for the stories, and the feelings that drive them, to ripple outwards to a global community that recognizes the need for action and empathy in caring for our aging population.
Enjoy more stories at https://memory.ucsf.edu/hearsay.
"Instant Joy "
Narrated by Joyce Calvert, Jane Dahlgren, Cailin Lechner, and Madhu Manivannan
Interviewed by Phaedra Bell, Atlantic Fellow
Read by Madhu Manivannan, UCSF Memory and Aging Center, and Dvera Saxton, Atlantic Fellow
The hear/say project began as a collaboration between the Memory and Aging Center (MAC) at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and Voice of Witness in 2016. Our goal was to forge space for patients, caregivers, doctors, family members, researchers, nurses, artists, and more to share “stories of aging, dementia, art, work, and life.” We wanted to shed light on the personal and rarely heard day-to-day experiences of aging and dementia, and through the oral history process, reduce the stigma and othering that occurs by perpetuating a “single story.”
The project expanded in 2018 to include the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) and work directly with the Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health, an international cohort dedicated to protecting the world’s aging populations from threats to brain health. The expansion also included the making of a short documentary film with Cynthia Stone Media. The hear/say project aspires to help others see the meaning and beauty in the experiences of others – for the stories, and the feelings that drive them, to ripple outwards to a global community that recognizes the need for action and empathy in caring for our aging population.
Enjoy more stories at https://memory.ucsf.edu/hearsay.
