The Best Podcasts for Caregivers in 2024

Caregiving is often an isolating experience, where you may feel alone and unsure of yourself. Finding reliable caregiver advice can also be tricky, as those who aren’t caregivers often give well-meaning yet completely inappropriate suggestions.

Podcasts for caregivers are a powerful way to make things better.

For one, they’re a source of authentic information about the caregiving experience. Some will touch on practical challenges and solutions, while others will focus on the emotional side of the experience instead. Either way, you’re learning as you go.

More than that, podcasts provide answers to questions you didn’t know to ask. They may even highlight entirely new topics that you haven’t thought about previously or give you insights into what caregiving can be like much later in the journey.

Plus, you can easily listen to a podcast as you complete tasks around the home. This makes them powerful for caregivers who are short on time and energy.

Our Favorite Podcasts for Caregivers

Happy Healthy Caregiver Podcast

The Happy Healthy Caregiver Podcast is published every second week on Wednesday mornings, with a focus on caregiver stories. The host, Elizabeth Miller, is a Certified Caregiving Consultant who sometimes talks about her own stories, tips, and experiences.

More often, the podcast offers interviews with current family caregivers, often with a focus on particular challenges and considerations. For example, a recent episode interviewed Dr. Zahydie Burgos Ribot who is providing care for her husband with Young Onset Familial Alzheimer’s Disease. The episode highlighted some aspects of the care journey, while also talking specifically about treatment approaches and living each day with intention.

Other recent episodes have looked at falls management, how to talk to kids about dementia, and creating a self-care team.

There are currently more than 180 episodes listed, spanning seven seasons. The episodes are all accessible from the site and have logical titles, so it should be easy to find an episode that’s relevant to you.

Daughterhood the Podcast

Rosanne Corcoran hosts Daughterhood the Podcast, with each episode containing important strategies and resources to help caregivers do well. Rosanne is well-positioned to host the podcast, as she was previously a family caregiver herself, giving her first-hand experience of the role and all its complexities.

Here too, each episode has a specific focus, with topics like traveling with your care partner, deprescribing medications, finding meaning, and the final days of hospice. Guest speakers are common, giving you plenty of different perspectives and insights about caregiving.

The podcast is especially powerful for daughters who are caring for aging parents, providing insights into the unique emotional challenges of this situation. However, you don’t need to be a daughter to take advantage of the podcast. There’s plenty of valuable information here for everyone.

The Daughterhood site features more than just the podcast. There are also links to free Virtual Circles that can teach you valuable information or simply act as a source of connection. The Daughterhood blog is also packed with useful information about caregiving and associated challenges.

Parenting Up!

Parenting Up! is certainly unusual. The podcast is hosted by comedian J. Smiles, meaning there’s much more fun and laughter in the podcasts than normal.

But, this doesn’t mean the podcast is all sunshine and roses. J. Smiles still covers many challenging and important topics, including discussions about family conflict, caring for parents who didn’t care, stress management, and more.

Caregiver SOS

Caregiver SOS On Air is hosted by Carol Zernial and Ron Aaron, and can be found in multiple places, including Apple Podcasts. It currently features multiple 30 minute podcasts each month. The release days and times for podcast vary considerably, so it’s best to keep checking back to see when new ones have been released.

Many guests feature on the podcast, allowing the hosts to cover a variety of interesting topics, like sundowning, staying sane as a caregiver, the impact of technology, and more.

The show has followed a sporadic schedule, especially early in 2024. Still, there’s a back catalog of around 300 episodes, so you won’t run out of information any time soon.

Young Life Interrupted – A Podcast for Young Caregivers

Youth and young adults are sometimes handed the caregiver role before they are ready. This can sometimes be impossible to avoid, like when there is no one else to look after someone in need.

The Young Life Interrupted Podcast is curated specifically for young caregivers between the ages of 20-40. Host of the show, Adrienne Glusman cared for her mother while she was suffering from multiple system atrophy, a 10-year journey that began when Adrienne was 29.

With her podcast, Adrienne strives to guide other young caretakers on how to learn to take on such a heavy responsibility. Adrienne also has an active Facebook page and Instagram, providing more opportunities to connect and learn about her journey.

She helps youth to find resources and communities for young caretakers. Her stories are both highly insightful and inspirational and can help you feel less alone.

Caregiver Chronicles

Caregiver Chronicles is hosted by Sarah Brown, who was a CNA (Certified Nursing Assistant) for 17 years and has supported family members through dementia diagnoses.

Sarah first started Caregiver Chronicles when she was experiencing burnout and has continued to post regularly – with 189 episodes and counting.

Sarah covers some fascinating topics on her podcast, including dementia caregiving, autism awareness, nutrition, caregiver coaching, end-of-life planning, and the intersection of caregiving and marriage.

In Sickness

In Sickness is a little different, as the focus is on caring for chronically ill spouses, instead of aging family members. The podcast is co-hosted by Allison Breininger and Justin Bajema, both of whom are millennial caregivers supporting their spouses.

Caring for an ill spouse has many of the same challenges as caring for an aging parent. But, there are differences too. For those in this situation, it’s fantastic to listen to other people who know what the experience is like and the emotions that go along with it.

I love the style of this podcast, as it covers important topics in an interesting and engaging way. The hosts aren’t telling listeners what they should do or how to be better, but simply sharing their own perspectives and experiences with challenging topics.

Terrible, Thanks For Asking

As the title suggests, Terrible, Thanks For Asking is different from most other caregiving podcasts and posts. It leans into the idea that we don’t need to sugarcoat the shitty, difficult, and overwhelming things in life.

The idea is surprisingly empowering.

There’s freedom in not needing to put on a brave face or always look for the best. Sometimes it’s more than okay to just be messy. To get by however you need to get by and trust that things will (eventually) get better.

The show is currently on an indefinite hiatus, so there won’t be many new episodes. Still, there’s a decent back catalog to get through and the podcast is simply too good to not include on this list.

Incidentally, if you like this type of approach to difficult things, Disappointing Affirmations and Griefstrike! might also appeal to you.

Bonus: Audiobooks for Caregivers

Before we close, let’s talk a little about audiobooks for caregivers. These have some of the same benefits as podcasts, but are often planned and designed to teach, making them more educational.

There are a ton out there, including audiobook versions of many popular books. The following two are my personal favorites. I’d love to learn about yours.

• Living at the End of Life. This book and audiobook were written by Karen Whitley Bell, a hospice nurse who talks about experiences and insights from end-of-life. It’s a powerful look into what a person’s final days can look like and helps remove some of the mystery surrounding the experience.
• A Loving Approach to Dementia Care. Here, Laura Wayman offers valuable insights into the world of dementia care, with a focus on compassion and understanding, despite the challenges. Even if you don’t agree with all the perspectives in the book, it’s a powerful one for making you think and ask new questions.  

Final Thoughts

As you’ve probably guessed, we’ve only scratched the surface of podcasts for caregivers. There are countless other podcasts out there, each with their own features and themes. While we’ve highlighted some fantastic podcasts to begin with, you might need to do your own hunting as well. After all, we all look for different things in our podcasts. Some people want serious fact-based posts, while others are more interested in personal stories or perhaps even light hearted perspectives.