The NeuroNerds: A Brain Injury Recovery & Pop Culture Show

Amanda Salgado

About the Guest

Octavia’s life changed dramatically when she found out she had a rare congenital brain disease, characterized by a cerebral arteriovenous malformation. This went unknown until it hemorrhaged in 2012. Luckily, she survived to tell her story. Octavia currently lives and works in Chicago and is active in the survivor community. She created the blog – nomadicaffeine.com – to highlight “life after” for young survivors.

💡Fun Fact:

For a long time, I wouldn’t drive with my right shoe on.

🤓Nerdom:

Books & Music!

Joe Borges

Joe is a podcast host, blogger, personal mentor and mindset coach. His mission is to create community and support for stroke and brain injury survivors through his podcast, The NeuroNerds, his blog JoeSoRocks and his YouSoRock coaching program.

Lauren Manzano

Felice LaZae

Felice LaZae is a producer, singer/songwriter, and performer. Her work is featured by Forbes, Rolling Stone, Vogue, Vice, The Grammys, and ESPN. She has collaborated with companies including Avid Technology, Brew Dr. Kombucha, Logitech, and Airbnb.

Related Episodes

Brain, Body & Soul Fest: Brain Injury Awareness, Music, and the Metaverse

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EPISODE 226 Brain, Body & Soul Fest: Brain Injury Awareness, Music, and the Metaverse Episode Notes In this episode 226 of The NeuroNerds podcast, join host Joe and executive director of The Aneurysm and AVM Foundation, Dina Chon, as they announce the upcoming...

Episode 225: Stroke Awareness Series – Survivor Stories with Betty Howard

Jun 1, 2023 |

EPISODE 225Stroke Awareness Series - Survivor Stories with Betty HowardEpisode NotesWrapping up our empowering 2023 Stroke Awareness Month Series! In episode 225, host Joe Borges chats with the incredible Betty Howard, a stroke survivor who thrives on her recovery...

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The post Episode 171: From PT Student To PT Patient with Amanda Salgado appeared first on The NeuroNerds.

Episode 170: Live Intentionally With Mindfulness and Mental Health

The NeuroNerds — Tue, 12 Oct 2021 22:00:00 +0000

EPISODE 170

Live Intentionally With Mindfulness and Mental Health

Episode Notes

Summary

In this episode, Joe is chatting with his good friend and fellow brain injury survivor, Emily Matheny. Emily suffered 3 brain aneurysms in 2018, all the while maintaining her mental health during recovery through meditation and mindfulness. She has made it her mission to help others lead a mindful lifestyle through her podcast “Live Intentionally.” Joe and Emily talk about how they met, the importance of connecting with community, and how meditation has played a huge part in their recovery. Have you practiced mindfulness through meditation? Let us know in the comments on our socials!

Transcript

Hosts & Guests

Listen to Emily’s “Live Intentionally” podcast

Emily Matheny

Links Mentioned

Follow Emily on IG

Sponsors

Credits

Producers

Co-hosted

Editor

Marcellus Wesley

Share & Subscribe

About the Guest

💡Fun Fact:

For a long time, I wouldn’t drive with my right shoe on.

🤓Nerdom:

Books & Music!

Joe Borges

Lauren Manzano

Felice LaZae

Related Episodes

Brain, Body & Soul Fest: Brain Injury Awareness, Music, and the Metaverse

Jun 17, 2023 |

Episode 225: Stroke Awareness Series – Survivor Stories with Betty Howard

Jun 1, 2023 |

Episode 224: Stroke Awareness Series – Survivor Stories with Octavia Burrell

May 24, 2023 |

The post Episode 170: Live Intentionally With Mindfulness and Mental Health appeared first on The NeuroNerds.

Episode 169: Trigeminal Neuralgia Day 2021 with Mackenzie

The NeuroNerds — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 02:34:22 +0000

EPISODE 169

Trigeminal Neuralgia Day 2021 with Mackenzie

Episode Notes

Summary

It’s National Trigeminal Neuralgia Awareness Day (TN) on October 7th so we have Mackenzie Lea as our guest in this episode, talking about her experience with this condition. Joe and Mackenzie talk about their friendship and how they support each other through recovery and managing chronic illness. Mackenzie has made it her mission to spread awareness and advocate for others with TN through events like Paint The Town Teal and the Getting On My Nerves 5k marathon. Do you know anyone who lives with TN? Please connect with us on our socials!

Transcript

Hosts & Guests

Getting On My Nerves 5k Marathon

Mackenzie Lea

Links Mentioned

Follow Mackenzie on IG

Sponsors

Credits

Producers

Co-hosted

Editor

Marcellus Wesley Share & Subscribe

About the Guest

💡Fun Fact:

For a long time, I wouldn’t drive with my right shoe on.

🤓Nerdom:

Books & Music!

Joe Borges

Lauren Manzano

Felice LaZae

Related Episodes

Brain, Body & Soul Fest: Brain Injury Awareness, Music, and the Metaverse

Jun 17, 2023 |

Episode 225: Stroke Awareness Series – Survivor Stories with Betty Howard

Jun 1, 2023 |

Episode 224: Stroke Awareness Series – Survivor Stories with Octavia Burrell

May 24, 2023 |

The post Episode 169: Trigeminal Neuralgia Day 2021 with Mackenzie appeared first on The NeuroNerds.

Episode 168: London Marathon with The Brain & Spine Foundation

The NeuroNerds — Wed, 29 Sep 2021 06:55:00 +0000

EPISODE 168

London Marathon with The Brain & Spine Foundation

Episode Notes

Summary

The NeuroNerds are running in the London marathon! Well, virtually participating that is, since we’re not physically there, on behalf of the Brain & Spine Foundation on October 3, 2021.

In this episode, Joe interviews fellow Brain & Spine Foundation ambassador Rhys Johnson plus their Community and Events Fundraising Officer, Grace Patient is joining us once again to talk about the marathon as well as all of the wonderful things this organization does to raise funds and awareness to support brain injury survivors.

And with September being Chiari Malformation Awareness Month, Rhys is sharing his journey of getting diagnosed with this condition and his road to recovery.

Want to support the Brain & Spine Foundation’s London Marathon fundraiser? Go here to donate – www.justgiving.com/fundraising/The-NeuroNerds.

Transcript

Hosts & Guests

Learn more about the Brain & Spine Foundation

Rhys Johnson

Grace Patient

Links Mentioned

Follow Brain & Spine Foundation on IG

Follow Rhys Johnson on IG

Read Rhys’ full story

Sponsors

Credits

Producers

Co-hosted

Editor

Marcellus Wesley Share & Subscribe

About the Guest

💡Fun Fact:

For a long time, I wouldn’t drive with my right shoe on.

🤓Nerdom:

Books & Music!

Joe Borges

Lauren Manzano

Felice LaZae

Related Episodes

Brain, Body & Soul Fest: Brain Injury Awareness, Music, and the Metaverse

Jun 17, 2023 |

Episode 225: Stroke Awareness Series – Survivor Stories with Betty Howard

Jun 1, 2023 |

Episode 224: Stroke Awareness Series – Survivor Stories with Octavia Burrell

May 24, 2023 |

The post Episode 168: London Marathon with The Brain & Spine Foundation appeared first on The NeuroNerds.

Episode 167: The Medical Mind Behind Motus Nova with Dr. Nick

The NeuroNerds — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 22:00:00 +0000

EPISODE 167

The Medical Mind Behind Motus Nova with Dr. Nick

Episode Notes

Summary

We’re continuing our Motus Nova series with Dr. Nick Housley, the medical mind behind this innovative company helping stroke and brain injury survivors revolutionize their recovery at home. Especially with it being National Brain Aneurysm Awareness Month, Joe talks with Dr. Nick about how Motus Nova not only works for stroke survivors but many different types of brain injury survivors including aneurysms. They talk about the benefits of extended care at home, and their big goal is to help brain injury survivors expand their recovery beyond traditional physical therapy. Plus they dive into Dr. Nick’s background as a cyclist and how being a brain injury survivor himself deepened his passion for PT and neuroscience. If you’re a brain injury survivor, let us know your recovery stories. Please share on our socials!

Transcript

Hosts & Guests

Take Motus Nova’s free assessment for Stroke and Brain Injury Survivors

Nick Housley

Links Mentioned

Join us in our Clubhouse club, The NeuroNerds Network, for live brain injury support group discussions on Wednesday and Fridays at 6pm PST/9pm EST

Join our YouSoRock Brain Injury Recovery Community on Facebook

Sponsors

Credits

Producers

Co-hosted

Editor

Marcellus Wesley

Share & Subscribe

About the Guest

Dr. Housley is a classically trained neuroscientist with a Ph.D. focused on sensorimotor neurophysiology, a Doctor of Physical Therapy specialty training treating neurologic disorders, a former professional cyclist, and a traumatic brain injury survivor.

🤓Nerdom:

Cycling

Joe Borges

Lauren Manzano

Felice LaZae

Related Episodes

Brain, Body & Soul Fest: Brain Injury Awareness, Music, and the Metaverse

Jun 17, 2023 |

Episode 225: Stroke Awareness Series – Survivor Stories with Betty Howard

Jun 1, 2023 |

Episode 224: Stroke Awareness Series – Survivor Stories with Octavia Burrell

May 24, 2023 |

The post Episode 167: The Medical Mind Behind Motus Nova with Dr. Nick appeared first on The NeuroNerds.

Episode 166: Joe and Lauren Enter the Matrix

The NeuroNerds — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 14:00:00 +0000

EPISODE 166

Joe and Lauren Enter the Matrix

Episode Notes

Summary

Lauren is back recording in the studio! In this episode our co-host Lauren finally reunites with our host Joe, in person. They discuss the latest Matrix 4 trailer and how therapy and mental healthcare is being shown more and more on the big screen. What’s more, they take a look back at the previous Matrix trilogy and talk about their favorite scenes from those movies. So if you haven’t watched the Matrix movie, SPOILER alert! What’s your favorite scene from the Matrix franchise? Share on our socials!If you are a brain injury survivor and are looking for support check out the links below for Joe’s various support groups. Remember, The NeuroNerds are here to help!

Transcript

Hosts & Guests

Links Mentioned

Join us in our Clubhouse club, The NeuroNerds Network, for live brain injury support group discussions on Wednesday and Fridays at 6pm PST/9pm EST

Join our YouSoRock Brain Injury Recovery Community on Facebook

Sponsors

Credits

Producers

Co-hosted

Editor

Marcellus Wesley

Share & Subscribe

About the Guest

💡Fun Fact:

For a long time, I wouldn’t drive with my right shoe on.

🤓Nerdom:

Books & Music!

Joe Borges

Lauren Manzano

Felice LaZae

Related Episodes

Brain, Body & Soul Fest: Brain Injury Awareness, Music, and the Metaverse

Jun 17, 2023 |

Episode 225: Stroke Awareness Series – Survivor Stories with Betty Howard

Jun 1, 2023 |

Episode 224: Stroke Awareness Series – Survivor Stories with Octavia Burrell

May 24, 2023 |

The post Episode 166: Joe and Lauren Enter the Matrix appeared first on The NeuroNerds.

Episode 165: HeadStrong with SameYou Ambassador Abby Jarman

The NeuroNerds — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 02:26:27 +0000

EPISODE 165

HeadStrong with SameYou Ambassador Abby Jarman

Episode Notes

Summary

September is National Chiari Awareness Month, so in this episode our host Joe is talking with Abby Jarman who not only a chiari survivor but also an amazing advocate for the brain injury community through her organization, HeadStrong and as an ambassador for the nonprofit, SameYou. She shares her journey of struggling with health issues as a kid and and then later undergoing brain surgery in her twenties to address her chiari malformation. They also talk about the problems with the American healthcare system in terms of supporting brain injury survivors through recovery, and how they both use humor and positivity to stay strong when facing challenges. If you are a brain injury survivor looking for support or a normie who wants to know more about brain injury, go check out HeadStrong!

Transcript

Hosts & Guests

Abby Jarman

Links Mentioned

Headstrong

SameYou nonprofit

Follow Abby on Instagram

Sponsors

Credits

Producers

Co-hosted

Editor

Marcellus Wesley

Share & Subscribe

About the Guest

💡Fun Fact:

For a long time, I wouldn’t drive with my right shoe on.

🤓Nerdom:

Books & Music!

Joe Borges

Lauren Manzano

Felice LaZae

Related Episodes

Brain, Body & Soul Fest: Brain Injury Awareness, Music, and the Metaverse

Jun 17, 2023 |

Episode 225: Stroke Awareness Series – Survivor Stories with Betty Howard

Jun 1, 2023 |

Episode 224: Stroke Awareness Series – Survivor Stories with Octavia Burrell

May 24, 2023 |

The post Episode 165: HeadStrong with SameYou Ambassador Abby Jarman appeared first on The NeuroNerds.

Episode 164: The Future Is Here With Motus Nova

The NeuroNerds — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 22:46:59 +0000

EPISODE 164

The Future Is Here With Motus Nova

Episode Notes

Summary

It’s that time of year when folks are thinking, talking and showing grand gestures of love – Valentine’s Day is coming. So our host, Joe is exploring a subject we haven’t talked too much about on past episodes – dating and romantic relationships post-brain injury. He’s chatting with fellow stroke survivor Octavia Burrell about all aspects of the dating journey and managing relationships post-brain injury. They discuss timing, self-work, boundaries, family/friends plus the importance of dating yourself. If you’re a brain injury survivor, what has been some challenges you’ve faced with relationships during recovery? Please share with us on our socials!

Transcript

EP 164

Joe: Today, I’m chatting with Motus Nova, founder and CEO, David Wu, which is the first episode of a series we’re doing with Motus Nova about stroke, recovery, and rehabilitation. What is Motus Nova? You may ask, stay tuned and find out, oh, Intro done.

Hi, I’m Joe and we are the neuro nerds.

welcome to the neuro nerds. Very special episode today, I am interviewing the CEO of Motus Nova. What is Motus Nova? You asked we’re about to find out David Wu, CEO of Motus Nova. How are you? My friend, thank you for being on the show. I really appreciate.

David: I’m doing well. Thank you for having me so glad to be here.

Joe: this is awesome. This is actually really cool. I’m a big fan of Motus Nova. I think you guys do amazing work for the community. So first and foremost, I’d like to say, what is Motus Nova?

David: What is Motus Nova? It’s a as a company, our mission is to leave no physical impairments untreated. We want to make sure that everybody, regardless of your geographical area, where you live your financial status, that everyone has a fair shot at being treated with the best possible healthcare for any physical disability or any kind of issue that people have with food.

And right now we’re really focused on. And brain injuries, but we certainly want to expand that too, to all physical impairment.

Joe: So what you guys do, you guys have created something? How do I describe it? Magical? It’s actually really cool. You guys have something what’s called the motives hand.

I know you also have the Motus foot, but I am familiar with the motorist hand, which after brain injury, a lot of us in the community have issues deficits on one of our sites have, trouble functioning trouble functioning, arm functioning hand. What this does is it helps with that function, correct?

It basically it’s a helping hand if you will. And if you wouldn’t mind describing what the Motus tan is.

David: Yeah. Yeah. So the most hand and the most foot are robotic. We have devices and really they’re their exoskeleton. The robotic exoskeletons is what we call it in the the clinical trials in the scientific papers.

But that’s really just a fancy way of saying it’s a device with sensors. That can detect how much movement you have and then based on that information, make some smart judgments or kind of processing, and then provide some assistance to help you move through the motions that would be best to retrain your brain very much like the concept of a physical therapist or a clinician would, but we’ve tried.

We’ve encapsulated that in a in a piece of technology in a little robotic device, we call the motor scan and most foot, which is pretty amazing.

Joe: Now, when I think exoskeleton, first thing that pops into my head is robots. Immediately, I go towards either Ironman or Ripley Sigourney Weaver’s character in aliens at the end of the movie when she’s fighting the giant alien in the mech suit.

So I know it’s not like that, but in my head it’s a hundred percent that.

David: no, absolutely no. We get that a lot and believe it or not our first iteration. It’s called. It was called the Rupert high repetition, upper extremity robotic device. And it was this backpack that you wore, and it was that Ironman suit that you’re describing.

It’s like a jet pack thing you wear, it goes over your entire arm, your shoulder, your elbow, your hand, it seemed like it gave you superpowers. And that, that is oftentimes when a lot of people think when they think of a robotic exoskeletons but we’ve really taken that and distilled it down to one of the most demanded the most needed.

We feel like one of the most important movements that we want to help out with. And that’s this grasping motion with the hand. And that’s what we really focus on. Oftentimes a lot of people even if they can get their hand or arm into position being unable to hold a door knob and release that doorknob afterwards, or turn it, turn that door knob or hold a utensil or fork that’s really.

A lot of stroke survivors and those with brain injuries have trouble with. So that’s where we decided to focus our device. And on the flip side of that those robotic suits, although they seem really cool, they’re really expensive. Like we’re talking about 500, $700,000 each and in realistically currently out of the reach in terms of technology for us to realistically put into kind of everyone’s homes and really wouldn’t let us meet that net, that motto, that mission we talked about earlier, which is to expand access to more people rather than the restrict access to only those that can afford those humongous price tags.

Joe: It’s an amazing piece of equipment. And also who doesn’t have three fourths of a million dollars just lying around to purchase a full mech suit. Now the Motus Nova, the name Motus Nova, where did the name Motus come from?

David: No, that’s a great question. And that’s we get that a lot. It’s as with many things in the medical and scientific community, it’s Latin for new movement.

And that’s really drives at the heart of what we’re trying to do, what or what our devices have been shown in clinical trials to do the, really the mission that we’re on, which is to rewire, help rewire the brain, bringing in that neuroplasticity and create new movement or new motion. So that’s what Motus Nova means.

Joe: That’s beautiful. I love that name and it just rolls off the tongue. Now, speaking of, the robotics specifically for brain, mostly for the brain injury community because we always, a lot of us tend to have the issues with the arms or one side of our body. What was the reason you chose to work with the brain injury community?

David: That’s thank you for that question. That’s drives at the heart of what motivates? I think a lot of us at Motus Nova we all have some personal connection to brain injury to stroke. The stroke affects 8 million stroke survivors in the us. There’s about 800,000 new cases a year every 40 seconds or so in the us.

There’s a new stroke. So it’s certainly something that, that I think has touched almost everyone. And personally for me I ha I’ve had family members pass away from stroke and for each of us that’s been something that we have ourselves have experienced and looking at what happens after stroke in the past, 10 or 20 years, we’ve really gotten a lot better.

Helping people survive that initial few days or weeks after the stroke with rapid treatment diagnosis, people being more aware TPA, these clot-busting drugs that we’ve found. The fact that I think that’s really helped people survive that initial. That’s been fantastic, but what there, where there has been innovation in that acute treatment.

There’s not been a lot of advancements in rehab and to some degree, it’s our healthcare system. We’ve gotten really good at saving lives, but really saving the quality of life we’re or restoring that quality of life has really fallen by the wayside with a lot of chronic diseases, stroke and brain injury, chronic stroke and chronic brain injury, really much under that category.

And at motorcycle, we saw how many people were being undertreated for their brain injury and for their stroke. We knew we know how people get better. It’s through these high repetition, high dosage rehab programs, constraint, induced movement therapy. There’s a lot of scientific papers that, that describe the incredible gains people get from doing a lot of rehab.

But then when we look at what people are actually getting, they’re getting a fraction, a 10th, a hundredth of what the scientific papers say, people need hundreds of thousands of repetitions, and they’re getting like 10 or 20 a day, or sometimes even a week. And for some people, none at all. And we saw that huge gap in treatment.

And we said, maybe we can do something about this. It’s really expensive to provide care and healthcare, but maybe technology can step in here and help with a part of that. So I think that’s really impetus for all of this. It was that we know how to help. So many of these people affected by brain injuries and strokes.

How do we do it? We use technology and that’s really where the idea of using robots came from to aid in that rehab process.

Joe: I think that’s amazing. One thing I do love is the fact that so the non brain-injured, I call you guys normies and we actually need more of you than more of me in the community.

We need more normies who actually care enough to try to figure out how, and you said something that I felt was very important. It’s not just saving lives. It’s the quality of the life that you save. A lot of hospitals, what they do is they just get you good enough to go home now. Good enough.

Isn’t necessarily good enough every single day. Like now that you’re home. Okay. What’s your quality of life going to be, some survivors have victory to them. What their ultimate goal is to literally open a door knob. That’s what they want to do and your product can help them do that. So specifically, how would you describe like what separates Motus, Nova and the Motus hand?

What makes it special as opposed to just going to an outpatient physical therapy?

David: Sure. In many ways it’s surprisingly similar. And I think that’s what drives at why this works. What we do is much your physical occupational therapist that you would work with in a clinic, the robot is able to assess how much help you need and help you through those guided movements.

And the analogy that I like to use is like trying to learn to ride a bike and the experience that a lot of us have had having a stroke or brain injury, Is like forgetting how to ride a bike or in many cases for getting how to walk or forgetting how to brass or forgetting how to reach out and to relearn those rewire the brain to regain those movements takes a lot of practice.

Sometimes, as we get older, it takes a little bit more practice than maybe when we were younger, but the principles are more or less the same, lots of repetitions, lots of attempts. And relative to these other passive devices maybe the spring-loaded devices maybe weights, maybe stretch band.

Those are great for stretching out the muscles and tendons in the hand, but they don’t really provide that real active assistance that you would get with a therapist or with a robot that’s responding to you. So back to that bike analogy, if you would’ve put on a glove or something that opens up your hand to where you want it to be, the problem with that is you don’t need your brains, not activating to open your hand, the gloves, doing all the work it’s like getting on a bicycle that rides it.

No matter how long you stay on that bicycle. You’re not really going to learn to ride a bike. You’re going through the motions that looks like you’re riding a bicycle, but you’re not activating your brain to go to relearn those movements. And that’s where it, doing rehab with a physical therapist or with a robot that’s responding to you.

That’s where the difference comes in, where if you’re not trying, if you’re not activating your brain and activating using those muscles with your brain, then the robot’s not going to just finish it for you. It’s going to react to what you’re doing. And by encouraging you to actually go through the movements, it’s you’re trying to ride the bike and you both with the failures and the successes, little by little, you relearn those movements.

So that’s really how I think it’s really similar to what going in and seeing the physical therapist.

Joe: It’s brilliant. So I’ve actually had a hands-on with the motorcycle. It’s a fascinating piece of tech. It really is. So initially I gotta tell you, I, okay. So here’s how I describe my tech savvy. I know of computers.

So my tech team is Felice all the time. I’m tech savvy enough to get things, I’m functional when it comes to technology. So when I see this screen, and then I see this actual robotic arm, it’s slightly intimidating. It’s not anything that I’ve ever seen before. And it’s just it’s this amazing piece of tech.

I literally, I looked at it for a few minutes and I was like, I think I’m going to have to ask for a little bit of help here. I didn’t, it was one of them, as soon as I got past that little, just, I got in my own way, as soon as I got into it, it’s literally, it’s just, it’s a click here.

It’s a click there. You plug it in and it’s ready to go. I was the Mo one of the most impressive things was how simple it was to get stuck. Awesome. It was so easy now. I am not the most tech literate person in the world. And if I can get it going, guys, you 100% can get it going.

David: I’m sure you’re giving yourself less credit than then it’s w I, thank you for going through that process.

We really focused on trying to make it easy because a big difference is that. We are doing it in the home. We’re doing all of this all of this rehab, we’re trying to get it into a really easy and accessible place. And that’s where kind of that innovation of access that we really are, try to highlight that we know how to help people regain their movements, but it’s often.

This is in place. That’s really can be difficult to access for a lot of people. A lot of stroke survivors and brain injury survivors can’t drive themselves or transport themselves into a rehab clinic to get this care that they need. And by bringing it into the home, having an available 24 7, that’s where we think we can really help out the medical community with bringing this technology to more access.

And part of that is making it easy to use. We prior to doing this our Mo motors, hands and motors feet have are in hundreds of clinics and hospitals all across the us. And in those cases, they’re operated by a clinician. There is a lot more complexity, all underneath the hood that we’ve needed to make more easy to explain and have more of the AI drive all the settings and configurations to what we hope is a easy to use experience.

Joe: It really is that again the most, obviously it’s a impressive piece of machinery. It just plain and simple it is, but the fact that it was so simple to put together, I was blown away by how easy it was. Literally, as soon as I plugged it in, I turned it on and. Is that it, I was really, I was taken aback specifically because, okay.

So the reason why I’m using it is, I’m talking about a product. I actually like to talk about something with that I’ve experienced. I just don’t want to say, Hey, Motus, Nova is amazing guys. I don’t want to do that. What if I don’t agree with it? If I can’t tell you from experience, Hey, I actually touched this thing and I did this.

I don’t want to, I want to be forthcoming to everybody out there. I love my community and I’ll do anything for my community. So I’m testing this thing out and I’m checking it out. So everything I’m saying is coming from firsthand pun intended, firsthand experience. I don’t have my deficits are very light in comparison to what they should be for the type of brain injury that I have, short-term memory loss mostly.

And then I have issues with my right hand. I tend to suffer tremors in my right hand specifically when the little muscles. So it makes it difficult for me to grasp on. I think I become very clumsy. I get a little bit of the shakes it’s, especially with the fine motor skills anything fine motor.

So in putting this on, I was like, okay, I don’t necessarily need it as much as some others in the community. I was surprised how helpful it was for me, how the helping hand of the motorcycle. But when the robot actually kicks in to give you that extra little push, it’s a little off-putting because it’s a machine that’s, it’s literally like a robot is grabbing your hand and giving you that extra little, you got a buddy it’s giving you the actual little push.

David: It’s strange.

Joe: It’s very strange. It’s something that I had to just immediately just dive into and accept. It was helpful. It really was. And I can understand how helpful it would be for someone who desperately needs to get in these repetitions every day. Not only the fact that you’re having getting a helping hand from technology, but the fact that you’re actually playing these little mini games that keep it fresh to keep it fun.

And my favorite part about this thing. So there’s a little weightlifting game where you’re moving the weights with your hand and you’re lifting weights. Now the little extra motivation is, yeah you want to do better, but you actually get to see some of the other people that are using it and you get to see their score.

Now, me being the competitive person that I am, and I saw Matt Matty, who’s a very good friend of mine. I saw Maddie’s name and I’m like, there’s no way I’m letting Maddie beat me. So it gives you that extra little. To go a little further and it makes it fun. It really does. I also like how you say it’s like riding a bike fun fact about Joe.

I don’t know how to ride a bike. Oh, that’s interesting. Now this isn’t a brain injury thing. I, as a kid, I moved around a lot, so I didn’t have the cool, like stranger things ties where you’re riding bikes with friends. I didn’t have that because I moved around so much. So then I had a point where I’m an adult and I’m like, wow, I never learned how to ride a bike.

So now here I am grown ass, man. I still don’t know how to ride a bike, but post brain injury. That is a goal. One of my many goals that I have in life to, to live life is to ride a bike. So yeah, this grown ass man, one day we’ll ride a bicycle, then I can actually say, Hey guys, it’s just like learning how to ride a bike.

David: No, and it’s never too late. The brain is incredible. The brain, the I think we, we learn more about it every day. And, but it is unbelievable how much he can be organized and how much it can change in response to its environment. And yeah, riding a bike. There’s no time limit on that.

Certainly we love to I’d love to join you someday and and then we’ll ride together. Certainly. I think maybe we’ll touch that in a little bit later about what I like to do. I love cycling that and that’s part of, my life as well.

Joe: That is awesome. And one day I will hold you to that. When I learn how to ride a bike, I might be a grown up. I might be a grown ass man with training wheels, but I will ride a bicycle one day. I make that claim. I’m putting it out into the ether. It’s already happening. It’s I’m going to make that happen for sure. So now I want to ask you about you.

What’s your background? What, like what, where did you come from?

David: Thank you. Thank you for that question. I don’t like to talk about myself. But talking through where I came from, how I got involved in this technology, I was actually part of, I helped with the logistics and organizing some of the clinical trials that actually had to do with technology that drives the motors hand and the motors foot and one particular trial that, one particular patient user that I can remember.

And we were working with the VA. And this was in a very, in an academic kind of with Emory university and the VA Atlanta VA hospital system. We were. Deploying these robots, this technology to rural veterans who had a lot of trouble getting care through the VA. And that’s, that’s been in the news or these veterans they’ve done their duty and it’s up to us to fill our end of the bargain and take care of them.

But some of these veterans, they lived in the, in this case, the Hills of north Georgia or in rural Alabama and had a lot of trouble accessing care on a regular basis for the stroke survivors with no transportation they could not get to the clinic to be cared for by VA, clinicians and NVA doctors.

So an idea was to take the care to them in this case using a robotic technology and I got to see firsthand how much of a difference that. This made this technology made in these, the lives of these stroke survivors, some of them were, four or five years, post-stroke still stuck in a wheelchair.

And just by being able to practice and do their rehab over again and early, we talked about kind of the similarities, I think, between what we do and what a clinician might do. And how similar the rehab is on the motorist and the most foot to what, you would experience into a constraint induced movement therapy type, where you’re doing lots of repetitions.

That’s also where kind of the similarities stop in these trials because the devices were in the hall. And as admin, the same model that we’re doing for the most envious foot, these stroke survivors got to do 1, 2, 3 hours of rehab daily, rather than something like that. One or two hours a week, maybe two or three hours a week.

And it was a magnitude. Yeah. More of repetitions for them. And I still remember very vividly to this moment. I could see his face. So after three months he was able to get out of his wheelchair and start walking outside. And it’s just so encouraging. In the smile that he had, that, thank you for not giving up on me, essentially.

The healthcare system there’s. This is something we call helping those, the system won’t the healthcare system said, you’re too expensive. You’re too difficult for us to provide you care. We just can’t right now, or in some other cases you have too little movement. It’s been too long since your stroke, whatever that may be.

The system has said no for whatever reason. And with our technology, with this technology that I was working with in these clinical trials, that there was this opportunity to really make a change and make a difference in the system where we can say, Hey, maybe the system’s given up on you, but we have the ability with this technology to give you another shot.

And we think you deserve, we think everybody deserves that shot. After seeing that, and prior to this, I’d been involved with, a couple other startups I was able to put together the resources to take what was really the technology out of a research company and put it into Motus Novo work.

We started about seven years ago to take this technology. I was working in clinical trials in the hospitals and put it into kind of something that we can commercially produced, not just two or three devices that can help five or 10 people, but, hundreds of thousands of devices to help millions of people.

Joe: That’s amazing. You said something that has bothered me in our community. You are now part of this community, David. Cause I appreciate what you’ve done for this community. And again, I’ll say it a million times. This community means more of you and less of me, we don’t need more brain injury survivors.

We need more people to help the people that we have in here. So in hospitals, doctors say this a lot and I, one of the biggest issues I have is after a brain injury, you’re so vulnerable. You’re so vulnerable is the perfect word. You’re like a newborn almost. You need to be taking care of you. You need a little bit of tender, loving care and doctors do a disservice because they go, they play percentages as opposed to the person.

So they’ll say things like you have six months, you’ll have all of the function you have in your heart. Or leg, you have six months. And then after that’s it basically. So now you just put it in this timeframe that is, and I forgive my language is bullshit. It’s not true. And to be honest, I always thought that because that’s what I was told.

And that’s what I heard. I heard after an injury, you have about six months to a year. And then after that’s it. That’s not true. That’s not true. It’s been proven scientifically that it is not true. So I am so thankful that you went in there and that you changed these people’s lives and that you’re actually.

Sharing with the world that, Hey, six months, that’s not true, maybe for a percentage of people, but there’s still a large enough percentage of people that can improve the rest of their life.

David: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And thank you for bringing that up. We have that same frustration, a lot of stroke survivors or a lot of those with Rangers come to us and say, oh, it’s past my golden periods.

And it’s past my three months. There’s all these names for this. It’s past my recovery period. And it’s like you said, it’s simply not true. There is no scientific basis evidence for that. In fact, there is very much evidence for the opposite that the brain doesn’t just turn off Lauren. After three months after six months, that doesn’t make sense.

You can learn something right. A bicycle at any, it’s not like at 27, your brain is oh, we’re done. We’re not gonna, or any more names. We’re not going to learn any more places, no information, nothing more, nothing no more coming in, no more rewiring plasticity. That’s just simply not true.

Now, statistically speaking, a lot of people make a lot of gains early on because there, there is a lot of low hanging fruit because there’s a lot of connections that just a little need, a little bit more help to get. So people do see, tend to see Good number of gains pretty early on, but that doesn’t mean those gains stop and what it really, it shows us is that our healthcare system only provides, this fraction of rehab that we know that people need.

And it shouldn’t be surprising to us that their gains slowed down a lot. Just a few weeks or a few months after their injury, and the scientists, the data shows us this as well. That shouldn’t be surprising that if we’re giving someone one, 100, the dose of the antidote or the drug or the treatment that we know helps them in this case, it’s rehab.

We give you one, 100th of it. Yeah. You’re going to respond initially. You’re going to feel a little bit better. You’re going to have some gains, but that’s going to level off pretty quickly because you’re not getting the dosage that you need. So it’s this chicken egg problem where we don’t give enough rehab.

And then we say, oh, I guess you’re not getting any better. So let’s stop all rehab and time again, we have stroke survivors. We have used. Five years, more, 10 years. Some, even 15 years post-stroke they’ve been told in other instances, they’re not going to get better, but when they get a lot of repetitions, they surprise themselves.

They surprise their clinicians. They’d go back to their clinicians that there’s a, wow. It looks like you’re making a lot of progress, what’s going on. And it’s almost like those clinicians are brainwashed by the system as well. We’re only giving this fraction and that’s what people get and people aren’t going to get better at it.

Joe: I think they’re doing a disservice now. Here’s the thing. I, I fancy myself a bright human being. I understand why. Now from what I’ve spoken to several doctors, literally several from around the world, right? Nurses, a lot of them say we play the percentage. So 70 to 80% of the people, the most function that they’ll get with Wiz within six to eight months.

And then after that, it doesn’t. So we just go with the percentage. Now that being said, that’s still 20 to 30% of the people that will improve. You’re just throwing out a huge percentage of lives because these are people’s lives that you’re ruining by their families and their families by putting out false information.

When I share this information with a survivor who let’s say, you know that I that’s it, I didn’t improve enough. I didn’t. And what’s horrible is they immediately go to the blame game. We’re very, self-deprecating, it’s immediate. I didn’t take advantage early on.

I really didn’t work as hard as I should have early on. And then I wasted my only chance. It’s no, you did it. It’s been two years. You can still get going there. There’s no reason to stop. Start now, start now and get these repetitions. It’s basically, if you don’t use it, you lose it, right?

Yep. The more work you put in, the more you’re going to get out of it now this is going to be a bit of a series I’m doing here on the podcast with Motus Nova. I’m actually gonna talk to, I believe one of your tech people, one of the guys that actually helped put it together.

So I’ll be doing an episode with him. And then finally it will be a three-part series. And the last reason I’m going to actually do a testimonial with someone who’s actually used the Motus hand and, have a firsthand experience. That person is going to be Maddie Niebank, who is just one of my dearest friends, who I actually met for the first time in person, a very short, amazing human being.

Now I met Maddie a few years ago online and just visual, just the visual. Where she was and where she is now is phenomenal. It really is. And we talked about the Motus Han before I was, really when we first started talking about, Motus Nova and maybe doing some stuff with the podcast.

And I asked her about it. She raved, she really did. So we’re going to get a first-hand testimonial for somebody who actually puts in the work. And I know she puts in the work because every single time I talked to her, she’s rocking the Motus hand and it’s inspiring now, anybody out there who is struggling with their hand with their arm, and you need a little you want that helping hand you have it here.

You, you sincerely do. The Motus hand is an incredible piece of technology. It’s very helpful. Again, I have a functional hand. I suffer, a few tremors. It’s not necessarily built for me. It’s built for you. It’s built to help you. It’s basically, it’s an electronic, physical therapist there to give you that extra little push.

This is literally, this is the future. It’s very Saifai. I have not felt like I was on the star Trek enterprise before, but I put this thing on and I was like, I think I just needed to be being done.

David: I hope he doesn’t beat me up. Scott.

Joe: It’s a fascinating piece of machinery. And I’ll tell you one of my favorite things.

Now, David is your energy, and your passion is one of the reasons right now that I’m like, yeah, I will do anything to help Motus Nova. I really appreciate. The passion to help because that’s all I think we, we really want to do, we want to improve other people’s quality of life.

And if we can do that, let’s do that. Now, the Motus Nova, how do you guys have a group on Facebook

support group? Because I think support is very important, especially amongst survivors, we feel very lonely and isolated. So can you tell us a little bit about that support group?

David: Absolutely. It really drives the heart of, some of the other clinical work that’s that I’ve been involved with that, that several folks at Emory have done as well, really looking at the community around brain injury survivors and stroke survivors, how a support group or caregiver is such a pivotal part to one’s recovery.

It’s as much of a physical or a journey, process fight as it is a mental fight as well. And for so many getting discouraged losing hope thinking, blaming themselves, thinking that it’s their fault, those traps can be so difficult to overcome alone and having a support network, having a community, having a caregiver is so we’ve found so important to the success of anyone in a rehab program, including anyone in in the mirror’s hand or the mother’s foot, from the start, we really believed in that.

And we’ve been building this community where we host sessions with clinicians, with world-class researchers of stroke and stroke rehab with brain surgeons running the gamut across the scientific and academic communities. And we bring in those. The speakers in those clinicians into help answer questions for anyone with a brain injury, whether or not, it doesn’t, this isn’t, this is just for the Motus Nova users.

It’s really open to anybody. That’s had a brain injury or know someone that’s had a brain injury and want to listen in one of them no more, or may have some questions. Is this normal? Is this, I have this problem. Is there something that that I can do to help? We want to give back as, as much as we can.

And in the beginning we actually looked around for something like this, and it was surprising that. Couldn’t find anything where it was clinician driven, read those from medical professionals that may be taken hour a week out of their day to help just answered questions in the brain injury community.

And so many of those questions are so similar that we found that just, helping somebody with one of their questions can help the community so much in batting away some of these misconceptions like we talked about earlier, Joe about that golden period as well.

And trying to explain or demystify a lot of these things, a lot of these concepts behind neuro rehab and neuroplasticity. You’re absolutely right. Building that community where we bring in clinicians and we bring in survivors that can talk to each other, of course, that’s another incredible component being able to.

Connect with someone that’s going through a very similar experience or there’s really nothing like that to know you’re not alone. And to know that, you can’t make it past this John did or Maddie did, and here’s what they did and that you can do that as well. You have that power inside of you.

So no we’re, I know Joe, you’re very much about building community. And we’d like to do whatever we can as well to connect stroke survivors of stroke survivors, clinicians with stroke survivors. Just everyone that, that is interested in neuro or neuro rehab or recovery and and just get continuing the conversation and helping each other.

Joe: Yeah, it’s a beautiful community. It’s honestly, It’s the greatest community in the world. It’s the dues to be part of the community. They suck. But once you’re in this community, it’s the most helpful caring, loving community in the world. And I love that, you have, you’re putting together other people look, we the best way to get through this is together.

So one of the biggest disconnects I’ve seen is between the medical professionals the caregivers, the family members, the, and the actual survivor like us, I, one of the biggest issues I had in recovery was I was talking to a doctor and I was saying, yes. So I feel whatever it is I was feeling at the time.

And he’s literally, he’s looking at a book and he’s saying, yeah, you shouldn’t be feeling that. And I’m standing there saying, yeah but I am. So I really wish that there was a way for, look I’m, I didn’t go to school. I’m not a doctor. There are they’re experts at learning about the brain and the stroke and its effect on the body and everything.

I’m an expert at actually having a stroke. You should be able to work with one another look you put together the motorcycle. I’m pretty sure that you worked pretty closely with the people that are actually using this. So I wish that there was a better way for all of us to come together and share all this information.

And I love the fact that you’re doing it on this platform with your group. Now, when you say you have speakers, is do you have them on specific days or is this just something that, when they pop up it’s, we just have it every once in a while. Do you have yeah.

David: So that’s a great question, Joe, and we’d love to have you speak to the community as well.

I think that would be fantastic to share your experience. It’s really we have sessions Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We have a lot of the. Scientists will come on Monday or Wednesday. But it’s ad hoc. We don’t particularly have a schedule and, as well, all of the episodes, all of the talks they’re recorded, they’re well, they’re on Facebook live, but they’re all recorded and we will post them as well.

So it’s, we’re not trying to, we’re not trying to hide content in any way. If you miss it, if you can’t catch it live, that’s okay. Whatever we can do to help provide that to you. That’s really our mission. And there’s no catch there’s. You don’t have to sign up right. I think you can even watch it without Facebook.

I think we do it on YouTube as well. Just tune in and if you want us to make questions feel free to either in the live chat or it’s a rehab power hour@Motusnova.com. But yeah, anyone can join and anyone can watch. And we really believe, we hope that’s something that we can do as well.

Connecting, like you said, the clinicians and the researchers to the stroke survivors they, they talk to each other in the hospital. In those 15, 30 minute increments, sometimes shorter than that, unfortunately. After you leave the hospital there, everyone’s got questions.

There’s things that you forget to ask or other things come up and it’s not like you have a neurologist on speed dial, but, by having clinicians that take a little bit of time, oftentimes the questions are really similar. So we’ve found that just by answering a few basic questions, it can help a lot of people.

And a lot of clinicians after they do this or times that scientists they’re like, that was fantastic. I, I’m glad that I was able to help so many people just by taking some time out. So it’s just bringing those people together. I think building that community and it’s just incredible how much everyone wants to be part and wants to be helpful in that.

Joe: Yeah. That’s, I’m all about community. I honestly think it’s the most important. It is to connect with another looks, being a brain injury survivor. It’s the most isolating feeling in the world. Yeah, I can. And I say this frequently and I truly mean it. I can paint the Picasso of explanations of what it’s like to have a brain injury.

You can never know what it’s like. As vivid a picture as I can paint, you’ll never know only we understand what it’s like. So having a group to go to to gain information, to ask questions, to even connect with other survivors and say, Hey, so I tried this and this did this for me. I think that is one of the most important things that we can do.

And the fact that all of that information is readily available, whether it be on YouTube or Facebook, definitely join this group, guys. Definitely connect, get all the information you can. And again, if you have questions. Ask if there’s a bigger picture out there in this journey, it’s not just about us.

It’s about others too, and also when you’re in these chats, share your story, share your experience. We need to do that because it, you may, it’s good for us to get it off our chest. It’s also good for others out there to know that they’re not going through this alone, they might be going through the exact same thing or, in Maddie’s case, the fact that she’s done so well, she needs to scream this from the mountaintops because there are other survivors out there that need to know that it can be done.

She’s living proof that it can be. And I gotta tell you huge chunk of that is the Motus hand. And I’m not just saying that cause you’re here. It like literally. So one thing about me, I don’t say things just to say them people tell me show you’re so kind. I’m not, to be honest, I’m a Dick. I don’t mean to be.

I’m just very honest. So when I say that, because when I say something, I truly mean it. And I truly mean it. When I say I am just fascinated with your energy and what you’re doing for our community and the amount of people that you’re helping is it’s mind blowing because it’s, I talk about reach a lot as well.

You’re not just helping a survivor. You’re changing a life, the life of the survivor, but the reach goes past that. The fact that you can change the energy because sometimes after brain injury, if you can’t do these things, you feel lesser than you feel like you’re a fraction of what you used to be.

So if you can gain back a little bit of normalcy, whether it be, Hey, you know what I can do now, I can actually pick up this drink. I can button up my shirt. I can do these things. I can brush my own teeth. What if you’re bringing back a certain quality of life, a certain amount of normalcy, which in turn, it changes that person’s life, but it also changes the lives of the people that, that person’s around their friends, their family, their spouses, their coworkers, whoever it is, the reach is so large.

It’s not just about one person guys out there. It’s not just about you. It’s about everybody. That’s why we all need to band together and help each other out. And with things like these groups to share information, to share stories, to educate ourselves, I’m still thinking. That you’re doing this, like sincerely from the bottom of my stroky heart, it means the world to me that you’re not just doing it, but also doing it with such passion.

That really, it speaks to me. And I’ll say this just with what I’ve seen in the small amount of time that I’ve been involved with Motus Nova and connecting with other survivors, talking about Motus Nova you’re changing lives. I really hope you don’t take that lightly. That’s a huge deal.

And I’m so thankful for you and the company for doing that.

David: Yeah, no I, and we don’t take it lightly and thank you so much, Joe, for the kind words. Absolutely. We appreciate that and all that you’ve said no we very much, I think, every time, someone posts on the Facebook group that about their progress, that they weren’t, they had to use a Walker before and now they can walk on their own.

We do high fives around the office. Every time we see that it’s and we do our manufacturing also locally, it’s an Alabama one state over in the U S and we send those as well, too. Those on the manufacturing line in the the of the manufacturing facility and it’s heartwarming, absolutely.

To everybody involved in this project. And I think very much so the gains that people make, it’s a huge motivator for us to do everything that the continue to do everything that we do. So we absolutely, appreciate from all the support from you and from everyone else in the community to keep us going in our mission to, to bring technology into this side of healthcare that’s honestly falling behind a lot of us.

Industries in terms of adopting new technologies and being on the forefront of using technology to improve and to help people. And I, it would be remiss not to give a shout, shout out to Maddie as well. Like you mentioned it. Absolutely. Maddie’s, it’s been a couple years since, since her stroke.

But she’s made amazing progress in the last 12 months or so, even in the last six months. And she’s a leader in how many hours, hundreds of hours of rehab that she’s done on the motorist hand. And we did the math on it. If you were going to regular PT, kind of two or three times a week, it’s four or five years of rehab that she’s compressed into a matter of months, not to take that away from them.

She put in all that hard work. All those gains are absolutely hers. We just love to even ride on her coattails then, and to be part of giving her the tools and, all stroke survivors, the tools to be able to do that high quality rehab they would be doing in the clinic, but also being able to access it on the day to day and just, turn their rehab in to the next level, in terms of the speed at which they can get repetitions and, let the brain do what it does best, which is to learn and to rewire.

Joe: And then that is fascinating. You too can be a psychopath like Maddie, really like this is a tool there that can help. And just saying that it’s four to five years of physical therapy that she’s knocked out in a few short months now, In and of itself that’s mind blowing.

You can do this in the comfort of your own home.

David: Here’s the best thing and playing video games as well.

Joe: Absolutely. It’s fun. It’s exciting. It doesn’t get boring. Cause really easily okay, I’m moving my arm again. It can be boring. It is not boring. I can say that firsthand experience. It is not boring.

I will say this one of the best parts doing it at home, you don’t even have to wear pants. I got to tell you if I don’t have to wear pants, I am all about it. I am to do rehab right now.

I’m doing this interview right now. He’s seeing me from the chest up. I might not be wearing pants.

Who knows? So it’s supposed to be speaking of, tech and things you’re bringing to the community. W where do you see Motus Nova in the future? Do you have any aspirations for, Hey, I want to attack this or this is where I want to be, and this is what I want to do. Or this is a new product that we’re.

David: Yeah. Yeah, no, that’s a great question, Joe. And we talked about very early one of our first prototypes was this multi jointed Ironman suit kind of thing. And from that we focused on just the hand and the foot. Certainly we want to expand out more joints the knee, the elbow and the shoulder, things like that.

That’s one aspect of it and, but, still trying to keep the cost low and as low as we can because really to fulfill our mission, we have to bring down the cost of rehab. And so far we’re at, rather than guided rehab with a clinic for clinician being somewhere about a hundred dollars, maybe even $200 an hour to something like less than $10 an hour.

I was where we’re at right now. We want it to be $5 or $2, a $1 an hour. And certainly with economies of scale, with more manufacturing with building, thousands or tens of thousands at a time, instead of just a few hundred at a time, that’s, what’s going to continue to bring down those costs.

So that’s one side that we really are focused on. How can we actually, rather than increase the price of our devices? How can we reduce the price of what we offer? That’s one side, I think looking to the future, another piece that’s actually really interesting that really excites me. Is the data portion of all of this.

I think that Dr. Nick Nick Housley, Dr. Nick, he’s a neuroscientist and also a brain injury survivor. She certainly can expand more. I think on a lot of this, he’s actually, we call them some of those gone dr. Nick he’s got a doctorate in physical therapy and another doctorate another PhD in neuroscience.

So he’s on, on both sides. He’s an overachiever.

And he wanted this to you, but also a world-class cyclist Olympic class cyclist for the U S and I’m sure that you guys will have fun talking about some of that as a teaser, but, we’re working on with his.

Our does a lot of science here, mostly he’s director of clinical research. We’re really excited about. The data that, that we can leverage between stroke survivors and optimizing care. A lot of what we do right now in stroke rehab. We’re taking so few measurements of how we’re doing.

Oftentimes when you first start rehab day zero, you do an assessment and sometimes it’s three or four weeks later before your range of motion or your movements are assessed or again in a rigorous way in a comparable. That is, and none of that is being compiled anywhere, put together and to see, how does how does different strategies does more rehab help different types of people because everyone learns every brain learns in a different way.

Right? Everyone’s gone to school. Some of us like notes, some of us to learn visually all different sorts of learners. We want to be able to tease that out with the data. And say, Hey, this person there, it looks like they’re showing signs that they can make a lot of gains with just a lot of high repetition or this other person needs more repetitions over time, lower intensity, but spread out and more, even more consistent being able to find out some of, these particular yeah.

With different stroke survivors, different those with different and brain injuries, we think can really take rehab to the next level where being able to leverage this data and see really get some insight into how the brain learns, how the brain rewires, what, how many movements does it really need?

We need to practice this movement today to really get the brain in the state where it will actually over, make the connections as it goes through the day and you, you sleep and that sleep also being such an important part to that learning process. Getting some insight into that I think is probably one of the most exciting things that we can do.

And we can also contribute to the scientific and medical community of how many repetitions, how much does it take to make a specific gains? And so we’re excited about the data portion in the long-term and how that can help the stroke community.

Joe: I’m fascinated with that because, just saying that it’s wow, as amazing as this product is now, it’s only going to get better.

It’s not oh yeah, the future, by the way, it’s going to be significantly worse. No, it’s not going to go from it’s not going to be like an old iPhone, every year it’s going to get better and better with all of this new information that you’re gaining with these, survivors using the product there, their improvements there.

I love this. I really do. And at some point you’re going to create like a vision Ultron, since he, Cynthia been, : it’s like a, it’s like a good coach.

David: A good coach gets better with experience. But a good coach can only coach so many teams or a good a therapist or a good clinician can only practice it’s called the practice of medicine. It can only practice so many hours. And so many patients day and one coach or one, one clinician can only know so many patients, but by putting this data together, we can really. Learn across the experiences of potentially hundreds and thousands of stroke survivors and brain and those with brain injuries and really help give back to the medical community as to what really, what really gets the brain going.

Joe: Wow, you’re just, you’re truly making an impact on the world, not just currently, but in the future, like this, isn’t a small thing. This is, I always say like life-changing, and when I say it, I don’t say it just to be grandiose, I say it to be it’s honestly life-changing, and I love that now with this product in particular, you guys, you are in charge, you’re basically you’re in charge of your own future.

The more you put in the more you’re going to get out of it, you can’t blame, that just wasn’t the right. Physical therapist, that person just wasn’t, this is a hundred percent. Your future is literally in your hand, pun intended again, it’s an amazing product. I’m so thankful that, you chose to put your energy and your, your vision into, out this community in particular.

And so my brain injury community, because it’s so needed, it’s honestly, it’s just, it’s so needed. And there’s so many of us out there that just. It can help so many people out there. And I really suggest that you guys go check out the Motus Nova Facebook group. Do you have the the social on that?

David: Is it just Motus, noble.com Motus, nova.com. You can check it dot com under testimonials. You’ll be able to see, I think it just updates with posts from our group. And you can click through there. It’s also facebook.com/groups/Motus Nova, or if you just search Motus Nova stroke support group on on Facebook, it, it should be it should be right up there where I think we just hit 1,900 members in our group.

And, we’d love to have you be part of that community.

Joe: Boom, that’s what we want to do. We want to all connect in and we want to all ask questions, gain, we need this information and we need this comradery and we all need to work together. And I love that. So David, I asked you at this point of the show, we are the neuro nerds.

All right. And me, myself, I’m I’m an all around her. Now, when I say nerd, I fancy myself, one of the cool nerds, but still a nerd, nonetheless. I’m a Marvel nerd. I’m a star wars nerd, as you can see, I have a big Jango Fett poster behind me. I literally have Harry Potter star wars tattoos on my body.

I have, I’m a gamer nerd. I have a Bioshock tattoo on my wrists. So what was, what is your nerdy?

David: What is my nerdom? What is my nerd? I love to do I love the outdoors. So I would say that something that has really given me that chance to be with myself to really really think and to release from my day to day has been cycling, has been.

And that’s, there’s really nothing like being on a bike, being outdoors and and having the world go by you and being on that bike and knowing that you’re the one. That’s propelling herself through this world. It’s a little bit of control, I think, in this world that sometimes it’s very easy to feel out of control.

That’s I think that’s what I do for relaxation. And I’d call that mind. My nerdom,

Joe: I sincerely do specifically because I don’t know how to ride a bike, but that’s even more motivation for me to learn how to let it down.

David: Yeah. I’ll be there on the day. I’ll come out and help you learn.

Joe: Yeah. I, so I’ve had several people try over the years and they’re like, Jesus Christ show. It’s so bad. I know I’m a pain. I can’t help myself, but I’m. I’m excited to know. Now, do you do mountain biking or strictly streets, a road bike?

David: I’ve done a little bit of mountain biking. I have some friends that some friends that, that work in hospitals specifically on the neurosurgical side that the brain surgery side.

And they’ve talked me out of all mountain biking. It can be dangerous.

Joe: you’re part of this community, but we like the area of this community that you’re at, and that’s where we need you. We don’t need you to be deeper in this community, David, we don’t need that.

David: And all power to everyone. I respect mountain bike. It’s a lot of. But everyone’s got their own level of comfort, I guess it’s the road bike

Joe: for sure. People in their pastime, they practice MMA. I’m sorry. I don’t want to be punched and kicked in the face. It’s just not, I don’t find that appealing, especially as a brain injury survivor.

So that is awesome. I truly appreciate that. David Wu CEO of Motus Nova, I am so thankful for you. I can’t say this enough guys. You can hear it, but I’m looking at David right now and it’s a different thing to actually see the excitement, the energy, the passion behind it. That’s invaluable to this community.

Like we desperately need that. And I’m so thankful for that. You’ve taken your knowledge and you’ve taken your energy and you put it in this community. I truly mean that you can definitely go visit notice Motus, nova.com search their support groups. Definitely join all the things. If Motus, Nova is something that you’re interested in.

Definitely check it out. Please do, I can tell you firsthand experience. One of the most simple things to put together, impressive piece of machinery. It’s very it’s so intuitive. It’s not like Ikea furniture guys. It’s not, it’s so simple that even an idiot like me can put it together and I’m just, I’m blown away.

I am honestly blown away and I’m looking forward to continuing this Motus Nova series that we’re doing here because it’s so good. For the community and I will do anything for this community. I just I love it so much at this part of the show. This is where I give out all of our social. So definitely give us a motorcycle@motorcycle.com.

You can visit my beautiful, tiny asking cohost Lauren at Lauren L Manzano on Instagram. Good luck. She’s back in work mode and she is super busy. You can visit me at Joseph rocks on all the socials. You can visit us neuro nerds everywhere. David. I am so impressed by your product. Yes, I’m so impressed by you and your company.

And I’m so thankful that you took the time to share with the community here on my podcast I’m forever thankful for that and everything that you do for, of our community and thank you so much for being on the show.

David: Absolutely. I’m so glad to hear. Thank you, Joe, for everything that you do for the community, we really appreciate, your work as well, building community and getting information out there.

And and, thank you for having me on and, we’re excited to, to do everything that we can. And of course you can find me at on Instagram and on Twitter as well at David U-Tech. And if you want to get in touch with us with one of our clinical strokes you can call us at (404) 939-3476.

Thank you, Joe.

Joe: Pull all of these are the phone number, the websites, the handles, all of them will be in our show notes. So definitely check that out. Hey, now you have direct access to the man. The myth himself definitely reach out, say, Hey, ask any of the questions you have. You hear it. You hear the passion, you hear the love.

Don’t feel intimidated. Please feel free, reach out. This is something that’s very important. This is something that you can control. You can control the outcome of your physical recovery. So definitely don’t hesitate to reach out. And one of these days, David and I will be right in bicycles together side by side.

Hopefully on Monday, I’ll bring my wife that’s 100%, 100% with the helmets, hopefully without training. Like an adults, man. And on that very strange note, David, I appreciate you again, definitely check out Motus Nova. I appreciate all of you guys, everything you’ve done for the community. And on that note, this neuro nerd is awesome.

That was awesome. I hope you enjoyed that.

David: very much. Thank you, Joe. And I love the energy as well. Really appreciate you.

Hosts & Guests

David Wu

Links Mentioned

Join us in our Clubhouse club, The NeuroNerds Network, for live brain injury support group discussions on Wednesday and Fridays at 6pm PST/9pm EST

Join our YouSoRock Brain Injury Recovery Community on Facebook

Sponsors

Credits

Producers

Co-hosted

Editor

Marcellus Wesley

Share & Subscribe

About the Guest

💡Fun Fact:

For a long time, I wouldn’t drive with my right shoe on.

🤓Nerdom:

Books & Music!

Joe Borges

Lauren Manzano

Felice LaZae

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The post Episode 164: The Future Is Here With Motus Nova appeared first on The NeuroNerds.

Episode 163: What If…

The NeuroNerds — Tue, 24 Aug 2021 23:03:47 +0000

EPISODE 163

What If…

Episode Notes

Summary

What if Joe never had a stroke? What if this Covid pandemic never happened? What if we never recorded this episode? In this episode, our host Joe and guest co-host Felice dive into the world of Marvel’s new series “What If…?” They talk about their favorite moments in the Marvel Universe and some “what if” ideas of how it could have unfolded differently. Plus, they look back at major events in their lives and discuss how their lives would be different without those experiences. What is your favorite “what if” scenario? Share your thoughts in our socials!

Transcript

EP 163

Joe: Welcome to the neuro nerds. So what if I had a, sorry, because I looked over and she was literally like, I’m tired there. What’s going on?

Felice: What if we never start this episode? What if he never started this podcast?

Joe: That would be so sad. I wouldn’t know a huge chunk of the people that I know.

Hi, I’m Joe and I’m Lauren and we are The Nuero Nerds. We’re here every week, meet every week.

This is a very special episode because I have a very special lady with me. Hello.

I can’t remember a time that I introed you and it was like, oh, wow. That was cool. It’s always lackluster. It’s always awkward. It’s always weird. So if we’re talking lackluster or awkward, Hello, Felice LaZae.

Felice: hello? Hello?

Joe: He did one of these intros and you just, you came in hot.

Felice: Hey, what’s up everybody. Welcome to the neuro nerds. Boom. Is that me? That’s you.

Joe: that’s not me. I got to tell you that might be the worst impression of me ever.

Felice: I’m really tapping into my Wednesday vibes right now. I’m actually really excited about that. That this episode is not about the Wednesday Netflix series, but side note, I’m very excited about…

Joe: oh, I had no idea where you’re going with that. I was like, wait, what? I don’t understand what’s happening. So yeah. Spoiler alert. We’re recording this on a Wednesday.

Felice: Today’s Thursday, what?

Joe: Hey, that’s where we’re at.

Felice: You’re saying what if a lot? So this episode, we are going to be talking about the new Marvel series.

That was your cue. It was such a visual cue.

Joe: It was such a visual cue that I didn’t really know what was happening. You can see me, but you weren’t even making eye contact with me. You just made like a head motion and you weren’t really looking at me. So this episode is going to be about what if the show?

So alternate timeline. The one true timeline. No, that’s no, that’s Loki.

Felice: Not the one true timeline, the sacred timeline.

Joe: So we’re going to talk with some branch realities in Marvel’s new animated series, whatever. Is awesome. It is. And it’s Canon all, everything that happens in that is like Canada, the MCU.

Felice: And then we’re going to relate it back to how Joe felt like he was waking up from an alternate reality. When he woke up from his stroke. Wait, I had a stroke.

Joe: Wait here. What if I didn’t say I was thinking about like, all right. If like marbles, what if is, what if captain America didn’t like, what if Steve Rogers didn’t get the super soldier serum?

Agent Carter got it. Peggy Carter. So she became like the captain, captain Carter, weird things like that. So what if I was the rock star? And we own, I had a stroke or what if you were the brain? Yeah. Injured. And I was like the rockstar? mind blowing.

Felice: Wow. So I would just milk it all the time. If I have a brain injury. I would have you cooking me breakfast.

Joe: What’d you do what I do. Would you like put your fist together and hunch over and then shake a little bit and go, but I had a stroke. What’d you do that?

Felice: Okay.

Joe: Yeah, absolutely. Look, I look, I’ll say this saw the brain injured people out there. We had brain injuries for a reason. To use it as an excuse to get our shit that we don’t want to do.

For pity. No, we’re not. No, we didn’t have this. Hey guys. Guess what? We had this stuff for pity and to get out of things that we don’t want to do. I say, pull the stroke card as often as humanly possible. And people get tired of that. Just say, Hey, oh, I didn’t remember. I did so often because I had a stroke.

Joe: You can get as often as I can, who helped me with. Oh, your drummer dude, from when you were performing up in…

Felice: Oh, yeah. Yeah, it was a drummer that we used one time.

Joe: It was really awesome. Cause I would say stuff like my brain was bleeding cause it was, and like it would work all the time where police would be like, okay.

And after awhile she was like, yeah, your brain was bleeding. It’s not anymore. So I couldn’t use it anymore. So he was like, Hey, you might not be able to use the, my brain is blank. But you can say you survived a major stroke, the rest of your life.

Felice: you’re a stroke survivor for life.

Joe: I survived a major hemorrhagic stroke and then I’ll let you Guildford the me not wanting to go places before the pandemic.

And now we just don’t go places. Dependent because of the pandemic.

Felice: what if there hadn’t been a pandemic?

Joe: Oh yeah. That would’ve been weird, actually. You know what? It is weird. What do you mean?

Felice: It wouldn’t have been weird because we wouldn’t, there wouldn’t have been anything different. It just would have been regular life.

Joe: Yeah. That’s yeah. That’s very true. That’s yeah, that’s true. Which thinking about that right now is.

Felice: I know it’s so crazy. This show really makes you think in interesting ways. Yeah, because I never would have thought what if I had the stroke instead of you, what would that have been? Like?

Joe: What if I was on tour with a Kanye west Sunday service choir.

Felice: would you have stayed with me, Joe,

Joe: get outta here. I would have been happy that you were flashing me in the hospital and asking me for it to be,

Felice: it happened in real life, not me doing that, but Joe does it. Wasn’t on purpose.

Joe: He had a stroke. Yeah. I definitely blame the stroke because of what I asked you to do to me Hey, I would not ask that never singular act. If I did not have a brain injury.

Felice: And then you woke up and Donald Trump was president. I really feel like it was another, he didn’t wake up and doll, but it just was like, no.

Joe: I woke up to where Biff is running things. It didn’t even make any sense. I didn’t feel like I truly woke up until maybe about a year ago when I was like, oh, okay. Like the world is yeah. I’m back in the sacred timeline. Yeah. Yeah. So what if is a really bizarre comic book I’m serious?

Felice: I didn’t know anything about it until this.

Joe: So it would basically, so basically everybody note you nerds should know, and if you don’t, there are alternate timelines, right? So instead of going right, maybe I went left instead of, if something bad happening, maybe something good happens. So then, and then everything changes. So there are like a million different timelines.

The multi-verse. If you will. So Marvel’s what if it’s exploring all of these different branch timelines. So if captain America didn’t get the super soldier serum and then Peggy Carter got it in Katherine, in Steve Rogers place, what would happen? Then we have captain Carter, which by the way, was an amazing episode.

Felice: And it was like, I really, before the show we started watching the show, I was like, how are they going to do this? Okay. How is she going to become captain Britain? Yeah. Like how does that happen? And it makes so much sense.

Joe: So they’re doing it and what’s, it’s not like they just completely threw everything from captain America, the first Avenger out, what they did with what they did is they just slightly tweaked it.

Felice: that’s, what’s really cool.

Like even with the latest episode with. Being star. I was like, how are they going to do this? That doesn’t make any sense at all. And it makes so much sense. And what’s really cool too. Is that him being Star-Lord because let’s face it. Peter quilt is the worst. He’s the worst. I know people like him and I like what’s his name?

I love Andy Dwyer so much. Shout out to all the parks and rec fans out there. Peter Quill, ruined everything in. What was it? Not end game, but infinity war. No, it wasn’t. No, it wasn’t.

Joe: It wasn’t funny.

Felice: Wasn’t there one and two.

Joe: I am so angry at you. Felice actually knew what was going on in the MCU.

It was infinity war at, which was basically Avengers,

Felice: infinity war for some reason, but there was a part one and two

Joe: No, it was initially going to be infinity war one and then two, but then it was just infinity war. Okay.

Felice: spoiler alert, Peter Quill ruined everything end game would have never happened if it hadn’t been for Peter quell because spoiler alert, Peter quell could’ve killed banjos.

I’m sorry not Peter Quill, but they Spider-Man and Ironman were about to kill…

Joe: What, if you actually knew this story, you were completely…

Felice: They all had them. They all had him.

Joe: I’m helping you here. I’m walking you through that and pointed, what were they doing? Why did they have all, they were pulling off… rings or taking off the infinity gauntlet? You’re not confusing.

Felice: They happen to have the infinity pulling the infinity gauntlet off. They were about to get it off. And then Peter Quill got mad. About what did he get mad about? He got mad. I watched the movie.

Joe: he found out that to get the soul stone banjos had some murder Gomorrah.

Felice: So he was pissed that he killed Gomorrah and it was like really dude Gomorrah and the whole entire world.

Okay.

Joe: And Peter Quill’s defense without Gomorrah, right? That was his, everything. Just think about it like that. Think about it like our dynamic. Just think about that. I want to let

Felice: the world know that if I know that was murdered by Thanos and that there was nothing I could do about it, because in that moment we were about to defeat him.

I would not ruin that. I would avenge you later. But I would not just sucker punch or whatever he did. I can’t remember what he did, but it was so dumb

Joe: and he was hitting him in the face with his gun. He hit her hand, she removed her hands. He came to and got the infinity gauntlet back.

Felice: So annoying,

Joe: irritated.

It was annoying, but I’m just, I hate as a way better. So you gave your heart. What about me? If he, murdered, you get the souls.

Felice: you better go save the world and avenge me later. Don’t ruin your saving the world.

Joe: Here we go. How about this? And this is how Peter Quill felt without you.

There is no world. Boom. There it is. There it is selfish. It is selfish, but selfish. The world. Okay. The world doesn’t mean anything,

Felice: but that’s shining. The only thing that matters is what the world is to Peter Quill in that moment, that is really selfish. I’m just saying, literally because of Peter Quill, banjos was able to snap and he killed half of the world for five years and then they had to bring it back to spoiler alert already.

So don’t get mad at me, half of life in all of the universe. It was much larger than just the world of Star Lord.

Joe: Instead of Yondu picking up Peter Quill as a child to bring back to ego, he accidentally picked up to challah and then to challah grew up with the Ravagers and became star Lord. So that episode was amazing.

That was really funny because it’s to challah. It’s the black Panther hanging out with the rabbit. And instead of doing kind of hood rat things, which is what Peter quilt did, he was actually doing. He changed the universe.

Felice: spoiler alert. you should watch the show. If you haven’t watched it yet, go watch it. And then come back and listen to the rest of this episode, right at this point.

He went out to cello, went out and basically changed the universe for the better he made banjos.

Joe: Good. Yeah. He basically broke down, down to Thanos. He’s cool. So you have let’s say you get the infinity gauntlet, you snap, half of all. Is just gone. But there might be a better way. Hey, how about if we create maybe more resources, so people don’t go home, which is what we all said. Yeah.

Felice: We’re like really fantas. You’re going to just snap and kill half the world. Why don’t you just make more food and water?

Joe: So he broke it down at that and I wasn’t, Dennis was like, Hey, that’s a good idea. Now I’m going to be one of your homies.

Felice: And then we wasted that snap twice. Because of banjos when we could have snapped and saved all humanity and the universe by making more resources.

Joe: Boom. Yeah. He could have snapped his thing or boom in and out for everybody. For life. Everybody gets double doubles, animal style, no spread catch up instead extra. So CIT cut in half for the rest of their lives. Just with the, with one little snap.

Felice: Absolutely.

Joe: That’s a good addition. Thanks for putting

Felice: the cherry on top of this is what I’ve been saying the whole time. So I like the, what if series? I think they’re saying it’s cannon. So I’m interested to see. How is that going to work? If it’s Canon will they end up bringing crap, captain Britain into stuff?

Will they bring, they can’t, I don’t think they’re ever gonna replace childhood Bozeman. So are they going to do some sort of. VFX mentioned that they’re not going to do that. So what’s going to happen. Are they going to ever explore that different Star-Lord situation?

Joe: No, I don’t think, I don’t think that’s way too wild.I think out of everything that’s going to happen. The one thing that I can see crossing over into the actual movies is captain Carter. I can see that happening. I can’t see Spider-Man is Dr. Strange.

Felice: I can’t see, which is supposedly going to happen.

Joe: Yeah. I can see star Lord. It’s a challah star, Lord. I can’t really see Marvel zombies, which is going to be my favorite episode.

Me too, which I cannot wait for. But yeah all the like little bits and pieces I can see or dude for, I could see we’ve already had to do that. Like a

Felice: broker. We had the dude that dude, big Lebowski. If you guys haven’t seen it,

Joe: wait, have you not seen the big Lebowski guys?

Felice: Come on.

Joe: I hope so. I thought we were friends guys. I thought we were, you have not seen the big Lebowski.

Felice: You should stop right now and go watch it and then come back and listen to the rest of this episode.

A lot of things that you need to do before you finish this episode, what if you went in and saw the big Lebowski?

Joe: So what’s funny about what if it’s literally, what I love about it is it’s just, it’s the subtleties of the changes.

It’s not these. Yeah. It’s major changes. Peggy Carter is now captain America. That’s a big change star. Lord is now to challah. So child is now star Lord. That’s a huge change, but the way it happens, it’s just these little tiny things, and the super soldier serum this happened and the super soldier serum was going to go to waste and they wasted all the time and resources and effort.

So it’s either now or never. So she basically sacrificed herself and she’s let’s do it. I’m going to be the Guinea pig and she became captain Carter. Boom. There it is. And I made a lot of sense and all the things that happened afterwards made sense to her interactions with Howard stark, her interactions with Arnold, Zola, all of these little things added, it didn’t take away from, I think captain America, I think if anything, it enhanced, I thought it was cool.

Felice: And they still incorporated Steve Rogers into it, which was cool. He was like her sidekick and but let’s talk about her. Okay. So the man, he couldn’t just be like Peggy Carter and just be off on the side. He had to be like in it with her Whiting, Peggy Carter, get to get the, what’s it called the war machine, steam suit, the hydro stopper.

Felice: We have the hydro somber widen painted car to get that.

Joe: Because that time in that timeline, Reality not being sexist in, in that reality, she caught a lot of shit because she was a woman in that time. So like in, in that movie, in that timeline, of course she wouldn’t have been like, oh yeah, let’s give you this like iron man suit and go fight that.

Felice: That’s super wet, but what’s interesting though, that I find about the, what if series so far is that it’s very much like things work out in that alternate reality, right? Whereas like in a situation like a, what if like it’s a wonderful life? What if situation. If y’all, haven’t seen that movie, you should.

No, you shouldn’t stop and watch that right now. That’s a little bit. Yeah.

Joe: If you want to be depressed until it’s really good. If you want to be depressed,

Felice: it’s funny. The best holiday movies of all time. It’s with Jimmy Stuart.

No, Joe does a bad one, but but in that scenario, Spoiler alert if you haven’t seen it’s it was made in the forties or the fifties? No, it was made in the forties. You should have seen it by now. But in it’s a wonderful life, like the, what if scenarios? Everything wouldn’t be as good as it is now.

If it didn’t happen the way it happened, but in this, what if scenario? Everything is like just it’s? I think in, to be honest, I think to childhood means star

Joe: Lord is significantly better than Peter Quill’s captain Carter. It’s just as good as captain America. I guess the outcome just in a completely different way. To challah Lord, I like that the child that starts to challah Lord start challah, start shopping.

Lord, that branch timeline is significantly better. He basically brought a huge ton of peace and happiness to the universe where Peter Quill was like, Hey, we’re going to Rob some people because he’s basically like a hood rat and ruin everything. And half of the life immunity. Yeah. Cool.

Felice: Is going to have to make up for that. Cause I still haven’t forgiven him for that. Like really?

Joe: He is April Ludgate should divorce him.

Felice: I know. Karate. I forgot his name. No. Do you remember?

Joe: Johnny

Felice: karate. Thank you, Johnny karate. Why can’t you just say it?

Why do you have to go and extend and emphasize? It’s fine. I was. Yes. I was on the right track.

Joe: The Kung Fu guy. It wasn’t Jeff

Felice: only fans of parks and rec can understand what’s happening right now. It’s very true. You just stop the show right now,

Joe: but that’s only after you watch it. It’s a wonderful life.

Felice: What if you’ve seen all.

Joe: these shows? Oh, the big little basket, stop. Watch the big Lebowski. Then watch parks and rec every season, every episode of every season.

Felice: And hen while you’re at it, you should watch community just for shits and get me mad.

Joe: Throw that in. Hey, we just really got into a new girl. You might want to throw in.

Felice: okay. This episode’s turning into what if you watch all the sitcoms that ever made.

Joe: So what if this crazy. It’s a Brent, like what if this happened? And you wake up and it’s oh wow. Captain America is Peggy Carter, which is not captain America. She is captain Britain of very, if anything, but she’s captain Carter, it’s like waking up after a brain injury to what if you woke up and Biff was running this country under the ground.

Oh yeah, that happened to me. It was wild. It was really weird. So I don’t really know how to. Explain what it’s like to wake up from a brain injury, because I don’t really remember waking up. I have like bits in, like I have flashes. It’s what if, where everything is just strange, right?

Everything is normal. I’m doing normally everything is like normal, but just like a little bit off, but I think gear situation in a, what if situation is more.

Felice: It’s a wonderful life, which was the name of two episodes ago. Shout out to episode 1 61, go check it out. But no, I think that your scenario would be more like that because I really think that, sure.

Maybe there’s a lot of people that might feel, oh, if I didn’t have my stroke or my brain injury, things would be different and this and that, but I think. Part of we’ve been talking a lot about this lately about the hero’s journey. Part of the hero’s journey is the change that you experienced from what happens to you.

And you don’t want to go back to the way things were because you’re wiser and you have learned a lot from it. Frodo,

Joe: Baggins, I went to Mount. That’s right. This is such a Lauren moment. And she’ll probably give me shit for getting something wrong, but yeah. Went to the Mount doom and I threw the one ring amps of the flames of mortar.

I think I got that wrong, but it sounded good. But you understand where I’m going now that I’ve saved everything. I can’t just go back to chilling in the Shire.

Felice: Yeah. That’s why photo spoiler alert. You should go stop the show.

Joe: You can avoid the Hobbit when you about 50.

Felice: No, maybe two weeks worth of TV and movie watching today.

Joe: Grab some coffee in an adult diaper. You’re going to be here for a while. No,

Felice: but seriously like you can’t. So I think that part of part of suffering is resistance. A bull. The source of suffering is resistance, resisting where you are in the world. What your reality is. I think part of being and again, you could speak on this show because I’m not a brain injury survivor.

But anything that anything traumatic that we go through in our lives? Yes, you could wish it never happened, or you can embrace that. It happened. And try to see. The B evolution that you are going to experience out of those experiences. I look back at myself like, this is not a brain injury experience, but as a kid, I had a lot of issues with getting bullied and things like that.

And now I look back at that and while it was happening, And want it to happen, but now looking back at it, all the things that I’ve learned from those experiences, I wouldn’t really trade it’s made me the person that I am today.

Joe: today. Yeah. She’s learned how to get revenge.

Felice: No, but that’s really what the hero’s journey is about is like the return after the change

Joe: or whatever traumatic incident it is, the evolution or the transformation that you just have to accept what the reality is now. Now fully said, you can wish that these things didn’t happen. Yeah. That’s not going to do anything. It’s just, it’s wasting time. You can wish as much as you want.

The reality is these things did happen to us now, what are we going to do with that? Are we going to be bitter and upset and angry and get stuck? I hope not because it’s not going to do anything. Let’s just accept that. Yeah. These things happen now. What am I going to do with that? Am I just going to cave or am I going.

Grow past this. And I think we just accept what it is and try to grow past it. And that’s where I try to be.

Felice: That’s what I’m proud of you. And that’s really what life is about. Life is about choices and choosing how you want to interpret and and grow from situations. And so I guess back to what if.

If little things happen differently. Yes. The whole reality would be different, but I think that the characters still maintained their integrity in terms of how they react to the situations to challah. Wow. And then, in some instances like, okay, spoiler alert the way that this second episode of what if ended with seeing where Peter Quill actually ended up you go, wow.

Joe: He needed to be able to be around his people. He needed to.

Felice: that really made him who he, that really made him who he is. So it just shows that our experiences are important. What we go through is important because it makes us who we are. And you could see that from what happened with Peter.

Felice: He just, he wasn’t, he didn’t become the star Lord that he, he didn’t become anything because he didn’t leave earth. And that was really important to his evolution. Of who he is.

Joe: Yeah. It was just, he was just a dude. And then when ego comes in at the end, spoiler alert again, who knows what’s going to happen because ego wasn’t the nicest dude in the world.

And Star-Lord, didn’t have all these experiences to keep them on that. Like hero’s path. He’s just like some dudes. So he’s probably going to get sucked up into this wave of evil. So look, speaking of what, if, what if you guys do something. There’s a lot of us who suffer out there and do what Felice mentioned.

Just try to wish that the stuff didn’t happen. Is it really helping? Let’s take an honest look at our recoveries. Let’s look in a mirror and say, okay, is me wishing that this stuff didn’t happen to me? Is that making any dents? Is it helping me? Is it moving me forward? Is it getting me to where I want to.

Probably not. And by probably 100%, it’s not. So what if you do something different? What if you choose to go at recovery with a different mindset? What if you choose to meditate every single day? What if you choose to slow your thoughts? What if you choose to focus on the positive, right? What if you set goals and try to hit every single one?

What if you reach out to others in the community to feel like you’re not alone, build a sense of community, right? What if you share your story? What if that makes you feel better? What if that makes someone else feel better? Look at all these things. Look at all these, what ifs? I just what is that there’s 15 different branch timelines. You use one, if the hell out of that, I did. What if I keep what iffing let no seriously, if you really think about it what if there’s that thing that makes you uncomfortable? There’s that thing you don’t want to do? What if you just. What’s the worst that can happen.

Unless it’s something really bad, then don’t do that. But in recovery, what if it’s, you know what, I don’t want to take a chance and do this thing because whatever, what if you just do that thing? I talk to you. I’m not even gonna, I’m not gonna say who it is. Cause she’ll yell at me and she’ll probably murder me.

It’s almost. Very dear friend of mine was talking about starting a podcast. She was like, I really want to do it. And then she was going to do it with a partner that kind of fell through. So then she was thinking about doing it herself and I’m like, yeah, go ahead and do it. And she’s no, I got to have this.

And then I got to do this. And then I ha she’s doing all the, what ifs. And I’m like, you don’t need any of this stuff. Just do it. You’re getting in your way. What if you want to do something? I want to write a book. I want to start a podcast so started, I want to, get functionality back in my house.

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What, if you take these steps and do these things, what if, yeah. Just think about where you are in your recovery. Some of us were not very happy with where we’re at, so let’s not follow the definition of crazy. Do the exact same things and expect a different result.

Felice: What if we do something different, messy and perfect action is much better than trying to get everything to line up in, have all the stars aligned to just.

Joe: And one of the things we’ve been talking about a lot in the things that we’re doing done is significantly better than perfect.

Felice:a lot of people will be a wall it’s not done unless it’s perfect, but that’s not the most successful people out there. They’re not doing it perfectly. They’re not. And so it’s much better to just get out there and put yourself out there. The most imperfect book produce the most imperfect podcast, go in, whatever, do it all in perfectly, but

Joe: just do it.

Thanks Nike. Nike always just do it. You’ll never know what, yeah. Thanks Shiloh. Sure.

If you just put it out, you’re seriously, you are head and shoulders up further than what? 95% of the people out there. There so many talkers, your friends, your family, whatever you’re doing, I’m sure they have thoughts. I’m sure they have critiques. They have. Ideas for what you’re doing.

That’s cool. They’re talkers. You’re the doer. So they can say whatever they want, they could disparage you. They could say, it’d be better if you did it like this. Cool. You can listen if you want, or you could just ignore them because they’re not doing it. You are be a doer.

Felice: You do it. Do her. Yeah. I love that joke.

And also give yourself a break and just be sometimes.

Joe: Yeah. In that and give me a break, break off a piece

Felice: of it. Be gentle with yourself, basically, do your best. And then when it’s time to take a break because you’re doing all that you can do. And you’re enough just as you are.

Yeah.

Joe: It’s hard because we want to, I don’t want to say normal because we are normal. It’s just a bit of a new normal, I’m doing quote fingers. Some days we can. Some days we can’t do anything it’s on those days where we really have to take a step back and say, all right today is just a day to rest.

Today’s a day to recover and recharge and it’s okay. It’s O K now think about it. So we’re saying what the, what if. What, if you just rested that day, instead of doing what I know you do, which has pushed through, I’m just going to grind. I’m just going to keep on going. Cause I have to do these things and I want to be better and I want cool.

How does that end up in all likelihood? The work that you do on that day is going to be piss poor. Sorry. You’re not all there. You’re going to make mistakes. It’s not gonna be. The best thing that you’ve ever done. So take a break, right? And if you push through in all likelihood tomorrow, the next day, you’re still going to be recovering because you push too far.

Now, what if you just took a break? What if you let your mind heal you, your body and soul recharge, and then the next day, boom, you could then take on the world, right? What if we do this guys?

Felice: Yeah, no, that’s so good. Joe tells me that all the time, he’ll be like, just go take a nap.

Felice: No. Oh, fighting naps. Since I was a toddler, I never liked to take a nap. My brother was always, my mom would just turn back to my brother. He’d be in the car seat in the backseat and he’d go, she’d go leave and go take a nap, go put your head down, go put your head down.

And he would just put his head down and pick it up. It was so cute. My brother has always been a napper. That’s why he’s taller than me because he’s had way more sleep.

He’s also taller than me. Guy, but also he’s really tall and I attribute that to his nap taking.

So I would just like to say, be like my brother, take him out.

Joe: You tall guys? No. Hey, what if you guys chose to be taller? We have a bunch of tall brain injury survivors.

Like I say most of the brain injury survivors that I’ve run into the very short people.

Felice: Pocket-sized peoples in the interesting theory you have here. I’m just saying what if short, I’m just saying that I could have been taller. I could have been a little bit tough. I could have been. You should go stop the podcast,

Joe: listen to that.

Yeah, you should probably not listen to Felice butcher that song, Lord. So what if by the way, guys, definitely check out. What if it’s a comic series, if you guys are into like, I don’t read. I just go watch

Felice: the new show, really sponsored this show. We really,

Joe: yeah. You know what Disney plus needs, they need our support.

Felice: They do.

Joe: we like to really help out these small, independent companies like Disney, is that. Yeah. Is it does NEI, am I saying it right? Does NY that’s what it is.

Felice: They’ve been shut down during the pandemic. If there’s anyone. No, they’re not hurting. They’re fine. They’re doing, yeah.

Joe: They own all the way. Have you seen the picture of a Mickey mouse with the infinity gauntlet? Oh yes. Yeah. It’s like Fox has Marvel and it’s they’re just collecting them all. I’m telling you the next one is going to be.

Felice: Yep, man. And then we’ll finally see the DC versus Marvel.

Felice: but in the movies now with James Gunn,

Joe: we’re running both sides,

Felice: playing both sides.

You guys should see, you should guys just stop right now and watch suicide squad. If you guys like a good bit, I think we should just do this.

Joe: If you guys followed that well, before you finish this, watch. This would be the longest episode

Felice: ever. Oh my gosh. You guys would never finished this episode.

Joe: All the, what if episodes for the neuro nerds?

It took me three and a half weeks to finish

Joe:. If you throw in the Lord of the rings. Now, if you watch the Lord of the rings, extended cut. Each one of those movies is four hours. Yeah.

Felice: We sat in theaters. For a special screening that allowed us to watch all three Lord of the rings movies, the extended, we got a record.

We got like a 30 minute break in between each movie

Joe: We’re getting blood clots in her legs for sitting for 12 hours. But it was epic. I would absolutely do it again. Maybe not anytime soon, but I would do it again at. So that was great. And what we didn’t do is watch the Hobbit trilogy because that’s no, we did see it though.

Felice: we didn’t go watch it in one sitting though. No, we did not do that.

Joe: We saw the trilogy and then we’re like, why did we waste our time watching that trilogy? Yeah. That wasn’t their best. What if those movies were.

Felice: well, the, you know what the problem was. They tried to fit a movie that should have just been one movie and into three movies, they should just made the Hobbit one movie.

Joe: It was one book. It was one book. So basically you look at Lord of the rings and those books are like dictionaries they’re super thick. So most of the stories are that. Yeah. All the stories were just like, I’m holding up like three inches. That’s like all the books. For the Hobbit. It’s literally, it’s like a half an inch book.

Felice: It was a cartoon. I liked to watch when I was little.

Joe: Why did you like to watch? It was scary.

Felice: It was scary, but I liked it. Actually. It probably scared me. I was scared of everything.

Joe: It scared me and I’m not afraid of everything.

Felice: I was scared. I was scared. I was so scared. Scared of the rats.

This Brian, you should stop this right now and watch princess bride. If you haven’t seen it. And on that note.

Joe: Oh my God. That is the best thing you’ve ever said in life. What if we just focused on the positive? What if we all loved one another? What if we cared about our neighbors?

What if we all did the right thing, perfect. Imagine all the people. Why is this your name to like John Lennon right now?

Imagine I’m not going to sing. I’m not going to sing it. I can’t afford that. I was about to say I could was gonna be very expensive, but we’re not paying royalties to I do like to take care of independent artists like John.

So every Wednesday is to do episodes of what if, and I believe the next episode is going to be the Dr. Strange Spiderman episode. I think they haven’t really said anything. They’re not giving me any information.

Felice: Guys has drawn me and also just randomly should stop the show right now and go watch the eternal story.

Yes.

Joe: Yes. And after you watched the eternal his trailer, now that I mentioned Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, you should definitely, before you finish this, watch Dr. Strange and followed up by the Spider-Man movies, not the ones with Maguire, the ones with Tom Holland. If you really want go back to the ones with Toby Maguire, and then follow up, watch one with Andrew Garfield and then.

Felice: What’s civil war, because that was the first intro of time. And if you want to be prepared for the new doctors, change will be, you should watch the one division show and then you should watch the low-key show because you’re going to be lost without them.

Joe: And then you should watch into the spider verse because it has a lot of the different branch timelines.

And one of the Spider-Man is actually Jake Johnson. Star of new girl, which, like I said before, you guys should have been watching new girls all connected.

Felice: We brought that all the way back. That was very good.

Joe: We did. So this has been a very strange, what if episode it’s been fun and Felice is going to fall asleep very quickly after this.

I could see it in her eyes. I’m always happy to have police as my guest. Co-host, she’s my significantly better, significant other. And I’m so thankful for you. And yeah, what if you do this next time and you’re awake?

Felice: What if it wasn’t a million degrees in here and making me tired? It’s so hard. The weather is so crazy and we’re trying to make sure that the sound’s good.

So we can’t put the, yeah,

Joe: we don’t have the AC on and I run hot cause I’m a big sweaty Puerto Rican. And I, we have the ambience, there’s some lights on it. They’re giving up a little bit of heat. It’s just, it’s a lot, it’s sexy big. It is. It is. It’s Ooh, sexy, hot,

Felice: sexy way. It’s just sexy.

Joe: Yeah.

And when we came in, we were coming here. I don’t know I had to fit in a Drake song. So

Felice: stop and listen to that. And I’m scared.

Joe: Yeah. Yeah. I’m absolutely kidding. You should not stop and listen to Drake, but you should watch the aggressive,

Felice: why.

Joe: His trick was in the grassy, but why?

Felice: Because I was talking about coming to hot.

Should they watch it? Are you putting them through their

Joe: legacy Drake in a wheelchair? Don’t go.

Anyways on that weird note. If you want to reach out to police, you can reach out to police at Felice Lazea on Instagram and everywhere.

Joe: You can reach out to my tiny ass kicking. Co-host Lauren at Lauren L Manzano on Instagram. You can reach out to me at Joseph rocks on all the socials.

You can reach out to us, the neuro nerds at the neuro center.

Joe: If you enjoy listening to this podcast, please consider leaving us a five star review on the apple podcast app.

Your reviews help us grow and reach more listeners. Like you find us by searching for the neuro nerds on the apple podcast app today.

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