Dancing into Brain Health

About Dancing into Brain Health

Join host Magda Kaczmarska, dancer, researcher, Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health and executive director of arts and health nonprofit, DanceStream Projects, in uncovering the interconnections of dance, brain health and community. Each episode Magda brings together leading researchers, artists, advocates and thought leaders to illuminate the magical interconnections of dance and brain health and explore their influence on all aspects of our lives. * New Episodes every month! * Follow us on IG: @ dancestream_projects or email us at: magda@dancestreamprojects.com

Publisher

DanceStream Projects

Category

health & fitness

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

24 Feb 2025

Latest episode

25 Sept 2026

Latest episodes

20 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   25 Sept 2026

   Stewarding Global Brain Health Leaders w/ Dr. Victor Valcour

   Dementia is one of the defining public health challenges of our time. In the United States, where this podcast is based, the number of people developing dementia each year is projected to nearly double, reaching approximately one million new cases annually by 2060 (Fang et al., 2025, Nature Medicine). At the same time, remarkable advances in dementia risk reduction, early diagnosis, disease-modifying therapies, and person-centered care are transforming what is possible. Yet access to these innovations remains deeply unequal. Certain populations experience a disproportionately higher burden of dementia while continuing to be underrepresented in research, limiting the reach and effectiveness of emerging solutions. Within the United States, these disparities are particularly striking. For Black Americans, the number of new dementia cases is projected to triple by 2060. Globally, the inequities are even more pronounced. By 2050, regions across the Global South—including Central and South America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia—are projected to experience increases in dementia prevalence of 248%, 345%, and 226%, respectively. Together with other low- and middle-income countries, these regions are expected to account for 71% of the world's population living with dementia. Despite this growing need, globally, access to diagnosis, treatment, and care remains profoundly limited. It is estimated that nearly three-quarters of people living with dementia worldwide have never received a formal diagnosis. Confronting these disparities can feel overwhelming. Yet our guest today approaches this challenge not through a lens of scarcity, but one of possibility and collective action. Dr. Victor Valcour is Site Director of the Global Brain Health Institute at the University of California, San Francisco, and a geriatrician at the Edward and Pearl Feinberg Memory and Aging Center at UCSF. His research focuses on the impact of HIV on brain health and on building international capacity to address cognitive aging and dementia. As Site Director of the Global Brain Health Institute at the University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Valcour is helping cultivate a global network of leaders united by shared values and a common purpose of reducing the scale and impact of dementia worldwide. Learn more about Dr. Victor Valcour: https://www.gbhi.org/profiles/victor-valcour Read and watch more: Building Capacity and Assessing Risk for Dementia in Diverse Populations https://www.gbhi.org/projects/building-capacity-and-assessing-risk-dementia-diverse-populations (https://www.gbhi.org/projects/building-capacity-and-assessing-risk-dementia-diverse-populations) Bridging Gaps in Dementia Research: Insights from East Africa https://www.gbhi.org/news-publications/bridging-gaps-dementia-research-insights-east-africa (https://www.gbhi.org/news-publications/bridging-gaps-dementia-research-insights-east-africa) Strengthening Brain Health Research in Colombia https://www.gbhi.org/projects/building-capacity-brain-health-research-colombia (https://www.gbhi.org/projects/building-capacity-brain-health-research-colombia) https://www.gbhi.org/news-publications/strengthening-brain-health-research-colombia (https://www.gbhi.org/news-publications/strengthening-brain-health-research-colombia) Brain Bridges Podcast, featuring conversations with leaders working to advance brain health and equity around the world. https://www.gbhi.org/news-publications/introducing-brain-bridges-stories-global-brain-health-leadership (https://www.gbhi.org/news-publications/introducing-brain-bridges-stories-global-brain-health-leadership) GBHI 10-Year Anniversary Events: Celebrating a Decade of Global Brain Health Leadership https://www.gbhi.org/news-publications/gbhi-10-year-anniversary-events-celebrating-decade-global-brain-health-leadership (https://www.gbhi.org/news-publications/gbhi-10-year-anniversary-events-celebrating-decade-global-brain-health-leadership) Watch Leadership in Action: Global Brain Health Satellite Sessions (from GBHI 10-year anniversary) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rivwOFmDZo (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rivwOFmDZo) Are you interested in joining a Global Community of Brain Health Leaders? GBHI Fellowship Applications are now open. https://www.gbhi.org/apply (https://www.gbhi.org/apply) This episode of Dancing into Brain Health was edited and produced Magda Kaczmarska and Hilary Brown-Istrefi. The music for this show is the title cut from the album, Critical Path by Joe Venegoni and Carl Weingarten.

2. 

   14 Aug 2026

   Exposing Dementia through the Arts w/ C. Nathaniel Brown

   Dementia does not affect all communities equally. In the United States, African Americans are disproportionately affected by Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, shaped by a complex interplay of cardiovascular health, structural inequities, access to care, lifelong socioeconomic factors, and genetic influences. Addressing these disparities requires more than medical advances—it calls for trusted community leadership, culturally relevant education, and powerful storytelling that can reduce stigma and inspire action. In this episode of the Dancing into Brain Health podcast, we are joined by award-winning filmmaker, best-selling author, Certified Dementia Practitioner, and founder of Expose Dementia, Chuck Nathaniel Brown. Following his own family's experience with dementia, Chuck has dedicated his career to using film, literature, community engagement, and the arts to transform how we understand dementia—particularly within African American communities. Through his documentary Remember Me: Dementia in the African American Community, his book Exposing Dementia: 8 Critical Takeaways for African Americans, and the annual Expose Dementia Conference, he has built a vibrant grassroots movement that brings together artists, researchers, healthcare professionals, care partners, and people living with dementia. Together, we explore the extraordinary role that the arts can play in increasing awareness, fostering dialogue, challenging stigma, and creating spaces where communities can learn, heal, and advocate together. Learn more about C. Nathaniel Brown: www.ExposeDementia.org (http://www.exposedementia.org). Read and watch more: Remember Me: Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease in the African American Community https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31958645/ (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt31958645/) Papa’s Song – Short Film About a Family Navigating Dementia https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2ms3GOT3fA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2ms3GOT3fA) Expose Dementia Conference https://exposedementia.org/conference (https://exposedementia.org/conference) Join a national survey led by Expose Dementia and Dr. Natalie Douglas from the University of Louisiana, Lafayette to better understand the Experiences Around Dementia Diagnosis and Care – specifically among the African American community https://forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=zrCzE3XNpEm_6goDsB_xq2fP86K4aSJBnluew-DLwLtUMDJaVlFESlpQSTBJN0dDUVBRSTM4RUo1NS4u&route=shorturl (https://forms.cloud.microsoft/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=zrCzE3XNpEm_6goDsB_xq2fP86K4aSJBnluew-DLwLtUMDJaVlFESlpQSTBJN0dDUVBRSTM4RUo1NS4u&route=shorturl) This episode of Dancing into Brain Health was edited and produced Magda Kaczmarska and Hilary Brown-Istrefi. The music for this show is the title cut from the album, Critical Path by Joe Venegoni and Carl Weingarten.

3. 

   14 Jul 2026

   Our senses in motion w/ Dr. Rona Graham

   Our senses of smell and taste shape some of life’s most meaningful and pleasurable experiences — from the perfume of a spring day to the familiar aroma of our grandmother’s apple pie. Yet we rarely stop to consider how deeply these everyday sensory experiences are connected to the brain and its health. In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Rona Graham, a neuroscientist whose research explores olfactory function as an early biomarker for cognitive impairment. Together, we unpack how this often-overlooked sensory process is intimately tied not only to the richness of our daily lives, but also to cognition, memory, and overall brain health. Visit our website for show notes, links and more and be sure to follow us! If you like what you hear, please leave us a review! https://dancestreamprojects.org/dancing-into-brain-health-podcast (https://dancestreamprojects.org/dancing-into-brain-health-podcast) Learn more about Dr. Rona Graham: https://sites.google.com/view/ronakgraham/home (https://sites.google.com/view/ronakgraham/home) Dr. Rona Graham is the Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Research Centre on Aging, Universite de Sherbrooke. Her research interests include olfactory system dysfunction in Neurodegenerative diseases, olfactory therapy as a measure to delay symptoms in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer disease, the development of a public Smell and Taste Clinic of offer olfactory testing and training, leading olfactory therapy clinical trials, the development of clinical tests to detect premanifest dementia and other therapeutic approaches including caspases and cell death pathways. The overall goal of Professor Graham’s health science research program is to delineate mechanisms in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases that will allow approaches to therapy that will halt progression or lead to a cure for such disorders. In particular her focus is on Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), Alzheimer (AD) and Huntington disease (HD) and the olfactory system dysfunction. Her long-term goal is developing a multi-modal, longitudinal approach, to relate the imaging measures to the age-dependent behavioral and neuropathological changes in MCI, AD and HD. This will enable delineation of underlying mechanisms, determination of early and robust clinical endpoints for trials, and identification of drug targets. Read more about the connection of smell, taste and the brain: Volumetric MRI Demonstrates Atrophy of the Olfactory Cortex in AD https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33327913/ (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33327913/) Olfactory Dysfunction Associated with Cognitive Decline in an Elderly Population https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36545820/ (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36545820/) Specific olfactory deficit patterns observed in seniors and associated with cognitive decline https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37120003/ (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37120003/) Amelioration of Cognitive and Olfactory System Deficits in APOE4 Transgenic Mice with DHA Treatment https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37329383/ (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37329383/) Early deficits in olfaction are associated with structural and molecular alterations in the olfactory system of a Huntington disease mouse model https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32436947/ (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32436947/) Diet enriched in omega-3 fatty acids alleviates olfactory system deficits in APOE4 transgenic mice https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34549475/ (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34549475/) This episode of Dancing into Brain Health was edited and produced Magda Kaczmarska and Hilary Brown-Istrefi. The music for this show is the title cut from the album, Critical Path by Joe Venegoni and Carl Weingarten.

Who has been a guest on Dancing into Brain Health

Names identified in recent episode analyses. Showing up to five guests.

• Szewah Chin
• Hilary Brown-Istrefi
• Dr Anusha Yasoda-Mohan
• Dr Edward Vessel
• Dr Francesca Farina

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

4 ratings

Spotify

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 3 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

6

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

0

Contact Dancing into Brain Health

Guest appearances

Does not typically book guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.