A Rivers Speaking Solutions Production
Brain Friends
Brain health science you can use, centered on stroke recovery and aphasia.
A survivor-led show that takes complicated medical topics and makes them plain. Stroke, aphasia, brain health, and prevention, with real talk, real science, and a little Philly flavor.
What Brain Friends is
Medical confusion, turned into everyday clarity.
Stroke and aphasia come with a whole new vocabulary nobody asked for. Brain Friends translates it. Big medical and recovery topics, broken down until they actually make sense.
The show is survivor-led. I live this recovery, so the questions I ask are the ones survivors and families are already asking at the kitchen table. Clinicians and researchers stay in the room too, because the best conversations happen when everybody sits at the same table.
No medical advice. No empty inspiration. Just science made clearer, a recovery road less lonely, and a next step easier to see.
Where the show is headed
Not the first.
For years, we treated stroke like the beginning of the story. It is actually the end of one. The blood pressure, the risk factors, the warning signs nobody explained, all of that comes first. The show grew up on recovery. Now it is going upstream.
Stroke, aphasia, and brain health are still the heart of Brain Friends. Prevention is now the front door. And prevention does not stop after a stroke: secondary prevention, stopping the next one, matters just as much as stopping the first. When prevention comes too late, we talk recovery, honestly and without judgment.
The new season is already in motion. Leading voices in stroke prevention, vascular neurology, and neuroplasticity are recorded and on the way.
Neuroplasticity
The episode listeners keep running back. Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to rewire itself after injury. It is the whole reason recovery is possible, and most survivors never hear it explained in plain language. Press play. This one fixes that.
"Translates this unpronounceable scientific concept into simple, everyday terms with examples from real life." Apple Podcasts review
Press play
Listen to the latest episodes
New conversations on stroke recovery, aphasia, and brain health drop right here. Press play below, or take the show with you on your favorite app.
New here? Start with your door.
A growing, global audience
Started as a phone call. Heard around the world.
Publishing consistently since 2022 and still going. Longevity is the flex.
Listeners in 100+ countries. The pink ping is home.
Who it's for
One show, many seats at the table.
Brain Friends does not stay in one lane. Lived experience and professional knowledge share the mic, so the people living recovery and the people guiding it can finally hear each other.
Survivors & people with aphasia
Real talk about recovery and what comes next, in language that respects you.
Care partners, family & friends
The words and the understanding for everyone walking alongside.
Clinicians & rehab professionals
The patient voice, plus research you can use Monday morning.
Students, trainees & researchers
The bridge between the textbook and the lived experience.
In their words
Listeners said it best.
"Informative, humorous, and give insight into complex issues regarding strokes and aphasia. I had a stroke at 41 years old and I have Aphasia. I get excited when I get the notification that a new episode is available!"Stroke survivor, Apple Podcasts
"As a black neuro-nerd Speech-Language Pathologist... I find myself taking mental notes of things I can say to encourage my clients. This podcast is authentic. So happy I'm a Brain Friend!"Speech-language pathologist, Apple Podcasts
"As a daughter/caregiver who had a loved one with Aphasia... I APPRECIATE this pod! People living with aphasia are STILL smart, charming, talented and witty."Care partner, Apple Podcasts
Beyond the mic
Bring the lived experience to your stage.
Angie Cauthorn, stroke survivor and advocate, is available for speaking engagements: keynotes, panels, grand rounds, and community events. Stroke recovery, aphasia, prevention, and the patient voice, told by someone who lives it.
The same clarity that carries the podcast shows up in the room. Audiences leave understanding the science and feeling the stakes.
Book Angie to speakBuilt together
Dr. Davetrina Seles Gadson
Brain Friends started as a friendship between a survivor and a scientist. Dr. Seles Gadson, a neuroscientist and speech-language pathologist, co-built this show and championed equity in aphasia care from day one. What began as a phone call between two friends is now heard around the world.
Partner with the show
Reach a trusted community that ordinary advertising misses.
Brain Friends offers sponsors something rare: a survivor-led voice that real people trust and professionals respect, in communities brain health education too often skips.
Episodes are grouped into themed season arcs, so a sponsor can back a defined run instead of a one-off. Prevention, stroke care, aphasia, recovery: whatever your lane, there is a natural home for it here. Season sponsorships and single-episode placements are available.
Sponsorship supports the show. It never controls the editorial. Support is disclosed to listeners, and it is not a medical endorsement.
