podcasting with patients, caregivers, & professionals
sharing the dementia road…
formembering
is a multimedia project that sheds light on what can be a most heart-wrenching journey through dementia, providing support and practical guidance for patients, caregivers, and professionals alike.
With compassion and even humor, we share stories and insights from patients,
caregivers, and experts to support listeners navigating these challenges.​
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Our Content
​While we will have regular conversations and reporting about news and research, the core of our programming will be the people we talk with in each episode:
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- ​Individuals diagnosed with dementia, sharing their personal experiences and what they wish others knew
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Caregivers, discussing their day-to-day struggles and the crucial need for support and community
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Experts from fields such as elder law, healthcare, research, and sharing the latest insights and guidance
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Various features reflecting news and issues as we encounter them
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Our Project Values
Personal Stories: 
The more intimate the story, the more revealing and important will be the content with points of interest specific to the needs and the community based on the type of dementia, familial roles, and cultural contexts.
Evolving Issues: 
As research in dementia care and legal frameworks continue to evolve, we’ll discuss new treatments, policies, and societal impacts. Emerging technologies for memory care and changes in elder law will provide timely and relevant content.
Community Engagement: 
Engaging regularly with our audience through social media or on our website will provide a continuous source content that we might not otherwise consider. Listeners’ questions, shared experiences, and suggestions for guests will help shape episodes organically.
Collaborations: 
Partnering with elder law firms and dementia care organizations will yield unique and informed contributors.
On-Going Value: 
A thoughtful combination of storytelling, expert advice, and audience member responses will serve the goals of the project and all participants. The range of subjects and the evolving nature of dementia care, research, and law will provide plenty of material for informative conversations.
John W Samples has already walked the dementia journey alongside two family members and has undergone his own testing for memory loss issues. Although he has no dementia diagnosis, he continues to manage symptoms apparently caused by other factors, including sleep apnea, stress, and Rx side effects.
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As a broadcast journalist, he received multiple Associated Press awards for his work as a radio News Director, as well as serving in anchoring and producing positions for NPR, PBS, CBS, Government, and Independent stations in West Lafayette and Indianapolis, and in Tennessee from Elizabethton to Memphis. For the last half of his career, he has served as an ordained minister working with inner-city youth and the homeless, and for nearly 20 years, he served as CEO of an NGO working with Arab Christian Churches in Israel.​
Why Now?
John W Samples may—or may not—
be losing his mind.
While there is no diagnosis indicating that John suffers from Alzheimer's or any other form of dementia, he has experienced significant memory issues since at least 2022. The results of MRIs, CT scans, and sleep studies have all been normal, except for a significantly high level of apnea which has been treated since 2023. In response to moments of fear and depression, John has resolved to live his journey openly, and maybe even with humor where humor isn't supposed to exist, for as long as possible.
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A former broadcast journalist, the call of the story is compelling to him. "I am fascinated by the possibility of sharing these stories about what may or may not become my own journey," he says.
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As a former minister, the calling for him is much more about the people of this community and the struggles that are their lives.
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The goal is to contribute to the members of this community in a way that makes the journey less lonely or frightening. If it turns out that my own issues do not progress beyond inconvenience, I will be grateful nonetheless for the spiritual nudges that have moved me in this direction. My world has been forever changed by the conflicts between brain battles and tender hearts that I'm encountering in these people as they navigate the very tough world of formembering.
John and his high school sweetheart, Bobbi K Samples, at their
50-year class reunion
