8 podcasts about MND for listening to right now

We love podcasts here at Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Australia.

Like many other Australians, we enjoy listening to podcasts on a diverse range of topics, from news, politics and current affairs, to movies, music, sport and comedy. We can download and catch up on our passions, when it suits us.

Podcasts also have that rare ability to make you feel part of an intimate conversation. Listening to a podcast often means being drawn deep into someone’s story or lived experience, perhaps of someone you know, or have never met.

Podcasts are a great way to learn more about the MND community, too. Podcasts can help MND scientists to explain the latest findings from their research, clinicians to provide insights into how to manage life with the disease, and for people living with MND and their families and loved ones, to share their experiences, and what helps them along the way.

The MND Association (UK) recently launched their new podcast, MND Matters, and we thought this was a great chance to not only share their work with listeners here in Australia, but to bring together some of our favourite podcasts about MND.

Like our blog from last year on videos to stream about MND, we considered a number of MND podcasts. To decide what podcasts to include, we thought about how well each one drew on the science of MND, made their stories easy to follow and were relevant to people living with MND.

Below you’ll find the podcasts we came up with: our eight favourite MND podcasts, recorded here and across world – we hope you find them useful, and enjoyable.

Please feel free to let us know if there are others you think we’ve missed, and that we should consider adding to the list.

MND News and Research

Let's talk MND

Jane Simpson, Chair of the MND Collective Lived Experience Expert Driving Team, has created a podcast, “Let’s Talk MND”, to share some of the many stories of people touched by MND. Jane has interviewed people with lived experience of MND, researchers, neurologists and allied health professionals. This podcast is honest, inspiring, funny and sad all at once, and Jane does an incredible job of sharing the stories of those in the MND world. It can be accessed via lots of podcast services including Spotify.

MND Matters

MND Matters, by the MND Association (UK), aims to explore a wide range of subjects alongside people affected by MND, and to raise awareness among the wider community.

CReATe Podcasts

The Create Podcasts are short recorded interviews on topics for people with ALS and other forms of MND. Clinical Research in ALS and Related Disorders for Therapeutic Development (CReATe) Consortium is part of the Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network (RDCRN).

Connecting ALS

Connecting ALS is a weekly podcast that discusses research and technology developments and advocacy efforts, and shares personal stories from the community. The podcast is produced by The ALS Association’s national office in the United States, and the Association’s Minnesota/North Dakota/South Dakota Chapter.

The Endpoints Podcast

The Endpoints Podcast, by the ALS Therapy Development Institute, has short episodes, featuring conversations with people living with ALS, researchers, advocates and fundraisers. The ALS Therapy Development Institute is based in the United States and is a drug discovery lab for ALS research.

People affected by MND

The Dodcast

The Dodcast is hosted by Jill Douglas with Scottish former professional rugby union player, Doddie Weir, who was diagnosed with MND in 2016.

Dominic Rowe: Unlocking the mystery of Motor Neurone Disease

Professor Dominic Rowe, a clinical Neurologist and researcher, talks on the ABC's Conversations podcast about how common degenerative brain diseases, including MND, begin.

How Did a Simple Challenge Become a Worldwide Phenomenon

Nancy Frates' son Peter was diagnosed with ALS in 2012. In an episode of the TED Radio Hour on National Public Radio, Frates explains how she helped drive the 2014 ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

Clinical perspectives and for health professionals

Southern Metro Palliative Care Consortium: Motor Neurone Disease (for health professionals)

The SMPCC podcast series about MND, developed in Victoria, Australia, is especially for people who work in aged care or primary health and have a client with MND. The podcasts aim to increase understanding of the disease and ways of improving care for MND.