Episodes

Today on NORDpod, Andrew MacDowell stands in for Matthew Zachary, and he welcomes Dr. Kathleen Donohue, Director of the Division of Rare Diseases and Medical Genetics, at the FDA’s Office of New Drugs. Over 350 million people worldwide have a rare disease, yet only 10% of rare diseases have an FDA-approved treatment. Dr. Donohue oversees the national hub designed to move the needle on that statistic, providing a shared pool of resources to spark new discoveries and speed up the creation of new t...

You're in for a treat on today's episode of NORDpod as I welcome chronic illness advocate Sarah Pennington to the show. Since the age of 11, Sarah has been managing a condition known as Trichotillomania, a disorder that involves recurrent, irresistible urges to pull out body hair. An estimated 330,000 children in the US alone may face Trichotillomania in their early tween/teenage years, a time in your life that may be challenging enough on its own. Sarah decided to do something by taking ownersh...

Rob Long is the Executive Director at Uplifting Athletes, a nonprofit organization that inspires the rare disease community with hope through the power of sport. In 1020, as a Pre-Season All-American playing for the Syracuse Orange Football team, he was contemplating which NFL team he wanted to be on. Until he was diagnosed out of the blue with a Grade III Anaplastic Astrocytoma, a rare form of pediatric brain cancer. Eleven years later, he's paying it forward, raising money and awareness for ne...

Bobby Foster is a content creator, a rapper/producer, a spoken word poet, and a certified life coach who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at birth. He graduated with a degree in creative writing from the University of Central Florida. Bobby is currently on a path to bring awareness and change through music. NORDpod is the official podcast of The National Organization for Rare Disorders. For more information, contact nordpod@rarediseases.org. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and...

Today on NORDpod, Matthew Zachary welcomes Phillip Bright, a senior at The University of Kentucky diagnosed with Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) at a very young age and has lived an accelerated life facing this rare condition. HHT is a congenital dominant hereditary disorder in which some blood vessels do not develop properly. Phil subsequently lived with a small pulmonary arteriovenous malformation in my lung. As a rare disease patient, he decided to give back to the community and p...

Dr. Adrienne Hammill is Research Director of the Hemangioma & Vascular Malformation Program and Director of the HHT Center of Excellence at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. Her path to becoming a physician started when she was eight years old when she read an article about retinoblastoma, which is cancer with a genetic cause. She decided then that she wanted to cure cancer. She joins Matthew Zachary to discuss a rare condition known as Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT) and the differenc...

Kari Luther Rosbeck is the President & Chief Executive Officer of the TSC Alliance, a nonprofit whose mission is to find a cure for Tuberous Sclerosis Complex (TSC) while improving the lives of those affected. Kari began her life as a Theater nerd and started her own company in NYC after graduating from SUNY Albany. Tragedy struck when she lost her newborn to SIDS. Today she leads an incredible team and fights for equity and quality of life of tens of thousands of patients impacted by this rare ...

Chris Anselmo is the Director of Market Intelligence at the Muscular Dystrophy Association but he never envisioned becoming an advocate for a disease he never thought he'd get. After a car crash found him in the hospital on the receiving end of a random diagnosis of having extremely high creatine kinase levels, he was soon after diagnosed with Dysferlinopathy, specifically, Limb-Girdle muscular dystrophy, a rare muscle-weakening disease. No one asks to get sick but he went beast mode as a prolif...

Welcome to Season Four of NORDpod, the voice of rare disease. Kicking off 2022, and in recognition of Rare Disease Day, we are proud to welcome actor and social media influencer Adam Rose. Adam has amassed a considerable fan base by creating relatable, entertaining, and insightful video segments on TikTok, often sporting a blue cardigan. He is also a rare disease patient, advocate, and activist sharing his story about living with Gaucher’s Disease. Rare Disease Day is committed to raising aware...

On the show today, we welcome Dr. Edward Neilan, NORD's own Chief Medical and Scientific Officer. In this role, Ed oversees medical and research initiatives, including the Rare Disease Cures Accelerator-Data and Analytics Platform (RDCA-DAP) program that NORD established in partnership with FDA and the Critical Path Institute (C-Path) He carries a unique perspective as a physician and researcher and would like to focus this episode of NORDpod on the value of data sharing from a clinician’s persp...

Today’s extra-long, extra-special BONUS episode is brought to you from the 2021 NORD Breakthrough Summit. Every year, NORD hosts its flagship conference in October to discuss what’s new, relevant, and on the horizon in the rare disease space. The session we’re featuring is “Designing Trials for Inclusivity, Equity, and Engagement,” The discussion addresses health care inequities and what we can do to create clinical trials that are more representative of and beneficial for the community. We hope...

Chris Brannigan, a major in the British Army, took off his boots for a 1,200-mile barefoot walk down the eastern seaboard of the United States in an effort to raise funds for the creation of a gene therapy treatment that could help patients like his daughter Hasti, battling Cornelia de Lange Syndrome (CdLS ). The NORD community is so proud of Chris and what he was able to accomplish in raising awareness for the 30 million Americans living with a rare disease and the importance of research. You c...

On the show today, Kam Redlawsk is a designer, illustrator, writer, and disability advocate. After five years of being consistently misdiagnosed and not taken seriously, she was diagnosed correctly with a condition called GNE Myopathy, which is a very, very rare degenerative muscle wasting disorder. There's so much to unpack about her that can only be explained by hearing her story and understanding the journey she's undertaken. I'm not too fond of cat poster slogans, but she does make lemonade ...

Joining me today is Lewis Freese, an incredible young man fresh off the heels of being diagnosed with a rare disease during the pandemic, no less. (I mean, not that there's ever a good time for this to happen but COME ON!) The condition is called IGA Vasculitis and typically affects 2 in 100,000 children each year. As a college student, this threw everyone for a loop, and now Lewis has to spend the rest of his life managing chronic kidney disease, among other fabulous things. He is a genuinely a...

On the show today, Aprill Lane is a mother of five and rare disease and infertility advocate — and you do not want to mess with her. She and her husband, Brian, tried to have a baby on their own for 4½ years until they were diagnosed with unexplained infertility. Endless cycles and tens of thousands of dollars later, they are now the proud parents of five beautiful children, one of whom — Mark —was born with a rare genetic condition. So join us as we examine what it means to be your own advocate...

In celebration and recognition of Rare Cancer Day, I had the pleasure of speaking with Dan “Dry Dock” Shockley. Dan is a retired Navy, Operation Desert Storm; Enduring and Iraqi Freedom veteran and hereditary colon cancer warrior. After his initial colonoscopy, he was recommended for a genetic panel, passed along to specialists, was diagnosed and treated (surgically) for AFAP/hereditary colon cancer all within a two-month span. Since then, Dan has worked alongside leading researchers/clinicians ...

Kicking off Season 3 of NORDpod, I am joined by Karina Sturm, a disabled journalist, blogger, author, and filmmaker who tries to connect with chronically ill people around the world and spread the word about Ehlers-Danios Syndrome and other chronic illnesses. From giving up her job as a research associate in 2010 to cashing out her life savings to come to the US for better care, Karina has managed to adapt her life around her symptoms and is the accidental advocate you need to hear to know. Thro...

On the show today, Nick Kirchhof, a volunteer state ambassador in Colorado and member of the newly established Policy Steering Committee for NORD's Rare Action Network. Nick and his wife were welcomed into the club no one asks to join when their daughter Hayden was diagnosed with an extremely rare condition known as Cystinosis. In navigating these new waters, they found NORD and the Cystinosis Research Foundation, which offered up much-needed peer support and resources. Hayden's future is bright...

On the show today, it's all about Rare Disease Advisory Councils – or RDACs, for short. RDACs provide a platform for the rare community to have a stronger voice in state government. Joining us is NORD Director of Policy Heidi Ross, your one-stop human shop to understanding what these councils are, and how you – the listener – can take an active role in local policy changes. Long story short, RDACs can make a significant impact in your state, and you can contribute to that voice with resources fr...

Today on NORDpod, we welcome back Lesli Nordstrom, Director of Marketing and communications at NORD. As returning champion to the show, she’s back to get real about the rare disease community with reflection on the past 18 months. The pandemic’s impact cannot be understated. Millions of lives have been uprooted as we mourn the deaths of hundreds of thousands. But our shared pain and suffering are what make us stronger together. Lesli and Matthew also discuss the unique challenges facing the nonp...

On the show today, Matthew Zachary welcomes Jo-Ann D'Angelo, a Parry-Romberg syndrome patient and the Founder of The Parry-Romberg Syndrome Foundation. PRS, as it is known in acronym land, is an extremely rare facial disfigurement that impacts the bone, muscle, and dental only on one side of the face. There is no cure, and the only treatment is invasive plastic surgery that only impacts the appearance and doesn't address any underlying conditions. Jo-Ann is an extraordinary human being who very ...

On the show today: Jeff Goldstein, President, and Founder of the Lung Transplant Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides education and emotional support for transplant recipients and their caregivers and raises money for lung transplant research. Jeff was diagnosed in his mid-40s in peak health with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis — lots of syllables with a very bleak outlook. Eighteen years later, he's still here to talk about not just his incredible story but the extraordinary partner...

On the show today, we are talking all things adolescent and young adult (AYA) rare disease. Back when I was CEO at Stupid Cancer, we’d always say that AYA cancer was not better or worse, just different. And the same holds true for this community. Joining me is Seth Rotberg, a very vocal leader in the AYA rare disease community and the Founder of Our Odyssey. Seth lost his mother to Huntington’s Disease several years after she was initially diagnosed while he was in High School. He also tested po...

On the show today: Vanessa Boulanger is Director of Research at NORD and heads up — you guessed it — NORD’s research department. What kind of research, you ask? Well, I’m glad you asked. We’ll be discussing NORD’s I AM RARE platform, a patient registry that, with the rare disease community’s help, allows for a better understanding of rare diseases, how to manage them, improve treatments, and generally make life better for so many. All this and more. Enjoy the show. Follow us on social @NORDpodc...