TSC Talks and Cannabinoid Medicine: Celebrating 100 Podcasts

1 Shares

Today we feature a very special individual and a celebration of epic proportion. Jill Woodworth is the co-owner and producer/host for TSC Talks, LLC - and she's a person that's become a close friend as well as a collaborative associate in a cannabinoid medicine endeavor.

Working with the crew, including Lisa Larson who’s the editor and website developer, has been beyond a pleasure over the last 6 months. I’ll always feel that the paradigm shifted dramatically when these two individuals took on the world of cannabinoid medicine as their guests. What was once an awesome group that talks it up about kids with seizures stemming from Tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) – which is a rare multisystem autosomal dominant genetic disease that causes kids to have drastic developmental delays, Autism, and Epilepsy – has now become a powerhouse of information for parents and professionals to learn from. Tonight they celebrate on Facebook live having aired 100 episodes and it’s beyond humbling to realize that several of them included talks of Genevieve, Autism, Epilepsy, and the latest ways to combat stress, anxiety, fear, and actual symptoms of a pandemic sprawling across the globe. Without a doubt, TSC talks have transformed into an educational arena like none other.

Now let’s hear from the star of this show today – Jill Woodworth;

"I'm sitting here with tears in my eyes as I type this.

I just texted my oldest daughter to thank her for being a part of this podcast. We just hit 100 episodes and she was one of the first guests. She’d be more reluctant now to share her story as she’s grown in leaps and bounds cognitively and isn’t quite as open as she was in the past. I told her I’d learned so much about what I wish I knew when she was younger and I wish I could have helped her more. But she’s doing fabulous despite having one of the roughest years of her life. Despite having some really challenging days. She’s here, she’s got some people in her court and she’s got somewhat of a plan. At least short-term. And so it goes for our loved ones that have fallen off the grid, so to speak. Who’s to say how many we could re-animate in ways that we have yet to imagine if we could be free to tap the power of cannabinoid medicine, plant medicine, and the psychedelic experience? Shaman style. Listening to our inner voices. The reverberating epigenetic imprint and taint from lifetimes lived with little more than a pinhole of a window to see anything other than the very next minute and grief and despair right down the line.”

"That's what's not happening and despite my positive twists, deep down it all pains me.

When I take that large step backward out of my own way and try to see it as it really looks. Do we ever really do that anymore or are we all busy accepting and telling each other it’s all going to be OK or we’re lucky and we need to be grateful? yes yes yes but no-no-no too. It’s like a bed of lies. It’s not OK that I had to “dumb down” my daughter, to play to her worst traumatic tangles to get her a seat at the table. The table of social services. Of disability social security. Of government benefits. Of sittin’ home and living off the government for the rest of her life. Despite her being a staunch trumper?”

"Yeah, it's just complicated, messy, painful and I don't have the time, nor can we risk the judgment, doubt, and naysayin' that would surely be cast in our direction if we let it rip.

That story. It’s just a story any way that so many of us have. About how we had a child that had a disability and it “wrecked” them and it “wrecked” us in the most tragic and perverse ways in this time and place in history, this lifetime where the ever-widening margins that more and more of us fall into as we attempt to subscribe to some impossible thread of what’s perceived as normal, competent, capable and functioning. So of course she’s not wrecked, I’m not wrecked, nothing is wrecked but it sure as hell feels like it some days. Not for all of us…but there are many.”

"So we'll shut it down, for now, the awareness's we’re faced with and temper it with, the fact that yes there's some awesome programming and options out there for our loved ones that fall under the "umbrella" of some sort of cognitive challenge... We have some stuff and people are engaged, interested, and learning.

And some care. But, as a parent of children that have existed within the system for more than a few years, it’s just not OK. It is not OK what we ignore, look away from, justify, tolerate and ultimately accept and live with….in light of #COVID19 now strapped to our backs like a kamikaze pilot, it bears the question, is it worth it? When ADA and IDEA can just fall off the rails like it has and we are home with our kids or not home with our kids who cannot be home-schooled. Not without serious risk, time, energy, and planning. Seriously?”

"What I read Moms posting about what is going on with their TSC and/or other behaviorally affected kids, is like nothing I've seen to date in frequency and extremes.

But we are supposed to go to webinars and virtual meetups with doctors and other professionals that seem to think they can help…maybe they can b/c it doesn’t really matter who helps, but the fact that there is some noise about the fact that people need help and they need it now and we don’t have time to nitpick and choose over some absolutes in the form of some FDA approved treatment or vaccine. Whatever we have in our toolbox now, we gotta use it.”

"I know personally what helps me, has kept me from any illness over the last 4 years or so, I mean any illness, injury, even minor cold is the immune-boosting properties of plant medicine and intense daily exercise.

And a lot of faith. I will say it loud and proud. We’ve got to start D.I.Y as much as possible in these troubled times and the podcast was a precog, an outpost, a playbook for doing just that. So thanks MaryEllen, for keeping me alive, pushing forward, a spark in the darkness of a despairing soul, I found a reason to continue on. You are that spark and this podcast is the record of a divinely inspired process of growth and healing. A day at a time and never a straight line or black and white decision….a long gray cloudy day with a few brilliant bursts of bright blue sky and sunshine. Sometimes that’s all we get.”

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Ut elit tellus, luctus nec ullamcorper mattis, pulvinar dapibus leo.

Over the last few months, it’s been podcast after podcast every week with Jill, including one recorded yesterday that will definitely put their numbers well over that triple-digit benchmark they hit for the celebration that will occur tonight on Facebook Live that will include multitudes of well-known cannabis personalities. I’m personally involved in such an intense R&D project I’m not sure I’ll be able to be there – so I’m publishing this today in celebration of an awesome crew that doesn’t talk on podcasts ‘just to inform and have fun’ – there’s a much bigger picture called Nicky’s Garden of Hope – if you don’t know about it please read their website as TSC Talks is part of one huge project to fund the future people with disabilities. It’s exciting and energizing to work with a crew of people that have their eye on the real prize and it’s not making millions or becoming the next cannabis rock star – it’s on changing and saving lives. People matter – everything else is secondary.

It’s beyond a humbling privilege to be part of all of this,