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9. Continuing Medical Education on Long COVID & Other IACCs
53:17||Season 2, Ep. 9We’re doing something a little different on today’s episode. Amy is is joined by Kristi Woods, BSN, RN-BC, a friend and fellow Maine resident, who will read her testimony in support of a bill we worked on together in 2025. The bill was focused on improving education on Infection-Associated Chronic Conditions for medical providers in Maine. For today’s episode, I invited Kristi to share her chronic illness story by reading her testimony and to talk with us about an important continuing medical education project she has developed since we worked together on that bill. Providers interested in Kristi's course and additional education on ME/CFS and other Infection-Associated Chronic Conditions can contact Elizabeth Ciccarelli, M.Ed., Director of Continuing Medical Education, Maine Medical Association, ECiccarelli@mainephysicians.org. Kristi Woods, BSN, RN-BC, can be reached at kristi.m.woods@gmail.com.CONTINUING MEDICAL EDUCATION ON LONG COVID & OTHER IACCS: A CHAT WITH KRISTI WOODS, BSN, RN-BC"My journey with myalgic encephalomyelitis, or chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), likely began around 2010. Prior to becoming ill, I was a promising high school student. I had the 5th highest GPA in my high school graduating class, was one of the best runners in my district, and president of my senior class. My first year of college I started experiencing fatigue, digestive and gynecological issues. I did not get as much understanding as I needed as a student for my emerging medical difficulties. I was told by a professor that I was on a list of students they felt wouldn’t complete the program due to not applying myself, even though I had to work harder than my peers to retain the information. Over the years I continued to develop more symptoms and the ability to function in my career as a nurse became increasingly difficult..."Continues at https://legislature.maine.gov/testimony/resources/HCIFS20250430Woods133901651219286141.pdf CITED IN THIS EPISODEAn Act to Encourage Continuing Education Relating to Certain Infection-associated Chronic Conditions for Physicians and Nurses, LD 1688, 132nd Maine Legislature. (2025). https://legislature.maine.gov/legis/bills/display_ps.asp?LD=1688&snum=132 Supporting: LD 1688: An Act to Encourage Continuing Education Relating to Certain Infection Associated Chronic Conditions for Physicians and Nurses, 132nd Maine Legislature. (2025) (Kristi Woods). https://legislature.maine.gov/testimony/resources/HCIFS20250430Woods133901651219286141.pdfInfection-Associated Chronic Conditions: Clinical Insights for Long COVID, Lyme Disease, ME/CFS, POTS, and Dysautonomia (a self-paced online CME course):https://www.hanleyleadership.org/myalgic-encephalomyelitis-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-me-cfs/https://qclearninglab.org/course/infection-associated-chronic-conditions-clinical-insights-for-long-covid-lyme-disease-me-cfs-pots-and-dysautonomia/#1768581282612-d31c2cfe-31ea9715-04f4
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8. Boston Karen
36:47||Season 2, Ep. 8Did you know it’s possible to exit a two-night hospital stay mostly unscathed? Neither did we! Not until Boston Karen came along, that is. Amy reflects on a rare positive health care experience and we wonder at the difference a single provider can make. We dig into the concept of structural medical gaslighting and discuss how much agency individual providers have in their own and their patients’ experiences. We also share a bunch of ways we can begin to dismantle the existing medical industrial complex wherein structural medical gaslighting thrives. Importantly, we give a long-overdue shoutout all the Karen/Karins we’ve loved before and acknowledge #notalkarens (after some brief confusion over whether we mean #NotAllKarens or #NoTallKarens).BOSTON KARENI shiver under the covers, shrinking from the natural light worming its way across my bed. A cuddle from Boston Karen is exactly what I need right now.She knows. She's magic. A healer.Boston Karen pokes her head under the covers. What must she be thinking about the grown woman before her, teeth chattering, body shaking, cowering from the light, tears streaming down her face? What trauma could have evoked this response?A warm shower. The most banal of events. In a handicap-accessible, hospital-clean shower, no less.Continues at https://amyblackstonephd.substack.com/p/boston-karen CITED IN THIS EPISODEBrauer Lara, Werner de Cruppé, and Max Geraedts. 2025. “‘Take me seriously’: A qualitative interview study exploring healthcare experiences of endometriosis patients.” PLoS One 20(5): e0323883. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0323883 Berenstain, Nora. 2019. “White Feminist Gaslighting,” Hypatia 35: 733-758.7. Parasocial Relationships
47:20||Season 2, Ep. 7Amy confesses to having imaginary relationships with a whole bunch of people and we consider whether she is totally nuts or simply engaged in a bunch of parasocial relationships (or possibly both?). We go on to discuss the benefits of parasocial relationships for people with chronic illnesses, potential drawbacks for all parties involved, and what lessons social science has for us on the topic.PARASOCIAL RELATIONSHIPSDear Deb,I met you once in Nashville after a show and though my brain is foggy these days, it’s a moment I’ll cherish forever.Years later, you gave me the gift of visiting my home state of Maine and - even better - presented a show that allowed a person like me (light sensitivity, noise sensitivity, all the dumb sensitivities) to stay for the whole thing and share my very favorite artist with my parents who’d come to tow to help with my caretaking.Continues at https://amyblackstonephd.substack.com/p/dedication CITED IN THIS EPISODE:Horton, Donald, and R. Richard Wohl. 1956. “Mass Communication and Para-Social Interaction: Observations on Intimacy at a Distance.” Psychiatry 19 (3): 215–29.Liebers, Nicole, and Holger Schramm. 2019. "Parasocial Interactions and Relationships with Media Characters–An Inventory of 60 Years of Research." Communication Research Trends 38(2):4-31Struck-Peregończyk, Monika, and Iwona Leonowicz-Bukala. 2023. "Changing the Narrative: Self-Representations of Disabled People in Social Media." Przeglad Socjologii Jakosciowej 19(3):62-79. Schiappa Edward, Gregg Peter B., Hewes Dean E. (2005), The Parasocial Contact Hypothesis, “Communication Monographs”,vol. 72(1), pp. 92–115, https://doi.org/10.1080/03637750520003425446. To Minneapolis, With Love
31:33||Season 2, Ep. 6As former residents and forever fans of Minneapolis, we’re outraged and heartbroken by the occupation, kidnapping, and murder of residents that our government is shamelessly unleashing on the people who live there today. Everything is very much NOT alright. But Minnesotans are hardy - and hearty - folk and we love them and the state we moved from those 20+ years ago, deeply. In this episode, Amy shares an essay she wrote recently about the occupation in Minnesota and what the occupiers don’t understand about the people they so foolishly thought they could intimidate. We go on to reflect on our years in Minneapolis and the various ways that social trust has been the key to building the strong community ties that took ICE by storm.TO MINNEAPOLIS, WITH LOVENormally, the chill in Minneapolis melts easily - all it takes is a smile, a nod, a simple kindness - but there’s a new kind of ICE in town, the likes of which Minnesotans have never seen and, before they can melt it, it is quite literally killing them. Watching as the city that ushered me into adulthood is occupied and its people are kidnapped and murdered by our very own government is the sort of apocalyptic cognitive dissonance that was most definitely not on my Bingo card this year. Or ever.Continues at https://amyblackstonephd.substack.com/p/to-minneapolis-with-loveCITED IN THIS EPISODE:Howley, Kerry. January 23, 2026. “Your Friendly Neighborhood Resistance.” New York Magazine. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/minneapolis-vs-donald-trump-ice-invasion.htmlStrand, Palma J.,J.D.L.L.M., and Malka R. Kopell M.P.P. 2025. "A "Civity" Approach Helps Build the Civic Muscle that Underlies Healthy Communities." American Journal of Public Health 115(4):506-510 https://libraries.maine.edu/auth/EZproxy/test/authej.asp?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/civity-approach-helps-build-civic-muscle-that/docview/3188476442/se-2.As promised in the episode, note that the state with the HIGHEST levels of social trust in the nation, even higher than Minnesota, is (drum roll, please).... UTAH!5. Rebuilding Our Village
46:08||Season 2, Ep. 5What do you do when the community you spent years crafting falls apart? As we pick up the pieces wrought by the war that has been our experience with the pandemic, Long COVID, and our community's response to both, we assess where and how things went wrong and how we might begin rebuild. Good thing Amy's done lots of research on these topics - and that there's a whole new generation doing things differently that we can learn from!REBUILDING OUR VILLAGEWhen I interviewed childfree adults for my book, I learned that many nonparents form intentional communities around which they build their lives. Lance and I are no different. We settled in Bangor, Maine intending to stay here as we age. Eventually, we presumed, we’d die here.Over the years, our local network grew thanks to considered, intentional effort. We put real blood, sweat, tears, love, and resources into this wickedly wacky, absolutely lovable little city these past couple of decades. As a result, we’ve moved past the daily reminders that we are “from away” to feeling fully embraced. Never have I loved a place more deeply. Never have I felt more HOME.Continues at https://amyblackstonephd.substack.com/p/rebuilding-our-villageCITED IN THIS EPISODEBlackstone, Amy. Childfree by Choice: The Movement Redefining Family and Creating a New Age of Independence. New York: Dutton.Gardner, Susan K. and Amy Blackstone. 2015, 2023. “Confronting Faculty Incivility and Mobbing,” in Disrupting the Culture of Silence: Confronting Gender Inequality and Making Change in Higher Education, edited by Kris De Welde and Andi Stepnick. New York: Routledge.Johns Hopkins University: Gen Z In The WorkplaceStanford University: 8 ways Gen Z will change the workforceWest, Kath. 1991, 1997. Families We Choose: Lesbians, Gays, Kinship. New York: Columbia University Press. Amy's 2019 NYT OpEd: Grow Old Like the Golden Girls4. The Bucket Formerly Known as Silver Linings
39:04||Season 2, Ep. 4Forget about silver linings; midnight blue is where it's at. This week, Amy confronts her old habit of grasping for silver linings and considers a different, more nuanced approach (and color) along with lessons learned from life in a chronically ill body. Together, Lance and Amy discuss how they think about silver linings and how they find meaning when things seem to happen for no reason at all.THE BUCKET FORMERLY KNOWN AS SILVER LININGS“This sort of thing is old hat for me and I'm a huge silver linings person. I'm really just looking for help coping with my current condition and celebrating what I'm learning from it.”And so began the latest in my decades-long series of relationships where I bare all of my most humiliating truths, the ugliest bits that make it hard for even me to face myself after revealing them. I have sometimes revealed these truths within mere minutes of first meeting said compadre and they STILL look me in the eye after I’ve divulged the unsightliness within me. They look with compassion even.I'm talking about THERAPY. Said compadre is my THERAPIST. There, I said it.Continues at https://amyblackstonephd.substack.com/p/the-bucket-formerly-known-as-silverCITED IN THIS EPISODE Marishelle Lieberwerth and Alistair Niemeijer. “Lost and changed meaning in life of people with Long Covid: a qualitative study.” 2024. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF QUALITATIVE STUDIES ON HEALTH AND WELL-BEING VOL. 19, 2289668 https://doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2023.2289668Anna M. Carapellotti, Hannie (J.E.M.) Meijerink, Christine Gravemaker-Scott, Lucia Thielman, Renée Kool, Natalie Lewin, and Tineke A. Abma. 2023. “Escape, expand, embrace: the transformational lived experience of rediscovering the self and the other while dancing with Parkinson’s or Multiple Sclerosis.” INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF QUALITATIVE STUDIES ON HEALTH AND WELL-BEING VOL. 18, 2143611 https://doi.org/10.1080/17482631.2022.21436113. Healing with the Housewives
34:54||Season 2, Ep. 3Amy is delivering a special form of torture to Lance this week and we're discussing all things Bravo. Bravo, Bravo, f'ing Bravo! Amy shares how the 'wives have helped her cope with the challenges of chronic illness and we consider the impact and possibilities of reality TV more broadly - all while enjoying some pink bubbly, in honor of the real housewives, of course.HEALING WITH THE HOUSEWIVESMy name is Amy. I am a sociologist and I have a Ph.D. and I like to think I’m reasonably smart and I believe that wealth is distributed in ALL the wrong ways in my home country of the U.S. of A. I am a raging feminist and damn proud of it. I believe the propagation of MAGA beliefs is mostly the result of widespread inequality, abuse of power, corporate monopolization, and crippling fear.And. Wait for it. I love Bravo. The network where wealth is flaunted in all the dumbest ways. The network whose roster of stars includes dingdongs who will charter four private planes to Puerto Rico to deliver $50 gift cards to the people, as long as they can catch it on camera. This IS a crisis, after all...Continues at https://amyblackstonephd.substack.com/p/8c9f81f1-0049-449c-a10e-0a1a16e3d0b2CITED IN THIS EPISODEBranco, Susan F. 2025. "Teaching while Streaming: Adult Adoptee Themes in the Real Housewives Reality Series." Family Journal 33(2):244-247. doi: Teaching While Streaming: Adult Adoptee Themes in The Real Housewives Reality Series - Susan F. Branco, 2025 .