In this episode of Post-Exertional Mayonnaise, Dov Zeller, Litsa Dremousis and Daniel Moore discuss the challenges of living with ME and chronic illness, focusing on the fluctuations in health and the emotional costs associated with these ups and downs. They share personal experiences, listener contributions, and coping strategies, emphasizing the importance of community support and understanding in navigating these challenges. In this conversation, the speakers discuss the complexities of livin...
May 05, 2025•55 min
In this episode of Post-Exertional Mayonnaise, the hosts, Daniel Moore, Litsa Dremousis and Dov Zeller delve into the intersection of chronic illness and toxic religion, exploring the emotional and spiritual harm that can arise from religious beliefs. They discuss Kate Bowler's book, 'Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I've Loved,' which addresses the imposition of reasons for illness by others. The conversation highlights the burden of blame often placed on individuals with chronic ...
Mar 14, 2025•56 min
In this episode, Daniel Moore, Litsa Dremousis and Dov Zeller discuss the complexities of living with ME and the role of social media in building community and relationships. They explore the impact of isolation, the significance of online friendships, and the challenges of navigating medical misinformation. The conversation emphasizes the importance of finding balance in online interactions and the comfort found in shared experiences within the ME community.Tell us your 'bring a thing'! Is ther...
Feb 18, 2025•49 min
In this episode of the Post-Exertional Mayonnaise podcast, Daniel Moore, Litsa Dremousis, and Dov Zeller discuss the challenges of living with ME and chronic illness, the impact of recent losses in the community, and the importance of navigating personal and political changes. They reflect on coping mechanisms, the significance of community support, and the role of media in providing comfort. The conversation emphasizes the need for understanding and empathy in a world that often overlooks the r...
Jan 27, 2025•54 min
In this episode of the Post-Exertional Mayonnaise podcast, host Daniel Moore speaks with Merel van der Noop, the music director of the Long COVID Choir and Long COVID Kids Choir. They discuss Merel's personal journey with Long COVID, the challenges of navigating healthcare, and the transformative power of music in coping with chronic illness. The conversation highlights the importance of community, support, and creative expression in the healing process, as well as the unique experiences of chil...
Nov 11, 2024•35 min
In this episode of Post-Exertional Mayonnaise, hosts Dov and Daniel explore the themes of social isolation and sensory overload experienced by those living with ME and chronic illness. They discuss the impact of these conditions on social lives, the challenges of navigating social interactions, and the absurdity of medical care. The conversation highlights the emotional toll of social deconditioning, the importance of community, and the joy found in mundane social interactions. Through humour an...
Oct 28, 2024•1 hr 2 min
In this episode of the Post-Exertional Mayonnaise podcast, Daniel Moore speaks with Lisanne Jacobs, a songwriter and chronic illness advocate, about her journey with ME and the role of creativity in coping with chronic illness. Lisanne shares her personal story, including her diagnosis, struggles with healthcare, and the importance of music as a form of expression and healing. They discuss the challenges of navigating the healthcare system, the impact of chronic illness on daily life, and the ho...
Oct 10, 2024•56 min
In this episode, our third and final part of our chronic illness and cancer mini-series, Oonagh Carr talks to Daniel about her profound journey living with long COVID and a subsequent breast cancer diagnosis. She discusses the drastic changes in her life, the challenges of navigating the healthcare system, and the importance of community support. Oonagh emphasizes the need for better understanding and research into long COVID, as well as the emotional toll of living with chronic illness. Through...
Oct 02, 2024•39 min
Catherine Hale shares her chronic illness story and the journey of founding the Chronic Illness Inclusion Project. She discusses the challenges of living with ME and the impact it has had on her life, including the loss of being a parent and the realization that her future may be cut short. She also talks about the difficulties of finding flexible work opportunities and the lack of representation for people with chronic illness in the disability rights movement. The Chronic Illness Inclusion Pro...
Sep 02, 2024•52 min
This episode of the Post-Exertional Mayonnaise podcast features a conversation about living with ME and cancer. Jennifer Smith shares her experience of being diagnosed with ME in 2020 and later being diagnosed with breast cancer. She discusses the challenges of navigating medical appointments and treatments while dealing with severe ME symptoms. Litsa Dremousis also shares her experience of being diagnosed with thyroid cancer and the difficulties she faced whilst interacting with physicians. Bot...
Aug 23, 2024•1 hr 6 min
Anneke Vliegen, author of Recognise ME, shares her memoir about medical gaslighting and living with chronic illness. She discusses her journey from childhood to adulthood, experiencing various symptoms and misdiagnoses along the way. Anneke emphasizes the importance of open and honest communication in her relationships. She reflects on the challenges of losing friendships and offers advice to others in similar situations. Anneke’s book sheds light on the emotional impact of chronic illness and t...
Aug 13, 2024•1 hr 10 min
Jessica Dove London, founder of the Turnto app, joins Daniel to discuss her journey and the purpose of the app. The app aims to bridge the knowledge translation gap in healthcare by providing people with ME and Long Covid with curated research, lived experiences, tips, and insights related to their specific health conditions. The app delivers personalized updates on a daily basis, allowing users to stay informed without feeling overwhelmed. The community-driven platform also allows users to shar...
Aug 05, 2024•48 min
In memory of Maeve Boothby O'Neill, we re-release this episode from 2023 whereby Sarah Boothby reads excerpts from Maeve's unpublished novel, The Alchemists; or Economic Consequences of the peace. In a small Dartmoor village, the postman goes missing and is found unconscious in a hedge. The villagers speculate about what could have happened, but the truth remains a mystery. The story explores the themes of community and class differences. The author plays with the genre of detective fiction, cre...
Jul 27, 2024•1 hr 9 min
In Which Daniel Tries a Smoothie and Learns that GET was sold for $20,000: Rachel Riggs, also known as the food phenom on Instagram, joins Daniel to discuss her journey living with ME and her passion for food and nutrition. Rachel shares how Jason Mraz came to endorse her upcoming book, All in Good Taste, and the challenges she faced in the publishing industry as a disabled cookbook author. She also talks about her misdiagnosis of MS and her experience with different treatments. Rachel emphasize...
Jul 15, 2024•52 min
Dan and Dov catch up to launch our new patreon service. Patreon is a website and app which enables you to give regularly to support the podcast. We will also sporadically be posting exclusive shorter episodes directly to Patreon for members. If you choose a paid support level of $5 per month or more, we'll send you a podcast tote bag or mug as our gift to you! Once you've signed up to our paid patreon, then please e-mail us to let us know your address and choice of gift! At present our gifts are...
Jul 10, 2024•14 min
Apologies for initial sound problems. We had some technical difficulties at first and needed to try and clean up the sound. Please do stick with us though! In this conversation, Dan, Dov, and Jeremy Jeffs discuss Jeremy's project of photographing people with ME. Jeremy shares his own experience with ME and how he got into filmmaking and photography. They explore the different challenges and rewards of photographing people with ME, including the intimate nature of the process and the importance o...
Jul 01, 2024•45 min
Content Warning: Discussion includes end of life care and Medical Assistance In Dying. Jeffery Smith shares his experience living with ME and cancer. He discusses the challenges he faced as a queer individual growing up in a small town and the impact of societal stigma on his self-perception. Jeffery talks about his journey with ME, starting with a bout of Mono (Glandular Fever) that eventually led to a diagnosis of ME. He describes the daily struggles and limitations he faces due to the illness...
Jun 23, 2024•55 min
Daniel meets Oonagh Cousins, a research fellow studying Long Covid at Oxford University. Oonagh is also a former professional rower with team GB. We talk about her personal experience of long covid, processing chronic illness guilt and grief, and her brief engagement with the Lightning Process, a programme which claims to treat ME and Long Covid through a form of brain retraining. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-69040592 Radio Episode: Mind Over Matter: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001zg...
Jun 12, 2024•1 hr 2 min
Dan meets rapper and hip hop artist, Mama Chill, A.K.A, Stacy Hart to discuss her recently released track, 'The ME Scandal' as part of ME awareness month. Stacy shares with great openness about her love of hip hop, as well as her ME story and how she was gaslit and neglected by medical professionals. She explains how she waited many years for diagnosis and support. After two years of waiting for a specialist clinic, it quickly became apparent to Stacy that the service did not offer her anything ...
Jun 04, 2024•58 min
Dov and Dan get together to review the first year of the podcast, looking back to how it all started and looking ahead to what we hope to achieve going forwards. It's been quite a year. If you have been with us since the beginning. Thanks for sticking with us. If you've just found us, welcome! We had technical issues on this episode, so backup video was used for the first five minutes and then quality improves. Just to make it clear, Dan's ears don't stick out like in the image, for some reason ...
May 28, 2024•49 min
Daniel meets with Steve Topple and Nicola Jeffrey from The Chronic Collaboration. Here, they discuss how they met, their own personal values around campaigning in the areas of disability and chronic illness and the need for change with regard to how campaigning is undertaken for people with ME and other intersecting chronic illness conditions. Whilst we talk in this episode about mainly UK issues within the ME and chronic illness landscape, the issues that we discuss can often resonate universal...
May 20, 2024•1 hr 6 min
Ahead of world ME day 2024 Daniel spoke to Australian Actress and Activist Eliza Charley. Eliza tells her own very personal Myalgic Encephalomyelitis story and reflects on her experiences of Graded Exercise and Brain re-training programmes and stresses how ultimately these left her more ill and questioning her sense of self. We also talked about finding language to express ourselves and the importance of recognising human worth in ourselves and others. Contact us: www.pempod.com Pempodcast23@gma...
May 12, 2024•57 min
Daniel speaks in this episode to Lia Pas, a multi-disciplinary artist and composer from Saskatoon, Canada. In this wide ranging discussion we talk about whether its possible to flourish whilst living with ME. The Hum on ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/s/872acbb154 Modern Stoicism Stoic Week info: https://modernstoicism.com/stoic-week/ Instagram (piano improvs and embroidery work): https://www.instagram.com/lia_pas/ LinkTree which has all Lia's links in it: https://linktr.ee/lia_pas To contact the podca...
May 06, 2024•1 hr
Daniel meets his childhood paediatrician, Dr Nigel Speight again after almost 30 years. We talk about the history of disbelief that comes with an ME diagnosis, his work with families who are accused of Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) and his hopes and fears for the future. www.pempod.com Contact us: pempodcast23@gmail.com
Apr 18, 2024•56 min
Daniel chats to Becky Holmes, a British writer who lives with ME. In her book, 'Keanu Reeves is not in love with you', Becky explores 'the murky world of online romance fraud'. Becky discusses her own experience of becoming ill with ME and how she developed her book idea. Book available here: https://amzn.eu/d/dAYDJZJ www.pempod.com pempodcast23@gmail.com
Apr 04, 2024•55 min
Dov and Dan catch up and talk about a range of issues relating to living with ME/CFS. We talk about how we go about explaining our chronic illness to others, the recent article in the Guardian by George Monbiot and the challenges of getting your hair cut! https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/mar/12/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-me-treatments-social-services Ivan Illich: The Right to Useful Unemployment https://archive.ica.art/sites/default/files/downloads/Ivan%20Illich_%20The%20Right%20to%2...
Mar 29, 2024•54 min
Daniel is joined by award winning health science writer, Amy Arthur, who has written a book about pacing. Pace Yourself: How to have energy in an exhausting world, brings Amy's experience of living with ME into a book for anyone dealing with fatigue. We talked about the challenges of writing a book about fatigue and pacing, the importance of rest, the impact of emotional energy output, social media use and becoming unconsciously competent at managing our energy levels. Amy has seen positive bene...
Mar 20, 2024•55 min
Daniel is joined by Anna Redshaw, creator of Blue Sunday: Tea Party for ME. Blue Sunday takes place each year during ME Awareness month. The aim is simple - to raise awareness of ME and money for ME charities, whilst having a cup of tea and a piece of cake! Anna explains how the initiative began and grew into something that has raised over £100,000 for ME organisations over the last 12 years. Find out more about Blue Sunday on Anna's blog page, M.E. myself and I...https://the-slow-lane.com/ Anna...
Mar 13, 2024•37 min
Bear Lawrence joins Daniel to tell us about his recent debut fiction publication: The Embleton Murders, A DCI Parrish Crime Thriller. We talk about Bear's experience of becoming ill with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and how he was led to write about his experiences and ultimately write a crime thriller centred on a character with ME. Bear's books can be purchased through Amazon: https://amzn.eu/d/cp1Fakl www.pempod.com contact us: pempodcast23@gmail.com
Mar 07, 2024•46 min
In this episode Daniel chats to Sacha Kenton, a screenwriter from New England living with ME who has written a dark comedy tv series called 'I Meow Back'. A proof of concept is being recorded this summer and it is hoped that a large streaming service will pick up the series to produce it going forward. Sacha is passionate about portraying disability in the mainstream. If you would like to support the project financially please check out the fundraiser here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/i-m...
Feb 21, 2024•40 min
