Episode #22
Reimagining Dementia: From Tragedy to Joy, Creativity & Human Connection, Accepting the Becoming | Mary Fridley
What If Everything We Know About Dementia Is Wrong? | What if we could change the narrative and find ourselves in a world, where we are going through life as playful actors? Let’s Reimagine! In this episode, Manuela talks to Mary Fridley from the East Side Institute in NYC which shares her innovative approach to dementia, emphasizing creativity, play and reimagining care environments to foster human connection and dignity. Discover how social therapeutics and community-driven initiatives are transforming perceptions and experience and creating new and more life-affirming ways to live together. In a culture which is obsessed with knowing and control, people are often treated as things which need to be fixed. But we are no things. We are sensitive souls with magical wisdom on a human journey through the universe. And together, with our innate capacity to play and be creative, we can make it more joyful. "We are not simply who we are. We are who we are and who we are becoming." Mary Fridley Mary challenges the familiar “tragedy narrative” surrounding dementia and invites us to look beyond diagnosis, decline and limitation toward more human connection, creativity, play, community and joyfulness. Together, Manuela and Mary explore: • Why people living with dementia are often dehumanized by the culture around them • What it means to see a person not only as who they are, but as who they are becoming • Why play and improvisation are not merely activities, but fundamental human capacities • How the principle of “Yes, and…” can help us create new possibilities together • Why a truly humane future of dementia care requires more than another “how-to” solution • How healthcare leaders, communities and families can create environments where people can continue to participate, contribute and grow • How social therapeutics offers a human-centered approach tomental health. • Why Reimagining Dementia sees dementia as a social and cultural conversation - not only a medical one Mary also introduces the global Taking It to the Streets campaign , inviting people to bring Reimagining Dementia into public spaces through conversations, walks, art, storytelling, intergenerational gatherings and other creative activities. "Go, and just start a conversation..." The 2026 campaign runs from World Alzheimer's Day on September 21 through October 18 under the theme “Coming Together With Others.” And stay until the very end for “Let’s Reimagine,” the SONG created as part of the global Reimagining Dementia movement. This is a conversation about dementia - but it is also a conversation about how we want to live, care, connect and create together. How we support "becoming" in all of our lives. A new episode of Let's Create a Healing Temple! — the global movement for a more human, conscious and healing future of health and wellbeing in a New Earth reality. Hosted by Manuela Forster | SHAMANU World | THE Future Medicine Woman Ressources and Take action: IG @futuremedicinewoman Let's Create a Healing Temple! / SHAMANU World Let's Create a Healing Temple! — SHAMANU World Reimagining Dementia — official website Reimagining Dementia: A Creative Coalition for Justice Taking It to the Streets — campaign information and 2026 participation Taking It to the Streets — 2026 campaign Mary Fridley — “Kitwood Groundhog Day” article on LinkedIn Facing “a kind of Kitwood Groundhog Day” — Mary Fridley The Guardian — “Meet the dementia rebels” The Guardian: Meet the dementia rebels — diagnosed and determined to change people's minds Reimagining Dementia on Facebook Reimagining Dementia on Facebook Listen to an interview with Mary and Dr. Susan Massad about The Joy of Dementia (You Gotta Be Kidding!) Read "Emotional? Yes. Tragedy? No. My mom, Tom Kitwood and me" Mary Fridley, Faculty, East Side Institute Founder and Leader, The Joy of Dementia (You Gotta be Kidding!) You can contact Mary per e-mail: mfridley@eastsideinstitute.org reimaginingdementia@gmail.com
