Kim and Penn Holderness on Reinvention, Grief, and Alzheimer's

They quit TV news to make pajama videos in 2013. Now Kim and Penn Holderness are taking on Alzheimer's before it ever starts. In December 2013, Kim and Penn Holderness posted XMAS Jammies as a family Christmas card. It went viral on a slow news week, and with two months of savings and two small kids, they left local TV to make internet video full time, years before that was a career anyone could explain to their parents. Jen and the Holdernesses talk about those early creator days, including the fellow vlogger who told them every new baby was worth a million followers, what they owe their kids for putting them online before anyone knew better, why every couple should have a podcast even if they never post it, and why they retired The Holderness Family Podcast to start Laugh Lines, a show about aging better together. They recorded in a tender week: their daughter had just gone back to college, and Penn's mother had died two days earlier after nine years with Alzheimer's. Penn shares what he learned about his own genetic risk through a prevention trial with neurologist Dr. Richard Isaacson, the lifestyle and medical changes he is making now, the lower-cost blood test in development that could open this kind of screening to far more people, and how his mother's brain went to a research study at Duke within an hour of her death. Penn's experience is his own; talk with your doctor about your risk. Part of our October series, Courage to Change: Do It Scared. Still to come this month: Sarah Stewart Holland and Beth Silvers of Pantsuit Politics. RESOURCES Laugh Lines with Kim & Penn Holderness: https://shows.acast.com/holdermess-th... RetainYourBrain: https://retainyourbrain.com AlzLabs: https://alzlabs.org CONNECT WITH KIM AND PENN Website: https://theholdernessfamily.com Instagram:   / theholdernessfamily   YouTube:    / theholdernessfamily   CONNECT WITH JEN Website: https://jenhatmaker.com/ Instagram:   / jenhatmaker   Facebook:   / jenhatmaker   YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/JenHatma... Has Alzheimer's touched your family, or are you making a change you never planned on? Leave us a voicemail and we might play it on the show: https://jenhatmaker.com/podcast The For the Love Podcast is presented by Audacy. #JenHatmaker #ForTheLove #HoldernessFamily