Love Doesn't Pay The Bills: Highlighting the Value of Family Caregiving

Two Squared Media Productions
  • 5.0 (10)
  • Documentary
  • Updated Weekly

In Love Doesn't Pay the Bills, we explore the role of family caregivers in the modern United States through personal stories and interviews with leaders. Care work is vital to all other aspects of life, yet often under-resourced. Caregivers cannot house and feed ourselves or provide for our own medical needs based on our love for our family members alone: access to income matters. We also have the same needs as other workers for regular time off, to participate in social life and recreation, and for ongoing education and new opportunities over time. email Lisa: lisatschudi@twosquaredmediaproductions.com Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills-highlighting-the-value-of-family-caregiving--5692861/support.

  1. The Vital Importance of Paid Family Leave: With Guest Elizabeth Milligan Cordova

    4d ago

    The Vital Importance of Paid Family Leave: With Guest Elizabeth Milligan Cordova

    Elizabeth Milligan Cordova is an educator, early childhood advocate, and parent. She currently works for TEACH Colorado, helping to expand and strengthen early childhood education pathways. Across all of her roles, she remains deeply committed to advancing equity in education at every level.A parent to two young children, ages four and one, Elizabeth spends much of her time playing Go Fish, watching ballet performances in her kitchen, and doing dishes and laundry. Her youngest baby, Madeline, was born prematurely at 33 weeks and has benefited from Colorado’s early intervention services. Elizabeth loves yoga, running, travel, and reading, and treasures living close to her parents, sister, and brother-in-law. Elizabeth wrote this opinion piece about paid leave: https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2026/05/21/paid-leave-employees-pregnancy-childbirth/90163849007/ She and her daughter feature in the documentary Lifelines On this episode of Love Doesn't Pay the Bills, Elizabeth shares in depth about her experience with her baby in the NICU, and the importance of Paid Leave for all employees. She expresses very clearly how much positive impact strong support including paid leave has during a difficult postpartum and caregiving experience. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills-highlighting-the-value-of-family-caregiving--5692861/support. Follow us on Facebook or Bluesky.  Subscribe to Lisa's newsletter on Substack.

    32 min
  2. Replay of What If We Really Believed That Care Is A Part of Everyone's Life?: With Guest Emily Kenway

    Jun 4

    Replay of What If We Really Believed That Care Is A Part of Everyone's Life?: With Guest Emily Kenway

    This episode was originally published on June 20, 2023 We're joined by Emily Kenway, the author of "Who Cares: The Hidden Crisis of Caregiving, and How We Solve It". "Who cares" is a very loving memoir of Emily's own caregiving experience. It also is a great work of advocacy by imagining the changes that would happen throughout our world if we started from the default assumption that all people will be caregivers at some time in their lives. https://www.emilykenway.com/about Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills-highlighting-the-value-of-family-caregiving--5692861/support. Follow us on Facebook or Bluesky.  Subscribe to Lisa's newsletter on Substack.

    35 min
  3. Care Stories and Themes: With Guest Kat McGowan

    May 28

    Care Stories and Themes: With Guest Kat McGowan

    Kat McGowan is a journalist whose life was changed by family caregiving. She was a 2024-25 Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellow, and developed a series for NPR about caregiving and mental health.  We discuss common themes Kat noticed in her interviews as well as advice to someone ready to tell their own care story in a meaningful way.  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills-highlighting-the-value-of-family-caregiving--5692861/support. Follow us on Facebook or Bluesky.  Subscribe to Lisa's newsletter on Substack.

    32 min
  4. The workforce holding our healthcare system together: With Christine Villabona-Kuntz

    May 21

    The workforce holding our healthcare system together: With Christine Villabona-Kuntz

    Christine Villabona-Kuntz joins us to discuss her article in USA Today "I'm one of 48 million unpaid caregivers. Health care collapses without us". Christine is a nurse, and her perspecitve on care changed when she also became the family caregiver to her own mother.  We discuss the crisis facing family caregivers and people in need of care. There are 43 million family caregivers in the United States: a labor force holding together our healthcare system. What do we have in common? Many of us are exhausted, and in need of real supports that allow us to continue this work feasibly. Christine urges legislative advocacy whenever possible. Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills-highlighting-the-value-of-family-caregiving--5692861/support. Follow us on Facebook or Bluesky.  Subscribe to Lisa's newsletter on Substack.

    33 min
  5. The Value of Family Caregiving Across America: With Guest Rita Choula

    May 14

    The Value of Family Caregiving Across America: With Guest Rita Choula

    Rita B. Choula, MA is the senior director of caregiving at the AARP Public Policy Institute. In her role, she drives the development of family caregiving initiatives by providing content expertise, both within AARP and in partnership with a range of external collaborators. Her work bridges policy and research to practice, centered on identifying and supporting needs of family caregivers. Rita shares information from AARP's Valuing the Invaluable report: American family members provide 49.5 billion hours of care with an economic value of $1 trillion.  Family care tasks include technical nursing tasks which in a paid setting would be highly paid.  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills-highlighting-the-value-of-family-caregiving--5692861/support. Follow us on Facebook or Bluesky.  Subscribe to Lisa's newsletter on Substack.

    32 min
  6. Considering Our Time: With Guest Nancy Folbre

    May 7

    Considering Our Time: With Guest Nancy Folbre

    "Conventional measures of economic success don’t capture the experience of everyday life in the U.S. The stock market is booming, and Gross Domestic Product is trudging upward. But inflation remains endemic, and the cost of care services is going up even faster than the “cost of living” measured by the standard Consumer Price Index." -Nancy Folbre What economic picture do we get when we ask questions about how people use all of their time, rather than just tracking dollars earned and spent? Guest Nancy Folbre is Professor Emerita of Economics at UMass Amherst and the author of Making Care Work: Why Our Economy Should Put People First. We discuss the limitations of using GDP to define the health of our economy and how we get very different pictures when we consider time use rather than earmed money alone.  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills-highlighting-the-value-of-family-caregiving--5692861/support. Follow us on Facebook or Bluesky.  Subscribe to Lisa's newsletter on Substack.

    30 min
  7. Love Is Not the Same as Unlimited Skilled Labor: With Guest Laura Mauldin

    Apr 30

    Love Is Not the Same as Unlimited Skilled Labor: With Guest Laura Mauldin

    Welcome back to the relaunch of Love Doesn't Pay the Bills: Highlighting the Value of Care Work!  Guest Laura Mauldin is the author of "In Sickness and In Health", about America's failure to properly support citizens who are chronically ill or disabled, instead relying on the unpaid labor of spouses. Laura interviews care recipient and caregiver dyads who are romantic partners. Laura shares some of her own experience caregiving for a spouse. We discuss the common framing of 'love' to obligate people to extensive care labor, some of the harms this obligation causes as well as common themes Laura noticed in her interviews.  Connect with Love Doesn't Pay the Bills Podcast on FacebookFind lovedoesntpaypod on Blueskysign up for Lisa's newsletter right to your email  Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills-highlighting-the-value-of-family-caregiving--5692861/support. Follow us on Facebook or Bluesky.  Subscribe to Lisa's newsletter on Substack.

    34 min
  8. There are Roles for Both Informal and Formal Supports in Caregiving: With Guest Donna Thomson

    04/24/2025

    There are Roles for Both Informal and Formal Supports in Caregiving: With Guest Donna Thomson

    Informal or natural supports are care that is provided as part of a relationship, unpaid and outside of particular organizations or structures. It's what we build relationships from and a deep part of being  human.  Formal supports are the paid caregivers who do specific tasks at specific times as part of a paid job within some kind of organization. For example: A parent providing care for their own child is informal support, and a teacher at a preschool provides formal support. Formal supports cannot replace family care, but they can wrap around the whole dyad or family to support the meaningful, loving care which happens informally. Donna Thomson is a co-author of a study on the interaction between formal supports and informal. Donna Thomson is a caregiver, author and award-winning educator.  She is the mother of two grown children, one who has severe cerebral palsy and medical complexity. Donna also helped care for her mother who lived with dementia until she passed away in the summer of 2018 at the age of 96. Donna is the co-author (with Dr. Zachary White) of The Unexpected Journey of Caring: The Transformation of Loved One to Caregiver (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019) and author of The Four Walls of My Freedom: Lessons I’ve Learned From a Life of Caregiving (The House of Anansi Press, 2014). Donna is a co-founder and Co-Director of CanChild Family Engagement in Research Program and she facilitates the Caregiving Essentials Course, all at McMaster University. She currently sits on the advisory board of the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence where she won the inaugural Vickie Cammack Trailblazer Award. Read more about the study on Donna's Blog Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills-highlighting-the-value-of-family-caregiving--5692861/support. Follow us on Facebook or Bluesky.  Subscribe to Lisa's newsletter on Substack.

    29 min
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In Love Doesn't Pay the Bills, we explore the role of family caregivers in the modern United States through personal stories and interviews with leaders. Care work is vital to all other aspects of life, yet often under-resourced. Caregivers cannot house and feed ourselves or provide for our own medical needs based on our love for our family members alone: access to income matters. We also have the same needs as other workers for regular time off, to participate in social life and recreation, and for ongoing education and new opportunities over time. email Lisa: lisatschudi@twosquaredmediaproductions.com Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/love-doesn-t-pay-the-bills-highlighting-the-value-of-family-caregiving--5692861/support.

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