This is Part Two of a series about the role of celebrity activism aligned to different causes and illnesses. Part One covered the news that Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with FTD and his family’s belief that “– if he could today – he would want to respond by bringing global attention and a connectedness with those who are also dealing with this debilitating disease and how it impacts so many individuals and their families.”
Part Two covers Alzheimer’s activism by Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen and, in particular, music’s unique role in keeping people with Alzheimer’s grounded in reality.
Quick Facts:
- About 55 million people globally live with dementia, and nearly 10 million cases are diagnosed every year, according to the World Health Organization.
- More than 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s. By 2050, this number is projected to rise to nearly 13 million – Alzheimer’s Association.
- People who are engaged or not isolated live 7-8 years longer than someone who is isolated – AARP
- Compared with caregivers of people without dementia, twice as many caregivers of those with dementia indicate substantial emotional, financial, and physical difficulties. According to a recent Stanford Medicine study, some 40 percent of Alzheimer’s caregivers die before the patient.
Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller-Rogen
Highly visible among the celebrities advocating for dementia and Alzheimer’s (ALZ) research are Seth Rogen and his wife, Lauren Miller Rogen.
Lauren learned about the burden of caring for relatives with Alzheimer’s at a young age. Both of her maternal grandparents had Alzheimer’s, and Lauren watched as, first, her grandmother cared for her grandfather. Then, her mother took on the responsibility of caring for her grandmother.
When Lauren was twenty-five, Adele Miller, her mother, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s at age fifty-five. This began a seventeen-year journey of caring for her mother. Lauren’s mother passed away in February 2020.
“I felt desperate without any ideas, without help, and didn’t know where to look.”
Lauren Miller Rogen, upon learning her 55-year-old mom was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s
At first, Lauren honored her father’s wishes not to accept help in caring for Adele and for her to remain in their Florida home where he would tend to her. Lauren made monthly visits from Los Angeles and became alarmed when she observed evident deterioration from prior visits. Over time, Adele became non-communicative and progressed to bathroom mishaps. Lauren and Seth moved her parents to L.A., where they provided in-home 24-hour care until her mother’s passing.
Spurred on by Lauren’s family history, the couple founded Hilarity For Charity (HFC) in 2012 — a national non-profit organization dedicated to caring for families facing Alzheimer’s disease and educating young people about living brain-healthy life. HFC is singular in the Alzheimer’s charity arena in that it spotlights why humor is good for our brains. It has been purpose-driven in soliciting applications that screen in-home care grant funds for ALZ-affected families and caregivers.
The Rogen’s have become leading voices in Alzheimer’s care, having raised over $18 million in fighting for the prevention and care of the disease and creating the next generation of Alzheimer’s advocates. Their mission is to raise awareness, change behavior, and support prevention efforts:
“If we can get people talking about Alzheimer’s early on and change their behavior, we can actually prevent up to 40% of cases! And when we say change, we’re talking healthy lifestyle adjustments like better sleep, breathing exercises, and delicious new recipes.”
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- “One-in-three cases of Alzheimer’s can be prevented if you live a brain-healthy life and incorporate aspects and incorporate aspects in your daily that keep your brain safe. These include exercise, diet, mental health, and mental stimulation.”
- “Mental health is about making sure you’re taking care of your emotional well-being.
- “Mental stimulation includes learning new things on a regular basis.”
-Laura Miller Rogen & Seth Rogen, HFC
HFC activities to engage the public have centered on three events –
- Public appearances/media interviews by the Couple,
- annual comedy /variety benefit shows performed by entertainers and comedians,
- online events, including webinars and panel discussions with ALZ experts and celebrities with a personal connection to people living with Alzheimer’s
1. Public Appearances & Interviews
The Couple has given dozens of interviews and played prominent roles in the cause of promoting ALZ awareness and education. They stress the emotional toll caring for people with ALZ can take and the government’s role in easing that burden.
Two recent examples:
Consumer Electronic Show – January 2023
Jo Ann Jenkins, AARP CEO, interviewed Seth and Lauren at the January 2023 Consumer Electronics Show about the toll Alzheimer’s has taken on Miller Rogen’s family and how the couple is raising money for research and awareness. They spoke about the power of purpose-driven innovation and how new technology can support caregivers delivering at-home care to seniors nationwide.
See: https://www.today.com/video/seth-rogen-highlights-life-changing-tech-at-ces-for-at-home-care-159481925532
Photo credit: AARP
Washington Post Live – December 2022
Host Leigh Ann Caldwell of Across The Aisle reached out to Lauren and Seth to discuss a personal issue that all three care about – Eldercare. The couple discussed the experiences with their non-profit that helps connect younger people who care for aging family members. They also covered the government’s role for persons needing care and caregivers.
Lauren Miller Rogen articulates HFC’s position: “Care is a societal responsibility, not a personal one; one that is a human right to age with dignity.
Seth Rogen describes the weight that family caregivers carry in caring for loved ones with Alzheimer’s: “The burden falls on the family and ruins lives of people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who often have to abandon careers and incomes.”
See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buLYbD-8ixg
“Care is a societal responsibility, not a personal one.”
-Lauren Miller Rogen
“The burden ruins lives of people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s who often have to abandon careers and incomes.”
-Seth Rogen
2. HFC Annual Variety Show
Since the formation of HFC in 2012, the organization has staged an annual Variety Show, its signature event, eleven times. HFC’s celebrity reach and cultivation of a humorous, irreverent tone have made it a nationally-visible entity that effectively brings Alzheimer’s discussions to a broad audience and raises money for the cause.
“We Care About Brains”
– Hilarity for Charity
3. HFC CareCon
On each of the past three February National Caregivers Days, HFC hosted an annual CareCon event featuring discussion panels, twelve workshops, and a variety of networking lounges. The most recent video webinars in 2023 broke into three broad themes:
- Music and Memory,
- Storytelling: Sharing Stories of Alzheimer’s, and
- Comedy for Caregivers
The panelists in the February 2023 webinars included:
Music and Memory
Click on the Music and Memory Panel for the role music plays in dementia care:
For all the panelists, their discussion made clear that music was a welcome part of the long journey taken with their ALZ sufferers. It gave them the respite needed to find a way back to joy.
Wayne Brady, the entertainer and singer, described his grandma’s deterioration to a point where she didn’t recognize him in person. But when she saw him singing on TV or his video performances in Hamilton or Kinky Boots, she would suddenly recognize “her boy.” Wayne Brady also gave an eloquent description of how music works to make a non-verbal connection:
“It’s rhyming new words on top of a melody which produces a story, which produces a vivid picture, which brings you back to a space and time…and all of that equals connection.”
The panel’s moderator, Josh Grill, Ph.D. and Director of UCI MIND, explains that music memory is stored in a different part of the brain:
“Alzheimer’s happens in a person’s brain when it experiences the accumulation of abnormal proteins or ‘plaques and tangles.’ This affects specific parts of the brain, while other parts responsible for music memory can stay intact even late into the disease. This allows sufferers to respond to music in important and powerful ways.
“Alzheimer’s happens in a person’s brain when it experiences the accumulation of abnormal proteins or plaques and tangles.”
-Josh Grill, Director of UCI MIND
WFC has published a blog on music’s remarkable role in keeping people with ALZ grounded in reality. We spotlighted a CNN interview with Tony Bennett conducted by Anderson Cooper.
“Anderson Cooper on 60 Minutes reports that Tony Bennett has Alzheimer’s Disease. Yet, Tony can still croon as smooth as ever because his ‘brain has built itself around his music.’ He still knows the key, the tempo, and its lyrics when he hears a familiar song’s opening notes because music memory is stored in a different part of the brain.”
(See https://westchesterfam.wpenginepowered.com/alzheimers-disease/)
Other Panelists at CareCon
Glenn Campbell’s daughter, Ashley Campbell, recounted on the CareCon February 2023 panel that she was her dad’s primary caregiver throughout his aphasia, loss of speech, and “total fog.” However, when she sat with him playing his guitar, the music reached him on a different level. Well into her dad’s struggle with ALZ, he was flawlessly able to perform by reaching into those musical memories deeply embedded within him. For Ashley, an accomplished singer, Dad’s ability to sing and play guitar effortlessly became “part of my healing process when he passed away. I remember thinking I was not going to let listening to his music make me sad.”
See Glenn Campbell’s Farewell Tour performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUB2WEOqDxY
Joy Allen, Chair of Music at Berklee College of Music, believes that music is fundamental to human chemistry:
“We are all inherently musical. It starts with a heartbeat. We teach babies to learn concepts by using music and singing songs. It remains embedded through school choirs and bands. Adolescence’s key moments are marked by songs and dancing, and concerts. Music has the superpower to ‘bring you back emotionally” — you can find yourself in tears’ through movie soundtracks, spiritual connections, and even commercial jingles.”
Singer/Songwriter Joey McIntyre (New Kids On The Block) and Nicholas Petricca (Walk The Moon) brought a special other-worldly perspective to the panel discussion.
Joey McIntyre, an Alzheimer’s Association Champion, recognizes music as a “wonderful free gift because it has the power to move us metaphysically and spiritually. As painful as my experience with my mother was, there was a sweetness when we would sit around and sing songs.”
“Music has the power to move us metaphysically and spiritually.”
-Joey McIntyre (Singer/Songwriter, New Kids On The Block)
Nicholas Petricca: “Music is a very mysterious thing, and we still don’t fully understand the extent to which music can actually heal. My dad had early-onset Alzheimer’s at age 49 when I was only fifteen. But he was a huge music fan. At the end, he could barely put a sentence together until we’d roll a piano into his room at the adult care facility. He’d come alive, singing along and remembering the music word-for-word. He’d be in a different level of consciousness.”
“Music is a very mysterious thing, and we still don’t fully understand the extent to which music can actually heal.”
-Nicholas Petricca (Singer/Songwriter, Walk The Moon)
Josh Grill concluded the discussion by reporting on a foundational study on how music affects neurochemistry. Some parts of the brain react favorably to music and reward pleasure circuitry.
In that vein, Dr. Grill asked each panelist to name a favorite piece of music that gives them chills or goosebumps. Here are the panelists’ choices:
Jody McIntyre:
CHICAGO: “You’re The Inspiration”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRfy1yorkec
Wayne Brady:
Sam Cooke: “A Change Is Gonna Come”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEBlaMOmKV4
Ashley Campbell:
Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro” from the film AMADEUS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYWcqd1Tdbg
Nicholas Petricca:
Etta James “At Last”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwzDxp2TC7I
As a demonstration of the power of music and its ability to conjure emotional memories, we offer up Seasons of Love sung by the original cast of “Rent” during COVID on behalf of God’s Love We Deliver:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgE6OyVdHZI
“Let’s bring more light to the darkness through the families that we can help and the work that we can do together to end Alzheimer’s.”
-Lauren Miller Rogen
We will soon publish Part Three and Part Four of this series on Celebrity Activism and Alzheimer’s, based on Hilarity for Charity’s CareCon panel discussions:
- Part Three: Storytelling: Sharing Stories of Alzheimer’s
- Part Four: Comedy for Caregivers
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