Boys of Summer: Third Base -- Saturday, Sept. 5th This image deserves an explanation (click the video to get it) Our Beard of Summer Town Hall brought together a small but incredibly engaged group of people for an evening of stories, family, Parkinson’s, laughter, and, yes, increasingly questionable ideas about what should happen to my beard. At the heart of it was a simple idea: We are family. Connection is Medicine. And this Saturday, YOU have one opportunity to see th

The beard has had a good run. I’ve been called Papa Smurf, Santa Claus, David Letterman—and a few other choice things by my wife. It’s time for it to go. But first, we’re putting it to work and giving you a chance at a private, sneak premiere of our newest film, Boys of Summer: Third Base. Today we’re launching the 2026 Beard of Summer Community Challenge, a slightly ridiculous competition with a very real purpose: raising Cinema Therapy scholarships for people in the Par

Art Is Part of the New Hope in Parkinson’s What if art isn’t simply something that makes life with Parkinson’s better, but something that helps people reclaim parts of themselves Parkinson’s has tried to take away? I was deeply moved by a recent conversation between Dr. Rachel Dolhun of The Michael J. Fox Foundation and Dr. Bas Bloem about the emerging evidence surrounding art and Parkinson’s. They discussed how creative engagement may reduce stress and anxiety, support bra

Happy Fourth of July! This weekend the US celebrates 250 years of independence. As I've been thinking about Independence Day this year, I've found myself reflecting on another idea that deserves just as much attention: interdependence. We don’t get through life alone - even if sometimes we think or act like we do. We all rely on people who encourage us, challenge us, teach us, forgive us, and remind us who we are when we've forgotten. That includes families, friends, nei

I wasn't expecting to cry at a medical conference. The annual ATMRD conference is full of remarkable moments: Researchers unveil discoveries, clinicians share new approaches to care, and people living with Parkinson's tell stories of resilience and struggle. But sometimes the most important lesson comes from a simple question. This year, that question came from my friend, Dr. Dan Irizarry. Ryan Reynolds was on stage sharing the story of his father, who lived with Parkinson's

At the recent World Parkinson’s Congress we had a simple flip book on our Yes, And…X table titled: “How we’re Fucking Parkinson’s.” It got a lot of attention. I was ready for people to be offended. If they were, they kept it to themselves. What I did hear a lot of was “oh yeah…”...like there was a Kool Aid convention nearby. There’s real power in claiming the phrase “Fuck Parkinson’s”, popularized by Michael J. Fox and Harrison Ford in the Apple TV series, Shrinking. Not as

A few weeks ago, I came across a new paper by my colleagues Drs. Bradley McDaniels, Gregory Pontone, and Indu Subramanian that gave me a phrase I'd never heard before: Intolerance of Uncertainty. I immediately thought, "Well, that's Parkinson's." And then I thought, as you might be, "That's life." The new paper defines intolerance of uncertainty (IU) as the tendency to experience ambiguity as threatening, often leading to worry, avoidance, or difficulty making decisions. In o

What Happened at the World Premiere of Third Base Surprised Even Us We knew people were excited about the world premiere of Boys of Summer: Third Base at the World Parkinson Congress in Phoenix. We did not expect what happened next. The line to get in snaked across the conference floor. Some knew about the first three films, others were coming in blank. When the doors opened, the seats were quickly filled. The spillover audience lined the walls. Others sat on the floor. By th

My dad has lived with Parkinson’s disease for more than 25 years. Like many people, when he was first diagnosed, we mostly thought about tremors, stiffness, and slowness. The things we could see. But Parkinson’s is so much more than the visible things. A few years ago, my dad began having hallucinations. Dan & Robert Cochrane at the last A's game at the Oakland Coliseum. More about the Boys of Summer documentary series at www.bosmovie.com. Sometimes they were almost harmless

There are wonderful films about Parkinson’s disease (PD). Important, brave, educational, and inspiring films. But there has never been another documentary series about PD like Boys of Summer. Four films spanning 22 years of lived history with this stupid, poorly understood, beast of a disease. 2004 We didn't set out to make history. We just kept coming back to tell more story, mostly because PD has refused to leave. Michael J. Fox has said his foundation is around until PD is

Rewriting Parkinson’s… one story at a time. For years, our work has lived under the name Yes, And…eXercise!, a program rooted in improvisation, storytelling, and the belief that even in the face of Parkinson’s, there is still space to create, connect, and grow. That belief hasn’t changed. But something deeper has come into focus: This work was never just about exercise. It was never just about classes or programs. It has always been about something more fundamental: How do we

There are movies you enjoy. There are movies you remember. And then there are movies that re-wire your DNA. For me, that movie was Star Wars. I was seven years old. And I didn’t just see it…I entered it. I saw it three times in the theater (that’s all we had back then), returning each time as fast as humanly possible. I remember feeling delightfully nauseous watching Darth Vader’s Tie Fighter spin away after Han Solo cleared the way for Luke to make the miracle shot. When the

Today was supposed to mark a turning point. Every business has to reach and maintain the heart of its customers or risk breaking the relationship. After three years of patchwork care, including rotating aides, last-minute cancellations, and more “emergencies” than any system should reasonably absorb, we made the decision to move my dad from a piecemeal approach with two agencies into full 24-hour care with a single new agency. A new era. More structure. More reliability. Less

On Saturday April 18th, I had the honor of standing in a room filled with strength, honesty, humor, and something that feels like it’s getting harder to find in the world: real connection. To the Western Pennsylvania Parkinson Foundation, and to every person who showed up for the Living Well Conference : thank you. Christine Haythorn, CEO, Parkinson's Foundation of Western Pennsylvania and Robert Cochrane, PhD at the Living Well Conference in Pittsburgh, PA - Saturday, April

There’s a version of this story some people think you’re supposed to tell. It’s the one where you find the silver lining. Where you talk about resilience. Where you say things like, “We’re managing.” I’ve told that version. I’ve lived inside it. But today I’m not interested in that story. Today I’m angry. And I have the right to be. Shout out to Michael J. Fox and Harrison Ford for lighting the fuse with permission to use two words as a rally cry: “Fuck Parkinson’s.” A few y

written by Dawn MacLaughlin, PhD of Rise Above Parkinson's

We just received official word from the United States Patent and Trademark Office: Success Stories™ is now trademarked. And while that might sound like a legal milestone, it’s something much bigger. It’s a declaration. Why We Did It Because storytelling, done well, is one of the most powerful forces we have to reshape how Parkinson’s is understood. Not updates, symptom lists, nor explanations - Success Stories™ move people, stick, and travel. We didn’t trademark storytelling.

For many of us who live with or alongside Parkinson’s disease, the instinct is to fight. Fight the symptoms. Fight the progression. Fight the unfairness of it all. In a world that celebrates victory, perseverance, and overcoming the odds, the language of battle feels natural. We talk about “beating” disease, “winning” against adversity, or “defeating” our limitations. I’ve even heard people say Parkinson’s is going to be sorry it ever met me - as if this were a standoff in a

There’s a moment in Stand By Me that never lets go of you. Four boys. A narrow, rickety railroad bridge. Water over a hundred feet below. Nowhere to step off. When’s the next train coming? Nobody knows. But we have to go. There’s no going around. On to the bridge. No turning back. And then, out on the bridge and fully exposed, there’s a distant warning call from a bird of prey. The kind of sound that doesn’t ask, it tells. The rails begin to hum. Thick, charging, black smo

For those of you who are just here for the picks, they're at the bottom. For those who like a story, read on. My history with the Oscars goes back a long way. Not all the way back to the beginning of cinema, mind you, I’m not that old, but far enough that the Academy Awards feel stitched into the fabric of how I learned to dream. One of my earliest Oscar memories is Sally Field standing at the podium, emotional and radiant, declaring, “You like me! You really like me!” It be