PediPal

PediPal

A monthly podcast about pediatric palliative care, hosted by two pediatric palliative care docs, Sarah Dabagh, MD, and Daniel Eison, MD, MS. Sharing the insights, opinions, narratives, commentaries, and invectives of #pedpc. Email us at pedipalcast@gmail.com

Episodes

September 1, 2025 39 mins

When all our best attempts fail to relieve suffering, we sometimes turn to palliative sedation to the point of unconsciousness. But how do we know if and when such a drastic intervention is the right choice? Sarah and Dan chat with Justin Baker and Tyler Tate about practical and ethical approaches to communicating about and implementing sedation for pediatric patients facing refractory symptoms at the end of life.

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Where do ethics and palliative care overlap, and is there really no harm in doing both? Exercise your autonomy by choosing to listen to this episode, in which your beneficent hosts, Sarah and Dan, get ethical with Phoebe Winn and Bob Macauley, both palliative care physicians whose careers have also brought them to the realm of questions that sometimes just don't have answers. Thankfully, our expert guests are here to help us a...

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July 1, 2025 33 mins

There's a member of the pediatric palliative care team we all love but rarely acknowledge: The children's books we share with families that help them cope and process the terrible situations they face. In this episode, Sarah and Dan talk with Joanna Rowland, author of The Memory Box, The Memory Book, and The Memory Tree; and Brennan Wood, author of A Kid's Book About Grief and Executive Director of Portland's Do...

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June 1, 2025 32 mins

Dan and Sarah welcome back to the podcast two previous guests, Dr. Bob Macauley and Dr. Chris Adrian, to discuss writing books about pediatric palliative care, as well as how our clinical practice, narratives, and personal trauma can all interact in sometimes unexpected ways.

Content warning: This episode includes discussion of child sexual abuse.

Click the link here to buy Dr. Macauley's new book: Because I Knew You

Proceeds fro...

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May 1, 2025 22 mins

We're back! Where did we go and why did we pause in the first place? You'll have to listen to the episode to find out all the details, but let's just say Dan conducted an extended and very personal investigation into the intersections of palliative care and bone marrow transplant. In this episode, Sarah interviews Dan about his experience as a patient and the take-home points he's bringing back to his practice.

(...

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August 8, 2024 38 mins

"About suffering they were never wrong, / the old Masters: how well they understood / Its human position..." wrote W.H. Auden. For all that suffering seems to be central to our practice, how do we in pediatric palliative care actually stack up against Brueghel et al when it comes to understanding it, though? Dan and Sarah dig deep with guests Erica Salter, PhD, and Lauren Draper, MD to explore what suffering really means ...

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July 1, 2024 32 mins

Even before heading homeward from the Annual Assembly, Dan and Sarah decided that we needed to do an episode about one of our favorite presentations, palliative home transports. So in this interview, Ashley Autrey from Children's Hospital New Orleans and Lindsay Ragsdale from Kentucky Children's Hospital bring it on home to you, our audience, sharing their wisdom and expertise about how to get some of our most complex and...

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May 6, 2024 44 mins

Perinatal Palliative Care! Thanks to a healthy dose of serendipity, PediPal finally wades into the ever-changing waters of palliative care before, during, and after birth. Sarah and Dan talk with Brian Carter, Kelstan Ellis, and Jenni Linebarger about their collaborative, creative work at the Children's Mercy Kansas City Fetal Health Center and beyond. So come for the birth planning, stay for the unrivaled power of narrative, ...

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April 1, 2024 16 mins

PediPal goes on the road! Dan brings his microphone to Phoenix, AZ, for the 2024 Annual Assembly of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, ambushing unsuspecting guests with that classic PediPal question, "What are your take-home points?" Sarah, unable to attend the conference, shares her take-homes from home.

Major thanks to AAHPM and all our enthusiastic participants: Tyler Badding, Gabe Daniels, Kelstan Ellis, Rache...

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March 4, 2024 25 mins

Where do the fields of Palliative Care, Neurology, and PM&R overlap? Where can we learn more about how to approach the dreaded uncertainty of neurologic prognostication? In this episode! Overcoming some technical difficulties, Dan (kinda) and Sarah discuss the field of Pediatric Neuropalliative Care with Marina Ma and Lauren Treat.

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February 1, 2024 34 mins

The episode we really wanted to call "2 Julie 2 Hauer."

Julie Hauer is back on PediPal! This time, she's here to discuss with Sarah and Dan what we do when we're beyond the guidelines, short on evidence, and way past the point of randomized control. What influences do culture and anecdote have on our prescribing? How much of pediatric palliative care is science and how much is art... and how much does t...

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January 1, 2024 16 mins

It's 2024! As PediPal enters its fourth year, we want to take a moment to look back on what we've learned over the last three years. So for the first time (and hopefully the last), we have no guests, just the reflections, opinions, and bad jokes of the two pedi pals ourselves.

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November 1, 2023 26 mins

How and where do we draw the boundaries between ourselves and our patients and families? What other boundaries do we draw--or not draw so well--in pediatric palliative care? Here to discuss these questions and more are Stacy Remke, MSW, and Rev. Bentley Stewart.

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October 1, 2023 44 mins

Death. Dying. Simple words, but often hard to say, and even harder to say to a child. In this episode, Sarah and Dan turn to some experts on saying difficult things to children, Certified Child Life Specialists Kelley Gavel and Nicole MackDiaz. Find out why Child Life is particularly adept at helping kids grapple with the toughest questions, and then stick around for a special guest who tries his best to stump Kelley and Nicole...<...

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September 1, 2023 41 mins

Turn on, tune in, and drop your preconceptions, because in this episode, Sarah and Dan are your guides on a trip into the realm of psychedelics in pediatric palliative care. We join Dingle Spence, Chris Adrian, and Elisha Waldman to learn about how they came to do this work, how psilocybin is helping some bereaved parents on their journeys of grief, and what the future might hold for psychedelic therapies in pediatrics.

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August 1, 2023 46 mins

Interdisciplinary teams are so vital to the practice of palliative care, and in today's episode, the PediPal team explores a new kind of team member: What has four paws, has mastered the art of being present, and is guaranteed to increase the popularity of your palliative care team? A therapy dog!

Join Sarah and Dan as they hear two tales of wagging tails who are dedicated members of Peds Palliative teams in British C...

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July 1, 2023 27 mins

Get psyched because PediPal is back! In this episode, Sarah and Dan interview two psychologists, Amanda Thompson and Rachel Kentor, about creating competencies for pediatric palliative psychology and how we can bring more psychology into the world of pediatric palliative care.

You can read their recent paper here:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37141582/

And if you're interested in contacting them for mo...

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April 3, 2023 38 mins

If you're working in pediatric palliative care and you haven't heard of Courageous Parents Network, put down this podcast immediately and go make yourself familiar with the amazing resource that is CPN. Sarah and Dan are thrilled to have three courageous parents - Blyth Lord, Amy Graver, and Liz Morris - discuss how their children's stories intersected with palliative care.

And if you haven't heard the ...

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April 1, 2023 29 mins

Welcome to a special "Best of" PediPal episode! The notion, concept, and implementation of silence is integral to the practice of pediatric palliative care. Perhaps even more important than what we say is what we don't say, and how we don't say it, and when it isn't said. Join Sarah and Dan for an exploration of this truly golden feature of our specialty.

"Even a fool is thought wise if he kee...

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March 1, 2023 29 mins

A social worker, a nurse practitioner, and three physicians walk into a podcast... There's no punchline, just the latest episode of PediPal, where Dan and Sarah interview three of the interprofessional fellows from the Boston Children's interprofessional fellowship program--Jennifer Donovan, Amy Porter, and Thomas Haire--and challenge ourselves to say the word "interprofessional" as many times as possible. We al...

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