Whispers of the Mind with Neurologist Carolyn Larkin Taylor

Wendy & Rich 0:00
Hey, everyone is Rich Bennett. Can you believe it? The show is turning 10 this year. I am so grateful for each and every one of you who've tuned in, shared a episode, or even joined the conversation over the years. You're the reason that this podcast has grown into what it is today. Together, we've shared laughs, tears, and moments that truly matter. So I want to thank you for being part of this journey. Let's make the next 10 years even better. Coming to you from the Freedom Federal Credit Union Studios Haafer County Living presents Conversations with Rich Bennett. 

None of, no, no, it's just who it is. 

Rich Bennett 1:00
What happens when a neurologist spends decades, not just treating the brain, but listening to the whispers of the human spirit behind every diagnosis. Today's guest, Dr. Carolyn Larkin Taylor, is a board-certified neurologist with over 30 years of experience, a pioneer among the first women to graduate from Notre Dame and the author of Whispers of the Mind, a neurologist's memoir. From earning honors like Philadelphia's Humanists and Medicine Award to founding Graham Braking Centers for Neurology and MS Care into Pacific Northwest, Carolyn has dedicated her career to both healing and advocacy. Now she's turned in her profound experiences into stories that reveal the resilience, poop, and humanity within medicine. So get ready to get ready to hear a powerful conversation about life, loss, and the extraordinary lessons learned from walking alongside patients and families at the most vulnerable moments. All right, I got to ask first, do you go by Dr. Carolyn, Dr. Taylor, Carolyn? What do you, what do you like to go by? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 2:16
Well, please call me Carolyn. 

Rich Bennett 2:17
Alright, not Carol. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 2:20
No, 

Rich Bennett 2:21
Carol, okay. Just wanted to make sure. All right, so before we start, before we hit the record, you say something through me back because you're in Washington now. But where are you from originally? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 2:36
New Jersey. 

Rich Bennett 2:37
What part of Jersey? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 2:40
The Jersey Shore. Mom with county. A town called Spring Lake. 

Rich Bennett 2:45
Yes. Yes. I was. So have you ever heard of the naval weapon station or own coach neck? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 2:52
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 2:52
I was stationed there. That was my first duty station when I was in the Marine 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 2:56
Hello. 

Rich Bennett 2:56
Corps. Used to go to Asbury Park all the time. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 3:00
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 3:00
And I forget the exit, but the exits right there are a thing of freehold. Every time come off the turnbike and took that exit, it smelled like a coffee factory. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 3:12
Really? 

Rich Bennett 3:13
Yes. To this day, I don't know if there was a coffee factory there or not. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 3:18
yeah, yeah, I don't know. I 

Rich Bennett 3:19
But 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 3:19
have a brother that lives in cold snack now. 

Rich Bennett 3:22
Oh, really? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 3:23
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 3:23
Oh, wow. All right, so what did get to Washington 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 3:29
in accident? We went, I did my training in Philadelphia. And Philadelphia is kind of like that big black hole where people go for training. They have seven medical schools there. 

Rich Bennett 3:43
Wow. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 3:44
And you just kind of stay there. You just get sucked up into this place. And I love Philadelphia. But my husband, I married during that time and my husband and I, my husband had been from a military family. 

Rich Bennett 3:57
Okay. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 3:57
So he lived all over and the longest place he lived with Newport News, Virginia. 

Rich Bennett 4:03
Oh, yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 4:04
Yeah. And so he, we never decided to live there. We just kind of stayed. Because we got busy working. And we went to a wedding in Austin, Texas, where my husband was the best man. And we met someone there from Billingham, Washington. And we were curious. You know, I said, you know, I've always wanted to see the Pacific Northwest. 

Rich Bennett 4:26
Mm hmm. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 4:26
I've ever been out there. What's it like? And so he said, well, let me tell you, because we've been trying to recruit an aerologist to this area, to our area for five years. 

Rich Bennett 4:37
Really? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 4:37
I'll tell you all about and we'll invite you out to take a look. And of course, it was summer when we went out to take a look and it's 

Rich Bennett 4:43
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 4:44
gorgeous here in the summer. And we went out on the boats and toured the islands. And it was bombing 70 degrees. And the sun came up at five in the morning and didn't set until after 10 at night. It was just beautiful. 

Rich Bennett 4:56
Wow. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 4:57
And so they kind of wooed us all year. And finally we decided, you know, we're just going to pick up and go. And we came out here 25 years ago and never left. 

Rich Bennett 5:07
Well, I'll take you, you couldn't because I'm sure you got that job as a neurologist there, right? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 5:12
Yeah, but I kind of moved around from there. 

Rich Bennett 5:15
I 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 5:16
took that job with the hospital for two years and a group of us kind of rebelled against the way the administration was telling us what to do. So we all went out and formed a private practice of specialists in the area. And I did that and I ended up opening -- -- an MS Center because we didn't have one up here in this part of Northwest Washington. 

Rich Bennett 5:41
-- Wow 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 5:42
And I was here for until 20 -- well, 15 years 

Rich Bennett 5:46
-- Okay. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 5:48
-- And then I left to take a more academic position in Seattle. And the distance is such that a lot of my patients could follow there. 

Rich Bennett 5:58
-- Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 5:59
-- And I worked there until, like, 2022 for, like, seven years. And now I'm semi-retired. But I've kind of done a little bit of everything. 

Rich Bennett 6:10
-- You'll never be fully retired. You can't now because you're written a book and now you're an author-prenure. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 6:16
-- All right. 

Rich Bennett 6:17
Two 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 6:18
-- I 

Rich Bennett 6:18
questions. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 6:18
have to do something. 

Rich Bennett 6:19
-- What's that? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 6:20
I have to do 

Rich Bennett 6:21
-- 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 6:21
something. 

Rich Bennett 6:21
Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, the thing, you know, it's funny because I know a lot of people that -- they retired, so they say, but it seems like they're busier ever since they retired. Either if they're not working, that they're volunteering full-time. It seems like -- I actually have two questions for you. And I'm just going to -- go as long as you want on here. Number one, why neurology? And number two, what drew you to help out with MS? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 7:03
-- Well, I was an optometrist 

Rich Bennett 7:06
-- 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 7:06
first 

Rich Bennett 7:06
All right. What is that? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 7:09
-- It's a four-year doctorate program after college where you just practice optometry. You examine eyes. 

Rich Bennett 7:17
-- Oh. Oh, God. I could use you right now. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 7:21
Okay. -- But you're not -- you're not an MD. You don't do surgery. 

Rich Bennett 7:24
Okay. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 7:24
You're an OD doctor of optometry. And I was frustrated in that field because I worked with ophthalmologists. I worked with a pediatric ophthalmologist, and we did a lot of work with young infants who had cataract surgery, and I would fit them with contact lenses. And I did lot of things that were a little out of the ordinary. And I was frustrated with not being able to do more. So after practicing for three years, I went back and went to medical school, and then got an MD degree. And my original goal was to be an ophthalmologist. But when I did my rotations in medical school and ophthalmology, I thought, you know, this isn't fun. This is the same thing I did before. 

Rich Bennett 8:08
-- Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 8:09
-- Only -- I would be doing surgery a few mornings a week, and I really didn't like the surgery. So when I rotated through neurology, as you rotate through various specialties in medical school, you can pick a subspecialty, like if you're interested in dermatology, you can do a month with them. There's so many months of rotations you require to do. And one of them was neurology, and I just fell in love with neurology. It was -- it combined the really neurology and psychiatry because there's so much, intertwined with the mind and the 

Rich Bennett 8:45
-- 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 8:45
brain 

Rich Bennett 8:46
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 8:47
-- And emotions. And it was more of a diagnostic puzzle. So I'll never forget that my first exposure to a neurologist I was spending the day in the VA, where we were sent to do a rotation. And this neurologist sat there for an hour and did a history. Just asked more and more questions and spent an entire hour. And then he did this cursory -- it looked like a cursory exam, but you have to really know nor anatomy to know what he was doing. Why do you get to all the various parts of the nervous system in this 10 minute exam? And he said to me, afterwards, I knew what he had with my history. I was just doing the exam to confirm it. And that's a beauty of neurology. You take a lot of time, you do a history, and you, if you really listen to the patient, 

Rich Bennett 9:41
you 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 9:42
can ask the right questions and kind of figure out what's wrong. And then you use technology to confirm 

Rich Bennett 9:49
it. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 9:49
It's very interesting. And back when I originally trained, I just had these incredible professors of neurology that love neurology, and would tell us these stories. And as the years have gone by and I see this student's coming out now, it seems like they're relying more on technology. I'll get a referral for a consult for another opinion, and I'll see that a patient has had every test in the world. They've had an MRI of every part of their nervous system, and they've had biopsies and blood work, 

Rich Bennett 10:22
and 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 10:23
nobody, if they had sat down and really listened to the patient and did a really long history, they could have streamlined those tests very easily and said, "Well, you don't need the spine. You just need the brain, or you don't even need that, you need something else." 

Rich Bennett 10:38
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 10:39
"A neurological exam, because this is something that sounds more like dementia or depression. And that's the beauty of it. It's like solving a puzzle. It's like being a Sherlock Holmes. If you really know your anatomy and really know people." 

Rich Bennett 10:58
So, it sounds to me like the old ways that they taught is still a lot better than any technology today, especially if you aren't using the old ways, like sitting down and getting the history 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 11:10
and everything. Well, you have to, you know, the technology is great. It's wonderful. 

Rich Bennett 11:15
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 11:16
But I think more and more doctors are getting away from listening to the patient, touching the you know, putting a hand on someone's shoulder. 

Rich Bennett 11:26
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 11:27
You know, when you're delivering bad news, can go a long way towards healing and compassion and the patient feeling validated, feeling like someone cares, feeling like they can trust this individual with their, their illness. And I think today there's with corporatization of medicine. More and more physicians, you're seeing private practice go away, and more and more physicians are working for hospitals. And increasingly the hospitals that are not run by physicians are telling the physicians how much time they can spend with the patient. And by the way, you have to put everything in the electronic medical record while you're visiting with the physician, with the patient because there's no time at the end of the day to do it. So they're not looking at the patient any more. They're typing. And and it's there's something lost there. 

Rich Bennett 12:21
You're 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 12:22
not, you're not, you're not forming that bond. You're not forming that trust. And the doctor comes away feeling dehumanized because they didn't get a chance to really connect with that patient the way they were taught to and way they want to. And I think that's responsible for a lot of the burnout of physicians, 

Rich Bennett 12:41
right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 12:42
Because you're just you're hemmed in, there's nothing else you can do. You've got to produce so many 

what we call RBIU's relative value units per day. You have to get your dictation in within 48 hours or you won't get paid for the visit. You have to spend all this time now on the phone talking to insurance companies. Not only to get approval for something that's unusual, but now with some insurances, every MRI you order, you have to call the insurance company. 

Rich Bennett 13:14
Good lord. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 13:16
Ord. And a lot of this is to deter the physician from ordering the tests because they don't have the time they need to sit there and wait on the phone to get approval. 

Rich Bennett 13:26
That's ridiculous. So it like to me that now the doctors are spending maybe five minutes with the patient. And taking an hour to two hours just for the paperwork and everything else. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 13:40
telling me 

Rich Bennett 13:40
And you're it's taking that 

that connection away. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 13:47
Yes, and the precious time you have with that individual. And that's why most of us went into medicine because we want to keep people and we want to help people. And so the doctors are just hamstrung there. And you're seeing an increasing revolt against it but it should be insurance companies are dictating the rules. And recently I heard I'm not going to mention the insurance company. But one of the insurance companies, as of October 25th of this year, is going to automatically downcode every there's a level one through five for the visit in terms of when you bill, in terms of complexity. And you can bill based on complexity or you can bill based on time. So if it's a very complex case or you spend an hour with the patient that might be a level five. If you spend 15 minutes with the case and they're just coming in for like a med check, that might be a level three. 

Rich Bennett 14:46
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 14:47
So they are automatically going to down code every level 4, 5, to a 3. And if you believe, even a matter of how much time you spend with a patient, you could be delivering a death sentence to the patient. You could be counseling 5 family members with the patient. No matter what you've done, it's automatically no higher than a 3. And if you think that is unfair, you have to send in all your patient records and write up a big appeal to get a higher amount. So if they get away with that, then all the insurance companies are going to do that. You're going to see this mass exodus of physicians from participating in these insurance plans. So it's a battle and it's like the frog that you put in water and then slowly turn up the temperature until he's boiling. 

Rich Bennett 15:40
Why do they want to take away the caring part? That makes no sense. And when I say caring, I mean for 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 15:47
Because it 

Rich Bennett 15:47
the 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 15:47
takes-- 

Rich Bennett 15:48
doctor's caring about that. But time is-- 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 15:52
That's everything. 

Rich Bennett 15:53
God. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 15:55
And this isn't physician-driven, this isn't-- 

Rich Bennett 15:58
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 15:58
Operations-driven. 

Rich Bennett 16:00
I 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 16:01
You're 

Rich Bennett 16:01
care, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 16:02
changed? 

Rich Bennett 16:02
Carol. What can we do to change this? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 16:06
Let people know about it. The patients have to complain. And so if the doctors refuse to participate in an insurance plan, then the patients having the insurance plan are going to complain. Or they're going to leave that plan and go somewhere else. And so the word is trying to get the word out there to other physicians, what's coming, is important. But I find a lot of the doctors that I've spoken to in the last-- since I learned about this-- in the last month aren't even that this is coming down. 

Rich Bennett 16:40
Really? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 16:41
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 16:42
Wow. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 16:45
So there's so much that goes on. And there was a case of this young man, as you know, that assassinated the head of 

Rich Bennett 16:55
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 16:55
a big insurance company. And I don't condone that in any 

Rich Bennett 16:58
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 16:59
way. But there's a lot of anger that goes on patients get angry because of what is happening to them. And it's just this big conglomerate that's increasingly more and more difficult for patients to navigate. And physicians as well, physicians I think have left a lot of them have left private practice 

Rich Bennett 17:22
right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 17:23
But it's a real world because all this got too burdensome and at least in a corporate setting, someone else was managing that for you, but increasingly the insurance company is putting that on doctors. For instance, they'll say, we will no longer speak with your office manager or your nurse about this particular test. The doctor themselves has to call us. 

Rich Bennett 17:47
approving 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 17:47
Then you can call, you try to make this call between patients and you're put on hold and the patient's waiting and your time is being used up, you know, holding. And it's all to deter us from ordering as many tests, I think. 

Rich Bennett 18:04
I would think that, I mean, personally, if I was in the field, if I was a doctor, I would have had enough and I would have, I would have changed careers. Are you seeing a lot of doctors doing that? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 18:17
I am. 

Rich Bennett 18:18
Wow. That's sad. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 18:20
I'm seeing more and more doctors retire in their late 50s, 

Rich Bennett 18:23
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 18:23
early 60s and they used to stay in longer. 

Rich Bennett 18:26
I mean, it's sad to see that these corporations are basically chasing these good doctors out. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 18:32
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 18:32
And a lot of people aren't even aware of this. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 18:37
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 18:38
So, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 18:39
it's, you know, I think it's more insurance company driven because 

Rich Bennett 18:43
yeah, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 18:44
these keep lowering the reimbursements and they're getting richer 

Rich Bennett 18:49
and richer right? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 18:50
Premiums are going up, the CEOs are making exorbitant, there's exorbitant amount of money and they keep trying to find ways to save money. So they squeeze the hospitals and the hospital squeeze the doctors and everybody's struggling to stay afloat and with, with the loss of Medicaid so many parts of the country, especially 

Rich Bennett 19:17
in 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 19:18
rural area, especially rural areas, you're going to start to see whole hospitals just close down because they, they can't make it. You know, their margins are very slow. 

Rich Bennett 19:26
Right. Wow. All right. MS, because I, I think that's amazing. There's a lot of things out there that when I hear of people that are basically doing what they can to help people, whether it be MS, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, right away, they are in my respect. So what, what actually drew you to that? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 19:50
Well, I had a lot of eye experience when I came into neurology and so MS involves the eye tremendously double vision optic neuritis. It's often the first presentation of MS and it affects young people. So in in the community where I worked initially a suburb of Philadelphia was a large academic hospital. I just started to get a reputation for, you know, if you want a neurologist that really can examine the eye and knows what to do with optic neuritis, send them to this person. 

Rich Bennett 20:28
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 20:29
So I started seeing more and more optic neuritis and diagnosing MS more and more and I just, there's so much we can do for MS today. That has this young individual at the prime of their life that is looking at possibly a lifetime of disability and it doesn't have to be that way anymore. 

Rich Bennett 20:47
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 20:48
Because you can be aggressive early on with MS and we have so many new treatments that I just, I'd love to take care of it. I'd love to do it. So the, the work kind of spread in the community that she really likes to take care of our conditions. So I just developed more and more patients with MS. So by the time I left this practice to move out west, um, 80% of my practice was 

Rich Bennett 21:13
Really, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 21:13
MS. Just loved it. So when I came here, of course, I did general neurology because 

Rich Bennett 21:19
right? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 21:19
I love it all, but I kind of specialized in in MS. I just, I love to treat it. 

Rich Bennett 21:25
Wow. Since you've been treating it, have you seen, because when I hear MS, I think, now I'm going to share my age, I think a net from the cell. Uh, and also now Christina Applegate, but have you seen a lot of improvements since you started focusing on it? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 21:45
Oh, absolutely. When I was a resident in neurology, 

Rich Bennett 21:49
uh-huh. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 21:50
All we could do for MS at that point was steroids. And that just gets you through the acute phase of an attack, 

Rich Bennett 21:58
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 21:58
because the MS is a condition where you have recurrent attacks of inflammation in the central nervous system 

Rich Bennett 22:05
Mm-hmm. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 22:05
that come and go. And each attack leaves you with some damage. So all steroids do was, was kind of get you through that acute phase of the attack, but it has nothing. No effect at all on how much damage you're going to sustain as a result of the attack. And so in my last year of training, they came out with, um, the very first drug that was a disease modifier. It was an interferon that a patient could actually take to prevent attacks. 

Rich Bennett 22:31
Oh. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 22:33
And since then, there's about 13 to 15 drugs that have come out all with different mechanisms of action to prevent patients from having attacks to begin 

Rich Bennett 22:43
with. Interesting. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 22:44
It's very interesting. So there's different forms of MS. Some are more aggressive than others. 

Rich Bennett 22:51
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 22:51
Um, when we talk about a net tunneccello, she had a very aggressive form. But the majority of patients have what we call a relapsing remitting form. And those are very amenable to treatment with most of these drugs. 

Rich Bennett 23:10
All right. So what type is it that Christina aplegate has, do you know? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 23:15
No, 

Rich Bennett 23:16
Okay. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 23:16
I don't. I don't 

Rich Bennett 23:16
know. Okay. I, you, you, Cremie, if you're wrong, but you haven't you also worked with people with Parkinson's as well. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 23:25
Yes. Yes. 

Rich Bennett 23:26
All right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 23:26
I've always taken care of a lot of Parkinson patients. 

Rich Bennett 23:30
Really. Okay. So with, have you seen, and I think there's been a big improvement in Cremie, if wrong, ever, ever since Michael J Fox was diagnosed with Parkinson's. And he created that foundation. So it just seems like there's been so much more, I guess you can say advancement, helping people with it. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 23:51
Well, there has been. 

Rich Bennett 23:52
Okay. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 23:52
He's been able to raise a lot of money for Parkinson's research. 

Rich Bennett 23:58
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 23:59
And he's been like the poster child for Parkinson's to let people know what Parkinson's 

Rich Bennett 24:04
the 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 24:05
is because Michael J Fox, and he's so positive. 

Rich Bennett 24:08
Yes. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 24:09
Yeah. He wrote that book called I'm a lucky man. And he, he gets out there and he works and he promotes as disabled as he is. His mind is still there. And he's been wonderful at promoting, you know, treatments for Parkinson's and. Hope, 

Rich Bennett 24:29
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 24:29
I think. And so there has been a lot of. 

things research that has been useful and things that have come out for Parkinson's. There's deep brain stimulation surgery and there's surgery with ultrasound and there's novel medications. We don't have a cure for it but it's 

Rich Bennett 24:54
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 24:54
the kind of thing that you can live with for a very long time and there's a lot that medicine can do to keep you moving and going at a good, you know, useful life. 

Rich Bennett 25:07
And it seems like you're seeing people that get it, especially if they're diagnosed earlier, you know, even with MS, it seems like they are living longer because of all this, you think? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 25:19
I do. I do. 

Rich Bennett 25:21
Okay, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 25:21
the... 

Rich Bennett 25:21
what's 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 25:23
People that get Parkinson's when they're younger 

Rich Bennett 25:25
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 25:25
tend to 

have a more benign course for a very long time whereas the older individual that gets Parkinson's, they tend to advance much more quickly. 

Rich Bennett 25:37
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 25:39
But there's no two patients alike. Every patient is just a little bit different and with MS, you know, the thing about MS is the earlier we diagnose it and get someone on one of these treatments the better they... 

Rich Bennett 25:53
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 25:54
They can literally go on in their life with no disability. We still have the disease, you know, we haven't cured it but we can go a long way to kind of putting it in a form of remission. 

Rich Bennett 26:07
In the beginning in the introduction, I mentioned the award, Philodopsyus humaneus and medicine award. What is that? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 26:18
Well, that surprised me too. I... 

Rich Bennett 26:22
Tell us nice to be surprised sometimes, right? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 26:24
Yes, I went to... I was told to go to a meeting of the PhilDopsy County Medical Society. 

Rich Bennett 26:33
I like that you were told to. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 26:35
Yeah, I was told to and I think I was a senior in medical school and I was told to go to the meeting because I won this award that year. And I think what happened was a group of medical students that I'd worked with. Or maybe I was a intern. No, I was a senior medical student. Had nominated me for this because of the way... Of what they observed or the way I treated them and 

Rich Bennett 27:01
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 27:02
things like that. I didn't know, but I was just nominated for this and given the award. So it's one of my proudest awards. 

Rich Bennett 27:10
Alright, did they make you give us speech? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 27:14
Oh gosh. Yes, but it was something really short. 

Rich Bennett 27:18
I was going to say because I would have been all tongue-tied and everything would be... 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 27:21
no idea. I 

Rich Bennett 27:22
I've had 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 27:22
had no idea what this was all about. 

Rich Bennett 27:25
Wow. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 27:26
Except I do what I'm told. So I was told I should go to this this meeting. 

Rich Bennett 27:31
So, back in high school, is this something you always wanted to do? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 27:38
I got the idea in high school. 

Rich Bennett 27:39
Okay. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 27:40
I think I was inspired by my sophomore biology teacher who had just come back from the Peace Corps. 

Rich Bennett 27:51
Oh, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 27:51
And he told stories all year about Peace Corps and he'd show us slides. You know, everybody's so enthusiastic when they 

Rich Bennett 27:58
yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 27:58
come back. So my idea then, what I wanted to do really was go into the Peace Corps. And then I just got started with all kinds of ideas along that vein. And I even did join the Peace Corps at one point out of college because it been in my mind. 

Rich Bennett 28:19
right 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 28:19
I was going to go I was assigned to Botswana as a tuberculosis control officer. But someone in my family became very ill and I couldn't go. And then I got all caught up in, you know, going to professional school and I never I never got back to that. So I thought when I retired someday, I would. 

Rich Bennett 28:38
I was going to 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 28:39
But... 

Rich Bennett 28:39
say you still got plenty of time. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 28:41
I know, but I can't leave my Bernice Mountain Dog or my golden retriever that long. 

Their lives are short. 

Rich Bennett 28:50
Well, okay. I'm a I'm a dog. I love dogs. But golden retrievers always have to have a playmate, don't they? Or am I? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 29:00
Yeah. That's why we have two. 

Rich Bennett 29:02
Oh, you have two golden retrievers? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 29:04
You know, one. 

Rich Bennett 29:05
Oh, sure. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 29:06
And a Bernice Mountain Dog. 

Rich Bennett 29:09
All right, aren't those the Burmese Mountain Dog isn't that the one that gets as big as a horse? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 29:16
Because of pony, yeah. 

Rich Bennett 29:17
Yeah. Those things are huge. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 29:20
They're 

Rich Bennett 29:20
Well, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 29:20
huge. 

Rich Bennett 29:20
I bet you love it. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 29:22
120 pounds. 

Rich Bennett 29:23
I bet you love it in the winter time, though, right? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 29:26
Oh, I do. I do. 

Rich Bennett 29:27
Sit at your feet. Keeps your feet warm. 

All right, so I'm. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 29:32
It's a big baby. 

Rich Bennett 29:35
You're listening in the conversations with Rich Bennett. We'll be right back. 

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Carolyn Larkin Taylor 30:57
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 30:57
What made you decide that you to write a memoir? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 31:04
Well, all during my career, I journaled when I would run into a situation that was just heart-wrenching, emotionally draining. 

If you have a bad outcome, you have to just go on to compartmentalize and go on to the next patient and the next patient. You can't just retreat because something bad 

Rich Bennett 31:28
happened. Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 31:29
So I would go home and I would write about it. And I journaled. And when something in my own life was happening that was difficult to deal with, I would write about it. And looking back, I think even as a kid when I was upset about something or my dog diet or something like that, I sit down and write. And that was my way of coping. So when I was able to take some time after I left private practice or not private practice but the clinical practice, I sat down and read through this journal and I was really amazed looking over the years because I started medical school all through my career, not only how I transformed as a physician during those years, but the incredible inspiring stories of these people that I took care of that were so brave and inspiring to me. 

Rich Bennett 32:26
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 32:27
I wanted to tell their stories because I thought they would help inspire other people. And you know, at the end of the day, it's the story of a person, a real person. 

Rich Bennett 32:39
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 32:39
That sticks with you. That teaches you because it's one thing to read about Parkinson's disease in a textbook. It's another thing to associate that with Michael J. Foxx and his story. 

Rich Bennett 32:53
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 32:53
And you person to that disease. And it so much more. That's why we all know so much more about Parkinson's and like you, that isn't there more research being done and things because of Michael J. Foxx. And so I wanted to write the stories of my patients that were inspiring. 

Rich Bennett 33:16
So what's, and I knew they're several, but one that you can think of right off hand, what's one of the stories that really stand out to you? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 33:25
Oh. 

Well, they, they were all kind of incredible. 

Rich Bennett 33:34
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 33:37
I'll tell this story. This is a favorite story of mine. And 

Rich Bennett 33:40
Okay. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 33:40
this is, this is a dog story. 

Rich Bennett 33:43
Oh. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 33:44
Because speaking of Golden Retrievers, my book is a series of essays. So they all stand alone. And one of my essays is called Prancer tales. And that's a story of this Golden Retriever prancer that worked by my side as a therapy animal for patients for 14 years. And it's incredible that she lived 14 years, but she 

Rich Bennett 34:12
for Golden Retriever. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 34:15
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 34:15
Wow. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 34:16
It is incredible. 

Rich Bennett 34:17
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 34:18
So she kind of came to me by accident and was in my office as a puppy, and everybody wanted to see her because they heard this puppy howling for me. And so it was just going to be something temporary, but she was so good with patients and just calm people down that were afraid and at that I took her for training. And I got her certified by the pet partners program. To be under their umbrella of insurance. So I was free to take her into the hospital to infusion centers in my office and could work with patients. It's like the dogs that are taken to disaster centers. 

Rich Bennett 34:54
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 34:55
They're all therapy dogs that are trained. So She was trained to gently scratch on the door if she wanted to come in, and I would ask the patient if they wanted her, if they didn't, I wouldn't answer the door, and she just lay down outside. 

Rich Bennett 35:10
oh wow. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 35:11
And so one day I was seeing a young man that had been left quadriplegic from the neck down, 

from a motorcycle accident, and he was in the middle of the room in his electric wheelchair. And his entire family were sitting around the room and chairs and exam tables and anywhere they could. And there were so many people in the room that I left the door open, but I forgot about prancer. And she was used to scratching on the door. So I didn't know I didn't have much to offer this young man except you know, specificity management, bowel bladder management. I mean, I certainly couldn't cure him, 

Rich Bennett 35:53
right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 35:54
And all of a sudden he just looked past me with tears in his eyes at the door. And I turned and I saw a prancer and I said, oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't tell you. We have a therapy dog on the premises. I'm really sorry. And with that, he said, I love dogs so much. Now he didn't say a word the entire visit 

Rich Bennett 36:17
right? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 36:18
Yes, he just sat there not talking. He said, I love dogs so much. I would give anything if I could just pet that dog. 

Rich Bennett 36:26
Oh God. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 36:28
And with that, I didn't know, prancer obeyed hand signals and voice. I didn't say nobody said a word. We could hear a pin drop in that room. Prancer got up, slowly walked over to him. Sat next to his wheelchair and put her muzzle right on his lap on his hands. And she stayed there for the entire hour. There wasn't a dry eye in the room. And that dog did more for that young man that day than I ever could have. She was amazing. She was amazing. I could go on and on stories about her, but that's one of them. 

And my last essay is called Thank You for Your Service. And it was a eulogy to print prancer. 

Rich Bennett 37:18
Oh, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 37:19
I told some of the great stories about her, but that dog touched many, many people. And I had patients that I would see regularly, people with chronic things like MS or Parkinson's that would call and say, I want to be sure prancers there 

Rich Bennett 37:35
point. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 37:35
for my 

Rich Bennett 37:35
Oh, wow. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 37:37
I'm going to reschedule. They had to see her. 

Rich Bennett 37:39
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 37:40
And she was just wonderful. She was just wonderful. So that's that's one of my favorite stories. That there's in this book, there's something for everyone. 

Rich Bennett 37:50
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 37:51
I tell a story of a patient with Huntington's disease and a patient young woman with the brain tumor. And that found out when she found out she was going to die that the therapy hadn't worked. All she could think about was her mother. And how was she going to tell her mother and how to be strong for her mother? 

Rich Bennett 38:10
Oh, wow. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 38:11
And the brave people with ALS and so many and stories about medical gas lighting 

Rich Bennett 38:20
medical gas, lighting. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 38:22
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 38:23
I would explain that. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 38:25
Well, 

Rich Bennett 38:26
I keep hearing this term gas light, and I still don't know what it is. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 38:31
It took me a while to figure it out too. But when it happens to you, it's like when you go to see a doctor and 

they are they are listening to you, but they're they're not really taking you seriously. 

Rich Bennett 38:46
Okay. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 38:47
Well, you can see something in their eyes or a little smirk or well, well, maybe you're just dressed. And you feel dismissed. So you feel like well, you know, it's I guess it's all in my mind. It's not it's nothing. I shouldn't even come. You know, I feel really they make you feel stupid for even coming to them or bringing up the problem. 

Rich Bennett 39:09
Oh, wow. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 39:10
Yeah, it can be like a form of gas lighting. 

Rich Bennett 39:12
Okay. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 39:12
I tell stories. It's a it's a memoir because it's it's like I bring the patient that the reader into the exam room with me 

Rich Bennett 39:23
I like 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 39:23
and to 

Rich Bennett 39:23
that. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 39:24
the. And to the bedside with me with the patient. So that they feel what it's like to examine that patient and deal with the family. And I deal with. 

Three episodes in my own life where I dealt with. The neurologic illness of a family member. So it was the death of my mother and the death of my father and the death of my brother. They're all separate things, but they all died of neurologic illness. And I was 

Rich Bennett 39:55
Wow. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 39:56
there. And the only physician, the family, the one that had to kind of orchestrate it and the difficulty of that. And how that changed me as a physician, actually. So I've got those memoir issues in there, but I deal with again, these inspiring patient stories stories of. Seeing a young man in the hospital when we consult as neurologists in the hospital. It's usually not for something good. 

Rich Bennett 40:27
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 40:28
No, it's usually because we have to do the brain death exam after trauma or there's been an overdose and we are called into do a brain death exam and to talk with the family or a devastating stroke. So I bring the reader into the bedside with me for some of those difficult situations. And it's and I also deal a lot with addiction. 

Rich Bennett 40:54
I Oh really? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 40:55
All forms of addiction. I deal with the patient that is enabled by their famous husband who can take them to all kinds of doctors and get their their loved one drugs for her headache, but her problem is really addiction and the devastating consequences that has an ideal with addiction in the young man who finally had that final overdose that failed all the rehab and the family at this point is so exhausted that they don't even into the hospital. And I deal with addiction from 

young woman who's the typical soccer mom living in suburbia with her nice home and three kids. And she's addicted to nitrous oxide that she is sniffing 

Rich Bennett 41:48
Wow, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 41:49
just just to get through her day. And the devastating consequences that had on her nervous system. 

Rich Bennett 41:55
I never 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 41:55
So there's 

Rich Bennett 41:55
heard that before. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 41:57
Yeah, there's there's there's a lot of interesting things in neurology, but the book deals with every aspect. So there's Parkinson's, there's brain death, there's death with dignity, you know, the issue of somebody that's got such a devastating illness. And they're suffering so much that decides to take their own life. 

Rich Bennett 42:17
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 42:19
And so there's there's sadness, but there are some funny things in the book, as well. 

Rich Bennett 42:24
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 42:25
As a medical student, I was exposed to this woman that in an epilepsy center was having 100 seizures a day, she 

Rich Bennett 42:35
had good Lord 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 42:37
severe severe epilepsy. And it was so bad she was on so many drugs. You know, she had to wear a helmet because she kept falling and hitting her head that she literally couldn't go out of the house. So they did a surgery, one of the early surgeries for epilepsy, where they actually make a cut through the connection between the left and right brain. And they partially cut it. And what that does is it prevents the electrical activity from one side of the brain to spread to the other side. So the, the brain goes up in this electrical storm. That's what why people lose consciousness with the seizure. 

Rich Bennett 43:16
Okay. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 43:18
You can have a focal seizure in one part of the brain and somebody might twitch or their arm might shake, but they're conscious. But once it spreads to both sides of the brain, like an electric spark would that's not compatible with consciousness. So this individual was so Devastated by these seizures. So the first surgery didn't work. So they went back in and cut the connection between the two hemispheres of the brain a little bit more. And the seizure stopped, which was wonderful. But now her left and right brain were no longer connected. 

Rich Bennett 43:52
Oh, oh, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 43:54
so she would For instance, there it was almost like there was two personalities. 

Rich Bennett 44:01
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 44:02
So the right side of the brain was the uninhibited side and the left side of the brain was the logical practical side. So with her right brain, she'd light a cigarette. The left brain would put it out the right hand would start putting it out because the left brain controls the right side. 

Rich Bennett 44:21
Wow. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 44:22
A handsome young resident walked into the room because this was in a hospital setting a group of medical students were around this woman and she was entertaining us really. And she enjoyed and at least the right side of her brain. 

Rich Bennett 44:35
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 44:36
Yes. You know, one hand would start unbuttoning her blouse and the other hand would 

Rich Bennett 44:41
hand. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 44:41
slap the 

Rich Bennett 44:41
Oh, God. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 44:42
She allowed. And she said the funniest thing was when she tried to ride a bicycle and one side of her brain wanted to go ride the other side of one to go left and she just wobble back and forth. And she she was just hysterical. She was funny. And she said regardless of how 

Devastating some people might think this condition is. It's so much better than having all those seizures and being unconscious or unable to go out of her house. 

Rich Bennett 45:13
One hundred seizures a day. Holy. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 45:15
So she made it quite amusing and some of her stories are quite funny. 

Rich Bennett 45:21
You know, and that's the one thing and when you mention that I think of a guy that was in our Lions Club. He had diabetes. And it got so bad where he started losing digits and then then his foot and everything. And but he was he was probably the most he was the most active member in the club. And he would just say, yeah, I got a good house. Well, they got a drive-through window for me now. I just go up and say, here, take whatever you need. And then he went totally blind. And went to school to learn how to be blind. And the stuff that they taught him was just amazing when he came back at me and he was telling us all this stuff is like, Steve, I just, I mean, I was blown away. And still it blind he'd sit on him, and he'd be on the phone calling people all the time. Very, God, I'm missing. Miss Akron. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 46:18
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 46:19
All right. So with all these stories, actually, first of all, how long did it take you to write the book? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 46:26
Well, I'd been writing it my whole 

Rich Bennett 46:28
journal part, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 46:29
right? But to put it into a literary form and 

work, then I worked with an editor that helped me refine it. I'd say it took about 18 months. 

Rich Bennett 46:43
I didn't bad. How hard was it because I'm sure there's a lot of stories that did not make the book. How hard was that to pick out which one you actually wanted to put in? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 46:57
It wasn't very hard because I wanted to have a mixture of happy stories 

Rich Bennett 47:02
and, right, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 47:03
sad stories. And, But I wanted them all to be inspiring. 

Rich Bennett 47:08
yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 47:08
And so, and, you know, you just have your favorites. But I have many more stories, so I'll probably do more books. 

Rich Bennett 47:19
That means, uh, whispers of the mind part two? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 47:23
Maybe, maybe. Or I might just do a story about a lot of stories about 

Rich Bennett 47:29
I 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 47:29
cancer. 

Rich Bennett 47:29
was just gonna say, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 47:30
oh, 

Rich Bennett 47:34
I love that. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 47:35
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 47:36
And since I play Santa professionally, I'm just going to say you have Santa's blessing for that as well. Since, yeah, it's the name of one of my reindeer. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 47:45
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 47:48
The book just came out in August and here we are recording this September 19th. And I don't know if you've looked, but because you mentioned epilepsy, it's number 49 in the epilepsy category. Yeah. As far as sales go. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 48:05
Really? 

Rich Bennett 48:05
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 48:06
I don't even know how to look up sales. 

Rich Bennett 48:08
Oh, yeah. Yeah, the best seller's rank in all this. It can listen by category. And it's right now as of today, September 19th, 49 in epilepsy, 689 in medical, professional biographies, that's strong and 1393 in biology. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 48:31
huh? 

Rich Bennett 48:31
So, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 48:32
What are you talking 

Rich Bennett 48:32
about? On Amazon. That's strictly on Amazon. Not all the other ones. Not brands of steroids. So, yeah, that's... 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 48:39
Okay. Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 48:40
That's on Amazon. So, yeah, those of you listening, all you got to do, when you go to Amazon or all right, better yet even go to Carolyn's website, which is carolin, larkin, tailorauthor.com. You can find the book there. But, after you purchase it, whispers of the mind and neurologism, memoir, make sure you leave a full review whether it be on Amazon, Goodreads, wherever you can leave reviews, make sure you leave a full review and then purchase copies for other people because I guarantee you're gonna love it. And then when the second book comes out, "Princess tails." Oh, God. Which means you're going to have to come back on again to talk about that. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 49:28
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 49:29
And now, please tell me you have a picture of "Princess" or to put on the cover. Oh, no. Oh. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 49:37
Isn't 

Rich Bennett 49:37
great? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 49:37
she 

Rich Bennett 49:38
Oh, God. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 49:39
Now, there is a picture of "Prancer." It's not this one, but it's a picture of "Prancer" in the book. At the end of the book, when I did the eulogy to her, there's a picture 

Rich Bennett 49:48
of... Oh, God. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 49:51
She 

Rich Bennett 49:51
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 49:51
was an incredible, incredible spirit. 

Rich Bennett 49:54
That any plans are putting this out in audible form? Audio? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 49:59
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 49:59
Oh, really? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 50:00
Yeah, but I haven't done that yet. I have to figure out how to do that. This is all new to me. 

Rich Bennett 50:06
Oh, record it while you're recording it or record it while you're reading it. I mean, if you do it don't yourself because there's really no characters in there, right? No, that's all you. It's like you're... 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 50:18
It's all me talking. 

Rich Bennett 50:19
Yeah, you're... 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 50:20
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 50:20
Oh, so yeah. Just grab your microphone and start reading it. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 50:24
Okay. I'll figure out how 

Rich Bennett 50:26
do 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 50:26
to 

Rich Bennett 50:26
that. That's a lot... I mean, seriously, that's a lot of authors do when it's a memoir or even a self-help book. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 50:32
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 50:32
It's a lot cheaper than paying somebody to do it. That's for sure. So since you released the book, what's been the biggest struggle for you to get the book out there? Because I know it's not easy being an author pernore. So what's the biggest challenge your face. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 50:52
The biggest challenge I'm facing is things like this. I have a publicist that's, you know, setting up things, interviews 

Rich Bennett 51:00
and 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 51:01
things for me and that's not something I'm used to doing. I'm an introvert by nature. And I'm so used to talking one-to-one, though, with patients, and I've done a lot of lectures to patients, patient groups. 

Rich Bennett 51:14
Right. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 51:15
I'm good with that. And each one I do gets easier. Yeah. But, you know, putting yourself out there is 

hard for 

Rich Bennett 51:26
yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 51:26
me, 

Rich Bennett 51:26
Yeah. I understand. Believe me, I was the same way when I first started actually in radio, which is weird because I had no problem DJing in the clubs. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 51:37
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 51:38
But keep in mind, DJing in the clubs back when I did it, the bartender was always bringing me drinks. And as a neurologist, you know, it realizes your brain. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 51:49
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 51:50
But when I got into the radio the first time I sat down and turned on the mic and I saw that on air, light came on. I froze. And I wasn't doing interviews. I was a music DJ. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 52:04
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 52:04
And my guy that got me into it, he said, "What's the matter?" I said, "Steve, there's a lot of people out there listening." He said, "So you're fine in the clubs." And I told him, the same day I just told you, he said, "Rich, look at the microphone is one person." That's all you have to do. That microphone is one person that you're having a one-on-one on. And that helped. That helped a lot. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 52:27
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 52:27
So I guess you're not doing book signing yet then. Or are you? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 52:31
Yeah, I haven't done them yet, but I have a couple scheduled. 

Rich Bennett 52:35
I think it'd be good to do in your centers, too, have the books Yeah. And do 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 52:39
there. 

Rich Bennett 52:39
some signings there. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 52:41
Yeah. 

Rich Bennett 52:41
And of course your public library and everything. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 52:44
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 52:44
So before I get to my last question, which I have no idea what it's going to be, is there anything you would like to add? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 52:56
Oh, just that book is for everyone because 

Rich Bennett 53:02
this 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 53:03
you might be interested in, you'll find something in there that's about someone you know, or someone you took care of, or something that's maybe happened to you. And it's in layman's terms that's easy to understand. And it's mostly a book about humanity and compassion. And there's a lot of interesting things. And it's not about teaching people neurology at all. It's really about humanity. And these really inspiring people. It's the patience of the heroes of this book. Patience and Prancer. 

Rich Bennett 53:40
Yeah. Sounds like it'd be a great gift for anybody. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 53:44
Yes, it would be. It would be. 

Rich Bennett 53:46
All right. So for my last question, I need you to pick a number between 1 and 100. And while I'm looking for that question, tell me why you picked that number. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 53:59
Do you want me to pick a tell you the number? 

Rich Bennett 54:00
Well, yeah, I'm not a magician, Harold. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 54:03
I thought you were going to, you were going to tell me what it was. 

Rich Bennett 54:07
No, for that, here I'm going to have you pick 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 54:08
Okay. 

Rich Bennett 54:09
a card. No, I'm 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 54:10
27. 

Rich Bennett 54:12
27, why 27? 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 54:15
It's the day of the month that my son was born, 

Rich Bennett 54:18
okay. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 54:19
And I consider that my lucky number. 

Rich Bennett 54:24
Oh, yeah, it seems like a lot of times. And I don't even I don't even know a majority of these questions. I only know the ones that people have asked for the number so far. But it's amazing how many of these questions have aligned with what we've been talking about for each guest. And this one I think does. So what's a habit? You've cultivated that has significant significantly improved your life. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 55:00
She's up puzzling. 

Rich Bennett 55:01
Oh, come on. serious. Oh, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 55:07
I know, I'd say journaling. 

Rich Bennett 55:09
Oh, oh, okay. 

Oh, no, that's a good one. No, it's fun because it's funny. You say that because I, I have a lot of good dreams at night. So I bought a journal and I keep it by my stand on my nightstand. You know, how many things I have written that journal so far? None. Nothing. Nothing, because I, it's, it's weird. I'm always used to have the negative thoughts all the time. And ever since I've read the, the, the, the, the secret by Rhonda burn. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 55:41
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 55:42
It just, my, it's changed my mind. Said I stopped watching news. And since I started this business, it's like, I just keep coming up with ideas. So now when I, if I have a dream about it, instead of writing it down in my journal, I just wake up and put the coffee on and come downstairs. 

But but the one thing I just started doing and my, my wife gets on me about it because I have a finished one yet is jigsaws, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 56:13
jigsaw puzzles. Well, it's, I think that it's a certain kind of mind that likes to do those, 

Rich Bennett 56:16
Oh, I, it's, well, it's, I mean, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 56:20
it 

Rich Bennett 56:20
to 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 56:20
used. 

Rich Bennett 56:20
me, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 56:22
it's therapy. It is. It's therapy. It uses your left and right brain. 

Rich Bennett 56:26
Yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 56:27
So, it, it really is good for your brain, and it, um, I don't know, it takes patients, but 

Rich Bennett 56:33
it, 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 56:34
it, um, It's, it is therapeutic. It's almost 

Rich Bennett 56:38
yeah. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 56:38
like meditating because when you're doing that, you can't think of these other things for bothering you. 

Rich Bennett 56:43
Yeah, I do love meditating. I do that more than the jigsaw puzzle. But my, my wife had to laugh at me because I started on this one and, and it was hard. And I, I didn't finish it. So instead I bought, I've always liked Thomas Kincaid, the artist. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 56:59
Yes. 

Rich Bennett 56:59
The artists of lights, I think they calling. So I bought a jigsaw puzzle that looks like one of his. Didn't look to see how many pieces it was. I figure it's gonna be like 500 pieces. And it came in 1000 pieces. Oh, my, oh, good Lord. And my wife had to lay it for me because I bought the little box that, it's separate boxes so you could put the pieces, separate the pieces in and everything. She said to me the other day, she says, um, you wouldn't even have the border done yet. It's like, I'm so certain to pieces. I don't some pieces. It's not 500 pieces. I said, don't about it. I'll get it done. She goes, well, you're taking up my diamond room table. I said, I'll get it done because we, she did well 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 57:44
exactly Thanksgiving. 

Rich Bennett 57:46
Oh, I better get it done before Thanksgiving. Oh, I'll get it done. Carolyn, I want to thank you so much. It's been an honor and a true pleasure. And the door is, well, you have to come back on when you write the second book of adventure. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 58:02
Okay. Okay. It was of my pleasure. And you were so easy to talk to you. Really made it. You made it fun. 

Rich Bennett 58:08
Oh, well, thank you. Take care. Thanks. 

Carolyn Larkin Taylor 58:11
Thank

Rich Bennett 58:12
Thank you for listening to the conversations with Rich Bennett. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and learned something from it as I did. If you'd like to hear more conversations like this, be sure to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss a episode. And if you have a moment, I'd love it if you could leave a review. It helps us reach more listeners and share more incredible stories. Don't forget to connect with us on social media or visit our website at conversationswithrichbent.com for updates, giveaways and more. Until next time, take care. Be kind and keep the conversations going. You know, it takes a lot to put a podcast together. together, And my sponsors help add a lot, but I also have some supporters that actually help me when it comes to the editing software, the hosting, and so forth. There's a lot that goes in to putting this together. So I want to thank them. And if you can please please visit their websites, visit their businesses, support them. However you can. So please visit the following Full full circle boards. Nobody does Charcudery like full circle boards, visit them at fullcircleboards.com. Sincerely, Sincerely Sincerely, so your photography, live in the moment, they'll capture it. Visit them at sincerelysoyer.com. The Jopitan Lions Club, serving the community since 1965, visit them at JopitanLinesClub. org. And don't And forget the E at the end of Jopetown, because they're extraordinary.