The Story Behind Brain Stories
Frank and Janet met at a training to lead family education classes for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). They taught that class together and began hearing one riveting account after another of real, funny, deeply moving stories about people who live with mental illness and those who support them. But no one was telling them.
Janet and Frank decided to produce a podcast series and that’s how Brain Stories was born. By now, they have heard countless tales of wonder, generosity and ingeniousness. But also about the walls of fear, alienation, and discrimination that those with mental health conditions face daily. They are committed to dismantling those walls in the only way that will keep them from being rebuilt: by creating awareness and caring in the mainstream culture.
Meet the Team
An Emmy and Golden Globe Award-winning Hollywood producer, Janet Yang is currently the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Yang’s extensive film and television credits include The Joy Luck Club, The People vs. Larry Flynt, The Weight of Water, Shanghai Calling, High Crimes, Zero Effect, and the Academy Award-nominated animated feature Over the Moon.
Yang began her career by running the first distribution company to market Chinese films into North America. She also brokered the reintroduction of American studio films to the Chinese marketplace after a decades-long hiatus. This in turn led to joining Steven Spielberg on the historic production of Empire of the Sun. This was followed by long-term partnership with multiple Academy-Award winning writer/director, Oliver Stone.
Yang has been named one of the “50 Most Powerful Women in Hollywood” by the Hollywood Reporter.
Janet Yang
Producer
Frank Kosa
Producer
Frank Kosa is an award-winning documentary producer-writer-director, and a journalist.
He produced National Geographic’s Story of God with Morgan Freeman, wrote the inaugural season of Travel Channel’s hit show Booze Traveler, produced the award-winning The Revolutionary War, a mini-series for A&E Christianity: The Second Millennium and multiple shows of some of TV’s most engaging documentary series including Life Without People, The Universe and Game Changers.
His shows have aired on The Science Channel, The History Channel, Discovery, A&E, TLC, Animal Planet, The Travel Channel, The Weather Channel, Lifetime, Bloomberg TV, HGTV, and National Geographic.
His print journalism has appeared in The LA Times, USA Today, Sacramento Bee, The Christian Science Monitor and numerous magazines. He has also worked in the camera department, art department, locations and director’s unit for a slew of films and TV shows produced by Universal, Warner Bros., & Sony, among others.
He is Emmy-nominated, has won a Cable Ace and other awards, but the goal has always been to engage and connect - to tell stories that touch people deeply and send them generously slouching toward their better angels.
Bethany Yeiser is a speaker, educator, and the author of the critically acclaimed book, Mind Estranged: My Journey from Schizophrenia and Homelessness to Recovery. Bethany was a scholarship winner, researcher and violinist before she developed the severe brain disorder of schizophrenia and became homeless her senior year of college, 2003. Bethany was unhoused for four years, living on the streets of Los Angeles before she began the odyssey of her recovery in 2007. In 2016, she founded the CURESZ Foundation with Dr. Henry Nasrallah. CURESZ stands for Comprehensive Understanding via Research and Education into SchiZophrenia. Its mission has expanded to serve a wide range of those with serious brain disorders, their families and support systems. CURESZ has also launched a campaign targeting 15-25-year-olds with the aim of prevention through awareness, education and making decisions to reduce the likelihood of developing a disorder. Bethany maintains a blog called “Recovery Road” on PsychologyToday.com. She continues to perform violin today, often for audiences of people with brain conditions.
Bethany Yeiser
Advisor
Dr. Xavier Amador
Advisor
Dr. Xavier Amador is an internationally renowned clinical psychologist, and leader in the field. His books, authoritative clinical research, worldwide speaking tours and extensive work in schizophrenia, bipolar and other disorders have been translated into 30 languages. He has worked in multiple capacities, including professor of psychology, author, therapist, and board member at NAMI. He is the pioneer in the modern identification of anosognosia in brain illness, and possesses a peerless knowledge of its history. His book on the subject I’m Not Sick, I Don’t Need Help has sold nearly 2 million copies. Dr. Amador was born in Cuba and moved to the U.S. with his family as a child. He is also a family caregiver of two close relatives with schizophrenia and another with bipolar disorder. He is the CEO of the LEAP Foundation.
Dr. Ruth Shim is a psychiatrist, educator, and advocate. She is the Luke & Grace Kim Professor of Cultural Psychiatry at the University of California, Davis. Her academic work focuses on exposing and eliminating structural racism and social injustice that lead to inequities in outcomes for people with serious brain disorders and substance use disorders. She is the co-editor of two books, The Social Determinants of Mental Health and Social (In)Justice and Mental Health. She is a leading voice on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the health professions and is committed to creating a more inclusive field of psychiatry – one comprised of clinicians who are members of oppressed and marginalized communities and return to serve these communities after completing medical education and training. She is a member of the board of trustees of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation’s largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health.
