# The Hidden Disease 40% Of Americans Are Living - Alexandra Drane

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/inspiring-women-with-laurie-mcgraw-3258296/the-hidden-disease-40-of-americans-are-living-alexandra-drane
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/inspiring-women-with-laurie-mcgraw-3258296/the-hidden-disease-40-of-americans-are-living-alexandra-drane.md
Podcast: [Inspiring Women with Laurie McGraw](https://stenobird.com/podcast/inspiring-women-with-laurie-mcgraw-3258296)
Published: 2026-06-02T14:08:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/DHT2605629839.mp3
Audio file: https://www.podtrac.com/pts/redirect.mp3/traffic.megaphone.fm/DHT2605629839.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/inspiring-women-with-laurie-mcgraw-3258296/episodes/the-hidden-disease-40-of-americans-are-living-alexandra-drane
Duration seconds: 1680

## Resource

What if the biggest health crisis in America is one almost no one is being treated for? In this episode of Inspiring Women, host Laurie McGraw sits down with Alexandra Drane, co-founder and CEO of ARCHANGELS, recorded at the WBL conference. Alexandra has spent her career proving a simple, radical idea: when life goes wrong, health goes wrong. After gathering more than one billion data points at her former company, Eliza Corporation, she identified what she calls the unmentionables: caregiver stress, financial stress, relationship stress, and workplace stress. Her conclusion was that these are among the biggest diseases in the United States, and that at the center of all of them sits the unpaid caregiver. Today, more than 40 percent of adults are unpaid caregivers, and between 40 and 50 percent of them are men. Drawing on both the data and her own experience caring for her sister-in-law, who died of glioblastoma at 32, Alexandra makes the case for why caregiving must be recognized, measured, and celebrated. IN THIS EPISODE: - How unpaid caregiving is really defined, and the many roles people never recognize as caregiving, from installing grab bars to handling finances and navigating benefits - Why 40 to 50 percent of caregivers are men, and why so many never see themselves in the role - How gathering over a billion data points at Eliza Corporation led her to the unmentionables - Why she insists on broadening the definition of health to include life - The personal loss that shaped her mission, and the founding of Engage with Grace - Why she uses the word intensity instead of burden, and what that reframe makes possible - The Caregiver Intensity Index, and what it means to be in the clear, yellow, or red - Why being in the red means a 90 percent risk of a mental health im…

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