Zemplee Podcast : Episode 14

AI-Powered Caregiving Podcast Episode: Turning "Toxic TV" Into a Clinical Tool for Calm Guest: Bill Uniowski, CEO and Co-Founder, Zinnia TV

Ishanya Anthapur: Traditional TV is toxic — well, maybe not totally toxic for everyone, but it can be deeply harmful for someone experiencing dementia. Memory care facilities are designed with a strong focus on physical safety, which is critically important. But many people don't realize the cognitive impact of standard television on patients with dementia.

For someone with dementia, a typical TV is a minefield of loud commercials and fast cuts. As my guest's company puts it: when someone can no longer track a plot or tell fact from fiction, even a standard news broadcast can trigger a fight-or-flight response, leading to agitation and heavy sedation. And TV is often used as a digital babysitter — not just in dementia care, but in any care setting.

This is AI-Powered Caregiving. I'm Ishanya Anthapur from Zemplee, where we think deeply about how technology can support aging in place with dignity — for everyone on the older adult spectrum, including those with dementia.

Today I'm joined by Bill Uniowski, CEO and co-founder of Zinnia TV. Bill's team creates research-backed video content designed specifically for people with dementia, turning the television from a source of stress into a clinical tool for calm. Zinnia TV is designed for caregivers, by caregivers. Welcome to the show, Bill.

Bill Uniowski: Thank you so much. Your introduction really captures what we try to do at Zinnia. There are so many situations where someone is sitting in front of a TV watching content that doesn'tresonate with them, that isn't aligned with where they are cognitively — and that leads to real problems. People sometimes conclude that TV is simply bad for people with dementia. But with more intentional choices, like Zinnia, it can actually be a valuable tool.

Ishanya: Can you walk us through what's happening cognitively when someone with dementia watches regular TV — even something comforting, like an old Western?

Bill: Everyone with dementia is different, and every progression is different. If something familiar and comforting is working for someone, by all means, keep watching it. In my family, it would be The Sound of Music. But even that film has a scene with guns and hiding — and that kind of content can be difficult for someone with dementia.

Here's why: dementia causes parts of the brain and the neural pathways between them to stop functioning the way they once did. The brain tries to compensate, but processing slows down significantly. Regular media is designed for healthy brains — it moves quickly, with lots of dialogue, plot, and rapidly shifting images. For someone whose brain is processing the world more slowly, that can lead to confusion, agitation, and frustration, making care much harder. The exact opposite of what the caregiver was hoping for when they turned on the TV.

Ishanya: That's really interesting. You have a background in digital media and strategy — do you know why traditional TV is designed to be so fast-paced?

Bill: It's all about the audience. Media is designed to engage viewers, keep them excited, and keep them coming back. And it serves people with healthy brains very well. At Zinnia, we try to do the same thing, but for people with dementia. We have a broad catalog covering many different topics — because just as anyone wants to watch something that matches their interests, people with dementia deserve that same consideration.

Ishanya: What do Zinnia TV programs actually look like? How are they different from traditional television?

Bill: A typical Zinnia video is highly visual with sound effects to engage multiple senses. We hold on a frame — say, a close-up of a baby — much longer than you or I would want to stare at it. But for someone who processes the world more slowly, that extra time allows them to engage with and really understand what they're seeing.

We keep the frame simple — not a lot happening on screen at once. Transitions are smooth. Background music matches the topic and the mood. And most of our videos have no spoken language, which means viewers don't have to worry about following dialogue. That also makes the content accessible to people from all language backgrounds.

Despite having no spoken language, we're still telling a story — visually. There's an arc. A "baby's first year" video might start with a newborn in the hospital, then move through early milestones. It'sgenuinely engaging, and it tends to bring back fond feelings for people who went through parenthood.

Ishanya: It's really well-designed. You mentioned there isn't much spoken audio — do people with dementia have trouble processing dialogue?

Bill: Yes, absolutely. As dementia progresses, people sometimes begin to lose words. If you give someone a five-word sentence and they miss one word, and then another, and then another — it starts to add up. They're constantly trying to figure out what's going on, which causes confusion and stress, which makes it even harder to follow. It becomes a cycle.

Ishanya: Zinnia is designed by caregivers, for caregivers. What did caregivers teach you that you might not have understood otherwise?

Bill: Our entire experience at Zinnia has been an exercise in ongoing dementia education. Our co-founder, Alison Shrier, was a family caregiver to her husband Evan, who was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia at a very young age. She went through the complete journey and understood the stresses and the gaps firsthand.

After that, Alison pivoted her career into dementia education and support. She ran support groups, delivered webinars, taught courses in long-term care communities for the state of Washington, and managed an education program for primary care physicians in rural and underserved areas through the University of Washington's Memory and Brain Wellness Center.

On top of that foundation, we've engaged in significant research — spending two years testing our content with families in long-term care communities and in hospitals, in partnership with the University of British Columbia and Vancouver General Hospital. That work resulted in seven published papers on why Zinnia works and how slow media benefits people living with dementia.

Ishanya: Alison's husband was diagnosed in his mid-to-late forties, which is such an important reminder that dementia doesn't only happen later in life.

Bill: Absolutely. The light bulb moment for Zinnia came when Alison visited Evan at the community where he was living. His wheelchair was pushed up against a TV showing soap operas in Spanish — because that's what the caregivers wanted to watch. It had nothing to do with Evan's background, his interests, or his ability to understand it. He couldn't verbalize his distress, but it was leading to a lot of agitation.

She saw that and said: I have to do something better. She started simple — photos of their kids, their dogs, their travels, displayed on an iPhone with soft music in the background. And she realized it worked. They looked into the research on media, processing, and dementia, started creating videos, and began testing them with her support group. That's how Zinnia was born.

Ishanya: You've mentioned Zinnia being part of the slow media movement. I find that fascinating because we're seeing something similar in children's media — a trend called "slow stim," where parents are pushing back against content that's deliberately engineered to spike kids' adrenaline. Do you see those two trends converging?

Bill: Absolutely. We're all susceptible to fast-moving media — we're all watching reels and shorts, it's all about the hook. We hear from our caregivers all the time that they enjoy watching Zinnia because it calms them down, too.

When a caregiver uses Zinnia with someone living with dementia, there are multiple ways to benefit. Sometimes caregivers use it for respite — they can turn it on knowing their loved one is engaged, knowing there won't be jarring commercials or unpredictable autoplay, and step away for ten minutes to take a shower or just breathe.

But we also talk about a different kind of respite — enjoying it together. Watching something connected to a shared memory, a place you traveled, and using it as a jumping-off point for conversation. The most powerful button in Zinnia isn't the play button. It's the pause button. That's when you can stop, talk about what you're seeing, and use it as a gateway to reminiscence and real connection.

Ishanya: Zinnia also has videos designed to support activities of daily living — things like drinking water or getting dressed. That's really unique.

Bill: Those videos came directly out of our research in Canada. A caregiver asked us: do you think you could create something to help my mom drink water? Or to make someone more open to taking a shower? People with dementia are often resistant to certain care tasks. So we started exploring whether we could model, prompt, or cue those behaviors — put someone in a more receptive mindset before the task.

We made the videos, we tested them, and we found they were effective — even more so when used as part of a routine. Some communities and home caregivers now do this every day at 11:30: they pour glasses of water and play the "Let's Drink Water" video. Viewers see people drinking water, dogs drinking water, they hear the water pouring. And it encourages them to drink. That's important, because people with dementia are at higher risk for UTIs and dehydration. We're simply showing people doing the thing — and enjoying it.

Ishanya: CMS has been tightening restrictions on the use of antipsychotic medications and pushing operators to reduce chemical sedation during agitation. Do you see Zinnia as part of that solution?

Bill: Absolutely. Zinnia is an excellent non-pharmacological intervention for agitation in dementia care. We don't have specific clinical data on antipsychotic reduction, but we have meaningful anecdotal evidence.

At a conference, someone told us about a resident who regularly became agitated — severely enough that her care plan called for a dose of antipsychotic medication. A staff member who knew her well remembered that she had been a pediatric nurse. The next time she became agitated, they pulled up the Zinnia babies video on a tablet and put it in front of her. Within two to three minutes, she had visibly calmed. She was reaching toward the screen and cooing at the babies. They updated her care plan: Zinnia instead of medication.

During our hospital research in Vancouver, there was a man admitted for another condition who also had dementia and was quite destructive — he'd pulled a TV off the wall. The staff knew he loved cars. They mounted a projector on the ceiling of a hospital room, and when he became agitated, they brought him in and played the cars video on the wall, full size. He'd start pointing and talking. It gave the staff a tool, and it gave his family enormous relief.

Ishanya: Is Zinnia only for mid-to-late stage dementia?

Bill: Not at all. We hear from people with mild cognitive impairment — at the very early stages — who use Zinnia periodically when they feel themselves needing to slow down. They'll put something on, watch content they enjoy, calm themselves, and then get back to their day.

Ishanya: And I'd imagine the ad-free environment alone is a significant benefit.

Bill: YouTube is widely used in care settings because you can find almost anything. But you can't control the commercials, and you can't control what plays next. I've heard from communities where something was working beautifully and then a commercial came on and undid everything. Zinnia is a dementia-friendly platform — everything on it is made with the same intentionality, ensuring it'sappropriate for that audience.

Ishanya: Let's talk a bit about your background. You've made a significant career shift — from investment and risk management into digital media strategy and now into this space.

Bill: A lot of people who come to work in dementia care have a personal connection. I had grandparents who experienced dementia. I was younger then, living elsewhere, and didn't witness it closely — but I heard from my parents and aunts and uncles about how hard it was. It stayed with me.

As I moved through different career opportunities, I always wanted to do something meaningful. I shifted from large to small, and I found I loved the startup environment — you do a lot, and you see the direct impact of what you do. Coming to Zinnia, which is an impactful company in a space that matters deeply, has been genuinely rewarding.

We even get emails from people when they cancel their subscriptions. Often it's because the loved one they were caring for has passed away. They write to tell us how much Zinnia meant to them and that they've been recommending it to others. That's not a typical customer relationship. It's something else.

Ishanya: The path to social entrepreneurship is never a straight line. And your point about not being directly involved in caregiving but still feeling its weight — I think that's true for so many people. In some way, every person is touched by caregiving at some point.

Bill: Yes, and it's something I witness regularly. I was just at a conference full of volunteers who spend time with people living with dementia — and they described it as the highlight of their week. That surprises people until they experience it. But many find it deeply meaningful to connect with and help another person in that way.

Rapid Fire

Ishanya: Is there a book you'd recommend?

Bill: I'm a big fan of Erik Larson — he writes historical nonfiction but tells the stories like fiction. The Devil in the White City is what got me hooked (I live near Chicago). He's also written a great Churchill book, a book set in Germany in the 1930s, and one about a devastating hurricane in Galveston, Texas, at the dawn of weather forecasting. I also recently read Meditations by Marcus Aurelius on a trip — it's remarkable. Here's a person writing to himself two thousand years ago, never intending it to be published, and yet it reads like the inner voice in my own head sometimes. It connects you to humanity across a much larger scale.

Ishanya: And what are you watching?

Bill: Honestly, I don't watch much TV — which is funny given what I do. I consume a lot of podcasts: tech news, health and longevity, self-improvement. I listen to Huberman Lab regularly. Working in dementia has made me genuinely fascinated by brain health in a way I never expected. That said — anytime I'm flipping channels and a Jason Bourne movie is on, I'm done. I sit down and I stay.

Ishanya: Jason Bourne and Huberman Lab. That tracks. Thank you so much, Bill. Zinnia TV is a wonderful product, and we're excited to see where it goes.

Bill: Thank you for the opportunity. You clearly looked closely at what we do and genuinely understand it. It made for a really good conversation.

Ishanya: I'll be signing up myself. Who doesn't need a little more calm in their lives?

AI-Powered Caregiving is hosted by Ishanya Anthapur and produced by Zemplee.