Are you a hoarder?
I'm not personally a hoarder, but I love the show Hoarders on A&E.
Do you have a favorite episode which highlighted the issue of hoarding?
I can't think of a specific episode that was a favorite.  They've had so many...their eighth season began in 2016!
Are the episodes an eye opening experience as to how bad hoarding can be?
Yes it's terrifying.  All of the people are so impaired that they can't use their homes for cooking, sleeping, and they can barely move in the house.
I agree its a very serious condition. Do you think you could deal with hoarding if your mother had say like 500 pairs of shoes?
500 pairs of shoes is definitely way too many.  If she was unwilling to discard the items and the shoes were covering up living areas, I would hate it.