Looking Up From Here
Join us on a podcast adventure where we explore the all encompassing experience of living with a disability. We delve into how disability influences our interactions with the world around us—and how the world responds to us. Along the way, we share our personal journeys and open up about how our lives and identities have been shaped from the seat of a wheelchair where we're always looking up. Join us and our guests for these heartfelt and often humorous conversations—and gain a deeper understanding of what it takes to navigate life on wheels.
Episodes
What's obvious to us may not be so obvious to others. In this episode, we continue our conversation about the disparities between how we see ourselves and how others see us. The gaps in those perceptions often create misunderstandings and unmet needs and has an impact on our lives in ways that surprise even us. We get into some of the nuances of the disabilities that others can see and the ones they can't--like chronic pain...
This episode takes a candid look at disability as an endurance sport—where identity, resilience, and community reshape what care and compassion mean.
We explore the emotional and physical endurance of living with a disability, framing daily life as a constant act of adaptation. Our conversation delves into how identity evolves through loss and uncertainty—especially within medical systems that often lack answers. We reflect on how w...
Needing to use a cane or wheelchair can throw a person into an identity crisis because of the stigma they carry. Accepting the use of an aid can be a difficult transition and one that many people resist or reject even when an aid is important for their safety and independence.
This conversation delves into how our sense of self is impacted by our needs and how we can reframe our thinking on aids to get the most out of the technology...
In this conversation, Laura shares her journey of living with spina bifida. She discusses the challenges she faced growing up with disability and the innovative therapies her family sought out to help her thrive. She shares her experiences trying to fit in at school, the isolation she felt, and how she finally gave up her mission to make other people comfortable with her limitations. Laura also reflects on her discovery of the Mind...
"It's that they make lemonade out of lemons. Instead of looking at what's hard about it, they look at how to transform your disability into something beautiful, something intimate, something fun, something other than what it is...(because it's not any of those things)... but it can be experienced differently if you have the right person with you...
"Don't we always go through life with our story just ready to slap it on whoever's in front of us? And then just like that we're up and running with that story." Angelique and Samantha dive a deeper into a brief encounter with a stranger that left Anqelique stung by the disconnect between how she sees herself and how he reacted to her disability that we discussed in the episode "Pity & Perspective-Pt 1"
We decided we are pro-cussing because sometimes it's better out than in and it can put that rage to good use.
Ever have someone look at you in a way that just deflates you and breaks your heart? What story have they overlaid on your experience and is it something you need to carry? In this episode, we talk about the different ways strangers relate to us--from sad looks to inappropriate comments to outrageous questions. And we talk a bit about both how those things land and how we have learned to cope with and move beyond them.
- Experiencin...
"The choice that you make to live is the most important choice you make every day." -- In this episode, we get honest about the frustrations and fears that challenge us daily and how we struggle to cope and overcome them. With a little humor and a lot of candor, we share how our relationship with our bodies have evolved over time as we've learned to be kinder to ourselves and more patient with the set backs.
- The Choice to Live: Em...
"I feel like there's this sort of tantalizing closeness to things, the almost there of a lot of experience." In this episode, we discuss how our limitations affect our relationships and our sense of what is possible in social settings. Our conversation touches on setting boundaries when something doesn't feel right and how wonderful it feels when our needs are understood.
- The Choice to Live: Embracing Life's Value
- Choosing Your B...
This is us making a good go of it and learning the ropes. We get into some of the issues around the misunderstandings people have--even those closest to us--about what it's like to live with a disability.
- Understanding Disability Beyond the Surface
- The Emotional Journey of Living with Disability
- The Pressure to Maintain Positivity
- Navigating Relationships and Expectations
- The Challenge of Sharing Personal Struggles
- The Comple...
Popular Podcasts
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Burden is a documentary series that takes listeners into the hidden places where justice is done (and undone). It dives deep into the lives of heroes and villains. And it focuses a spotlight on those who triumph even when the odds are against them. Season 5 - The Burden: Death & Deceit in Alliance On April Fools Day 1999, 26-year-old Yvonne Layne was found murdered in her Alliance, Ohio home. David Thorne, her ex-boyfriend and father of one of her children, was instantly a suspect. Another young man admitted to the murder, and David breathed a sigh of relief, until the confessed murderer fingered David; “He paid me to do it.” David was sentenced to life without parole. Two decades later, Pulitzer winner and podcast host, Maggie Freleng (Bone Valley Season 3: Graves County, Wrongful Conviction, Suave) launched a “live” investigation into David's conviction alongside Jason Baldwin (himself wrongfully convicted as a member of the West Memphis Three). Maggie had come to believe that the entire investigation of David was botched by the tiny local police department, or worse, covered up the real killer. Was Maggie correct? Was David’s claim of innocence credible? In Death and Deceit in Alliance, Maggie recounts the case that launched her career, and ultimately, “broke” her.” The results will shock the listener and reduce Maggie to tears and self-doubt. This is not your typical wrongful conviction story. In fact, it turns the genre on its head. It asks the question: What if our champions are foolish? Season 4 - The Burden: Get the Money and Run “Trying to murder my father, this was the thing that put me on the path.” That’s Joe Loya and that path was bank robbery. Bank, bank, bank, bank, bank. In season 4 of The Burden: Get the Money and Run, we hear from Joe who was once the most prolific bank robber in Southern California, and beyond. He used disguises, body doubles, proxies. He leaped over counters, grabbed the money and ran. Even as the FBI was closing in. It was a showdown between a daring bank robber, and a patient FBI agent. Joe was no ordinary bank robber. He was bright, articulate, charismatic, and driven by a dark rage that he summoned up at will. In seven episodes, Joe tells all: the what, the how… and the why. Including why he tried to murder his father. Season 3 - The Burden: Avenger Miriam Lewin is one of Argentina’s leading journalists today. At 19 years old, she was kidnapped off the streets of Buenos Aires for her political activism and thrown into a concentration camp. Thousands of her fellow inmates were executed, tossed alive from a cargo plane into the ocean. Miriam, along with a handful of others, will survive the camp. Then as a journalist, she will wage a decades long campaign to bring her tormentors to justice. Avenger is about one woman’s triumphant battle against unbelievable odds to survive torture, claim justice for the crimes done against her and others like her, and change the future of her country. Season 2 - The Burden: Empire on Blood Empire on Blood is set in the Bronx, NY, in the early 90s, when two young drug dealers ruled an intersection known as “The Corner on Blood.” The boss, Calvin Buari, lived large. He and a protege swore they would build an empire on blood. Then the relationship frayed and the protege accused Calvin of a double homicide which he claimed he didn’t do. But did he? Award-winning journalist Steve Fishman spent seven years to answer that question. This is the story of one man’s last chance to overturn his life sentence. He may prevail, but someone’s gotta pay. The Burden: Empire on Blood is the director’s cut of the true crime classic which reached #1 on the charts when it was first released half a dozen years ago. Season 1 - The Burden In the 1990s, Detective Louis N. Scarcella was legendary. In a city overrun by violent crime, he cracked the toughest cases and put away the worst criminals. “The Hulk” was his nickname. Then the story changed. Scarcella ran into a group of convicted murderers who all say they are innocent. They turned themselves into jailhouse-lawyers and in prison founded a lway firm. When they realized Scarcella helped put many of them away, they set their sights on taking him down. And with the help of a NY Times reporter they have a chance. For years, Scarcella insisted he did nothing wrong. But that’s all he’d say. Until we tracked Scarcella to a sauna in a Russian bathhouse, where he started to talk..and talk and talk. “The guilty have gone free,” he whispered. And then agreed to take us into the belly of the beast. Welcome to The Burden.
"SmartLess" with Jason Bateman, Sean Hayes, & Will Arnett is a podcast that connects and unites people from all walks of life to learn about shared experiences through thoughtful dialogue and organic hilarity. A nice surprise: in each episode of SmartLess, one of the hosts reveals his mystery guest to the other two. What ensues is a genuinely improvised and authentic conversation filled with laughter and newfound knowledge to feed the SmartLess mind. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of SmartLess ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus.
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!