Kenny Fries, circa 2017. Photo by Michael R. Dekker. Disability writer and teacher Kenny Fries discusses the plight of German people with disabilities during the Nazi era. At least 200,000 people with a wide range of disabilities were murdered in an attempt to cleanse “Third Reich” society. At the same time, disabled German war veterans were feted with honors by the Nazi regime. It was arguably the worst modern tragedy to occur to the disabled community. “Unlike the Holocaust, there are no T4 su...
Dec 04, 2020•30 min
Christopher Bowers Facing a transplant of both heart and liver, Christopher Bowers and his wife talk to us about massive anxiety, heart-felt gratitude and sustaining love. In his 45 years, Christopher has squeezed every beat of life outta his congenitally-fragile heart. He’s living with congestive heart failure and a liver compromised by the many treatments. Now, if the planets align, he will soon undergo a double organ transplant. Christopher Bowers is a musician and father of a two-year-old so...
Nov 20, 2020•30 min
A drawing by an anonymous 9 year old boy shows how he happily walks about, whistling and talking normally, until he trips over a “stuttering wire” and falls helpless to the ground. From Elisabeth Sederholm, Ph.D. SLP Ume University. An essay here has this and other examples of children’s drawings about stuttering. Stuttering is caused by differences in the brain and there’s no cure for it. What there is is significant stigma and judgment from others. Yet. . . All the same. . . Bailey Levis says ...
Nov 06, 2020•30 min
Photo by Rochelle Hartman W-E-L-C-O-M-E! TO THE WIDE WORLD OF VOTING!!! Without doubt, this is THE strangest election in recent history…perhaps in all of this country’s history. In addition to the usual bonds, props, “Yes” means “No”, “No” means “Yes”, bickering candidates and plethora of conflicting messaging that are the features of a normal election, ALONG COMES COVID-19, and EVERYTHING changes. So how does one vote in the most critical election EVER while not breathing ANYONE else’s air? Wha...
Oct 23, 2020•30 min
A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. The show alternates weekly and airs on Odd weeks Friday 2:30pm. The post Pushing Limits – October 9, 2020 appeared first on KPFA.
Oct 09, 2020•30 min
Christina Collins During a pandemic, if you are a renter and can’t pay your rent, you don’t go directly to eviction. But, the current tangle of federal, state and local eviction moratoriums does not give most poor and disabled people the sense of housing security we need. Click here for local help! Christina Collins, a prominent eviction attorney, comes to KPFA to lay out the landscape these largely temporary measures. She will detail the strengths and weaknesses of the moratoriums and tell us h...
Sep 25, 2020•30 min
Jenn Peoples’ childhood was frightening and traumatic. As a result she’s faced terrifying demons of self-destructive behavior. Now she’s far along in recovery, not from her mental illness, but from the self-destructive behaviors that followed. Today, she is a dual diagnosis counselor at a peer support recovery center in downtown Santa Rosa, California. The concept of centers run by and for people with chronic mental disabilities came out of the psychiatric survivors and mental health consumers m...
Sep 11, 2020•30 min
Lisa and Warren Cushman Blind from birth, Warren Cushman was a passionate advocate for blindness, cross-disability, and environmental issues for over 15 years. But, in 2007, something happened that changed him deeply and set him on a new path which he names as mental illness.Now, 13 years later, Warren is at long last talking publicly about what happened.He’s chosen our airwaves to, not only recount this life-changing event, but to talk about how his family and the blind community has reacted to...
Aug 28, 2020•9 min
The pandemic is spreading quickly among people in prisons and other locked institutions. That means many people with disabilities are massed together directly in the path of Covid-19. Armanda Shackleford and Sarah Wild join Eddie Ytuarte to discuss their effort to #FreeThemAll in Chicago and beyond. Many incarcerated Chicago Police Department torture survivors sit behind bars as the virus rages, and one of them is a disabled man named Gerald Reed. We’ll learn more about Gerald Reed and the work ...
Aug 14, 2020•30 min
Roy Samuelson “Blind people watch TV. Blind people watch movies.” But, how DO they DO that?!! How does one make “A picture worth a thousand words” show up for people watching with their ears? Welcome to the “Blind Alley” version of “Pushing Limits”. What turns a movie into a radio drama? Roy Samuelson, for one. Roy is an audio description narrator and, in this program, he shares behind-the-scenes knowledge. He’ll explain what makes narration effective, non-intrusive and exciting. Then, he explai...
Jul 31, 2020•30 min
Event poster with art by Jacob Lawrence, “Harlem Hospital’s Free Clinic Is Crowded with Patients Every Morning and Evening” This week on Pushing Limits, black disability justice activist Leroy F. Moore Jr. makes a stunning indictment of the black community’s treatment of its disabled members. His speech was part of a webinar called “Disability Justice and COVID-19” that also included Elandria Williams, Lateef Mcleod and Dorian Taylor. We bring you excerpts from these black disability leaders who...
Jul 17, 2020•30 min
Justine Dart, known as the godfather of the ADA, is on the right with his signature hat. Seventeen days from this broadcast The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) turns thirty. This Federal civil rights legislation, one of the few favors Republicans have granted people with disabilities, has cleared the way for us to win our independence…but there’s STILL a VERY long way to go. It is fitting, then, that on the 4th of July weekend we’ll discuss “The ADA for Future Generations” a virtual event ...
Jul 03, 2020•30 min
Poor People’s Campaign March To The Capitol 2018. Photo by Stephen Melkisethian* According to the Ruderman Foundation a third to a half of all people killed by police are disabled. In a period of continued action by the Black Lives Matter movement against police violence and brutality, we turn to you, our listeners with disabilities. Are you participating? Supporting? Staying home but calling government officials? Helping activists communicate? Fielding questions from your white friends? Do the ...
Jun 19, 2020•6 min
Stacey Milbern. A screen shoot from a 2018 video produced by DREDF, The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund,https://vimeo.com/214431031. “You know, I want to leave a legacy of disabled people knowing that we are powerful and beautiful because of who we are, not despite it,” Stacey Milbern Park The whole world is mourning the recent murder of George Floyd. The disability community is no exception. We were already grieving the loss of Stacey Milbern Park, a transformative activist who die...
Jun 05, 2020•30 min
When activists and advocates are up against a shelter-in-place order, when everything we usually do is completely impossible, who you gonna call? That’s right! Disability Justice! Call ‘em now at 1-800-CRIP-POC-CRIP! Why them, you ask. Because over the past couple of decades activists with disabilities, in particular activists of color, have blazed a path of flexibility and mutual support to build a truly intersectional movement. They’ve worked within harsh personal and societal limitations. The...
May 22, 2020•30 min
Mike Dark of California Advocates for Nursing Home Reform COVID-19 is everywhere these days and no place has been hit harder than nursing homes. Estimates are that up to one-third of all COVID deaths have been in nursing homes. But nobody knows for sure, because the federal government and many states aren’t collecting this statistic. And, about one-quarter of people in those nursing homes are under age 65 and have disabilities. What is it about nursing homes that makes them so dangerous? What wi...
May 08, 2020•30 min
Mad Pride March, Koln, Germany, 2017photo by © Superbass / CC-BY-SA-4.0 (via Wikimedia Commons) Today’s organizing in the Mad Community has a long and turbulent back story. Historian Michael Rembis joins us again, this time to relay the remarkable work of mad activists in the 20th Century. The 20th century was a time of change and increased visibility for people living with emotional and mental disabilities. We’ll trace remarkable gains — and highlight continued inequities. Michael Rembis Michae...
Apr 24, 2020•30 min
Floating on pandemic waves of news, fear, social distancing and mutual aid, Pushing Limits hosts cull from the news, blogs and articles written by disabled people, webinars & conference calls and personal experience to bring this overview. Here’s more from the resources they’ve plumbed: Eight Take Aways from Listening to the National Disability Community A Spoon on the Seder Plate (with thanks to Sins Invalid) No One is Disposable — Preparing for a possible hospital stay Homeless People Two ...
Apr 10, 2020•30 min
As you shelter-in-place, take a break from strengthening your support network to spend 30 minutes contemplating the lives of the courageously ordinary amazing people with disabilities who came before us. Lessons from past disability community movements help us move more steadily through the days ahead. You can count on it. We’re joined by Michael Rembis, co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Disability History and Director of the Center for Disability Studies at the University at Buffalo (SUNY). M...
Mar 27, 2020•30 min
A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. The show alternates weekly and airs on odd weeks Friday 2:30pm. The post Pushing Limits – March 20, 2020 appeared first on KPFA.
Mar 20, 2020•30 min
Graphic courtesy of CreakyJoints.org How is the disability community dealing with being among those constantly told they are the “most vulnerable?” We put this question to some of our community experts, Andrew Pulrang and Shaun Cartwright. Here’s some great links for more information about these crucial questions: Healing Justice “Coronavirus: Wisdom from a Social Justice Lens”, Creaky Joints “Coronavirus Facts: What You Need to Know If You Have Chronic Illness or Are Immune-Compromised”, and 5 ...
Mar 13, 2020•30 min
A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. The show alternates weekly and airs on odd weeks Friday 2:30pm. The post Pushing Limits – January 31, 2020 appeared first on KPFA.
Jan 31, 2020•30 min
Moms 4 Housing The forced eviction of the moms in west Oakland, complete with tanks!, has been all over the news lately. 28% of Alameda County’s homeless population are children and these mothers are standing strong to do something about it. The disability community played an important role in defending the “Moms 4 Housing.” Hear all about it from Mom Defender Jay Salazar. Mark Romoser produces and hosts. The post Defending Homeless Moms – January 17, 2020 appeared first on KPFA.
Jan 17, 2020•30 min
Deborah Kaplan Are you mad as hell about the PG&E shutoffs? Did you, or someone you know, endure a nightmare scenario, trying to navigate disability-or-age-related power needs during a PG&E or So Cal Edison shutoff? Does the thought of more shutoffs fill you with dread? Rage? Both? Listen in as Debbie Kaplan tells Pushing Limits listeners about a forum to hear where things stand now and listen to front-line activists and experts from our OWN community discuss possible solutions. Electric...
Jan 03, 2020•30 min
A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. Today’s show features a discussion with Naomi Ortiz author of Sustaining Spirit: Self-Care for Social Justice. The post Sustaining Spirit with Naomi Ortiz appeared first on KPFA.
Dec 20, 2019•30 min
Nadina LaSpina Nadina LaSpina is guest host for a lively discussion about the history of the disability rights movement in the last 50-60 years. With Eddie Ytuarte, Jean Stewart and Adrienne Lauby. Nadina LaSpina is a well-known activist in the disability rights movement who has been arrested countless times for civil disobedience. She’s been in the streets with Disabled In Action, ADAPT, The Disability Caucus, and other groups. After teaching Italian for many years, Nadina LaSpina created and t...
Dec 06, 2019•30 min
Our host, Shelley. Note sign on back. Thanksgiving weekend is all about the food. At least that’s what one of our guests says. And, many of us don’t follow our deepest desires when we are confronted by groaning tables and mounds of sugary desserts. photo courtesy of Getty Images/Fuse We talk to Kara and Bob, two participants in Overeaters Anonymous groups, about how they approach the holiday season. Both have tips and tidbits to offer from the feast of wisdom that is a 12 step program. Coming Ri...
Nov 29, 2019•30 min
A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. The post Pushing Limits – November 15, 2019 appeared first on KPFA.
Nov 15, 2019•30 min
Sheila Black Sheila Black is the co-editor of Beauty is a Verb: The New Poetry of Disability (Cinco Puntos Press, 2011), an important anthology of poetry by people with disability. She talks with Eddie Ytuarte about disability poets, including her own history and use of confessional forms. They discuss the vibrant street poetry of disability, talk about how the internet has empowered this movement and other poetic subjects. Sheila Black is currently the Developmental Director of Association of W...
Nov 01, 2019•30 min
Nadina LaSpina ~ arrested in a direct action protest For this program, we bring back long-time disability activist, Nadina LaSpina, to talk more about her memoir, Such a Pretty Girl: a Story of Struggle, Empowerment, and Disability Pride. LaSpina has worked with several disability activist groups including ADAPT, Disabled in Action: NYC and The Disability Caucus. She’ll be in the Bay Area in person in December where, among other appearances, she will address the Commonwealth Club in San Francisc...
Oct 04, 20190
