Last month, the US House of Representatives passed a budget reconciliation bill that proposes cutting over a trillion dollars in Federal health care spending. The program that would see the largest cuts is Medicaid, which provides health insurance to people with low income and people with disabilities. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill, if passed into law, would cut over 800 billion dollars from Medicaid alone, resulting in nearly 11 million Americans losing Medicaid coverage. The bill also proposes cuts to the Affordable Care Act, SNAP, and to Medicare, which provides coverage to more than 61 million adults age 65 or older and almost 7 million people with disabilities under the age of 65.

Meanwhile, here in California, disability rights advocates have been flocking to Sacramento in recent weeks to push back on Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed state budget, which includes massive cuts to the In-Home Supportive Services, or IHSS, program, as well as cuts to services for people with developmental disabilities. IHSS provides in-home care for people with disabilities and older adults in California.

For more on these proposed cuts at the state and Federal level, we are joined by two guests. Claudia Center is the Legal Director at the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, or DREDF, Prior to her time at DREDF, Claudia was Senior Staff Attorney in the Disability Rights Program at the ACLU.

We’re also joined by Ted Jackson, the Director of Public Policy and Community Engagement at the Marin Center for Independent Living. Ted is also the Statewide Director of the Disability Organizing Network here in California.

Today, we’re joined by Dr. Xenia Barnes. After a 20 year career in education, Xenia turned her attention to social justice work and trauma research, with a particular focus on how gun violence impacts individuals and communities. Then, in 2021, she was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a lung disease that makes it difficult for the body to absorb oxygen from the air. Her essay “The Invisible Battle: Navigating the Minefield of Workplace Accommodation” was included in the recently published book, “Triumph in the Trenches: Navigating Success for Black Professionals.”

Xenia Barnes is a researcher, a public speaker, and a life coach. She is the author of two books on navigating trauma: “Grieving to Heal: The Shadow Boarding Experience” and “The Recondition: A Guide to Loving Yourself Through the Trauma.” She has completed one PhD degree in Theology and is finishing up a second PhD degree in Advanced Human Behavior.

April is Autism Acceptance Month, and today we’re honoring that by spending the show talking about autism and specifically late-diagnosed autism. Autism is a broad umbrella for describing how some people think, feel, and act differently from what is considered typical or normal. We did a show in January on neurodivergence. Autism is a form of neurodivergence, and autism is a disability.

Autism manifests in each person differently, but common experiences of autistic people are finding socializing challenging and/or tiring, getting overwhelmed in loud or busy spaces, having intense interests that you keep coming back to, and preferring order and routine. Some people use repeated motions or actions to calm down their nervous system and/or express joy and happiness. Some autistic people hide - or mask - their emotions in order to fit in socially. This can sometimes lead to mental illness.

For more on all of this, we are joined by Kristen Hovet, the founder and creator of The Other Autism podcast. Kristen was diagnosed with autism in her 30s. Before that, she was labeled shy, gifted, intense, sensitive, reserved, but never autistic. This, unfortunately, is a common experience, especially for women and those assigned female at birth. We’ll explore why this is and what factors lead to this underdiagnosis later in the show.

Kristen Hovet has a Master’s Degree in Health Studies from Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada. She’s currently a Research Communications Specialist at the British Columbia Children's Hospital Research Institute in Vancouver.

Today, we are joined by Emily Voorde, a former Biden Administration official and a top staffer in the Pete Buttigieg Presidential campaign. We talk with Emily about the current threats to Medicaid funding that are working their way through Congress. We also hear first-hand about the challenges people with mobility disabilities and assistive devices face when flying commercially, and we get Emily’s response to a recent lawsuit challenging rules set by the Biden Administration that aimed to make air travel safer and easier for people with disabilities.

Emily Voorde is the Founder and CEO of INTO Strategies, a Disabled-led consultancy firm that assists companies, movements, and political campaigns to develop inclusive access solutions. In 2022, President Joe Biden appointed Emily to a seat on the National Council on Disability, a position she held until January of this year. Prior to joining the National Council on Disability, Emily was the Associate Director of the White House’s Office of Public Engagement under President Biden, where she served as a liaison between the Biden Administration and the disability community. During the 2020 Presidential run, she worked for Pete Buttigieg’s campaign, serving as Trip Director and “Body Woman” for Buttigieg’s husband, Chasten Buttigieg.

Emily Voorde grew up in South Bend, Indiana. She was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a genetic condition that causes her bones to be brittle and break easily. She uses a wheelchair to get around. Emily first met Pete Buttigieg when he came to speak in her high school Government class during his run for Mayor of South Bend. Emily volunteered for his mayoral campaign and then interned in his office one summer. Buttigieg has credited Emily for his interest in and awareness of disability rights.

It’s February, and Valentine’s Day is around the corner. We have a tradition here on Disability Rap of doing a show focused on love and relationships at this time of year. We’re continuing that tradition on this show with a roundtable of guests to talk about disability and polyamory.

Why do a show about polyamory on Disability Rap? Well, there is actually more overlap than you might think, unless of course you are disabled and polyamorous! Last month, we did a show on neurodivergence, and there’s actually quite a bit of overlap between the neurodivergent and polyamorous communities. We’ll get into that in the show. And then in polyamory, there’s this acknowledgement that no one partner should be expected to meet all of someone’s romantic and/or sexual needs, and as people with disabilities, many of us are used to getting our needs met by multiple people. So the extension to the romantic arena isn’t that hard for some people with disabilities.

For more on all of this, we’re joined by a roundtable of guests. Alyssa Gonzalez is a biology Ph.D., public speaker, and writer. She writes about biology, history, sociology and her experiences as an autistic ex-Catholic Hispanic transgender immigrant to Canada on her blog at The Perfumed Void. She also writes speculative fiction that explores social isolation, autism, gender, and trauma. Alyssa’s first book, Nonmonogamy and Neurodiversity, was included in the More Than Two Essentials series, a collection of books by Canadian authors on specific topics related to polyamory and nonmonogamy.

Dr. Elisabeth “Eli” Sheff has studied sex and gender minority families for over 30 years, with a particular research interest in children of polyamorous families. She has written four books on polyamory, including The Polyamorists Next Door: Inside Multiple-Partner Relationships and Families and When Someone You Love is Polyamorous: Understanding Poly People and Relationships. Eli has appeared on CNN, NPR, and National Geographic, and has been interviewed by Vouge, BuzzFeed, and The New York Times.

Leanne Yau is a British award-winning polyamory educator, writer, speaker, certified sex and relationships educator, and trainee psychosexual therapist whose work is all about non-monogamy and sex positivity. She produces educational and entertaining multimedia content about creating healthy and sustainable non-monogamous relationships, drawing from her lived experiences as a polyamorous, bisexual, neurodivergent, and Asian agender femme who has been openly non-monogamous since 2016.

Katie Tastrom is a disability justice activist and writer who has worked as a lawyer, social worker, and sex worker. Her work has appeared in the anthologies Burn It Down: Feminist Manifestos for the Revolution, and Nourishing Resistance: Stories of Food, Protest, and Mutual Aid, as well as all over the internet, including Truthout, Rewire, and Rooted in Rights. She’s the author of A People’s Guide to Abolition and Disability Justice. Her 2018 article, Here Are 7 Reasons Why Polyamory Is More Difficult When You’re Disabled, appeared in Everyday Feminism.

Neurodivergence is the recognition that not all brains work the same way. It’s a broad spectrum of brain behavior that’s outside of what’s considered standard or “normal.” Today on the show, we explore neurodivergence with two guests who recognized their neurodivergence as adults. They share how this revelation has changed their understanding of their upbringing, their relationships, their work, and their daily lives.

Amanda Kennon is an American Sign Language Interpreter who lives in the Philadelphia suburbs. She, who has a neurodivergent child, was inspired to embark on her own journey of self-discovery about how neurodivergence has impacted her personally and in her professional life. She is currently working on research on neurodiversity in the interpreting profession along with her friend and colleague Dr. Laura Polhemus. Their ongoing research includes the experiences of neurodivergent interpreters and consumers. Amanda and her colleague Laura presented at the 2023 Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf Conference, April 2024 Registry for the Deaf Neurodiversity Webinar Series, and 2024 Conference for Interpreters Trainers.

John Leimgruber grew up in the mid-west in the 1980’s. He turned his developing interest in computers into a master’s degree in electrical and computer engineering. He now lives in Philadelphia where he enjoys exploring his interests including computer gaming, mysticisms, polyamory, and psychology. While not professionally diagnosed, John identifies with late diagnosed Autism.

On this episode, comedian Mean Dave shares how comedy led him to discover his addiction recovery is protected by the ADA, and how he’s bringing disability awareness to 12-step programs, helping people understand meetings as the “ramp” that gets recovering addicts up to the “curb” of a manageable life.

Mean Dave, who is a fixture in comedy clubs around the San Francisco Bay Area. He is in his tenth year of addiction recovery. In October, Mean Dave MC’d the Comedians with Disabilities Act when FREED brought that comedy troupe to Grass Valley for a fundraiser at The Center for the Arts. Mean Dave has also opened for Josh Blue, Jay Mohr, Judy Tenuta, and Big Jay Oakerson, and has toured many universities across the United States.

Today, we are joined by Jared Wikofsky. He is an independent artist and a comic creator. Jared has self-published and produced over 200 pages of comic work. Recently, Jared received a grant from Upstate Creative Corps. This led to his comic book, FALLING. The book delves into a life altering diagnosis and the long-lasting effects of that diagnosis. Jared also runs and edits a podcast entitled PLAYING WITH MADNESS PODCAST. It is a comedy/horror show airing on all the major podcast platforms.