Introducing Me

Michelle Steiner’s blog, Michelle’s Mission is a way for her to share stories about her disabilities and her nature photography. From a young age it was clear that she had difficulties with math and needed support for her learning disability which was later diagnosed as dyscalculia. Gym class also brought forth her visual impairment issues with perception, such that her sight is good, but her brai...

James Roberts has put athletics above all else throughout most of his life. He started competing at a young age and excelled in able-bodied swimming until age 16. Born with a disability called femoral dysplasia, when he was first approached about disabled sports, he was hesitant, but quickly became a top competitor. He competed in the 2008 Beijing Paralympics in adaptive rowing and in the 2012 Lon...

Michael Hingson has been blind since birth and got his can-do attitude from his parents. A successful career had him working in the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 and escaping from the 78th floor with his guide dog, Roselle. Their story is shared in the book “Thunder dog” and Mike shares more of his story in his second book “running with Roselle, A story for Our Youth.” In this episode,...

Cynthia Brix is the co-founder (with her husband, William Keepin) of Gender Equity and Reconciliation International (GERI). Their work creates a unique forum for people to speak deep truth around their gender and sexuality experiences, and it also brings together people of diverse spiritual paths and beliefs. Cynthia found purpose in this work after a powerful incident of sexual harassment in her...

William A. Adams is a software engineer who worked for Microsoft for 24 years and is passionate about furthering women and minorities to have an equitable share in tech. He co-founded the LEAP apprenticeship program at Microsoft which helps the hiring of women and minorities into technical roles. In this episode, William also talks about biases in artificial intelligence.   William’s Website: http...

At twenty years old, Dan MacQueen was living a healthy, active life in London when his headaches sent him to emergency brain surgery. For four weeks he was in a coma, and recovery has been a long road since 2014 relating how to walk, talk, and smile. Living in Vancouver, today he still suffers from double vision, but has turned his story into inspiration through motivational speaking.   Connect wi...

John Davis served multiple trips as a combat veteran in Afghanistan. He originally sought out the military looking for adventure and after retiring from service, he thrived in college, including graduating from Harvard. Inspired to help other veterans with transition to civilian life, he authored Combat to College and continues to support veteran advocacy from the Dominican Republic.   Connect wit...

Mark Chartier started showing symptoms of Tourette’s syndrome at age seven, but wasn’t diagnosed until he was seventeen. He graduated high school with a GPA of 1.9, but succeeded in further education and Mr. C. has been a special education teacher for more than fifteen years. In addition to teaching, Mark is a motivational speaker and author. In this episode he shares two poems from his books.   ...

Karah Gonstead is a licensed psychotherapist, wife, mom, and business owner. At 16 she begrudgingly went to therapy at her parent’s insistence and found that it was a beautiful place that could be powerful if the connection was right. She had always wanted to help others; her first job out of graduate school was in hospice care. Now she has her own private practice and she’s able to help teenagers...

Barb Higgins is a mom of four, two in heaven, who had her youngest child via IVF at age 57 after battling a brain tumor. Her daughter Molly had died suddenly a few years earlier and fitness was a place that Barb always felt okay. She now helps others support grief through athletics, has a blog, hosts the podcast A Thousand Tiny Steps, and raises her 21-year-old daughter Gracie and her infant son J...

Christopher Scott Wyatt is a self described advocate for the disabled community, especially neurodiversity out of necessity. He has physical and neurological differences, is from a lower socioeconomic background, and there weren’t many advocates for people like him. He originally went to school for journalism, has a PhD, and has had the privilege of working in the university setting. When Scott an...

John and Mark X. Cronin are the founders of John’s Crazy Socks. John was diagnosed with Down Syndrome at birth and when his last year of high school was coming to a close, he approached his father about wanting to go into business with him. Through many ideas they landed on what is now the largest sock business with over 4,000 designs. The business has a mission to spread happiness where over half...

Lori Sweetman is a life coach, teacher, artist, and mom to two young neurodiverse children. They are a polyamorous non-binary sexually fluid human who strives for inclusive environments for LGBTQ+ people. Lori came out later in life and first struggled to identify as a lesbian and is now helping their community in Northern New Jersey become more inclusive.   Connect with Lori: https://includelgbtq...

When Emma Haslam discovered she was infertile, seeking IVF treatment in the UK where she lives didn't feel right, it was super expensive and inaccessible based on her BMI and she felt like just a number. Emma successfully had private treatment in Europe and conceived their son after her third round of IVF. She suffered from postnatal depression and on her healing journey started the company Your I...

Andrea Carow started having body image issues at eight years old which snowballed into anxiety and depression. At fourteen she started losing weight by restricting food. When God brought her now husband, Adam, into her life, she had someone who would listen and helped her start recovering. Now she aims to serve and help others with similar struggles with her podcast, Good Vanilla.   Connect with A...

Zane Landin identifies as Hispanic, queer, disabled, and plus size. In middle school, Zane was able to find the words for his sexuality, and it wasn’t until college he was able to define his disability. Zane shares that vulnerability helps drive change when it comes to advocacy, which he is most vocal about in the disabled and mental health communities. He launched the PositiveVibes Magazine in 20...

Grady Throneberry has known he was gay since childhood, but didn’t start presenting as his true self until more recently. He was married to his now ex-wife for 40 years and is a father to their two daughters. They remain good friends, and he is now engaged to his fiancé Devin. Grady was asked to resign from being a bi-vocational pastor at his former church and he is the first openly gay police chi...

During the pandemic, Melissa DaSilva decided to move to Puerto Rico for a few weeks and now plans to live there indefinitely. She is able to run her Rhode Island mental health agency remotely, which has a primary focus on helping LGBTQ+ folks. Melissa would not be a complete person without her art, and she has successfully brought her physical art into NFTs.   Connect with Melissa:  https://www.me...

Dawson has known he was trans since he was a young child, but didn’t start coming out until his twenties. He’s been taking testosterone for about a decade now and has had to navigate discrimination in the healthcare system. Through IVF, his partner is currently pregnant and they are expecting a baby in early 2023, whom Dawson will legally adopt.   Donate to the podcast: https://ko-fi.com/introduci...

Griffin is the Founder and CEO of the Foreseeable Future Foundation which he started after graduating from Susquehanna University. He found out while playing sports as a young teenager that he was losing his vision and got diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa. He continued to play sports up until college when he turned to being active in the community and sharing more about his diagnosis. Still ath...

Magical Girl Melanie applied for a face character role at Disney World twelve times before being hired by Disney. When she was a teenager she had the chance to visit Disneyland and from there, her dream and hyper fixation to become a Disney cast member was born. She finally got accepted into an attraction role at Disneyland and one chance at a face character audition in California landed her a rol...

Markus (he/they) is an author, a watercolor artist, and pursuing his PhD in Gender Studies at Queens University. He shares about his day to day life on TikTok. Markus knew he was a queer, trans man at the age of 16 but was not accepted by his parents. At 17, he was taken in by his grandparents. Now in his 30s, Markus has recently married his longtime partner, Andrew. Together with their platonic c...

Brett Moyer grew up in Watsontown, Pennsylvania, graduated from Susquehanna University in 2013, and went into the corporate world of finance. Now living in Jersey City along the Hudson River, he’s found ways to give back by volunteering as a tour guide for Ellis Island, giving running tours in lower Manhattan, and helping rescue geese. In the past couple of years he has authored two history books...

Chuck Petrizzi first knew he wanted to be a boy at age five, even requesting to be called Jimmy by his babysitters. He never questioned his core faith and love for the bible, and earned a degree in Biblical Studies. After marrying his husband, Josh, he continued to struggle presenting as a female and didn’t want to to identify as trans. Josh continued to support him through depression and since co...

Angel Pretot is a Frenchman who chose to become a French teacher for foreigners because of his love for English. Angel’s teaching model focuses on each student’s personal goals and their specific needs. He currently resides in Austria and has learned an additional five languages to fluency. In this episode, Angel shares about his gender transition.    Learn from Angel: frenchfluency.net frenchflue...