The Unexpected Journey

Eric Wang grew up in the Bay Area. He went to UC Berkeley where he met his future wife in the first semester of his freshman year. They married right after graduating and have been together for 37 years. After UC Berkeley they moved to Boston for graduate school at MIT, then Eric's love for biking brought them back to California where he took a research position with a professor at UC Davis r...

Miley Rhoad is a 19-year-old wheelchair or "quad rugby" player from South Carolina. I've gotten to know Miley over the past few summers when she has attended the Empower SCI teen summer program and emerged as a confident, encouraging, and fearless leader amongst her peers. She has a bright future and found time between rugby tournaments for a conversation about her life and future a...

Carlie Cook has lived nearly her entire life with her disability after she was paralyzed in a car accident at three years old. Now, as an adult, she has a full life in Western Massachusetts where she is a a professional adaptive climber, Child Life Specialist in a pediatric ER, and partner to her fiancé. Louis Arevalo knows her through adaptive skiing together in Vermont in recent years, and he ha...

Cole Bernier and I initially connected on a work call. After discussing collaborative opportunities between Bowhead, where he works on the sales team, and EmpowerSCI, my workplace, we chatted generally about our experiences with spinal cord injury. Cole was very open about his struggles with mental health and belief in how important mental health interventions are, especially for men with spinal c...

Dianne Vitkus and I met five and a half years ago in Spaulding Hospital while she was in inpatient rehab after her spinal cord injury and I was there for a PT appointment. Over the years we've become friends through our mutual enthusiasm for adaptive sports, the organizations that we are both involved with, as well as being members of the Boston spinal cord injury community. She is currently...

A couple years ago we started hearing about a wheelchair accessible resort in Northern Minnesota call North of North. Several Unexpected Journey guests and listeners visited and raved about it. I reached out to Sean Leary who, together with his wife Jill built and owns North of North, a micro-resort with three fully wheelchair accessible cabins on a beautiful lake a few miles outside of town in El...

Landon McGauley grew up in British Columbia. Like many of our other guests from BC, he spent his formative years in the outdoors exploring the mountains and at an early age fell in love with biking, riding around his neighborhood with a shovel to build dirt jumps. In 2011, at the age of 15, he was in a biking crash resulting in a T5 spinal cord injury and paraplegia. Landon and I initially connect...

Last fall, I traveled to Oman for the World Inclusive Sailing Championships. It was an incredible experience. The inaugural event brought together many of the best adaptive sailors in the world, all competing to be world champion in one of three different classes – the RS venture connect - a two person boat, the Hansa 303 - a one person boat, and the Far East with three visually impaired sailors a...

After talking with Tanja Kari in Episode 57 we were super excited to learn more about the TetraSki, an emerging technology for the adaptive alpine skiing community. If you haven't already, I recommend giving episode 57 a listen before continuing this episode. We wanted to hear from several voices, so I reached out to athlete Becca Farewell who is now in her fourth season skiing and racing in...

Tanja Kari is a Paralympic gold medalist in cross country skiing from Finland. In 2010 she was inducted into the Paralympic Hall of Fame, she has been nominated for the Laureus World Sports Award for Sports Person of the Year with a Disability, and in 1998 and 2002 she was voted Finland's best disabled athlete. Since retiring from competitive sport she has become a strong and passionate advoc...

Geoff Krill is a self-described adventure athlete, competitor, innovator, and motivator. He is also a national team member of PSIA, the Professional Ski Instructors of America. Since acquiring a spinal cord injury in his 20s he has competed in downhill mountain biking and skiing races both nationally and internationally, and continues to push boundaries as a wheelchair user. He is passionate about...

Anna Soens was the first guest on The Unexpected Journey. In episode one she shared the story of her pioneering para-mountaineering ascents of Mount Hood and Mount Baker in the Pacific Northwest. If you haven't listened yet, go check it out. In this conversation, the first in a short series of episodes on adaptive skiing, Anna returns to talk about her freeskiing career, her rapid rise as an...

For this episode, we decided to switch things up. Louis Arevalo, Unexpected Journey editor and sound designer, gets behind the mic to interview Tim Brown, Unexpected Journey founder and  host. We talk about Tim's Journey, the origins of the The Unexpected Journey, what goes into creating the podcast, connecting with listeners, and the future of the pod!! Guest info: @timjobrown Additional Res...

Nate Bibaud was born in 1984 in Amesbury, Massachusetts, where he grew up skateboarding and playing goalie in hockey. After studying architecture, he moved to St. Croix to work in print and graphic design. In 2010, a car accident left him paralyzed from the neck down, with limited arm movement and no hand function. During rehab at MGH and Spaulding, he began drawing with the help of a recreational...

Joel Brown is a paraplegic dancer, choreographer, and musician. He grew up in Salt Lake City in a large creative family and was paralyzed as a boy. Not one to slow down, he pursued many sports living an active life, and eventually found his way to dance.  His professional dance career took him to California, then London, and around the world. Now in his 30s and back in California working as a chor...

Alex Cano Gonzalez is a photographer, videographer, and artist living in Denver Colorado. He was paralyzed at a young age as a result of gun violence. He's currently rebuilding his life with a commitment to physical rehab and exercise, exploring adaptive sports, and hustling to grow his freelance career as an artist. In our conversation, I was struck by Alex's profound gratitude, inner p...

Neven Hart and his fiancé Amber Cogbill are rising stars on social media. They openly and vulnerably sharing their experience navigating life together following Neven's recently acquired spinal cord injury. Neven is an athlete and is getting into adaptive sports, but most importantly, he and Amber are educating hundreds of thousands of people through their social media following on the challe...

Jesi Stracham is an advocate, adaptive athlete, and founder of the Wheel With Me Foundation. She's also co-owner of Adapt Fit and the Freedom LKN facility. I first read about Jesi in New Mobility magazine when she was competing in Tough Mudder races and blazing a trail for adaptive athletes in that realm, I met her in person four years later. Jesi is passionate about taking ownership of your...

I briefly met Erin Field and Jack Benziger several years ago at Journey Forward, a spinal cord injury exercise rehab center outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Erin had recently been paralyzed in the summer before her senior year of college, just a few months after they started dating. I distinctly remember  seeing the affection and care they had for one another when they arrived for Erin’s exercise...

Roy Tuscany is the Founder and CEO of the High Fives Foundation. On April 26, 2016 Roy overshot a ski jump and was paralyzed with a spinal cord injury.  Six years later, and a year and a half after I was paralyzed, Roy and I connected for the first time. I had read an article about High Fives in Powder, a ski magazine and was jolted by the energetic vibe of the organization - it felt like somethin...

JoMarie Lawrence lives in Los Angeles where she is pursuing an acting and modeling career. She is a member of a cohort of disabled actors who are breaking barriers and bringing authentic representation to a wider variety of roles in media and entertainment. JoMarie has appeared in many television commercials, TV shows, and has written and starred in her own short films that explore her experience...

Joe Stone is a disability activist, public speaker, and an adventure athlete. He is a partner and a dog dad, a team rider for Bowhead Corp, a Stio ambassador, a Project Airtime Pilot, and a co-owner of Dovetail Trail Consulting with two time previous Unexpected Journey guest Quinn Brett. Joe sets ambitious goals, pursues them with doggedly, and lives a fully adventure filled life.   Guest info: @m...

Murray Siple is an award-winning filmmaker and accessible home designer, a former snowboarder and skateboarder, a world traveler, an artist, and recently added adaptive surfer to his resume. He lives in British Columbia, Canada. Murray and I met in San Diego this past September where he surfed for the first time. Murray has always lived a wild and adventurous life, both before he was paralyzed at...

Billy Price is an entrepreneur and the CEO and Cofounder, with Darin Donaldson, of Billy Footwear, a Seattle based footwear brand they have built from the ground up over the past seven years. Billy Footwear utilizes the concept of universal design to make shoes that are functional and fashionable for everyone, including the disability community. Billy and I initially connected professionally and c...

Nitra Turner and I met at the EmpowerSCI summer intensive program at Stony Brook University this past summer where Nitra was a participant and I work as the Director of Strategic Development. Nitra led an adaptive archery clinic. For the annual adaptive surf day, she showed up to the beach in a mermaid outfit and then charged in challenging waves for her first time ever surfing. At home in Las Veg...