Always Looking Up

In this week’s episode I sat down with Miriam Haart. Miriam is one of the stars of the Netflix reality TV show My Unorthodox Life and is a founder, speaker, content creator, engineer, and host of the podcast Faking It . We discuss the difference between women’s empowerment and women’s equality, what it is like to live in a world that was not designed for us (and not just in the physical sense), th...

In this week’s episode I sat down with Lillie Heigl. Lillie is an education policy analyst, focusing on disability, at New America, a new kind of think and action tank: a civic platform that connects a research institute, technology lab, solutions network, media hub and public forum. We discuss what it means to her to be disability adjacent, her work in disability advocacy, what it means for her t...

To start I would like to issue a trigger warning. In this episode we talk about bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault. If these are triggers for you please feel free to skip this episode. For context, this conversation was recorded on Thursday, June 15, 2023. I sat down with Aubrey Smalls. Aubrey is an actor and filmmaker with dwarfism. This episode was recorded a day after Little People...

In this week’s episode I sat down with Dr. Sami Schalk. Dr. Schalk is an Associate Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her interdisciplinary research focuses broadly on disability, race, and gender in contemporary American literature and culture. She is the author of the books Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fi...

Welcome to Season 2! In this week’s episode I sat down with Prasanna Ranganathan. Prasanna is a documentary producer, human rights lawyer, diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) consultant, accessibility advisor, speaker, author, correspondent, writer and arts columnist. After talking about our mutual love of all things Broadway we discussed the audacity to thrive and to be disabled, th...

In this week’s episode, the 100th episode, I sat down with Sinéad Burke. Sinéad is an Irish author, academic and disability activist. She is the Founder of Tilting The Lens, a disability-led consultancy that advises major global brands, guiding them in their move from awareness to action by creating more accessible practices, policies, products and services, places and promotions. We discuss her c...

In this week’s episode I sat down with Dr. Rose Perry. Rose, a self-described sociologist turned social innovator, is an applied research scientist with a Ph. D. in neuroscience & physiology. She is the founder and executive director of Social Creatures, a nonprofit social innovation and research organization on a mission to ensure that any individual can socially connect with others, and co-found...

In this week’s episode I sat down with Haleigh Rosa. Haleigh is a disability model, advocate, and founder of the foreveryone.foundation. Haleigh has collaborated with iconic brands including Off-White, Tommy Hilfiger and SKIMS, having appeared in a campaign launching the brand’s debut adaptive collection that recently went viral when conservative political commentator Candace Owens expressed her o...

In this week’s episode I sat down with Oliver Scheier. Oliver, among many other things including fashion model and artist, is a human with a disability and he loves it. After sharing his story and talking about how the desire to wear jeans like everybody else led to the founding of the non-profit Runway of Dreams, we discuss what it means to him, as a disabled person, to walk the runways, how the...

In this week’s episode I sat down with Blaze Foster. Blaze is a Team USA Para-Powerlifting Athlete who has competed around the world and is training to compete at the Paralympic Games. We discuss how he got into the sport of powerlifting, what it means to be a person with dwarfism in the disabled community, why being a dwarf is not just being short and much more. Follow Blaze: Instagram: @blazelif...

In this week’s episode I sat down with Katy Sullivan. Katy is a Paralympian, one of the first bilateral amputees to compete in the Games in ambulatory track, US record holder, and an actress of stage and screen. Katy was most recently on Broadway in the play Cost Of Living which examines two pairs of relationships between disabled and able persons. We discuss the differences between performing at...

In this week’s episode I sat down with Nitika Chopra. Nitika is a chronic illness advocate, content creator and entrepreneur who has been featured in Vogue India, Forbes, Allure, and Newsweek, and founder of Chronicon, an inclusive community-building event focused on those living with chronic illness. We discuss the power and responsibility of being a content creator in the chronic illness and dis...

This week there is no new episode. Last month we lost Judy Heumann. Judy was a lifelong disability rights activist, international leader in the disability community, and someone I always have and always will look up to. It’s not often that you get the opportunity to speak with your hero, but almost exactly a year ago, to celebrate the 45th anniversary of the 504 Sit Ins, I was able to do just that...

In this week’s episode I welcomed back Jenna Bainbridge. Jenna is an actor, singer, disability rights advocate and ambulatory wheelchair user. She is the co-founder of ConsultAbility, a consulting firm that provides advice and expertise on accessibility in theatre, focusing on creating a safe and inclusive environment for disabled actors and technicians. We discuss the word “cripple” and how it is...

In this week’s episode I sat down with Milette Millington. Milette is a disability advocate and reporter at Caribbean Life News where she covers disability, as well as local and world news, politics, sports, and entertainment from a Caribbean American perspective. We discuss her research on the impact of COVID on the disabled community in regards to employment, questions we would like to ask emplo...

To start, I’m issuing a trigger warning. This episode talks about sexual harassment and sexual assault. If these are triggers for you, please feel free to skip this episode. In this week’s episode I welcomed back Shelby Holloway. Shelby is a content creator on TikTok, dwarfism advocate, and one of my best friends. This conversation, ignited by a recent TikTok Shelby posted where she called out tho...

In this week's episode, I sat down with Amanda Duberman. Amanda is the senior director of news and activism at Betches Media, and is the editorial director of the Betches Sup, the News and Politics brand of Betches. We discussed why certain disabled stories will go viral on social media, and yet be ignored by traditional news outlets, the fact that the disabled community is often either dehumanize...

In this week’s episode I sat down with Elizabeth Jameson. Elizabeth is an artist and writer who explores what it means to live in an imperfect body as part of the universal human experience. Her essays have been published by The New York Times, British Medical Journal, WIRED magazine, and MIT’s Leonardo Journal and she was included in The New York Times book About Us. We reflect on our own past ig...

In this week’s episode I sat down with Sami Sage. Sami is the Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer of Betches Media - a female-founded and led media and entertainment brand that provides a space for all women to get real about life and is funny, honest, and unfiltered. We discuss how Governor Ron Desantis’s efforts to eliminate DEI initiatives will impact the disabled and other marginalized commu...

This week's episode is a solo episode, a casual and candid conversation with you, my listeners and readers. As my 28th year draws to a close I wanted to take the time to reflect on the past 365 days, shine a light on issues I want to amplify in the coming year on my platforms, and answer a few listener questions. Read the transcription HERE Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podc...

In this week’s episode I sat down with Alice Sheppard. Alice is the Founder and Artistic Director of Kinetic Light, as well as a choreographer and dancer in the company. Kinetic Light is an internationally-recognized disability arts ensemble that, working in the disciplines of art, technology, design, and dance, creates, performs, and teaches at the nexus of access, queerness, disability, dance, a...

In this week’s episode I sat down with Gabriella Amaya. Gabriella is a disability advocate and host of The Re-Define Podcast, where she and her guests share their experiences about living with a disability and how they re-define what disability means to them. We discuss the fact that disability can be messy, the importance of allowing ourselves to be mad at our disability, seeing our scars as beau...

In this week’s episode I sat down with Becky Leifman, one of the founders of CO/LAB Theater Group, Marina, a first-year CO/LAB Leader, and Sylvia, a third-year CO/LAB leader. CO/LAB Theater Group is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing Creative Opportunities without Limits And Boundaries. CO/LAB offers individuals with developmental disabilities a creative and social outlet through the...

In this week’s episode I sat down with Laurel Lawson. Laurel is a choreographic collaborator, dancer, designer, and engineer with Kinetic Light - an internationally-recognized disability arts ensemble. Working in the disciplines of art, technology, design, and dance, Kinetic Light creates, performs, and teaches at the nexus of access, queerness, disability, dance, and race. We discuss the founding...

In this week’s episode I welcomed back Dr. Erin Pritchard. Dr. Pritchard is a Lecturer in Disability Studies at Liverpool Hope University, author of the book Dwarfism, Spatiality and Disabling Experiences, and activist in the little person community. We discuss the roots of the stereotypes towards people with dwarfism, the need to teach the social model of disability, examine how the disabled comm...