Blind Guys Chat

This week we’re delighted to have Stuart Lawler and Mohammed Laachir back with us. Mohamed has recently written an article for his LinkedIn page entitled "When the lights go out, an account of vision loss". It's a wonderfully insightful read and we highly recommend all our listeners check it out, whether they have a vision impairment or not. Check it out here: www.linkedin.com/pulse/when...

Read transcript Jan is on hiatus this week, so it’s a welcome return to Mr Stuart Lawler, a man who puts the “Hot” into Tango. It’s 30 years since Stuart was on the Irish Eurovision Song Contest jury and boy are we happy they never asked him back. Secret Garden were the winners for Norway that year with a song that can only be described as: mostly violin! But what happened this year in Basel, Swit...

It's a warm welcome back to our good friend Mohammed Laachir, who has literally just arrived home from Lyon - that's in France, don't ya know! And yes, he is just returning with his latest mail order bride. Did he use his Envision glasses to find her? Let's find out. Have you used the Chat GPT visual description feature? Share your thoughts with us about it: blindguyschat@gmail.com It seems Óran h...

Hello, our stainless-steel saucepans and welcome to ep 122 of BGC. We hope you had a lovely Easter break, if that is something you do. A big shout-out to Jan's father, as he is in hospital having broken his hip trying to realign the TV satellite dish on the International Space Station. Our advice - just go with cable! Our guest this week is the wonderful Debra Erickson, all the way from Portland,...

Read transcript Hello our spring flowers and welcome to BGC ep 121. We have a great show for you: Óran and Jan are talking about the new smart kid on the block when it comes to smart glasses: Echo Vision. Have you heard of these? Do you have a pair? Well, if you do let us know if you like them and are finding them of benefit in your daily life - email us at blindguyschat@gmail.com .   Our guest th...

Hello, our favourite animated friends, and welcome to the show. This week, Óran and Clodagh are just back from Dingle, County Kerry, where they and Larry attended the Animation Dingle Festival. Óran was thrilled because he got to touch the actual models used for the latest Wallace and Gromit movie 'Vengeance Most Fowl'. The film was made in stop-motion animation, which means amongst other things t...

Top o’ the mornin' to ye, our little leprechauns! Yes, it's Irish week all over the world and even the International Space Station is painted green this week! This week’s guest is Sarah Boland from CHAT, Freedom Tech, and Saint John of God. Sarah will tell us about FreedomTech, which is dedicated to ensuring that everyone with any disability, at any age or stage of life, can access affordable, up-...

Hello, our little sand dunes, and welcome to episode 118. Jan is just back from building his own pyramid in Egypt for his new summer house, and will be giving tours for all who would like one. So please form a disorderly line behind Larry!   Clodagh is very excited to hear that in Jan’s winter residence, there is an artificial ski slope called Snow World very nearby, and Óran is equally pleased th...

Hello our lovely movie stars, and welcome to another episode of “Jan, the movie star”. Yes we kinda sorta pick up where we left Jan last time, standing at the end of his massive driveway, waiting on his limo to take him to the premier of the film, ‘ I will see ”. ...well, he made it, and brought all the family, including Sjeff who was dressed up to the nines. Now the only question is, will there b...

Hello, grips and best boys (and girls!), and welcome to episode 116. We are chatting to Mercedes Stalenhoef, the director of a new movie called ‘ I Shall See ’, the premier of which will be happening in Rotterdam on February 2nd 2025. Mercedes, traditionally a documentary maker, has written and directed this movie which tells the story of a young woman who has become blind after an accident. The f...

Hello our fancy AI bots, and welcome to episode 115. This week we are talking about AI, and we have a fantastic panel of experts to bring us through the topic of AI and accessibility. We will be talking about Meta Ray Bans, Envision glasses, Apple Intelligence and even some existential questions. The panel (Brian Dalton, David Renstrom, Jesse Weinholt, Josh O'Connor and Mohammed Laachir) are well-...

Hey folks! Don't worry, we'll be back on January 16th, when we will be talking about everything AI. In the meantime, stay warm! The Blind Guys Support Blind Guys Chat by contributing to their tip jar: https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/blind-guys-chat Read transcript

Happy Christmas to one and all! We hope you have an enjoyable break this Christmas holiday season. This show is our annual, twice yearly, every 4 years BGC Christmas Quiz featuring some of our BGC listeners and guests. We have contestants from St. Louis, Boston, Scotland, Dublin and even County Clare in the West of Ireland. So, put the leftover turkey in the fridge, throw away those yucky sprouts,...

Hello our favourite sight capitalists, and welcome to episode 112 of BGC. We are honoured to be joined by Mr David Renstrom who has kindly agreed to leave the comfort of his North Swedish igloo to chat about the newest craze everyone is talking about: Meta Smart Glasses! David takes us through the design and functions of the glasses, and even gives us a tour of his fridge. Are these the Christmas...

Hello, our lovely election canvassers and welcome to Episode 111. Did you manage to survive Storm Bert last weekend? And did you know the storm was named by our weather colleagues in The Netherlands? Lucky it wasn't called Storm 'Sjef' - Woof!! Mohammed Laachir is back with us again and it appears he has been on a kind of holiday since he was last on the show. Yes, he is just back from pilgrimage...

Hello our wobbly hospital trolleys, and welcome to Episode 110 of BGC. It's a welcome back to Óran, fresh from his travels to the nearby hospital, all of 5 minutes away. Yes, it seems Óran is maintaining his hobby of having near death experiences every few years, much to Clodagh’s distress. But anyway, all is good now and he is back steering the HMS BGC directly into a cliff! Poor Jan is in bed an...

Hello, our little Halloween horrors, or maybe that’s just the hosts?! We’re back again for a show with a slight twist, and we’re not talking spooky goings-on - or maybe we are, because, Óran, our producer in residence, is missing in action for the first time in the history of this podcast! Is he OK? You’ll have to listen to find out. Hector, our beloved HR Director, has been busy arranging a new t...

Hello, our little delivery drones, and welcome to episode 108. This week Jan and Óran welcome back Mohamed Laachair and invite him to sit into the comfortable and fluffy guest-host seat. We think he really likes it. We kick off with news of the new AI companion from JAWS which is currently available on the web: https://fscompanion.freedomscientific.com . This new feature will also become available...

Hello, our autumn leaves, and welcome to episode 107 of BGC. We begin this show with some interesting news from Be My Eyes and Meta. It appears that the Be My Eyes application will soon become available via Meta Ray Ban SmartGlasses. This means when calling a volunteer using the app, the volunteer will now see the image from your Meta specs. Is this a cool and clever collaboration? Will this be a...

Hello our lovely loyal listeners, and welcome to ep 106. We kick off this show with the latest hot topic in The Netherlands: FatBikes! Yes, it seems that Jan has imported 16,000 electric bikes to sell them and make his fortune. But they appear to be a little dodgy as they have big wide tyres and are as low slung as Sjef's harness. Jan's mother-in-law also has something to say about these bikes so...

Hello our favourite tech geniuses! We start with some good news. Yes, Mali, the Bernese Mountain dog who was missing for 2 weeks, has been rescued from a 61-metre-high cliff edge on an island off the coast of Donegal. She ran off during a storm but now she has been reunited with her humans and went home for a big dinner and a snooze - yaaaay!!   Óran has had enough of the terrible Irish summer and...

Hello our Bermuda hurricanes and welcome to a blowy episode. We begin this episode reminiscing of cars long gone. Do you remember the Renault 4 or the Citroen BX or even the older Citroen DS? Yes, they might have been rust buckets and as unreliable as summer in Ireland but, at least they were quirky and fun to drive. Speaking of quirky and unreliable things, have you watched ‘Clarkson's Farm’ on A...

Hello our fast and furious Olympians, and welcome to ep 103 of BGC. We have a full house this week as Jan is back from his 11th holiday of the year, and Mohammed Laachir is back with us again fresh from NFB in Florida, having enjoyed their all you can eat buffet.   Yes, Jan handed the car keys over to Tycho while he, Chantal and Princess Rosalie sat in the back seat of their lovely electric vehicl...

Hello our favourite funny people, and welcome to episode 102 of BGC. Since Jan is off on another holiday (we’re not at all jealous!) we devote the entire episode to our wonderful guest, Sydney May. Sydney lives in Brighton and works for the Thomas Pocklington Trust. But that's not all! Sydney is also a comedian and plays bass in her band - Torrid (A love affair). Check them out on Spotify ( link h...

Hello our favourite A.I. bots! We hope you are well, and are looking forward to another fantastic episode of Blind Guys Chat. We begin this week’s show with a health warning, or should that be a sandwich warning!?! Yes, it seems that Sjef was a bit of a bold doggy during the week, as he managed to get his mouth around a sandwich belonging to one of Jan's colleagues. However, it looks like Sjef won...