Disability Empowerment Now

Season 4 Episode 28 Ben Mattlin is a Los Angeles-based Senior Writer at Financial Advisor magazine and the author, most recently, of Disability Pride: Dispatches from a Post-ADA World (2022). His work has appeared in Time magazine, the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, Newsweek, CNN.com, Self, New Mobility, and on NPR’s “Morning Edition.” Other credits...

Season 4 Episode 27 Erik Fuhrer is a queer, nonbinary poet, playwright and scarf tie aficionado whose fashion sense is part Buffy Summers, part Blanch Devereux, and part the lion from The Wizard of Oz. Their most recent book, Gellar Studies (Spuyten Duyvil, 2023) hailed as “exceptionally delectable and devastating” by Addie Tsai, creatively engages with the work of icon Sarah Michelle Gellar to un...

Season 4 Special Report 3 This Special Report focuses on the state of the disability community in current times, 2025. Keith will talk with guests about their experiences and how they can navigate the struggles the new political world has laid down. For this special report Keith talks with Chris Desborough MSW, the Community Outreach Director for the city of Tucson and Director of Disability Pride...

Heather C. Markham is an engineer, assistive technology professional, public speaker, competitive Para Surfer, educator, ADA architectural barriers specialist, golfer, and award-winning international photographer. Her company, Making Waves for Good, launched in 2018 with three goals in mind: Provide ADA code compliance and usability consulting to businesses–because accessibility is more than just...

Season 4 Episode 25 Nicole D’Angelo, Rebekah Greer Melocik and Jacob Yandura return to talk about the success of their Broadway play “How to Dance in Ohio.” They are all professionals who have contributed to the play in various forms and they are all thrilled by the success of their play. Keith talks to the crew about the future of the show, how they could make a sequel and messages from the audie...

Season 4 Episode 24, 100th Episode Disability Empowerment Now is celebrating its 100th episode with Former Senator Tom Harkin. Thomas Richard Harkin is an American lawyer, author and politician who served as a United States senator from Iowa from 1985 to 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously was the U.S. representative for Iowa’s 5th congressional district from 1975 to 1985. He is...

Season 4 Episode 23 Kat Stratford, who is Deaf but uses hearing aids, is a former candidate for state house, and currently works for the City of Tucson in addressing the emergency of homelessness and housing insecurity. Keith and Kat talk about her recent breakup, how she has overcome struggles and how her life has changed in the last few months.   Disability Empowerment Now is produced by Pascal...

Season 4 Special Report 2 This Special Report focuses on the state of the disability community in current times, 2025. Keith will talk with guests about their experiences and how they can navigate the struggles the new political world has laid down. For this special report Keith talks with Chris Desborough MSW, the Community Outreach Director for the city of Tucson and Director of Disability Pride...

Hannah Woelke has provided disability related services in Tucson for over a decade. Having witnessed the impact of missing or inadequate sex education in the disability community, Hannah decided to study to be a sexuality educator. She built on her BA in Psychology and Certificate in Adult Education by attending the Institute for Sex Education & Enlightenment but she was providing resources and tr...

Hannah Woelke has provided disability related services in Tucson for over a decade. Having witnessed the impact of missing or inadequate sex education in the disability community, Hannah decided to study to be a sexuality educator. She built on her BA in Psychology and Certificate in Adult Education by attending the Institute for Sex Education & Enlightenment but she was providing resources and tr...

This Special Report focuses on the state of the disability community in current times, 2025. Keith will talk with guests about their experiences and how they can navigate the struggles the new political world has laid down. For this special report Keith talks with Chris Desborough, the Community Outreach Director for the city of Tucson and Director of Disability Pride Tucson.   Disability Empowerm...

lABLEd Podcast, the show about disability, illness and difference is a UK based indie podcast that puts the power of definition back in the hands of those normally defined by their health or conditions. The show aims to highlight the individuality and reality of disabled people and disabled life by giving disabled people an opportunity to tell their own stories and share the issues that are import...

Carey Cox is a New York based actor. Originally from El Paso, TX, Carey has a BFA in Musical Theater from Santa Fe University of Art and Design, and an MFA in Acting from UNC Chapel Hill. Carey has performed on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and in regional theater. Joseph Kibler is a born disabled and HIV positive actor/writer/content creator living in New York, NY. Joseph has appeared on shows such as...

Makenzie Morgan Gomez (she/they) is a professional theatre artist and creative based in Brooklyn, NY. Makenzie is an ambulatory mobility aid user, rotating between a cane, forearm crutches, and a manual wheelchair depending on the activity, day, and even what works best for the character they’re playing. She has what is considered “Dynamic Disability,” meaning their symptoms can vary drastically d...

Sean Daniels is an internationally known theater director, writer and artistic director, known for new work and innovative community-based leadership. He is a leading voice in using the arts to defeat addictions. As an artist, he has been a NYTimes Critic Pick as a director and a writer. Keith and Sean talk about working in the theater, the power of theater to help with addiction and the importanc...

John is a personal trainer with over 17 years of experience, much of that focused on working to improve health and wellness for people with disabilities. Adam is a guidebook author, an avid outdoor sports and endurance athlete and believes passionately in outdoor recreation as the path to living a long, healthy and fulfilling life. Both are the founders of TruFit an athletic club that aims to “rev...

Louis Morrell is the Board Chair of Theater Breaking Through Barriers, “the only professional Off-Broadway theater company dedicated to advancing artists and developing audiences of people with disabilities and altering the misperceptions surrounding disability by proving, once and for all, that disability does not affect the quality or integrity of our art or artists,” according to their website....

Scott Mobley is the Executive Director of Ability Dogs of Arizona, a nonprofit empowering individuals with disabilities through its owner-train service dog program. With a background in counseling and a passion for community building, Scott‘s strives to create independence and reduce isolation for program participants. Under his leadership, Ability Dogs celebrates 50 years of service and continues...

  Sean Dineen PhD is an adjunct professor at Kean University in New Jersey. Sean also has Cerebral Palsy and has served as chair for eight years of the American Birding Association. He also served for six years on the business committee of the Wildlife Conservation Society, its major corporate development and fundraising advisory committee. Sean and Keith talk about disability advocacy in higher e...

Rylin Rodgers serves on Microsoft’s Accessibility Team as a Disability Policy Director. She strives to impact disability policy in the areas of technology, workforce and fundamental right. Rylin’s work is influenced by her lived experiences with disability. She is dyslexic and has idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and the mother of two young adults with physical disabilities and medical complexity. H...

Danny J. Gomez is a professional actor who was paralyzed from the waist down in a 2016 mountain bike accident that nearly killed him. He is best known for roles in such hit shows as NCIS: Hawai’i, New Amsterdam, All Rise, and feature film Martinez Margaritas and Murder. He is a two-time Easterseals Disability Film Challenge winner for the films I/0 (2019) and Check Mate (2018), and has been a fina...

Ryan Miller is the Founding Pastor of Damascus Road, a church that is committed to following Jesus together at the University of Arizona. Ryan also serves as the Director of Campus Ministry for Missions Door. He provides leadership, vision, training, and care campus ministries throughout the United States, Mexico and Central America. Ryan and Keith talk about their church experience, friendship an...

Freddy Pang and Meg Gray are neurodivergent church members at The Journey Church, Tucson and a good friends with Keith. They talk to Keith about their relationship, living as a neurdivergent person and their passions for church and ballroom dancing. Freddy and Meg are newly weds and they talk about navigating their lives living with their disability.   Disability Empowerment Now is produced by Pas...

Nathan Klein is a University of Arizona student with Autism, studying Horse Racing. Nathan and Keith talk about their shared interest in horses and Sonic the Hedgehog. Nathan also talks about his experience as a disability advocate and his autism experience. Nathan and Keith also talk about the future and what Nathan plans to do after college.   Disability Empowerment Now is produced by Pascal Alb...

Jim Roden is a Pastor at The Journey Church in Tucson, Arizona. Jim and Keith talk about Jim’s ministry, disability advocacy within the Church, and Jim’s personal experience with disability advocacy.     Season 4 is dedicated to Christina Trivigno, Disability Advocate and Friend. Disability Empowerment Now is produced by Pascal Albright.