Life After Paralysis with Tiffiny Carlson

In episode 68 of SPINALpedia's podcast Life After Paralysis, we catch up with Destiny Floyd from Missouri, a 26 year old model who's been paralyzed since the age of 19 in a drive-by shooting and was recently crowned Ms Wheelchair Missouri 2026. She's also an ambassador for Disabled But Not Really, an amazing nonprofit in Kansas City that promotes accessible exercise, and has an accessi...

We've featured several people with disabilities who've dedicated their lives to helping the disability community, and Art Aston is one of these selfless individuals. Born with spina bifida in 1981, he grew up in a time when disability awareness was lacking. Fourty years later, he's changing the way the world sees disability through his foundation Our View, a nonprofit that offers workp...

Paralyzed in a motorcycle accident in November 2024, Holden Howell, a 21 year old college student from Ohio, promised his grandma when he got his motorcycle he wouldn't kill himself. So when his injury occurred, Holden was just grateful to survive. Holden is now home, back in college and is on a life mission to make exercise as accessible as possible for people with paraplegia and has created...

Rick Futia was a bodybuilder and that good-looking, popular guy in high school when his entire life changed at the age of 17. The year was 1982, and his journey since that fateful day has been epic. Supported by his large Italian-American family, he refused to stop living life with joy. Rick quickly became notorious for his appearances at clubs and parties throughout San Jose, California, the city...

When you look good, you feel good. Travis Iverson, a C3-5 quadriplegic from Ottawa, Ontario, has enjoyed fashion his entire life. The founder Iver Fashion, Travis created his brand post-injury to bring awareness to the importance of adaptive fashion. On his site you'll find accessible carry all pouches, stylish urine bags with tube covers and shirts and pins with his logo, a red cardinal, as w...

Paralyzed at just 9 months old, Alex Jackson, a C5-6 quadriplegic from South Carolina, has lived nearly his entire life from a seated perspective, and that has greatly influenced his advocacy. Becoming both a disability advocate for improved accessibility as well as improved accessible transportation, he also works as a Public Affairs Specialist at Naval Information Warfare Center Atlantic. And Al...

Living in a home that's accessible yet beautiful is one of the many passions of Rosemarie Rossetti, PhD, a universal design consultant and keynote speaker paralyzed since 1998. Not only did she pivot her speaking career after her injury, she became an expert in universal design and built the Universal Design Living Laboratory in Ohio; a home that people can visit and learn about the principals...

Accessible homes don't have to to be out of reach for the average working-class person with a disability. This is the mantra of Angela Fox, a paraplegic since birth, who went on to become a civil rights lawyer and mediator for the FDA after college. During the great recession of 2007, she purchased for first home and made it accessible, and she learned a lot, which she shares in her podcast, &...

It's not every day you see an actor with a spinal cord injury on the big screen, but thanks to actors like Danny J, Gomez, a paraplegic from Los Angeles by way of New Orleans, it's becoming more common and that's a great thing for the disability community. In this episode, we chat with Danny not only about his acting career, which began in 2018, just two years after his spinal cord inj...

In this episode, we learn about the world of wheelchair bodybuilding from Genesis Del Bosque, a C5-6 quadriplegic from California. A passionate bodybuilder before his injury, Genesis went right back to doing what he loves within months of his injury. He shares his injury story, how he trains, what he eats and how quadriplegic bodybuilding - for quadriplegics who still have partial arm movement - i...

After falling in love with traveling as a child after being taken from hospital to hospital to determine her disability, Renee Bruns, 41, from Atlanta, Georgia, knew it was her destiny to travel the world. Not only has she visited all 7 continents, she also holds the Guinness World Record for the most countries visited in one year by a wheelchair-user (66 countries). Renee shares her story, travel...

Life with a C4-5 spinal cord injury may be challenging, but Ricky Chang, paralyzed since 2008, has been undeterred. After fighting hard for many things after his accident, including getting his driver's license using a modified steering wheel, he shares how he's been able to stay strong over the years thanks to his dry humor and solid friend base. Also interning for NASA in their Communica...

Taylor Nichols, a former professional motocross athlete from Texas injured 7 years ago, went on to discover pickleball post-injury. A sport offering both physical and social benefits, he quickly fell in love and was hired by Chicken N Pickle, a national pickleball chain in Texas, Arizona, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma that offers free use of two sport wheelchairs at every location, as their Natio...

While the web is full of accessible travel sites today, that wasn't the case in 2006 when Ashley Lyn Olson started her now infamous wheelchair travel site, Wheelchairtraveling.com. Her site is chock full of indispensable accessible travel info from her worldwide travels and her contributors. After becoming paralyzed at 14, travel was Ashley's vessel to freedom and she shares that journey w...

Meet Jeffrey Lorenzo Williams, a New York City real estate broker from Harlem who's been injured since he was a teenager in the early 1980s from an accidental shooting. His injury however was simply a catalyst for an amazing life that he shared with us in this uplifting episode. After getting a degree in Criminal Justice, he went on to become a real estate broker, a shoe designer as well as a...

Paralyzed for nearly 20 years, Paul LaCorte, a 38 year old paraplegic originally from California now living in Montana, shares his journey since his injury at 18 years old. From pivoting employment goals from auto mechanics to mass communications to teaching himself how to play the guitar post-injury as a form of therapy, Paul is living his life on his own terms. He also shares what it's been...

In episode #52, we spoke with the newly paralyzed ShelbyLynn Quintana, injured from transverse myelitis last year. She shares her experience of being undiagnosed for months until a cause of paralysis was found thanks to sharing her story on Tiktok. Also a published poet, ShelbyLynn sheds light on a cause of paralysis that not enough people are aware of in both the lay and medical fields. She also...

In episode 51, we spoke with Chris Hrabik, based in a small town in Missouri, who was paralyzed nearly 20 years ago in a car accident at the age of 18. An incomplete quadriplegic, he went on to become a talented metal artist and fabricator as well as a rally racer after his injury. And he has a new project - starting his very own adaptive driving school where anyone no matter their ability (even p...

In this episode, we're joined by Shelly Kerschner, a longtime paraplegic who penned the book, "Standing Tall & the Healing Power of Gratitude," after her injury. She shares the importance of gratitude in her life, as well as her other passions, adaptive kayaking and adaptive yoga, and shares her plan to become an adaptive yoga teacher. — Follow Shelly on IG here — Buy her book on...

In episode 49, we speak with founder of SPINALpedia and creator of Slingshot Golf, Josh Basile, a C4-5 quadriplegic who grew up loving the game of golf. Since standard adaptive golf wasn't a possibility for Josh due to arm mobility limitations, he created Slingshot Golf as a way for anyone to be able to golf no matter their mobility level. In May 2023, Josh was finally able to compete in an ad...

A former high school theater kid and aerobics instructor paralyzed in 1990, Katie Rodriguez Banister has been living life as a C5-6 quadriplegic for over 33 years. Post-injury, she found a passion for speaking and writing about SCI issues like managing/finding caregivers, and during Covid she decided to turn her autobiography into a play with the help of a friend. The end result "ROLL WITH IT...

In episode 47, we share a conversation with Gabe Trujillo, a longtime digital producer at 12 News, NBC-affiliate in Phoenix. Gabe became paralyzed at the age of 14 by a rare form of polio, induced by an extreme asthma attack. After finally getting a diagnosis years after his injury, Gabe settled into his new life as a quadriplegic (with arm movement; no hand or leg mobility), and he decided to put...

In episode 46, we chatted with musical phenom Amy Wang-Hiller, the only professional violinist in the US who uses a wheelchair full-time. She is new to using a wheelchair due to Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a condition that affects the collagen in the body and can cause spinal cord injuries. Originally from Shanghai, China, Wang-Hiller moved to the US to pursue her musical studies and now holds a Docto...

A quadriplegic, husband, father and community health worker, Casey Moore from Medford, Oregon shares his story. Paralyzed in 2000 in a diving accident, he was unsure of what life held for him, but he did his best to focus on the positive and pushed ahead, going on to marry the love of his life, having a son without the need of IVF and then finding a purposeful career - helping others with spinal c...

In our second disability employment success story for National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2022, meet Candis Welch. A lifelong resident of Los Angeles, California with Spinal Muscular Atrophy, she began her career as an Executive Assistant with Issa Rae Productions after graduating with a degree in Journalism. She then pivoted to the public sector, eventually becoming a Procurement Analy...