ListenABLE

Wheelchair racer Madison de Rozario has won every kind of Paralympic medal except for gold, but she’ll be fighting to change that at the Tokyo games. She first took the international track circuits by storm when she won silver at the 2008 Beijing games at just 14 years old, before moving from sprinting to distance and soon winning the 2018 London Marathon. In this chat she tells Dylan Alcott...

Before his accident at 17, Jaimen Hudson’s greatest love in life was diving and surfing in the ocean. But when he became a quadriplegic in a dirt bike crash in 2008, he thought he’d never be able to go in the water again. Years later in a chance meeting Jaimen was introduced to drone photography and videography and since has taken beautiful images of the ocean and its animals from abov...

Dressage horse-riding, or as Dylan says "dancing with a horse", sounds hard enough.. but imagine trying to do it without any forearms or hands! How do you hold the reigns?!?! That’s what 17-year-old Abigail Vidler does with the help of some special equipment, and she’s so good at it she hopes to compete in the 2024 Paralympics. In her spare time she’s also completing her Year 12...

RJ Mitte is one of the most famous people with a disability in the world, but have you ever heard of him? Diagnosed with cerebral palsy at the age of three, he shot to global fame after playing Walter White Jr in the hit TV series Breaking Bad, a character who also had cerebral palsy. In this chat with Angus (Dylan is off doing something boring like winning Wimbledon) he talks about how he overcam...

In 2013, Mandy McCracken felt a slight fever coming on. She didn’t know then she would soon lose her hands and feet and spend 10 gruelling months in hospital recovering rom Sepsis. Since then Mandy has been on a long and sometimes difficult journey learning to live as a quadruple amputee, and she now uses prosthetic limbs to walk, drive, garden and even rock climb. She’s also started a...

Beth O’Brien never grew taller than one meter because of a rare form of dwarfism, called diastrophic dysplasia. In this episode she tells Dylan and Angus what it’s like shopping in the kid’s section, why her most useful possession is a stick with a hook on it, and why you should never use a certain word when addressing her.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy informatio...

Michael and Kassandra are the stars of everyone’s favourite TV show, Love on the Spectrum, which explores what dating is like for people on the autism spectrum. In this episode they explain what it’s like sharing their love life on national television, plus Michael gives Dylan and Angus some excellent dating tips. You can watch Love on the Spectrum on ABC iview.  Michael's instagr...

10 Cent Tom is fast becoming a household name around the Gold Coast. The 18-year-old otherwise known as Tom Pirie has an intellectual impairment and severe scoliosis. He loves giving back to his community by collecting bottles and cans under Queensland’s container deposit scheme, and he's already collected over 300,000 of them. He hopes to one day open his own recycling depot where he will e...

When Ashlee Dolby was diagnosed with Friedreich's Ataxia, her specialist told her the only thing worse would be a brain tumour diagnosis. But she hasn't let the rare neurological condition hold her back. Ashlee also answers all your questions about the National Disability Insurance Scheme, bringing her extensive knowledge both as a funding recipient and from working with NDIS clients.  Instag...

How did Jessica Quinn go from losing her leg at 9-years-old to becoming an international model and disability advocate? In this candid episode Jess takes Dylan and Angus behind the scenes of life as a model with a disability, and why she's focusing less on walking the runway and more on learning to run.  Instagram: jessicaemilyquinn   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Imagine learning you’re only expected to live another six years… and you’re just 12 years old. Welcome to the life of Rhiannon Anderson. She has Ullrich Muscular Dystrophy, a disease that usually leaves people wheelchair bound by their twenties. 22-year-old Rhiannon has other plans, including her first five-kilometre walk. We’re following in her footsteps…except for...

“The first three questions I get asked: What happened to your legs? Do you drive a car? How do you go to the bathroom?” Imagine not being asked your name first before getting asked if you had a penis! Welcome to the world of Spencer West and we are just glad to be a part of it. Spencer is an American motivational speaker and disability advocate who became an amputee after being born wi...

When you listen to the radio, watch the TV or even listen to certain podcasts everyday you’ll hear the term “newsreader”. You would think a prerequisite would be the ability to 'see' the news you're reading? And for many years Nas Campanella, who lost her vision as a child, did just that but in her own unique way. She “read” by listening. You may know Nas from her tim...

This episode Dylan Alcott and Angus O’Loughlin talk to Em Carey aka ’The Girl That Fell From The Sky’ here’s a tiny piece of her story with disability:"Isn’t it crazy how life is one thing and then in a single moment it becomes something entirely different. That’s how it happened for me anyway. Here I was, Emma, the girl who loves to run and travel the world and...

Heath Davidson is the current ranked #6 Quad Wheelchair Tennis player in the world, he’s also Dylan Alcott’s tennis doubles partner and best mate. Together they have travelled the world competing and have a Paralympic Gold Medal to their names but this success didn't come so easy. Heath left the sport and wasn’t seen by Dylan for 8 years. From the age of 14 Heath live alone, comf...

On the 9th of September 2016, Sam Willoughby was an able-bodied Olympic Silver medallist at the top of his BMX game. On the 10th of September 2016, he was being airlifted to a hospital for emergency surgery to repair the damage to his spinal cord after an accident on the track he had ridden a million times. Dylan Alcott and Angus O’Loughlin talk to Sam about his life pre and post-accident an...

Imagine growing up where a simple hug can break your back, where a handshake can leave you in a cast and where your dream of being a nurse is squashed because of your physical limitations. Davina Knight has not only overcome all these obstacles but pursued a life beyond her disability. She chats with hosts Dylan Alcott and Angus O'Loughlin about what's its like to become a mother to a child with a...

Get your notes ready, this episode isn’t just a ‘school of thought’, but a whole EDUCATION on disability. This week’s guest on ListenABLE with Dylan Alcott and Angus O’Loughlin is Simon Darcy; a Professor at the UTS Business School & University of Technology Sydney. A surfing accident in the 80’s left Simon with a high-level spinal cord injury and with the p...

When Dylan Alcott and Angus O’Loughlin read the headline: “Airline rejects passenger with Tourette’s from flight” - we immediately knew we had to talk to the person involved, and find out what happened, and how they felt about their disability making headlines around the world. Who we discovered was the hilarious and authentic Jade O’Connell, a young woman with a soci...

At 21, Jess Van Zeil felt invincible. From Bungee Jumping to SCUBA diving in South Africa, Jess was fulfilling her dreams as a mad adventurer; her future crammed with plans as a loving daughter, passionate sportswomen and student.  Then Jess was diagnosed with Conjunctival Ocular Melanoma; a very rare and aggressive form of cancer.  She was told “ We’re going to have to take...

In September 2001, at the age of 18, Mike’s life changed forever. He contracted one of the deadliest diseases on the planet, Meningococcal Septicemia while on an end of season Football trip.  Mike’s chances of survival were as little as 5%. His family were told to say goodbye on more than one occasion as he fought for his life. He spent the next 6 months in hospital where he was g...

This weeks episode of ListenABLE proves looks can be deceiving as award-winning comedian Madeleine Stewart charms us with a sweet demeanour, veiling razor-sharp wit. Living with a “limb deficiency”, a term herself she find humour in, her ground-breaking and hilarious comedy routine takes us on an exploration of disability and social norms. Practicing what she preaches, Madeleine won th...

This episode of ListenABLE with Dylan Alcott and Angus O’Loughlin isn’t just one guest… its TWO!  Danielle Spokes - described as a "Lioness Mum" who has fought against the systems naming the prices on lifesaving medication. Having a son with a rare medical condition she uses her law degree to fight and advocate for a broken system that without warning can change the PBS med...

Dinesh Palipana OAM is an Australian doctor, legal professional and disability advocate. He is the first quadriplegic medical intern in Queensland, Australia. He is the second person with quadriplegia to graduate as a doctor in Australia and the first with spinal cord injury. I's his struggles to be at the top of his profession that you don't know!  This week Dylan Alcott and Angus O'Loughlin...

Where do we draw the line between disease and disability? Who makes that distinction and why? This week we talk invisible illness and let you make up your own mind!  In this weeks episode of ListenABLE Dylan Alcott and Angus O’Loughlin talk to Emmah Money who is living with Cystic Fibrosis (CF). When she was born she was not expected to live beyond her fifth birthday and doctors suggest...