The Madcast

We hope you washed your dishes, because we're talking about spoon theory! Coined in 2003 by American writer Christine Miserandino, spoon theory is a concept used widely in the disability community to convey how disabled people make do with limited energy. If you've ever heard someone mention being "out of spoons" or being a "spoonie", they're using spoon theory! In the time since its coining, spoo...

This might just be our best episode yet. Today we talk with the incredible Dr. Margaret Price (she/they), a genderqueer and disabled English professor specializing in disability studies and rhetoric, about their book Crip Spacetime: Access, Failure, and Accountability in Academic Life . Tune in for a fun conversation about research methodology, the harm of accommodations, band-aids, and more! Buy...

Oh my god, it's a sequel episode! Welcome back! This week El, Nate, and lyn are still geeking out superheroes and comic books. The conversation on disabled representation in superhero-related media continues, this time mentioning characters like Madame Web, Daredevil, and various speedsters, and delving into the narrative tropes of disability in the superhero genre. Join comic book nerds El &...

Welcome back! This week’s episode of the Madcast features hosts El, Nate, and lyn geeking out on superheroes and comic books! Specifically, we’re looking at disabled representation in superhero-related media, across comic books, TV, movies, and more. From official disabled representation (Moon Knight, Oracle/Barbara Gordon, and Hawkeye) to disability-coded characters (Batman, the Flash, and the X-...

Welcome back! On this week’s episode of the Madcast, hosts El and lyn cover yet another key disability studies/activism term: disability justice. Defined by members of the BIPOC, queer, and disabled performance art group Sins Invalid, disability justice is concept/framework academics and laymen use often haphazardly, without fully understanding what it means “to practice” disability justice....

Welcome back! On this week's episode of the Madcast, hosts El and Mads are joined by a very special guest, Marlo De La Mora (she/her), to talk about the fascinating yet polarizing subject of cannabis. Marlo is an Anthropology undergraduate at UC Berkeley whose research focuses on the anthropology of cannabis. Join us as we discuss the stigma and misconceptions around cannabis, its value as an alte...

Welcome back! On this week's episode of the Madcast, Hosts El, Nate, and lyn are discussing the good, the bad, and the ugly of autism representation in the media. Join us as we discuss Autistic-coded characters well-known Autistic-coded characters (Sheldon Cooper of The Big Bang Theory , Spock of the Star Trek franchise, Abed Nadir from Community ), controversial yet confirmed Autistic characters...

Welcome back to a new season of the Madcast!! Back from a brief hiatus, Hosts El and lyn are bringing an exciting new line-up of episodes filled with new guests, new topics, and much, much more! On this week's episode, we're discussing the issue of disability: disability as an identity, disability as a medical diagnosis, and disability as a deeply personal experience. We're unpacking how instituti...

Welcome back to this week's episode of the Madcast! On this week's episode, Hosts El and Lyn are bringing on two very special guests, Harry and G, to discuss Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).  This episode we'll be discussing: What is OCD as both a diagnosis and as a lived experience? How do media representations of OCD perpetuate harm and misrepresentation for those with OCD? and- Wait, acryli...

Welcome back to this week's episode of the Madcast!  This week, Hosts Nate and El are trying out a new segment for the pod, "Disability 101." The segment will focus on one key disability concept, term, experience, and community folks may be unfamiliar and give a "101," or introductory explanation, on that concept/term/experience/community. Moving onto today's episode, we'll be answering the questi...

On this week’s episode of the Madcast, Hosts Nate and El are joined by J Bui (They/them) to discuss a fascinating new project from the UC Berkeley Disability Lab: Shakespeare Bot. Join us as we discuss ethical issues surrounding Chat GPT and other Large Language Models (LLMs),  LLM counter softwares, and the policing of  normative writing at the expense of Neurodivergent students. It’s not an epis...

Coming back from our winter hiatus, we’re back with another exciting episode of the our newly rebranded podcast, the Madcast. This week, hosts Nate and El are discussing the award winning film CODA (2021). Tune in for an exciting conversation about disability representation in Hollywood, media depictions of d/Deaf folk and the Deaf community, what it’s like being stuck between two worlds, and so m...