The Unexpected Journey

Summary: Josh Dueck, is a legendary skier, Paralympic medalist, leader in the adaptive sports  community, husband, and father from British Columbia, Canada. He has seen the highest of highs and the lowest of lows since he was paralyzed 18 years ago, and he generously shared some of the lessons he's learned along the way. He is also a consummate professional, a highly respected public speaker,...

Welcome back folks for Season 2 of The Unexpected Journey! We are super excited to bring you new stories from adaptive athletes, creators, activists, leaders, and many others sharing their adventures of navigating life with a disability!

Dani Izzie is a disability advocate, partner, and mother of two beautiful twin girls. She courageously shares her story of carrying, birthing, and raising twins as a quadriplegic mother in a society that is often very critical toward and unaccepting of parents with disabilities. In the midst of a pandemic, she allowed a film crew into her family’s home to show the world her experience in the soon...

Tyler Turner lives in British Columbia, Canada where he pursues an adventure filled life as a pro snowboarder, surfer, sailor, mountainbiker, skydiver, and wingsuit flyer who is also a bilateral below the knee amputee. Tyler and I met in Oceanside, California where we both competed in the 2021 U.S. Open Adaptive Surf Competition. He was there with a whole crew of competitors and supporters from Hi...

Evan Strong is a Paralympian and multiple boardsport athlete, husband, father, and practitioner of wellness. He lives half part-time on Maui, Hawaii and spends the other half of his time on a farm in Northern California, in both places with his wife and two daughters. Two pretty great locales, especially for someone who is as active as Evan and competes at the highest levels of adaptive snowboardi...

Vasu Sojitra shreds on a ski, skateboard, and on the trails - always, in his words, ninjasticking through the world. He grew up between India and Connecticut where taught himself how to ski and skateboard together with his brothers and friends. He now lives in Bozeman, Montana and with sponsors like Faction Skis, The North Face, Skullcandy, Darn Tough, and others he recently made the transition to...

Maureen McKinnon has been sailor and racer for quite a while, both when she was able bodied and as an adaptive sailor following an accident that resulted in paraplegia. A friend and teammate told her, "Once a sailor, always a sailor." Her groundbreaking sailing career includes being the first woman on the US Paralympic Sailing team and the first woman from any country to win a medal in P...

Quinn Brett is a badass. A former professional climber, speed ascent athlete, and Rocky Mountain National Park Climbing Ranger, Quinn was paralyzed in a climbing accident in October 2017. On the timescale of adjusting to life after a traumatic accident Quinn is still in the early stages. Yet, the newness of it all has not muted her voice or her continued passion for advocacy. When we chatted, she...

In the second of two episodes with David McCauley, David and I navigate the conversation toward sailing and his bluewater racing experience aboard The Impossible Dream, a beautiful and thoughtfully designed accessible catamaran. David shares more about his professional art career and using art as a powerful form of activism. As an extension of activism and advocacy, we also discuss the continual p...

HR Summary: David McCauley is a professional artist, sailor, traveler, and founder of an art therapy organization. He's also quadriplegic and has been paralyzed for a similar timeline as me. We met two summers ago while sailing on the Impossible Dream, a fully accessible catamaran, and hit it off comparing notes on shared interests and a similar lived experience. When we reconnected the inter...

Channing Cash was born in a small village in Laos and now lives in Southern California where she is training to be on the US Paralympic Ocean Kayak Racing Team. Ever since she was paralyzed at a very young age, Channing has continually challenged perceived limitations. This tenacity has allowed her to pursue life on her own terms. These days, in addition to her training, she spends her time planni...

Cristina Rubke is one of the most involved people I know. She lives in Alameda California, across the bay from San Francisco, where she splits her time between traveling to regattas as a competitive adaptive sailor, working her day job as a trademark lawyer, and moonlighting as a disability rights advocate as well as a board member and former commodore of the Bay Area Adaptive Sailing Center. Chri...

Anna Soens was working as a field biologist in the American West tracking mountain lions and other large wildlife.  It was her dream job.  All of that changed when, in 2015, she was paralyzed at an indoor climbing wall in Portland, Oregon.  For Anna, finding a way to get back to the natural world she loves was her ultimate goal in recovery.  Some good friends and local organizations helped her to...

Greg Durso is always charging in the mountains of Vermont and beyond. Whether on his adaptive mountain bike, adaptive wakeboard, in his downhill monoski, or over a dozen other pieces of adaptive equipment, he never seems to stop. For this reason and more, he is perfectly suited for his job as Program Director at the Kelly Brush Foundation - a nonprofit that provides sports equipment grants to peop...

The Unexpected Journey is a podcast about adaptive athletes, adventurers, and creators hosted by Tim Brown.  In 2011, as a 25-year-old working on ski patrol in Colorado, I was in an accident that left me paralyzed and quadriplegic. The path to accepting life with a disability and not just surviving but thriving has been the most unexpected, trying, and rewarding adventure of my life. Living with a...