Uninvisible Pod with Lauren Freedman

At the age of 10, Nitika Chopra was diagnosed with a debilitating case of psoriasis. By 19, her joints were entirely inflamed and she was further diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis. From the tips of her toes to the crown of her head, her body was covered in unsightly sores…and for the first five years of her second diagnosis, she was unable to move without severe pain. While she’s come a long way...

Jaime Sanders’ journey with migraine has been life-long. From a toddler with abdominal migraine to a wife and mother with chronic intractable migraine, Jaime has learned to turn her pain into empowerment. She also manages her daily life with depression and anxiety, surviving two suicide attempts, along with fibromyalgia, carpal tunnel syndrome, spinal stenosis and chronic back pain. Despite these...

Born and raised in South Carolina, 27-year-old Brittany Sumner always felt like she was different than her peers — both physically and mentally. At an early age, she began falling over without explanation, finding herself unable to climb stairs, going cross-eyed, experiencing slurred speech, choking on food, and feeling almost constant fatigue. It took some time to find a specialist who truly saw...

Jeniece Dortch is a mom of six, her children ranging in age from 4-16 years. She has a passion for the special needs community that was born when her second-eldest son, Christian Garcia, was diagnosed with autism and epilepsy. She not only saw the need to advocate for these communities, but for the entire family unit (even those who are able-bodied) as inclusive members of the special needs commun...

In May 2016, Kelly Cervantes and her family received two life-changing pieces of news: her husband, Miguel , had landed the starring role of Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton: An American Musical in Chicago; and their then-7-months-old baby girl, Adelaide, was diagnosed with epilepsy — and eventually, infantile spasms — a severe form of childhood epilepsy. She transitioned from being the family’s pri...

Natalie Y. Beavers is an award-winning epilepsy survivor, advocate, and founder of the Angels Of Epilepsy Foundation , a non-profit organization that brings awareness, education, and community to epilepsy survivors and their families nationwide. Diagnosed with epilepsy at the age of 5, a seizure while she was driving in 2006 caused a life-changing and tragic car accident. Subsequently, doctors inf...

An educator for over 20 years, Vatesha Bouler is a kindergarten teacher and (almost!) six-year breast cancer survivor. Diagnosed at a relatively young age, her experience pushed her to believe that life must be lived to the fullest — and she walks that walk every day in her advocacy work for others enduring similar experiences. A public speaker and author, she is one of the writers of Beyond Her R...

Bassima Mroue is a Lebanese-American entrepreneur with over a decade’s worth of experience working with heavyweights like Nike and Spanx. As a board member of the Sara Blakely Foundation , she is an active supporter of female empowerment — as she so beautifully demonstrates in her 2012 TEDx Portland talk . Passionate for developing purpose-driven brands, inspiring women, and destigmatizing self-ca...

When she first met her new gynecologist, Lauren R. Kornegay was introduced to a disorder that was unfamiliar to her at the time: endometriosis. Diagnosed at the age of 20, she experienced the pain, struggles, exhaustion, and confusion that accompany the disease. This led her on a search to find someone who looked like her — who was also living with the same diagnosis. Each time, she came up empty-...

Nkem Osian is a Public Health Analyst at the United States Department of Health and Human Services, where she analyzes and monitors Ryan White HIV/AIDS Programs in Los Angeles County. In this role, she ensures the uninsured, underinsured, and vulnerable individuals with HIV have access to optimal, life-saving treatment and care. In addition, Nkem is a patient advocate and member of the board of Th...

Jahlove Serrano is a health educator, youth advocate, HIV/AIDS activist, androgynous model/runway coach, drag Queen, background dancer, and choreographer to the stars. He's a Guatemalan/American native of the Bronx, New York, and contracted HIV a couple of days shy of his 16th birthday. Upon diagnosis — and as he learned more about the experiences that led to diagnosis — he decided to take a leade...

Giuliani Alvarenga is an award-winning writer and law student living in New Orleans. A familiar face to those who have watched Trust Me, I’m Sick , they are HIV-undetectable and have a Bachelor's degree in English Literature and Gender & Women's Studies from the University of California, Berkeley. Giuli is also affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), and a student liaison for the Am...

Charles Sanchez is a Mexican-American, gay, HIV+ writer, performer, director and advocate living in New York City. He is one of the co-founders of Skipping Boyz Productions, and conceived, writes and stars in the award-winning musical comedy web series  Merce . In 2003, he was diagnosed with AIDS and began his journey to becoming an activist and advocate. He has attended the national AIDSWatch con...

A native of Nigeria, Ade Adeyokunnu emigrated with his family as a child and grew up in Maryland. Currently living in the Philadelphia area (and a newlywed!), he’s been passionate about sickle cell disease advocacy for as long as he can remember — perhaps because both he and his younger sister, Bukky, both live with the diagnosis. It’s what drove him to create SikCell , the first online community...

Bukky Adeyokunnu is a self-taught portrait photographer and filmmaker. Born in Lagos, Nigeria and bred in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Bukky tells visual stories of women, health, and the immigrant experience. She began her journey in 2015 and has since become a Dean’s Collection artist, been featured in xoNecole for The Warrior Series, a photo series which captures how three strong women tri...

Revée Agyepong is a registered nurse specializing in neonatal intensive care and based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. She currently works in the Pediatric Hematology Clinic at the Stollery Children’s Hospital as the Sickle Cell Disease Nurse…which is fitting, considering that until recently, she was living with sickle cell disease herself. In late 2017, she received an allogenic stem cell transplan...

Sabrina Marie Vera is a proud first-generation college graduate, Puerto Rican woman, and HHT survivor. She and her family suffer from Hereditary Hemorrhagic Telangiectasia (HHT), a rare genetic blood disease that took brother Robert’s life 15 years ago. HHT affects about 1.4 million people worldwide and has no cure. Sabrina graduated from Pomona College with a B.A. in Politics as a proud Gates Mil...

Amanda DeJesus was the recipient of a heart transplant at the age of 15. Inspired by her need to eat heart-healthy, she developed a passion for cooking and trained as a chef, graduating from the Art Institute of Houston in Texas. With her friend and stroke survivor Kelly Fucheck, she is co-host of the podcast Unfiltered Survivors . In 2017, Amanda served as a spokeswomen for the American Heart Ass...

Kendall Ciesemier is the executive producer of multimedia for the ACLU. A multi-award-winning reporter, producer, writer, and social entrepreneur, she founded Kids Caring 4 Kids — an organization that empowers young people and helps provide access to clean water, healthcare, food, and education to children living in Zambia, Kenya, and South Africa — at the age of 11. While attending Georgetown Uni...

Tori S. Dixon (MS, LPC) is the owner and practicing clinician of Graceful Journey Counseling in Arlington, Texas. A licensed professional counselor with a background in funeral direction, her specialty has naturally become grief and loss; she practices from the belief that any barrier to mental wellness is ultimately attributed to some sense of loss. Whatever the loss, she believes that grace and...

TW: This episode includes mention of suicidal ideation and behavior, as well as discussion of a suicide attempt that the guest survived. Diana Chao is a 21-year-old first-generation Chinese-American immigrant from southern California. During her sophomore year of high school, bipolar disorder nearly ended her life…and inspired her to create non-profit Letters To Strangers (L2S), which uses the hea...

@Autism_IRL is an Instagram account created by WEGO-award-winner Dana Kelsey, who works alongside her parents as a full-time caregiver for her autistic adult brother, Robert. Dana has a background as a behavior analyst, and has been working professionally with the autistic community for 10 years. Her passion for this line of work was sparked by a personal tragedy involving Robert’s mistreatment. I...

Daniel Jones is the founder of The Aspie World (TAW), an internationally-recognized patient leadership platform that works to help the world understand autism — from an autistic person’s perspective. It has become the UK’s #1 resource for Asperger’s syndrome, ADHD, OCD, and dyslexia. With a YouTube audience of over 100k and over 8 million views, Dan has become an influencer and public speaker — an...

Jennifer White-Johnson is a designer, photographer, art activist, and art educator. Her work focuses on the intersection of content and caregiving with an emphasis on redesigning ableist visual culture. In this interview, Jen shares her experience living with Graves’ disease and undiagnosed ADHD, as well as her son’s diagnosis of autism at age 2. When Knox was diagnosed on the spectrum, Jen began...

Tanika Gray Valbrun is an award-winning journalist and women’s health educator. She is the founder of non-profit The White Dress Project , an organization dedicated to bringing awareness, raising funding, and increasing education about uterine fibroids. Tanika lives with uterine fibroids herself, one of the 80% of Black women in the US to develop them. As the founder of The White Dress Project, Ta...