Always Looking Up

In this week’s episode I sat down with Emily Ladau. Emily is a disability rights activist and author of the book Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally. We discuss finding our disabled identities, ableism in the media across both sides of the aisle, and what it means to say we are proud to be disabled in 2022.

Read the transcript of this episode HERE

Follow Emily: Instagram: @emilyladau Twitter: @emily_ladau Website: https://emilyladau.com 

Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally: Read here

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast Twitter: @jillx3456 Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: [email protected] 

This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin

In this week’s episode I sat down with Nicole Newnham. Nicole, along with Jim LeBrecht, is the co-director and co-producer of the Oscar nominated documentary Crip Camp. We discuss how the idea for the film came to be, what it was like for her, a non-disabled person, to see the footage, the importance of telling the story of the disability rights movement, and how that movement is a blueprint for activism.

Follow Nicole: Twitter: @NicoleNewnham

Follow Crip Camp: Instagram: @cripcampfilm Website: https://cripcamp.com 

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast Twitter: @jillx3456 Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: [email protected]

This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin. 

In this week’s episode I sat down with Jim LeBrecht. Jim, along with Nicole Newnham, is the co-director and co-producer of the Oscar nominated documentary Crip Camp. We discuss his time at Camp Jened, what it was like seeing the footage and putting the documentary together, the impact of the film, and why it is so important to know our past in order to change our future.

Follow Jim: Instagram: @jimlebrecht Twitter: @JimLeBrecht

Follow Crip Camp: Instagram: @cripcampfilm Website: https://cripcamp.com

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast Twitter: @jillx3456 Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: [email protected]

This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin 

In this week’s episode I sat down with Jenna Bainbridge. Jenna is an actor, singer, disability rights advocate, and ambulatory wheelchair user. She most recently appeared as Harry T. Burn and others in the Off-Broadway production of Suffs at The Public Theatre. We discuss the concept of accidental accessibility, why conversations around authentic representation can no longer exclude disability, the fact that those who are breaking boundaries may not yet feel seen, and imagine what shows we would re-cast with disabled actors.

Follow Jenna: Instagram: @bainbridgejenna Website: https://www.jennabainbridge.com/home

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast Twitter: @jillx3456 Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: [email protected]

This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin

In this week’s episode I sat down with Dr. William Mackenzie. Dr. Mackenzie is a world-renowned pediatric orthopedics expert. He currently serves as chairman, Medical Advisory Board of Little People of America. In addition, he is someone who has known me my whole life and has helped my parents and I navigate being a little person in an average-sized world. We discuss the medical definition of being a dwarf, how medicine has evolved in treating dwarfism, and the implications of a “cure”.

Learn More: Skeletal Dysplasia | Nemours Children's Health System

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast Twitter: @jillx3456 Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: [email protected] 

This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin. 

In this week’s episode I sat down with Sarah Galli. Sarah is host of the Bravo podcast Andy’s Girls where she focuses on the psychology behind the Real Housewives franchise. We discuss Bravo’s current efforts to be more inclusive and diverse, the lack of disability representation on the network, and what it could mean to have a disabled housewife in the Bravo universe. 

Listen to Andy's Girls: https://spoti.fi/3NGxpvN Support Andy'S Girls on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/AndysGirls 

Follow Sarah: Instagram: @damegalli Website: https://www.sarahgalli.com 

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast Twitter: @jillx3456 Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: [email protected]

This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin 

In this week’s episode I sat down with Cara Reedy. Cara is currently serving as the Director of the Disabled Journalists Association. Prior to that she was the program manager at the Disability Media Alliance Project and a contributing writer at CNN. We discuss being disabled in a newsroom, the fact that disabled stories need to be told by disabled voices, and why it is about time that disability organizations speak up and speak out to protect its members. 

Follow Cara: Instagram: @infamouslyshort Twitter: @infamouslsyshort 

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast Twitter: @jillx3456 Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: [email protected] 

This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin. 

In this week’s episode I sat down with Sid Marcos. Sid is a disabled writer, producer, and business developer who I met last summer while she was working on her documentary film about this generation of disability rights activists. We discuss the disability hierarchy, cultural differences and barriers between those who were born disabled and those who acquired their disability later in life, and how society values the lives of disabled individuals.

Follow Sid: Instagram: @sidmarcos Twitter: @SidMarcos Website: https://sidmarcos.com 

Follow Not So Special Film: @notsospecialfilm Website: http://www.elizabethplank.com/not-so-special-film 

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast Twitter: jillx3456 Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: [email protected] 

This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin

This week marks a year of Always Looking Up, and what a year it has been. Over the past 365 days I have been able to talk to the most amazing people who empower me on a daily basis and for that I am forever grateful to those who came on to share their story. To celebrate this milestone I invited back someone I have always looked up to, one of my first ever guests, Rebecca Cokley. Rebecca is currently serving as a program officer in the President’s Office of the Ford Foundation, developing the U.S. disability rights program strategy. We re-examine what it means to us to be a little person, discuss why it is so important to know and preserve our history, and contemplate how the definition of being a little person will evolve in the years to come.

Follow Rebecca: Twitter: @RebeccaCokley 

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast Twitter: @jillx3456 Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: [email protected]

This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin 

To start I would like to issue a trigger warning. In this episode myself and my guests talk about sexual harassment and sexual assault. If these are triggers for you, please feel free to skip this episode. 

This episode was recorded less than 24 hours after Justice Alito’s draft opinion indicating the Court was going to overturn Roe v. Wade was leaked by Politico. I sat down with Rebecca Cokley, a program officer at the Ford Foundation, and Bekah Bailey, a disability rights advocate, to talk about how we feel in the moment, how this decision impacts the little person community, and the ways in which the community can and should step up to support its members.

How To Find Your Loca Abortion Fund: https://abortionfunds.org/funds/ 

Where You Can Donate: 

Autistic Women and Non-Binary Network: https://awnnetwork.org/donate-to-awn/   

The YELLOWHAMMER FUND: https://www.yellowhammerfund.org 

WE TESTIFY: https://www.wetestify.org 

Follow Bekah Bailey: Instagram: @_poopatraitor_ 

Follow Rebecca Cokley: Twitter: @RebeccaCokley  

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: [email protected] 

This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin.