Deem Audio | Dreaming Different with Jezz Chung

Episode 06 of “Dreaming Different” engages DJ and accessibility advocate Sabeerah Najee on the topic of disability superpowers, and how our disabled experiences inform our creative practices. This conversation examines ways to move through the shame that often comes from feeling different and how to articulate and address the compounding effects of inaccessibility when advocating for a more inclusive future.

Episode 05 of “Dreaming Different” imagines how to design a life around your own unique needs through the practice of radical self-care. Jamila Reddy, a lifestyle designer, transformational coach, and highly sensitive/neurodivergent person, helps address questions such as: What does self-care look like for a neurodivergent person day-to-day? What does self-care look like at the intersections of neurodivergence, race, and queerness? How do we continue to affirm our needs in an extractive, capitalist society, and what challenges may arise in doing so?

Episode 04 of “Dreaming Different” centers disability justice and accessibility as key social practices within our relationships, while drawing connections to abolition and related social movements. With curator, critic, and author Kimberly Drew, this conversation explores friendship as a practice of communal care, the realities of unmasking, and the joy that springs from safety.

Episode 03 of “Dreaming Different” is a conversation with former professor/disability rights educator, current access ecology practitioner and disability arts organizer, Kevin Gotkin, about the intersections of neurodivergence and queerness. This dialogue will introduce and explicate the term “neuroqueer” and explore how we can view the world through this framing and practice of fluidity.

Episode 02 of “Dreaming Different” brings together a neuroscientist and a disability justice educator to discuss the theory and science of neurodivergence, and what it makes possible within the practice of collective liberation. Dr. Yewande Pearse and Jen White-Johnson discuss the medical and social models of disability, the lineage of disabled and neurodivergent wisdom, and what it means to find language that helps us advocate for what we need in the environments we're in.

This introductory episode introduces our host, Jezz Chung, and lays the foundation for the approaches, people, and topics that listeners can expect throughout “Dreaming Different.” Jezz—a queer, autistic, ADHD, Korean American artist—gives context to their upbringing and personal journey with the concept of neurodiversity, introduces key terms and ideas, and guides us through a series of soothing somatic exercises that you can return to at any point throughout the series.