We're three quarters though our first season on Diamonds for our Children, and we have spoken so often about the concept of inherent human dignity that I almost hope you're beginning to get sick of me saying that phrase. Almost. But as my recent conversations on the podcast have shown, the culture in which we live, and more importantly, the culture we are building, could stand to more deeply examine the question of human dignity.

In the next few weeks we're going to be taking yet another perspective on this question by talking with guests about disability, both visible and invisible. While my phd is not in disability studies, my personal life is rich with both academic research and lived experience in the disability community. Today, I want us to carry forward the spirit of the collective as we begin a series of three episodes that will confront justice from the perspective of disability. I am hopeful that we can enter into the conversation with the question of what it means to belong, and what it means to be human at the front. And here's the thesis: the cultural discussion of disability is a conversation about "we." My goal is for us to come around to a shared understanding of this collective conversation--and to disability justice--but we have to start somewhere familiar. And that's why we're starting with a game of bop-the-balloon and a trip to Montana in the winter of 1993.