KPFA - Pushing Limits

Alex Rush, 81 years old, recently went under the knife and had his chest pried over.

Doctors call this open heart surgery.

Hearts are complicated and, when hearts are exposed to the Goddess and everybody, much can happen. One might be shaken to the core. One’s life partner might be turned upside down.  Yes, when everything is given over to fate, and mortality stares us in the face – what was buried may surface and what is on the surface may not be all there is to see.

Join us as we talk to elders Alex and Ellen Rush about their experience preparing and living through a major surgery.

Shelley Berman and Adrienne Lauby interview these long-time spouses about the inner life of an elder undergoing major surgery.

With great gratitude to John Prine, they sing us a song too!

Produced and hosted by Shelley Berman.

The post Open Heart Surgery – Pushing Limits – June 9, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.

Early disability activism did not only arise in the United States or in the countries of the United Kingdom.  The Soviet Union, shortly after the 1918 revolution, also witnessed a nascent disability movement.  That movement differs significantly from disability advancements in other countries and in later decades.

In this edition of Pushing Limits, Maria Galamarini surveys the development of blind activism in the Soviet Union.

Maria Cristina Galmarini is an Associate Professor of History and Global Studies at William & Mary University.  Her monograph, The Right to Be Helped: Entitlement, Deviance, and the Soviet Moral Order, was published in 2016 by Northern Illinois University Press. It explores the sense of entitlement to social rights among marginalized groups in the Soviet Union from 1917 to 1950.

The post Blindness in the Early USSR – Pushing Limits – June 2, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.

A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. The show alternates weekly and airs on even weeks Friday 2:30pm.

The post Pushing Limits – May 26, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.

A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. The show alternates weekly and airs on even weeks Friday 2:30pm.

The post Pushing Limits – May 19, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.

A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. The show alternates weekly and airs on even weeks Friday 2:30pm.

The post Pushing Limits – May 12, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.

Interviews with two authors with disabilities who have written books from their lived expertise.

Stephanie Heit is the author of Psych Murders, a poetic memoir of her encounters with the psychiatric medical system.  Dr. Sami Schalk, professor of gender studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, discusses her book, Bodyminds Imagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction, which relates disability, Blackness and speculative (science) fiction, and Black Disability Politics.

Stephanie Heit is part of Turtle Disco, an imaginative creative space in Ypsilanti, Mich., along with her wife, longtime Bay Area disability culture fixture Petra Kuppers.  Dr. Schalk writes for mainstream outlets, serves as a board member for Freedom, Inc, and once twerked with Lizzo.  She identifies as a fat, Black, queer, cisgender, disabled femme.  She is polyamorous and a pleasure activist.

The post Two Writers; Three Books – Pushing Limits – May 5, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.

We jump into summer by talking with people who are making seasonal activities accessible to those with disabilities.

Rachael A Zubal-Ruggieri has a passion for comic books and helped start the “Cripping the Comic Con” at Syracuse University. This bi-annual symposium featured topics relating to disability and pop culture.

Then we hear about the California Youth Leadership Forum for students with disabilities.  Now in its 31st year, the forum teaches high school students about disability history, advocacy, and culture.  We talk to Catherine Campisi, who helped develop the program, about its impact.

Finally we touch base with Curran Brown, the camp director at EmpowHer.  Founded in 2021, this year-long leadership program for young women aged 13-18 includes a week-long camping trip in New York.  We’ll be talking more to Curran sometime soon.

Grab a cool drink and some ice cream — and enjoy.

The post Disability Summertime – Pushing Limits – April 28, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.

A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. The show alternates weekly and airs on even weeks Friday 2:30pm.

The post Pushing Limits – April 21, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.

A half-hour radio show providing critical coverage of disability issues and bringing the insight of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. The show alternates weekly and airs on even weeks Friday 2:30pm.

The post Pushing Limits – April 14, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.

On the 46th anniversary of the Section 504 sit-ins in San Francisco, we take a look back at the longest occupation of a federal building in U.S. history, the role the late Judy Heumann played in it, and the subsequent disability rights movement.

Producer and Host, Mark Romoser, is joined by Joan Leon, who has worked with the Berkeley Center for Independent Living (CIL) and its offshoot the World Institute on Disability.  Ms Leon continues to sit on the board of the Berkeley CIL, where Judy was once deputy director.

The post Judy Heumann – Pushing Limits – April 7, 2023 appeared first on KPFA.