KPFA - Pushing Limits

Six year old Ethan Borochoff is interested in many things and most of them are NOT Type 1 Diabetes. Yet, like most kids with severe disabilities, he knows way more than the average bear about the disease he lives with.

Listen in to hear how he makes it through his days. Ethan explains it all: insulin pumps, carbohydrates, wobbly legs and why children can experiment with batteries but not the electricity in plugs.

Last summer, Ethan chatted about insulin pumps with Sam Fuld, a professional baseball outfielder who also lives with Type 1 Diabetes.  He met Sam at Root Bear Float Day at an Oakland A’s game, a benefit for the Greater Bay Area Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. This year’s benefit is Tuesday, July 18th when the A’s play the Tampa Bay Rays in a night game.

Since 2003, the A’s have raised over $486,000 for this cause. Click here to purchase tickets. All proceeds from Root Beer Float Sales and a portion of special tickets will benefit the research.

Ethan is the youngest guest to ever do a feature interview on Pushing Limits but we hope he won’t hold that record for long. We’d like to interview more children who live with severe disabilities. Send them to us at (707) 795-2890 or via email at [email protected].

Produced and hosted by Shelley Berman, with help from Adrienne Lauby. Editing by Sheela Gunn-Cushman.

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Dennis Billups joins Eddie Ytuarte with a first person account of the historic disability occupation of the  federal HEW building in 1977.  This protest of the delay of 504 regulations became a precursor to the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Billups’ history, as well as that of other disability activists, will be on display in the multi-media exhibit,  “Patient No More: People with Disabilities Securing Civil Rights,” which opens at the San Francisco Library next week. “Patient No More” will be on display from June 10 through September 3, 2017.

This program is streamed live at www.kpfa.org and most past programs are also archived.

Hosted and Produced by Eddie Ytuarte.

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Fund Drive Special

Laura Bock is an extraordinary blind white woman whose new memoir, Red Diaper Daughter tells an extraordinary story of three generations of rebels and revolutionaries. She talks about her communist and anarchist family… and her own journey though a life lived in struggle, self growth and organizing.

Laura Bock’s begins her story with that of her famous “red” grandparents who sought to overthrow the Russian Czar and were devoted organizers in the U.S. Communist Party.  Her parents and aunt too, Mini Carson, Peggy Dennis and Al Bock, were well known labor organizers, journalists and revolutionaries.

We talk about Laura Bock’s life of disability activism, feminism, self-supporting business and Fat Lip Readers Theater which she co-founded and performed with for 18 years.

Feminism, disability, and fat activism intersect with a family history of revolutionary struggle. We talk about it all.

Hosted & produced by Josh Elwood, Mark Romoser & Adrienne Lauby. Editing assistance by Sheela Gunn-Cushman.

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(For a transcript of the first 15 minutes of this half hour program, click here.)

Capitalism is about money. Capitalism is about the 80% of disabled people who don’t have full time employment. Capitalism is also about how we think. Capitalism tells us it’s okay the majority of people in jails have learning disabilities, mental disabilities, brain injuries and physical disabilities. Capitalism affects us in ways we don’t always see.

In this program disability activist Cheryl Green explains how capitalism has influenced the disability experience, as well as that of other oppressed people.

Cheryl Green is the prime force behind StoryMinders, where she works as a film-maker, educator and advocate. Green lives with a brain injury and focuses much of her work in that area.

Check out Cripping Capitalism on YouTube, where Green and her co-presenter, Caitlin Wood, cover the fascinating issues of disability, feminism, and the controversy of work.

Eddie Ytuarte hosts.

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ADAPT is a dynamic direct action group that blocks streets, sits in at the offices of D.C. politicos, and raises hell about the rights of disabled people. They bring hundreds of people with disabilities to their national actions.

We talk with ADAPT organizer Bruce Darling about how they do it and how you can work with disabled people for your protests too. Disabled people and the disability rights movement have been protesting for a long time. We bring you the that history.  Click here for a Timeline written by Mark Romoser.

Bruce Darling is co-founder of the Center for Disability Rights Inc. During his career, he has dealt with a variety of disability issues. He also is a community organizer with ADAPT, a national grassroots community of disability rights activists, and has written a number of public policy analyses on disability rights issues.

Hosts: Mark Romoser and Adrienne Lauby

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