The ABC hit show "The Good Doctor" follows a young surgeon with autism, Dr. Shaun Murphy (played by Freddie Highmore). Dr. Murphy’s disability presents him with many challenges, but he is also gifted with extraordinary medical talent.

The circumstances of "The Good Doctor" are fictional, but the series illustrates that people with all kinds of disabilities are capable of valuable work. And in real life, employers are hiring: Over the last few years, unemployment among disabled workers has fallen faster than among the general population and shows no sign of slowing down.

Guests:

Nicole Maestas - Associate professor at Harvard Medical School’s Department of Health Care Policy and the director of the National Bureau of Economic Research’s Retirement and Disability Research Center.

Toni Wolf – Commissioner of the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission.

Sonya Malloy – Pharmacy Technician at CVS living with Myasthenia Gravis

Later in the show…

Seaweed is central to Irish history and culture. The Irish have found multiple uses for it including in medicine and beer. Seaweed is also the link between Ireland and Scituate, Massachusetts — and it is part of the reason the coastal city is known as the most Irish town in America.

Guests:

Brenda O’Connor – Chairman of the Scituate/West Cork Sister City committee.

John Sullivan – Member of the Scituate/West Cork Sister city committee.

Bob Chessia – Scituate Historical Society Trustee.

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You can find our show, links to stories we discussed today and bonus content on the web at https://www.wgbh.org/news/under-the-radar-with-callie-crossley.

Please write to us at [email protected].

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Our engineer is Doug Shugarts.

Franziska Monahan is our producer.

Under the Radar is a production of WGBH.