Boldy Challenging Ableism is an AM950 radio show and podcast series produced by the Institute on Community Integration (ICI), quickly generated more than 2,000 downloads on just one of its platforms when it debuted in May, in addition to several thousand radio listeners.
The series, which airs Sundays through October at 2 p.m. on AM950 and is available widely on YouTube, Spotify, and other podcast platforms, exposes ableism and dismantles myths that marginalize people with disabilities. Host Katrina Simons uses her lifelong disability and her experiences as an ICI community program specialist and a disability advocate to interview a diverse mix of guests about what real inclusion means in employment, justice, housing, education, and culture.
“When you see a new show get this kind of traction early on, I’m confident it will continue to grow,” says Chad Larson, owner and president of AM950. “It shows that people were looking for this type of program and that they connect with Katrina and with the work that Pete and the team did with putting the show together.”
ICI’s Pete McCauley produced and directed the series at ICI’s studio in the Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain, with support from Skyler Mihajlov. Jerry Smith, director of marketing and communications at ICI, worked with Larson to envision the series as cross-disability content for a broad audience. The show name is a nod to the ADAPT community’s rallying cry, “To boldly go where everyone has gone before.” The phrase refers to the disability community’s frustration with continually having to advocate for its legally protected right to access public places, job opportunities, quality health care, and other aspects of community life.
“This podcast starts conversations, and the first step to eliminating any prejudice is talking about it,” says Simons. “We’re confident some of those conversations will be heard outside the disability community, and not just within it.”
McCauley is an award-winning producer who has created many film and video projects to showcase ICI’s research and training expertise, but he says the podcast has provided a chance to focus on the ultimate purpose of that work.
“One of the things that was instrumental for me was being exposed to so many different perspectives from around the community on this idea of ableism,” he says. “Everybody with a disability is struggling against ableism, and all the work we do at ICI to provide services or training or advocacy is really about combatting ableism. We want to make people more aware that ableism exists, and really, any and all conversations around disability can fit.”
Guests were eager to come on and enthusiastic about the project, McCauley says.
“That was a real boon because we didn’t need to do any arm-twisting to get great guests on the program,” he says. “So much of our work at ICI is research-based, and this was an opportunity to talk with a wider group and broaden my own horizons about disability. We were also able to leverage our relationships with service providers across the disability field from previous work we’ve done creating training and other videos. We reached out to that network as we started choosing guests for the show to broaden the conversation.”
MPR's Chris Farrell joined host Katrina Simons on a recent episode.
Photos by Pete McCauley, courtesy of Institute on Community Integration
Guest Brian Begin, with the Boldly Challenging Ableism crew (left to right), Skyler Mihajlov, Pete McCauley, and Katrina Simons.
ICI produces other podcasts that each focus on specific disability research or practice topics, but Smith says the partnership with Larson allows ICI to leverage AM950’s reach.
“I saw this as an opportunity to share ICI’s work with a broader audience and highlight how we’re helping make communities more inclusive,” he says. “It’s also a great opportunity to evaluate our investment in podcasting as a way to expand our impact.”
Simons singles out a few episodes in the series, including one with Joe Carr, that showed her young adults with disabilities are thinking seriously about careers in activism.
“When most people think of activists, they don’t necessarily think of activists who live with disabilities,” she says. “They might think of siblings of people with disabilities, for example, but now I think more people with visible and significant disabilities are pursuing activism as a career. People want to do more than write to their legislators, though of course that’s important, too. I’m just impressed that there is a younger generation with ambitions beyond. If you listen to these episodes, you can hear that they all want to make big changes happen. I hope people take away something valuable from it.”
As the first season of the show wraps this fall on AM950, the ICI team will consider new shows, including a second season of Boldly, and other ways to engage the broader community in disability advocacy amid federal funding cuts that threaten to dismantle essential research, training, and outreach activities on which people with disabilities and their families rely, Smith says.
“Boldly helps ICI share its deep knowledge base in disability policy and practice with new audiences in the context of advocacy,” he says. “There couldn’t be a better time to hear these voices.”
— Janet Stewart
Photos by Pete McCauley, courtesy of Institute on Community Integration
Check out the podcast
Visit AM 950's Boldly Challenging Ableism webpage.
