The Game Plan: A Disability Rights California Podcast | Podcast on RSS.com

The Game Plan: A Disability Rights California Podcast

The Game Plan: A Disability Rights California Podcast

by Disability Rights California

Health & Fitness Politics

Season 1

Reflections on Life Before and After the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) | The Game Plan Episode 15

As a grassroots production, we greatly value your support. Please subscribe, comment, rate, review, and share The Game Plan. This time on The Game Plan, Eric sits down with two distinguished elders in our movement, Tom Olin and Anita Cameron, who detail their lives and activism, especially around the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This July marks 36 years since the ADA passed, so we wanted to look back to push forward. First, Eric speaks with Tom, a photojournalist who documented history, photographing protests like the Capitol Crawl. Then, Eric is joined by Anita Cameron, who participated in the Capitol Crawl and other disability protests with grassroots organization American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT). Tom and Anita have so much disabled wisdom that we’re honored to share. Content warning: Some explicit language Links: ADAPT Tom Olin’s biography Anita Cameron’s biography

Map of Liberation | The Game Plan Episode 14

As a grassroots production, we greatly value your support. Please subscribe, comment, rate, review, and share The Game Plan. This time on The Game Plan, Eric interviews Brittanie Hernandez-Wilson, a powerful advocate for people with disabilities to live independently and the Lead California Homecare Organizer at Hand in Hand. The two talk about the power of telling your story, which is the focus of her exciting new venture, Our Stories Our Care, a project funded through the 2026 AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award. She and Eric reflect on disabled wisdom, her path to California, and Brittanie even offers some musical stylings. We’re sure you will be uplifted and enlivened by the great Brittanie Hernandez-Wilson. Content warning: Some explicit language. Links: Hand in Hand AAPD Paul G. Hearne Emerging Leader Award BORP

It’s Just Healing | The Game Plan Episode 13

As a grassroots production, we greatly value your support. Please subscribe, comment, rate, review, and share The Game Plan. In honor of May Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re proud to present Eric’s conversation with Jason Robison, the Director of Advocacy at SHARE!, the Self-Help and Recovery Exchange. SHARE is a very special and impactful peer-run organization in Los Angeles County. Together, the two discuss Jason’s 30-year journey in recovery from drug abuse and mental health, they talk about how the peer-to-peer model is an antidote to shame, and break down how the CARE Act is a step in the wrong direction for California. Jason brings his sage-like energy to everything he does, from mental health and recovery advocacy to gardening, creative writing, and surfing. This episode is one big wave, and we hope you enjoy the ride. Links: SHARE! Disability Rights California’s Peer Self Advocacy (PSA) Unit Other mental health resources

I Love This About Voters | The Game Plan Episode 12

As a grassroots production, we greatly value your support. Please subscribe, comment, rate, review, and share The Game Plan. It’s a special election episode on The Game Plan! This time, Eric is joined by Michelle Bishop, the manager for voter access and engagement at the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN). The two talk about what California gets right about accessible voting, and how to prepare for our state’s upcoming primary election on June 2nd, 2026. Michelle discusses how the 2020 pandemic election shifted voter accessibility for the better, uplifts the need for people with disabilities be included at the start of any state's election plans, and shares her roots as a “voting nerd.” Get ready for practical voting tips, honest clarity, and good-natured humor. Links: Michelle Bishop’s Biography California Primary Election information DRC’s voter hotline

One Layer at a Time | The Game Plan Episode 11

As a grassroots production, we greatly value your support. Please subscribe, comment, rate, review, and share The Game Plan. This time on The Game Plan, Eric is joined by two incredible disability leaders. First, Eric speaks to intrepid self-advocate Lisa Cooley, who discussed her long and rich career advocating on a variety of disability issues and reflects on the role that family plays in her journey. Then, Eric is joined by Marisa Hamamoto - choreographer, advocate, and founder of Infinite Flow Dance. Infinite Flow is a renowned professional dance company with a mission to advance disability inclusion and innovative, disability-led choreography. We’re proud to showcase these conversations with two dynamic leaders in our movement. Links: https://www.infiniteflowdance.org/ https://thekelsey.org/stories/lisa-cooleys-housing-story/

In Most People’s Wildest Dreams | The Game Plan Episode 10

As a grassroots production, we greatly value your support. Please subscribe, comment, rate, review, and share The Game Plan. Eric Harris is joined by his old friend Shay Arigbede, filmmaker and former competitive sled hockey player, to talk two big recent cultural events -- the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games and the 98th Annual Academy Awards. The two reminisce about their time as teenagers trying to find a channel that broadcast the Paralympics and reflect on how far the presence of the games has come today. They also discuss the Oscars, looking into some of the biggest wins, coolest allies, and some thoughts on disability representation on screen. It’s a conversation that sits at the cross-section of athletics and art, with disability square at the center. Links: · 2026 Paralympic Winter Games · 2026 Academy Awards · Paralympic sled hockey team

The Paradox of The Entire Universe | The Game Plan Episode 9

As a grassroots production, we greatly value your support. Please subscribe, comment, rate, review, and share The Game Plan. This time on The Game Plan, Eric interviews an old friend-- Emily Ladau, national disability rights activist, speaker, and author of the incredible Demystifying Disability, the practical guide that has rapidly grown to an essential tome of our movement. Emily reflects on her childhood experience guest-starring on Sesame Street, advocate origin stories alongside Eric in the AAPD internship program, and serves some breaking news from the publishing world(!) For those just coming to understand disability, how it lives in our culture and societies, and how to embrace it throughout your life with kindness, you could not find a better starting place than Emily’s work. Links: · Demystifying Disability · Sesame Street episodes · American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) · Article: Wheelchair? Hearing Aids? Yes. ‘Disabled’? No Way.

I Don’t Have the Luxury of Waiting | The Game Plan Episode 8

The Game Plan is a space to strategize, organize, and posterize for the future of the disability rights movement – subscribe, rate, review, and join us! Welcome back to the Game Plan! In this episode, Eric is joined by community advocate, Sacramento City Councilmember, and Congressional Candidate Mai Vang. Mai describes her experience growing up as a first-generation daughter of refugees and one of 16 siblings as part of Sacramento's large and historic Hmong community. They discuss being a "lone warrior" in Sacramento politics, some of her fights at the city level, why she is running to primary CA-07's incumbent Democrat, and her sense of great urgency to drive new policies that center human care. Links: · History of the Hmong Community in Sacramento · maiforus.com

Growing Into Gardens | The Game Plan Episode Seven

The Game Plan is a space to strategize, organize, and posterize for the future of the disability rights movement – subscribe, rate, review, and join us! On this episode of the Game Plan, Eric is in conversation with two esteemed experts in the Black mental health space, Kelechi Ubozoh and Yolo Akili Robinson. Together, the three break down generational differences in perspectives on mental health, discuss shifting narratives around Black masculinity, and unpack the impacts of racism on the psyches of Black people. We’re honored to have this deep dive just in time for Black History Month; it's a conversation full of heavy truths that need to be aired as well as joy, levity, and hope. Content warning: There is mention of suicide at 9:07-9:11 and at 31:03-31:10. If you are struggling, you are not alone, and support is there for you. Call or text 988, anytime. Links: · We've Been Too Patient: Voices from Radical Mental Health, by Kelechi Ubozoh : https://kelechiubozoh.com/weve-been-too-patient/ · martyr nurturing: https://beam.community/martyr-nurturing-vs-healing-centered-nurturing/

The Game Plan Episode Six: Absolute Deprivation is Not the Solution

The Game Plan is a space to strategize, organize, and posterize for the future of the disability rights movement – subscribe, rate, review, and join us! This time on The Game Plan, Eric is joined by Dolores Canales (director of community outreach for The Bail Project,) a national leader and incredible activist in the fight to end solitary confinement. Dolores and Eric talk about their lives, activism, the history and future of disability and incarceration movements intersecting, and their shared work in the California Mandela Campaign, which seeks to end the use of solitary by any name in the state's locked facilities. Dolores' personal connection to the work is remarkable, her own life and her family's has been both afflicted by these issues but also brought great joy from the community of resistance. Dolores has traveled, uplifting the real needs, experiences, and stories of incarcerated people, to the far reaches of California, to Washington, D.C., and in pursuit of new learning and new models, as far as Norway. Dolores’s passion and knowledge on this critical issue are luminous, and we’re thrilled to have her on the show. Content warning: There is discussion of suicide at 19:27-19:42 and 30:08-30:50. Links: Book recommendation: Ending Isolation: The Case Against Solitary Confinement The California Mandela Campaign The Bail Project

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