Down to the Struts

Stephanie DeLuca joins Down to the Struts to discuss her work as a legislative assistant for Senator Tammy Duckworth, where she works on health care and disability policy. Stephanie shares her journey as a disabled scientist to the halls of Congress, how her experiences as a disabled person have informed her approach to public policy, and the need to break down barriers and expand opportunities for disabled people to inform the laws and policies that affect all of our daily lives.

Christy Smith discusses her experiences as the first deaf contestant on the reality TV show "Survivor", and how it propelled her in her work as an international advocate on behalf of Deaf communities in the US and around the world.

Kathy Martinez, president and CEO of Disability Rights Advocates, has had a long career building accessible workplaces, from Wells Fargo to the White House. In her conversation with Qudsiya, she offers advice and thoughts for employers and employees about designing a workplace that is inclusive and accessible to all.

Algorithmic machine learning is everywhere, from resume scanning software to advertisements social media. But the discrimination inherently programmed into these algorithms can have real consequences for marginalized groups, including people of color and disabled people. In this episode, advocate, educator and attorney Lydia X.Z. Brown tells Qudsiya about their work to help more people understand and combat these threats. Lydia and Qudsiya also explore the definition of intersectionality, and its relevance when combating algorithmic discrimination.

In this episode, Qudsiya sits down with Lisa Schur and Doug Kruse, both professors at Rutgers University. They discuss their research on voting access for people with disabilities, and how to ensure participation in democracy is accessible to everyone.

This season is kicking off with a very special guest: Alice Wong, disabled activist, author and podcaster behind “Disability Visibility,” and the first person Qudsiya reached out to for advice on podcasting. In their conversation, Alice tells Qudsiya what she’s learned about the visibility of the disabled experience in media and culture, and her desire to contribute to those narratives by telling her own story. They also discuss the need for more financial support for disabled creatives, as well as better representation in journalism and other media.

Season 3 of Down to the Struts launches July 13. Listen to a sneak peek of the season, and share with a friend who would enjoy the podcast.

This special Season 2 bonus episode takes us behind the scenes of Down to the Struts, for a conversation with the team. Listen to Qudsiya chat with audio producer Ilana Nevins and social media and website manager Avery Anapol about how they got involved with the podcast, what they've learned about storytelling, and what they're excited about in Season 3.

The week before this episode’s release, former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was convicted on all charges in the murder of George Floyd, one of countless unarmed Black men who have been killed by police in the U.S. Floyd’s death sparked a global resurgence of Black Lives Matter action and discussion about police abolition. According to a study conducted by the Ruderman Family Foundation, between 2013 and 2015, half of police shootings involved disabled people. The conversation around policing and marginalized groups, and how to achieve justice for all, is wide-ranging, and far from over. We explore this and more in the Season 2 Finale of Down to the Struts. Tune in as Qudsiya is joined by Dara Baldwin, the Director of National Policy at the Center for Disability Rights. In their conversation, they discuss Dara’s activism and advocacy related to the experiences of Black disabled people in the criminal legal system. Dara shines a light on the challenges at the intersection of disability, race, and policing, and how we can chart a course forward towards the achievement of transformative justice for Black disabled lives.

Last year, as emergency rooms and intensive care units were filled to capacity due to COVID-19, physicians had to make very difficult decisions about how to distribute scarce resources. Patients and their families relied on physicians to make these decisions in an unbiased, clear manner. In this episode, we hear from Dr. Lisa Iezzoni, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who co-authored a recent study revealing alarming statistics about physician perceptions of patients with disabilities. The study, published in the peer-reviewed journal Health Affairs, found that 82 percent of physicians surveyed believed that patients with disabilities have a lower quality of life than non-disabled patients. The study also found that less than half of the physicians surveyed believed and were confident that they could provide high-quality care to patients with disabilities. In their conversation, Qudsiya and Dr. Iezzoni discuss the findings of this study, what it tells us about our healthcare system, and the necessary solutions to ensure equitable access to health care for people with disabilities.