Thing 19: Podcasts

At last! I thought. I’ll finally get around to hearing a "DisVisibility" podcast (and finish a Thing as well).

Not immediately. I opened up the podcast app on my phone, and couldn’t find a listing for the series at first. @DisVisibility is actually the Twitter handle of the Disability Visibility Project, the activist site “dedicated to recording, amplifying & sharing disability media & culture” and the source of the podcast. Trying a search for “disability” brought up the Disability Visibility podcast itself. It’s always good to have reference skills.

Episodes to date range from 21 minutes (immigration and disability) to 36 minutes (two of this length, one on the ADA, the other on the BBC America science fiction drama Orphan Black). Transcripts are posted for each episode (enabling hearing-impaired people to access the content). I picked what at first glance could have been a light-hearted topic: “Disabled Comedians,” episode 21.

Of course, the nature of disability is that there are always external challenges people need to overcome. Danielle Perez and Maysoon Zayid, the guests interviewed, made it clear that many facilities for comics aren’t accessible, which hinders both their ability to build a following through live performance and their ability to get booked for gigs. In addition, the conversation, perhaps inevitably, touched on advocacy--very fitting for this section of the MOOC. Zayid remarked on using comedy to change negative perceptions of Arabs and Muslims after the September 11 attacks in the U.S. Perez, a Latina bilateral amputee who uses a wheelchair, noted that when she can make people laugh, she can shift their perspectives on who can be a successful comedian.

I won’t say I’m completely smitten by podcasts, but their portability is definitely a selling point. My phone contains a collection of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! episodes, which come in handy during long bus rides. 

Note: Like some other participants, I did not find a way to enter a rating for the podcast.