Two of the people behind the remarkable TetraSki, a partnership between the University of Utah Health’s — Global Adaptive Program, the TRAILS program, and Tetradapt. Program Manager, Tanja Kari and Ross Imburgia, Engineer.

Gabriel Rodreick is a multidisciplinary artist from Minneapolis. Music, dance, poetry, and visual art is his way of learning how to live in a body. At the age of 15, he injured his C5 vertebrae and has been living with quadriplegia and using a wheelchair since. His dark, dank, and dirty artistic voice tells stories of life blooming in the shadows and those lives taking shape in a myriad of bodies. His stage name is Freaque.

By request from our listeners! To kick off 2024 we want to take a trip down memory lane from 2023. This episode showcases some of our favorite highlights from guests we spoke to in 2023. Enjoy!

You've arrived at the intersection of human willpower and biomechanics. After this episode you’ll be wondering, “is the term ‘disability’ about to be dismantled and and reshaped by pioneers using the power of technology?” Our guests are Keenon Werling and Russel Martin, two pHd students from the Stanford Biomechatronics lab. The topic. Wearable Robots. Exoskeletons.

Meet Davis Phinney. He’s an Olympic Bronze medalist and Tour de France stage winner who has the most victories of any cyclist in American history. 328 in all. All that work as a professional cyclist came in handy years later when he confronted a diagnosis of Parkinson's disease. Despite the uphill battle that confront him, Davis realized that he could take action to feel healthy and strong. He started a foundation to promote and fund innovative research that seeks to improve the quality of life forthose living with Parkinson’s. Today the Davis Phinney Foundation is a leading source for education and resources to help people with Parkinson’s take action to live well today. Davis is joined Kevin Kwok. With 30 years under his belt in biopharmaceutical operations, Kevin is a valued advisor on the board of directors of the foundation and living with Parkinson’s as well. Our conversation with Kevin and Davis is a deep dive into the unpredictable and challenging world of Parkinson's—a condition whose intricacies are being unraveled each day, revealing a dance between genetics and environment. Both Kevin and Davis have undergone life-altering deep brain stimulation procedures, offering them newfound liberation from the shackles of medication dependence and illuminating the path towards an improved quality of life. They candidly reflect on how the disease has reshaped their perspectives, compelling them to slow down, yet simultaneously enabling them to uncover joy in passions like skiing and cycling. As advocates for proactive disease management, they emphasize the power of exercise, embracing supportive relationships, and the significance of living in the moment.

Today, we’re talking augmented reality with audio and ultimately sensory substitution. Our guest is Tim Devine. He and his team at Action Audio have developed a product that translates the spatial data from live sports into sound, allowing blind and low vision audiences to follow the action in real time. It’s not just functional tech though, it’s emotional. He wants to bring the tension, the anticipation… the core of what makes live sports amazing to watch, to this audience. Tim shares his journey into the world of sound design, starting with a focus on tennis and eventually collaborating with the NBA, transforming data into an immersive 3D spatial audio experience. You'll hear Tim's passion for music, emotion, and sound come to life as we discuss everything from enhancing the broadcast experience to the future expansions in sports like soccer and football. Tim's story isn't just about technological breakthroughs; it's about persistence, responsibility, and the drive to make ideas accessible to those who will most benefit from them.

Today we meet Alice Brouhard and her daughter Kara. When Kara was 5 she was struck by an out of control skier. The accident caused a traumatic brain injury, left Kara legally blind and mostly paralyzed on one side of her body. Kara's parents helped her relearn as much as they could and raised Kara to live as independently as possible, patiently pushing her to chase her dreams. Alice took finding assistive technology into her own hands and in the process became a champion of the use of technology to support people with memory and cognitive challenges. She has worked tirelessly to set up a system that allows Kara to live independently. What keeps Alice going? How does Kara navigate life with such spirit, and what does it tell us about accessibility and resilience? We’ll hear about Kara's incredible journey and her dedication to living independently, even amidst challenges like vision loss, paralysis, and seizures. Today, she manages her life with the help of wonderful technology but more than anything, her fiery spirit.

What would you with an extra tank of gas? It’s a metaphor for living that we had not heard, until now, when we interviewed Nick Martinez. He’s a true adventurer and survivor of life's highest peaks and deepest valleys. And to complete the metaphor, yes, the fuel indeed ran out and not just once. His narratives provide insight into his world of BASE jumping and climbing as well as his life-altering experiences that have shaped his unique perspective on life, death, and everything in-between. He’s lost loved ones in tragic accidents and survived near-death experience himself. You’ll hear how he emerged with a view of life with "extra mode" activate - an extra tank of gas, something to be cherished and refueled every day, with the good things.

When our guests talk about their experiences overcoming adversity, it’s personal, it’s unique… or is it? Certainly the stories we’ve heard vary wildly, it’s what drives this podcast and keeps us making it and hopefully you coming back, but when you get to the core of it, is there something we all poses, that we as share humans, maybe it’s buried deep within us and waiting to be tapped when life is at it’s most severe? We’ll attempt to answer that question today with a neurobiology expert. Dr. Dennis Charney. His work and research spanning nearly 50-years around anxiety, fear, and depression — and their treatments — has contributed to our understanding of the psychology and biology of human resilience. He’s worked with natural disaster survivors, combat veterans, and most recently COVID-19 frontline healthcare workers He is co-author of the book: RESILIENCE: THE SCIENCE OF MASTERING LIFE’S GREATEST CHALLENGES - recently updated updated for a post-COVID world.

The story you’ll hear today is about giving away what you have and the unexpected journey that results. Join us for a conversation with Rob Cahill, one of the co-founders of the 4DWN (four down) project and the Hayley Nenadal, Executive Producer of the recently released 4DWN film. The film tells the unconventional, and deeply personal story of a South Dallas skatepark whose mission is to change the lives of everyone that walks through the gate. The 4DWN skatepark is a resilience hub rooted in skate culture tackling head on the challenges of food insecurity and social justice in one of the city’s poorest communities.