[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to disability empowerment. Now bridge to season four, I'm your hodes, Keith Mavicansini. And today I'm talking with my dear friend and former collaborator, Alexe Harry. Alex, welcome to the show.
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. It's crazy to be on this side of the microphone, but thanks for having me.
[00:00:40] Speaker A: Well, it feels like we haven't talked in five years, and it feels like we started the journey together in ten. I cannot believe how short a time it has been.
So I was referred to you by our mutual friend rocks, who was referred to me by the head of the journalism college program, and we were referred by then the dean, JP Martin. And so that's how the dynamos got set up. If I was interviewing rocks, I would be like, why, Alex?
And why did you leave? That would be the quickest interview. And also pretty boring. Kids. I know what she would say of the bad. I loved you in very capable hands. You did not need me.
So that's what she would say.
[00:02:07] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: Tell me about everything behind the scenes that I did not know about in terms of audio, mastering, editing, graphic creation, transcripts. I mean, before you introduced me to the two other team members, which we'll get to in just a second, you randomly did it. Everything. I gave you the monogram creative powerhouse because it would later judge you, me, and Eric. And then he stepped away for health reasons. And so it was you and me, and I would judge free flowing learning to do interviews while you did everything else. Tell me about that experience.
[00:03:12] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh. Well, I could talk for days about it. So you have to stop me if I go to for too long, because I am a chatty Cathy.
That's the nature of a journalist. But I guess I'll say that by.
[00:03:25] Speaker A: I never knew that about you.
[00:03:28] Speaker B: So surprising. I know such a trait about me. But anyways, so I guess a little bit about the backstory of coming to the project was Rux came to me, and she said, I have this, you know, opportunity for you, and I think that it's something that really aligns with your values and. And things that you love to do. And I was like, okay, yeah. And I. Originally, it was funny, too. The backstory is that Rox had brought me on because you wanted to learn audio editing. And then.
[00:04:00] Speaker A: I took some YouTube full mind hardship, like 3 hours, and they bored me to tears trying so hard. The people who were doing them were fantastic. Exactly.
No, no.
And so if we didn't have the second meeting where we were in my office and you were showing me the graphics you had been doing for your partners podcast. I forget the name. That's not really important.
I found a new way to utilize your talents. That wouldn't be odds sitting in front of a computer or two computers and me trying to figure out how to do this whole shebang by myself.
[00:05:12] Speaker B: Exactly. Yes, yes, exactly. So I was originally brought on for that, right. At audio editing, which I love, and I can understand audio editing. I mean, this is why you have people like me, right, to pay to do this stuff is that I love that nerdy part of it where you get down into the nitty gritty and you tell stories through audio oral history, as I guess you should say. And you obviously saw something in me and I love that when you tell that story. I do have a lot of different skills. I have audio editing. I've got graphic design, script writing, producing, editing, reporting. I come from a journalism and a religious studies background. And what I felt like this podcast did when you.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Hold on, please tell me more about that judge. I mean, we may go over, but I want to understand.
Yeah, that linkage because I never hear those two things together.
[00:06:20] Speaker B: Yeah, no, that is true. I guess I never really thought about it until now. But it is.
Journalism I feel like is so community oriented. You're telling the stories for people. It's a skill and I think it's a service to society as well. And religious studies was that part of me that I yearned to understand and I yearned to learn about other people because I myself am not religious. But I can empathize with people on their worldviews and I think you can understand a lot of different groups of people because you understand where they come from, what their culture is. And so they're both actually very community oriented if you think about it. And so that was my background was, and way back when I was like, I'm going to be a journalist that goes and reports on the Vatican. I'm going to do all this other stuff. Right? And that's actually not how I turned out to be. I ended up doing my master's thesis on psychedelics and Tucson and kind of the cultural implications of that movement within Tucson and the scientific implications of that. So my journey is a little, is a little odd, but at the same time, I think at the heart of it it is being community oriented. And my backstory, the community part for me is super important because I feel like it's a service to society, to uplift communities and to tell their stories.
And this project allowed me to do that not only creatively but also personally, because I feel like, Keith, this podcast taught me so much about the disability community because I am personally able bodied. Right. And I think there's a lot of privilege that comes with that in that worldview is things that we don't think about often as an able bodied person.
And so you allowed me to blossom, not only creatively, and you trusted me with your baby, your project. Right. Disability empowerment. Now I'm wearing my old t shirt for everybody listening. The first teacher that ever came out. Right. But it also allowed me to learn from a community at the same time. And I'm a lifelong learner. That's the biggest thing for me. I'm doing another master's right now because I love learning about people from all different backgrounds.
And I also think, too, that this project, which I thought was so important, was there was nothing else like it on the market. I personally felt like at the time, what I was looking into, and I thought that this was something that people needed to have, and this was going to fill a need in the audio space that was not already filled. And, Keith, you were the perfect person to do that.
And so it was fun, though, those early days. It's like kind of, I was thinking about it today, thinking about your questions and preparing for this interview. It kind of felt like a tech startup. Like, in the beginning, we were just, like, throwing out ideas and branding and laying the groundwork. Right. And you really brought together the messaging, and you were teaching me so much about where you wanted the project to go. And so I built the project and the team with your ideals in mind, but also I just brought that creative element to it.
[00:09:23] Speaker A: So I almost shut it down after season one because I wasn't sure if I could do another season. But season two and every other season, I'd start with a overarching theme. Yes, it has required me to build narrative arcs of the entire season and their long seasons. As you know, season one was have the length of seasons now because.
[00:10:10] Speaker B: Right.
Well, you get so many good guests.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: You get amazing cards. But you, you're right. We needed help either at the end of season one or at the beginning of season two or in between the seasons.
You're journalists and reporter by trade.
And you introduced me to two of my colleagues who are still my colleagues, and I called and begged them, plead with them to stay on for ads, long ads they can.
Why did you choose Padskill and Nicole specifically out of the myriads and myriads of capable colleagues and friends that, you know, why them?
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Great question. Well, I think that with this project. And something that you really showed me, too, is that with a project like this, trust is super important, especially when you're building up a team. And I honestly went with my gut and with my intuition, and I wanted to bring people in I knew had the skills and also the excitement to get things done.
I find a lot in journalism and communications that young people, we are typically shunned or discredited because we have so much to bring to the table in terms of compassion that we're considered naive. Right.
People just don't take what we're saying as.
As something that should be included in reporting our coverage. Right. And so I think this was the opportunity for me to bring in young people who care about this topic, who are very much compassionate about this topic, and want to bring their skills to the table so that people within the disabled community from all different walks of life, can have a voice and can tell their story. Right. And I think another part of it, too, is we were very much interested in telling stories in a way that was not one dimensional. I really find that, especially with Nicole and Pascal, that we knew in traditional media coverage that disability was.
And you know this, Keith, but for people, listening was covered as, like, it's an inspiration, right? Like, this person just existing is an inspiration to us. And I don't think that's. I feel like that's a very vapid and one dimensional way of looking at the lives of people who have disabilities. Like, yes, of course, that's a part of their personality, but they are also multileveled, multifaceted people that bring so many things to the table, and they have to. They want to share their stories. Right.
And so I think that Nicole and Pascal shared that view with me as well. And so I knew with specifically Nicole coming in that we needed social media, because obviously, in this day and age, I think that marketing, you have to include social media as an aspect to building up a brand. So she came in, she had a lot of fire, a lot of spunk, so she brought that with her.
And then I knew also that we needed a creative producer, someone with a lot of experience in the local community in Tucson. And I immediately thought of Pascal because they have so much experience. And Pascal also has a relationship with the deaf community and other underrepresented communities here in Tucson. And so I knew we wanted to. I wanted to include him as. Include them as well, because it's important to have people working within the sphere that are from different backgrounds. We can't all be from a similar background because everybody needs to come with their own experiences, their own angles, because, I mean, we all know that diversity on a team makes a project better.
[00:14:17] Speaker A: So you had to leave after season two because you were pursuing another mad studs. You got a job that easily dropped what I paid you.
And so we started as a three page, and I was in New York, and Nicole called me twice, and she never called me at that point. And I was always like, I. You okay? Are you okay? I know it's really hot there, but you never call me. Oh, yeah, I'm fine. I'm chilling. I've got these great new team members, and she basically did the interview for me. And then the team grew and grew to about eight, and I'm bringing on a cohorts, or cohorts, I don't know where.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: Oh, that's so exciting.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: But the point is, it all started with you and your ingenious move to build this team. There's a old saying that it's nothing. What you know, it's who you know. It's the people that you bought me that plugged in almost everyone else. Uh, I I talked to Padskill on a week they bade sids. I talked to Nicole on a weekly base. I'd sinned. Pad skill, uh, jokes. I, uh.
Celebrity dad's lance when I'm angry at all hell. And I just want to make him laugh because what else do you do when you're angry?
But it all started with one person, actually two, and then three. But it was literally judged the two of odds. Eric set up the equipment, put me on his podcast for two episodes, and then he'd stepped away after a few episodes, I believe after episode three, and then it would jaws odds. And then I leaned heavily on you because I had no idea what I was doing. And some kids say I still don't. But the team grew and grew because you chose the right people. And the interviews almost didn't need to happen. Like, Nicole interviewed her friends for me, and they were. The interviews were irrelevant. But that trend started with you. And so I will always, always be deeply in your debt, creatively, professionally, personally, because, yes, I did trudge you with this idea that I honestly didn't think would go on at episode.
[00:18:23] Speaker B: I thought it would go somewhere.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: Well. Well, you did. You saw.
And I think the people around me saw it clearer than I did. How I talk about it is I've always had the innate curiosity about interviewing people, and I just wrapped an interview with Pat Stafford in her pod.
[00:18:57] Speaker B: Oh, great.
[00:18:59] Speaker A: Which is a couple I really need to introduce you to you guys.
[00:19:05] Speaker B: I know. I love cat. Love that interview.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: And that interview was just a comedy hour. And how we ended, we teach the next season and the part three of the trilogy. But before I took risks like that, I had no idea that I could be gutsy like women are and really do things like that. But it doesn't surprise me at all that you padskill Nicole. My parents, oddly enough, saw the bigger picture way longer than I did. I was just getting through episode after episode and people ask me, do you ever listen to your own episodes? And I'm like, I should. I don't because I have ancient recall. I mean, I can remember Jo Van's episode, which was the first one, like, shoddy last month, and this was two, two and a half years ago.
[00:20:36] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that episode. That is one of my. Obviously it's the first. So of course it holds a special place in my heart. But I think that is one of the ones that, where I feel like I. When I think about that one, it was incredibly eye opening to me because it in a lot of ways checked me so hard on the privileges that I have as an abled body person because he went on to talk about how just simply not having a driver's license was a problem for employers. And that put me on a trajectory through disability empowerment. Now that still holds to this day where it. Accessibility is the first thing I think about when I'm doing any sort of content creation, any sort of reporting, any sort of website development, since that's part of my job right now as well, is I'm always asking myself, how can we make this more accessible so that everybody feels reflected in the content that we're creating. And I'm so glad that it's all start for me. It all started here and just building.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: Apartment now, uh, two episodes more in season one, of course. I love that season. Adds.
[00:21:47] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: But the two other episodes that I think really checked me as a hood adds male, as someone with male privilege. Because let's be real, that's a real thing. And it has been. It wasn't until I interviewed then how'd rap Jennifer London.
[00:22:20] Speaker B: Oh, my God. Yeah.
[00:22:21] Speaker A: Dropped the.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: The bomb of all bombs, bombshells, multiple.
[00:22:29] Speaker A: Bombshells very early on in that episode. And I remember I had done a lot of research on every position and it was like once I got my breath back and every question went out the window and I'm like, how do I continue? How do I continue? How do I continue?
[00:23:04] Speaker B: And that. That's such a great exercise for you though, as a host is like sometimes people are just gonna, are really just gonna drop bombs and, and you have to be on your toes and learn from that and just be ready and.
[00:23:16] Speaker A: Be ready for it. And I texted her afterwards and I said, look, that was a heavy personal episode.
A, did you mean to do that? And b, do you want me to release it? Should we re record?
And she was like, no, I wasn't planning on doing that. But yeah, release it because it's important. And I'm like, okay, Eric Washington, the producer at the time, he had to edit it three separate times. And he, and he said, vince, it's a really tough interview to edit, but vids, interview alone, it's why you need to keep doing this podcast. And so when we got to captain episode and heard similar rev revelation that I knew was coming, yes, I was able to handle it. But had Jennifer not thrown me full body into the ice age water ever from a helicopter drop.
[00:24:59] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:25:00] Speaker A: To use that strange medieval, I would not have been able to approach that. So I mean, I'm just echoing your, what you should said about you have to be ready for any and everything. And the reason why I'm talking about those episodes is I'm going to try to get them back to really lead up to season for, as I introduced the cohorts later on. And so those interviews, and that was almost half of the season at that point, right, but could, and so we talked about season one. How was I season two as narrative experience?
Because it was on disability, arts, culture and faith, and it was double the size of season one. And I had the crazy idea that no one talked me out of, by the way, I kept hoping that someone would talk me out of releasing season one and season two all in the third year. And so now when I do 30 episode seasons, I'm like Vince Fields, very natural to me. Before I let you go, talk about double the workload, double the gads, double every possible thing. Merchandise, group photos, pamp lids, promotion, all of that before you'd signed all that did in very capable hands of padskill in the goal.
[00:27:38] Speaker B: Oh my gosh. Well, yeah, I mean, you kind of touched on a lot of the things we did there. But man, it was, it was a whirlwind. I felt like season one was like the warm up, right? We were like, okay, what, what curve balls are going to be thrown our way? You know? Yeah. We were like, okay, let's see what's gonna happen. What are the curveballs? You know, what is social media gonna be like, what's everything gonna look like in season two? I really felt like, even though it was more work, I actually felt like we were getting into a rhythm of what the show was gonna be like, what it was gonna look like, what the workflow was, and we started to think broader about some more things we can incorporate. And that is a really great season, season two, because, of course, we had that faith portion, right, which goes right back to my religious studies background.
And I really loved that incorporation of religion. And I think it too, that season emphasized what brought me into the project, right. Is showing that multifaceted way that the disability community exists. You know, all over the world, they're doing so many amazing things and they may not be getting the coverage that they deserve. Right. And so we are providing that, provided that type of coverage. So I never thought to myself, this is too much. I just thought, this is what it is, you know, this is what we're going to be doing and this is like what the pattern is we're going to set.
And that season, let me see what was the other part of that.
Yeah, I do think that season was all about broadening what we wanted to do. What was the next best thing we're going to go with. And I didn't stop you when you wanted to get crazy with the amount of episodes we were doing because I felt like it was a service. We were doing a service to the community and we should put as many episodes as we possibly can out there.
[00:29:30] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I'm frankly stunned in tickle pink every time the team that I work with and I brag about them so much there.
There are people who are able to do a podcast and audio master and create graphics and do it as a one stop shop. That was never my goal. Even with we had had that ovated Adobe audition a rock job and evaded it the very appropriate it, because had we done that, I would have tinkered around with that godden frustrated with the amount of mastering while also doing the interviews. And so we would have been right back where we ended up with me kicking it to Eric and then you and then Padskal and Nicole.
I always viewed that adds a very collaborative project. I've won awards for it, which makes me very grateful because it showed you the momentum that's building in season three. I've been tickled pink again. That's a weird phrase to use that moats of the gads were very willing and able to do video interviews as well as podcast interviews. So pods still runs our YouTube channel. Oh, by the way, you had at the very beginning told me you need to register the YouTube handle and just keep it. And at that time, I was like, what? Would never go into YouTube. Never. I mean, Vince, it's a podcast.
[00:32:32] Speaker B: Exactly right.
[00:32:36] Speaker A: On YouTube. But I did what you'd said. And before you showed me Instagram, I thought it was judge bad. That was on its way out.
I hope Nicole judge and smashed.
[00:32:56] Speaker B: Yeah, right?
[00:32:57] Speaker A: Yeah. She's like, what?
Totally what she'll do, can't you imagine?
But no, all of these ideas came from the nuclear team and then me saving the website of disability empowerment now and that getting ready to launch probably in winter of this year or spring of next year. It's all about the building blocks that you can play ads early on with me saving the YouTube handled to me a year later claiming the URL of the podcast name. And so again, I have Nubimba respect for you. Nubimba.
[00:34:10] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:34:11] Speaker A: Good memories of walking with you. We needed help. You brought in the badge people in the bids. Neds, in my humble ad summation of my humble opinion, I'm not sure how my late graduates so will feel about that.
Anyway, everybody's always to you, particularly because you set the ball rolling. You took someone who was very inexperienced, insecure in judge doing the episodes. I mean, I would have to take a nap after doing episode. And back then I was doing one of week. Now I can do two or three a week, no problem. I don't know how I went through that growth spurt.
I definitely couldn't have imagined it at all. But you going back to what locks did say to me and would say if I had interviewed her, she did leave me in the best modes capable hands ever. And you decided that we needed more capable hands. And now the team has grown to literally double its time, not even four years. And I just marvel at that creativity. Everyone who works on this project brings their own flavor, their own ideas. I love. I was talking to my dad last night and I said, I love that padskill and I are the only men on, and we're surrounded by capable, badass women who actually steal the ship where it needs to go. No offense to bad skill or me, but I mean, we're very out numbered in team meetings even then.
[00:37:14] Speaker B: You know, Pascal is, you know, someone who. Who identifies as they them. Right. So you also have that perspective as well, you know, absolutely. Someone from that community who can bring a voice, right to the organization and the podcast.
[00:37:29] Speaker A: That's very important that you brought that up. So really I'm the only one who is.
[00:37:43] Speaker B: You are the only man.
[00:37:44] Speaker A: Yeah, I am the only man, bud into the most recent members came on, right?
The only outwardly disabled member. And that was my claim to fame. Judge without the voids, right? You would have no idea unless you were a doctor, physical verbiage, whatever, that I watch disabled. And so I'm so glad that I'm finally not the only one who's disable.
Not that I ever minded that in the beginning, but it, it's about getting ads mini diverts perspectives. I mean, the podcast and now the video cats, which will launch season four in September. We'd seem to like that month for whatever reason.
[00:39:04] Speaker B: Oh, September reminds me.
[00:39:06] Speaker A: And what I tried to do is over a very broad mortgage log of disability across every lifespan. So, yeah, wrapping up before that audio glitch happened, what I've always tried to bring to the podcast, the overall mention, it's showing the fact that disability does touch every span, every financial bracket. It doesn't matter if you're famous or not famous. It doesn't matter if you were born with disabilities are you inquired them later in life.
It doesn't matter. And so that's why I like the longer series arcs are shijin arcs, because it allows me to paint that picture and that's what I go into each season and how I create each season and make it bigger and bigger than the last one. I was talking to twin the other night, and I'd said, you two said the band, you two said when creating their 1990 mads to Pete's Octon baby Widget's german for attention, so attention baby. That's good title, how they created that album. Woods. They had to chop down their previous masterpiece, their magnum op eds, the drug jewelry, and up all over again. And so that is, that's the creative process that I imbue with each season. And again, to go back to you and your creative badlandhouse, none of that would be possible. And so, again, you have my deepest respect. And if you need any, you know I'm there for you in a pinch, because you literally created the building blocks of this platform. And bigger and bigger, it gets, it all points back to you. And so I am eternally great for both personally and professionally, my friend.
[00:42:30] Speaker B: Oh, thank you so much for saying that, keith. I agree. Well, thank you for giving me the opportunity to work on this. I mean, it's a part of, I just love thinking that it's a part of my legacy. It's really weird to think about me being like the very outset, in the middle of all this, as the creative origins. But I guess that is the truth. And I appreciate the opportunity to have worked with you on this project, and I love seeing it grow. I mean, that's my favorite part. Me and Pascal are still roommates, so I get to see it grow. I get to see the progression of the project, and it just gets bigger and better.
[00:43:18] Speaker A: You have been listening to disability empowerment. Now I would like to thank my guests, you, oleg, and the disability empowerment team that made you this episode podcable. More information about the podcast can be
[email protected] or on our social media ad disability empowerment. Now the podcast is available wherever you listen to podesthe are on the official website. Don't forget to rate, comment, and share the podcast. This episode of Disability Empowerment now it's copyrighted 2024.
