Life to the Max Podcast
Welcome to 'Life to the Max Podcast,' where resilience meets inspiration!
Join us on a transformative journey through the life stories of remarkable individuals, including Quadriplegic Army Veteran Maximilian Gross. In this empowering podcast, we dive into tales of triumph, courage, and the human spirit's unwavering ability to overcome obstacles.
Our show is a celebration of diverse narratives, from awe-inspiring achievements to the darkest of traumas. 'Life to the Max' is a testament to the power of living authentically, no matter the circumstances. We believe that everyone has a unique story worth sharing, and we invite individuals from all walks of life to join us.
Discover the profound meaning of living 'Life to the Max'—a concept that resonates differently with each storyteller. It's a journey of perspective, resilience, and finding joy amidst life's challenges. Tune in to be inspired, motivated, and reminded that there's strength in every story.
Ready to redefine what it means to live life to the fullest? Share your story with us and become a part of this uplifting community. Because, at 'Life to the Max,' every story matters.
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Life to the Max Podcast
Military Service to Public Service: Dan McConchie, Illinois' First Paraplegic Legislator
Dan McConchie shattered expectations when he became the first paraplegic elected to the Illinois state legislature. His remarkable journey from military service to groundbreaking political advocacy unfolds in this raw, candid conversation recorded at the Abilities Expo in Chicago.
McConchie's story begins with military service as Army infantry and military police from 1989 to 1998. Life changed dramatically when a hit-and-run motorcycle accident left him with a spinal cord injury in 2007. With extraordinary resilience, he rebuilt his life only to face another devastating setback—breaking his back a second time during adaptive skiing, which worsened his injury from T12 to T9. Rather than surrender to circumstance, McConchie channeled his experiences into public service.
During eight and a half years in the Illinois Senate, McConchie transformed accessibility in government. Now leading a nonprofit focused on accessibility policy nationwide, McConchie continues fighting for practical solutions to everyday challenges faced by people with disabilities.
The conversation delves into shared experiences of isolation and the profound importance of finding community among others who understand disability challenges. Through it all, McConchie's message resonates clearly: "How can I make the world a better place today with the powers that I've got?" His work proves that advocacy, education, and representation are powerful tools for creating a more accessible and inclusive society. Subscribe to Life to the Max for more conversations that challenge perceptions and inspire action.
What's up, guys? As you can see, we're not in the studio at home. We're actually at the Abilities Expo in Chicago and this podcast is going to be a little different. It's going to be like a speedcast. The sound is not going to be as great because of how wide open this space is, but I hope you guys enjoy it. Please enjoy this Life to the Max speedcast. What is up, everybody? It is the Life to the Max podcast. We are at the Abilities Expo in Schaumburg, illinois. It is June 20th 2025. And today, today, I have the first paraplegic to ever be elected into Congress. Is that correct?
Speaker 2:Into the state legislature here in Illinois State legislature in Illinois.
Speaker 1:What's your name, sir?
Speaker 2:Dan McConkie.
Speaker 1:Dan McConkie. Well, I need to know about you, man. What's your name, sir Dan McConkie? Dan McConkie, well, I need to know about you, man, what you just said. You were a vet, I am yep Army.
Speaker 2:Army, absolutely Infantry, Infantry military police Infantry too. Yeah, I did both infantry and military police, but I'll say I like the infantry more. Oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:The camaraderie was great. What year did you serve?
Speaker 2:So I was in the reserves. I served from eight. Let's see I served from 89 to 98.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's a long time. So, and then you went MP or infantry.
Speaker 2:I did. I started off infantry, went MP and then ended up back in the infantry. Before the end I came back home.
Speaker 1:Were you ever overseas?
Speaker 2:I only spent a small stint in Panama after we tossed out Noriega and kind of set that country on the right track. I did some road building there security for road building but I didn't get to see the big show. I'm a little disappointed in that actually.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too. So I was training to be a ranger in the 101st Airborne Division and basically I was yeah, like I was, high speed. You know what high speed means? Right, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, I was like I ran like a four minute 19 mile, like a 30 minute five mile. I was an expert shooter, so I was in a sniper scout platoon so I was just like really trying to, like you know, get somewhere and unfortunately I was in a car accident. I wasn't driving, I was coming home to see my family for my birthday. It was three days after my birthday.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I woke up in the hospital like three days later. I couldn't feel anything, couldn't breathe, couldn't do anything. And then here I am, nine years later, talking to the first paraplegic who was elected to legislation in Illinois.
Speaker 2:Yep, that's right, that's right. Well, I am so sorry about your story. I mean, it does happen to so many of us, right?
Speaker 2:So many people here at this expo that we're at, who have similar stories. My story is that I was I rode a motorcycle and my wife wanted me to sell the motorcycle and I ignored her, to my detriment. Right and one day I was driving over to a friend's house and I woke up two weeks later I'd been in a hit and run accident. I was going through an intersection, a car had turned on a red light, came straight into the left lane which I was in and pushed me and my bike into oncoming traffic. And so I woke up two weeks later with a spinal cord injury. I'd broken five vertebrae in my lower back. Cord injury. I'd broken five vertebrae in my lower back. I'd broken my clavicle, six ribs, my shoulder blade from top to bottom, which I'm told is really hard to do Deflated left lung.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was really screwed up for a while. It took about a year before I was really kind of back at it again. It took about a year and then out, and then I just started partying because my girlfriend left me. Dude, that was tough.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like the hospital setting is tough man.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And were you paraplegic always?
Speaker 2:So interestingly enough. So I was able-bod-bodied, obviously up until I broke my back, but I don't know if you've met anybody quite like me in that I've broken my back twice.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:So my first accident I just told you about, right. And then I was doing back in 2017, I guess it was, I was maybe 20, early 2018. I was doing adaptive skiing with the VA and I hit an ice patch going down the hill and the adaptive ski flipped backwards. I hit a tree and then I went from being a T12 to a T9 and I had to go through all that stuff all over again. Yeah, I had to have the back refused and extended, so yeah, you know similar situation with me About three years ago.
Speaker 1:I was, I went through septic shock and I almost died and I was like in the hospital again. I was like fuck, I have to do this all over again, couldn't eat, couldn't drink, couldn't move. I couldn't eat a lot and I was a bunch of opioids, prescribed, a bunch of opioids, and they ripped it off like a band-aid. So I was going through withdrawal as well. So, like I mean like similar stories, different like settings, obviously, but very similar. So here's the big question what got you into politics?
Speaker 2:So I've kind of always been in politics. Actually, when I was going to school I was actually studying to be a pastor of all things, interestingly enough, and during that time I ended up going to a rally. It was a presidential rally. I kind of I really got interested in politics. When you graduate college, you don't know what to do with your life. You go to grad school.
Speaker 2:So I did that and during that time, I started working on public policy related issues having to do with bioethics, end of life questions, stuff like that. Ended up doing that almost 20 years and gosh it was so I was injured 2007. And then it was 2015. I had some local people come up to me and say, hey, we're interested in you running for office. And I said, hey, I really like being married. No, thank you. And they kept asking. They kept asking, and I said, well, maybe she won't notice, she won't notice, and eventually I did.
Speaker 2:I ended up running for the state house and then ended up being called one day during that campaign by the state senator saying he was stepping down, ended up running against two other people, winning a very heavily contested three-way primary. And, yeah, that put me into the legislature, which, interestingly enough, the Capitol building here in Illinois is not very accessible, as you might guess Really. Well, it's really old right, and so they had to completely remodel one of the committee rooms at the price of $1.6 million just so I would be able to get into it, and there was a lot of things that just are still not accessible to this day.
Speaker 2:And there was a lot of things that just are still not accessible to this day.
Speaker 2:But I spent about eight and a half years in the Senate, really had the time of my life, wonderful experience, being able to help all kinds of people not just from my district but across my state.
Speaker 2:And as I got to the end of my career I started actually doing emphasizing working on stuff with people with disabilities actually doing emphasizing working on stuff with people with disabilities. And we passed legislation to do kind of all kinds of cool stuff with that helping make sure that people with disabilities are guaranteed an accessible parking space at condominium buildings, which they weren't before. Making sure that disabled veterans, if they have to modify their home, they can't be charged those permit fees from the village to put ramps in or just make the bathroom accessible. That's now illegal here in Illinois. So I've been able to do some really cool stuff and really excited and I left earlier this year to actually start a nonprofit working on accessibility public policy stuff, primarily at state and local level, but across the country state and local level, but across the country. And part of the reason why I'm here at this expo and chatting with you is we want to hear people's stories and know how we can best help them.
Speaker 1:That's really amazing, man, like you're helping out our community, because a lot of like I was just explaining this a few podcasts ago because I've been like rolling, but like You've been busy here podcasts- ago because I've been rolling.
Speaker 2:You've been busy here today. I've been watching, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So everyone feels alone. Yeah, when they're disabled, amputees, they feel alone. Paralyzed people, they feel alone, but then they don't realize that there is this huge community that is trying to change the status quo of what disability is. You remind me a lot of Christopher Reeves, because he was fighting politics with stem cell research. Thank God for him, because we still can do stem cell research because of him, because he was fighting Congress.
Speaker 2:You know, the first thing that made me feel like I was in a group, that I belonged after my accident it was very isolating, obviously, as you know right.
Speaker 2:It's very isolating. Shortly after I had gotten into the Senate, I had the opportunity to be able to honor the Paralympians here in Illinois, at the University of Illinois, at one of the football games, be able to take them out onto the football field and have tens of thousands of people cheer for them. And I was going from the breakfast that we had over to the football arena, which was next door, and I'm following behind this column of people athletes in wheelchairs and they're looking for the same thing I'm looking for. They're looking for, you know, the concrete that's a little bit out of whack, that I don't want to hit the wrong way, you know, and don't get too far to the edge, and stuff like this. And I suddenly had that feeling of, oh, these people are like me, right, they have similar types of issues and problems and interests, but it's hard. You have to seek out that kind of community in order to really be able to find it.
Speaker 1:For me I was only friends with like two people who are in wheelchairs, because it was hard for me, because I was like like two people who are in wheelchairs. Because it was hard for me because I, I was like I'm this soldier that used to run like fastest hell shoot. I was active, I freaking was with girls. You know, like I, I like, like I, I don't accept this position, like with dabdo and grief don't accept it. But I accept, like uh, waiting for secure, waiting for something to happen. So I know a lot is happening in this medical injury world which I'm super excited about and I'm super happy to meet someone like you today because you've done a lot, a lot for the disability community in Illinois and I appreciate that. I really do, because I think Illinois is pretty good when it comes to disabilities as far as Chicago. It's pretty ADA accessible and everything.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we do a lot of things right, there's still places of improvement that we ought to do, and I do hope and pray that there is a cure that's able to come along that's helping both of us, as we know. Hope and pray that there is a cure that's able to come along that's helping both of us. As we know, that day isn't today, and so my mission today is all right. How can I make the world a better place today with the powers that I've got, you know, with the opportunity to have that right? Let's not sit and waste time in that process. You're doing that. Thank you so much for your willingness to be able to do this and put yourself out there. I know it means a lot to a lot of people it does.
Speaker 1:It means a lot for you being on the show man. It really does. I'm super excited for this to come out. Hopefully one day we can do a full podcast, if you're interested.
Speaker 2:I don't know if you're local. I'm local here in Chicagoland area, but then I'll come to you. My house is successful by the way too, I'm guessing, so Awesome Thanks to you.
Speaker 1:The permits are there, but it was great talking to you. I do have one thing to ask you. Sure, so when it comes to people who are handicapped and they get the placard, that gets abused.
Speaker 2:Oh, absolutely. Yeah, it does get abused. Sometimes it's hard to find parking because you know you see people who are, you know they're able-bodied and borrowed grandmas right, and they get out of the states. You know I get really frustrated at sometimes if I go to an event. You know a concert. I went to ACDC here a few weeks ago at Soldier Field and I'm with these people in this ADA box and I'm looking at them and I'm like like why are you here? You're standing up in front of me. My legs don't work at all, that isn't possible. And you are not just in the box, you're standing up and standing up in front of me. What the heck man. We need to be helping people with disabilities and making sure that it isn't abused. A lot of work still to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm trying to think would there be a different placard?
Speaker 2:So I've thought about that. We should actually put together something where, you know, so the UK and France both have a disability card. Okay, so it's like your placard, but it's a card and you can use it and you get, you get a discount, you get to go, for you know, free into museums or things like that. Right, you know, but it's also for for stuff like accessibility at a stadium or a concert or something like that. I think we should be having that discussion. I know some people in the disability community have a problem with that. They don't want to feel like they have to prove their disability. But I'm actually kind of glad that we have limits on accessible parking and that not just anybody can park there and claim they have a disability, but you have to have a doctor sign off on it. Let's talk about that for other things that I mean, because it just isn't possible to attend a show, it's just not possible to do certain things unless there's accessible, you know accessibility options put in.
Speaker 2:And you know we need to make sure that those rights are protected.
Speaker 1:We need to make sure to figure out what the definition of accessible is for these concerts. You know, like wheelchair accessible, not handicap accessible. You know, like wheelchair accessible, not standing up accessible, you know. So I think we do have a lot of work to do, but hey, man, it's been great having you on. Is there anything you would like to say to the people out there?
Speaker 2:Hey, you know what? Thanks for listening to Max. Keep it up, spread the word, get some other people to listen to. It's just through education that we're going to make this world a better place for people who have disabilities of all types.
Speaker 1:Absolutely and for everybody listening to this contest, please like, comment and subscribe and, as always, take it by the throat. Thank you, I try to keep it cool, all you lames keep it bogus.
Speaker 2:I head on a swivel looking out for the locusts. I'm on ten soles trying to tap.