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Navigating Disability
Welcome to the Navigating Disability Podcast Show!! Your hosts, Kate Read and Jenn Abbott are committed to changing the narrative around 'normal' and 'ability' and look so forward to sharing our weekly guests with you! Get ready to be inspired, empowered and enlivened as we dive into education, lived experiences, expert advice, behind the scenes on political movements and how YOU, our listeners can THRIVE within your community!
So this means, if you, your family, client or loved one are impacted by disability, you've landed on the right channel.
We know how daunting the future can seem from time to time, and when you know you can lean into expert advice and interviews to get your questions answered or your faith renewed, the journey can feel more achievable.
Be sure to subscribe and hit the alerts so you never miss an episode of NAVIGATING DISABILITY with your resident support experts and researchers, Kate Read and Jenn Abbott.
Episodes
52 episodes
Beyond Survival: A Life Reclaimed After Rare Diagnosis
What does it mean to build a life of purpose when your body has been fighting you since childhood?Today, Navigating Disability sit with Eliot Carroll. Before his tenth birthday, Eliot was diagnosed with Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LC...
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Season 1
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Episode 52
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26:30
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Disability Isn’t Broken: It’s Insight, Identity, and Strength
What happens when you grow up expecting to be “fixed” and later learn that your disability isn’t something to hide, but a source of insight, purpose and power? In this episode, Kate and Jenn sit down with Anja Christoffer...
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Season 1
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Episode 51
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30:17
Wheels in Motion: Eamon Wood's Journey from Paraplegia to Pro Athlete & Entrepreneur
After a devastating car accident at age four, Eamon Wood's life was forever changed. But instead of letting paraplegia define him, he forged a path that redefines what resilience looks like. In this powerful episode, Eamon shares his journey fr...
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Season 1
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Episode 50
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37:08
When Caring Becomes a Calling: Cassie Day on Love, Loss & Leading Change
Cassie Day never expected her life to unfold this way. At 23, she was thrown into the deep end when her newborn son was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. What followed was a rollercoaster of medical trauma, emotional resilience, and a relentless ...
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Season 1
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Episode 49
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54:36
Defying the Diagnosis: Dr. Azi Jankovic on Whole‑Person Healing and Hope
Trigger warning: This episode discusses psychiatric hospitalization and suicidal thoughts. If you need support, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 (Australia) or your local crisis line.At 17, Dr. Azi Jankovic was diagnosed with bi...
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Season 1
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Episode 48
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39:24
Beyond the Voice: Carer, Advocate & Lived Experience with Lisa Grech
In this episode of Navigating Disability, Kate and Jenn speak with Lisa Grech, living with multiple sclerosis while caring full time for her adult daughter, Hannah, who experiences a severe intellectual disability and is non-verbal. Li...
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Season 1
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Episode 47
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36:12
Finding Strength in the Chaos: A Carer’s Story of Grit, Grief & Growth
Natalie Terry Bedwell never planned for a life filled with diagnoses, advocacy, and navigating complex care systems, but it’s the life she’s embraced with courage and clarity. In this moving episode, Natalie shares what it's like to raise seven...
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Season 1
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Episode 46
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25:48
Living Your Truth Out Loud: Disability, Queer Pride & Power with William Ward-Boas
In this moving episode of Navigating Disability, we sit down with William Ward-Boas, an Autistic, First Nations, gay self-advocate and deputy chair of VALID. Diagnosed as non-verbal with intellectual disability and written off by profe...
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Season 1
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Episode 45
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31:40
From Vision Loss to Victory: How Sport Helped Aaron Fowler Reclaim His Life
In this powerful episode of Navigating Disability, Kate and Jenn sit down with Aaron Fowler. He’s a senior physiotherapist, sports journalist, and vision-sports advocate living with retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Diagnosed at age five, Aar...
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Season 1
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Episode 44
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39:05
We All Have Unique Needs: Mel James on Motherhood & Advocacy
Mel James is a force of lived experience, resilience, and truth-telling. In this powerful episode, she shares her journey as a mother of children with "unique needs," her advocacy within the disability and education systems, and her personal he...
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Episode 43
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55:48
Everything Changed in 7 Seconds: What Came After the Fall
When 19-year-old Jonathan Sigworth fell off a 70-foot cliff in the Himalayas, his life changed forever. But what followed wasn’t just recovery, it was revolution. In this episode, Jonathan shares how a spinal cord injury transformed his path, i...
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Episode 42
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44:24
Disability, Visibility & Self‑Love with Zoe Simmons
In this raw and inspiring conversation, Zoe Simmons, award-winning journalist, author, and fierce disability advocate, shares her journey from medical gaslighting and feeling invisible to embracing her identity as autistic, chronically ill, and...
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Episode 41
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29:16
Lessons from 42 Years in a Wheelchair: Jeremy Muir on Life After Injury
At just 19, Jeremy Muir’s life changed forever after a car accident left him with a spinal cord injury. But as Jeremy says, “Why not me?”, a question that became a driving force behind his journey of resilience, reflection, and radical independ...
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Episode 40
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40:04
Fighting for Two: Navigating Cancer and Her Daughter’s Disability
When life delivered two seismic blows, her daughter’s rare genetic diagnosis and her own cancer battle, Hayley Thiele didn’t crumble. She transformed.In this episode, Hayley shares her raw and remarkable story of parenting her daughter P...
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Episode 39
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47:30
The Attitude of Gratitude: Turning ‘Why Me?’ into ‘What’s Next?’
Born without arms or legs, Nick Vujicic has spent his life proving that limitations don’t define us, they refine us. In this powerful episode of Navigating Disability, Kate and Jenn sit down with the world-renowned motivational ...
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Episode 38
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54:34
Colouring Outside the Lines: Visibility Through Design
When Jo Chambers' mum unexpectedly transitioned into a wheelchair and aged care, Jo found herself thrust into the world of caregiving, advocacy, and grief. But what started as a mission to bring light into her mum’s new life became a bold busin...
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Episode 37
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32:40
From Courts to Care: One Father's Mission to Change Disability Inclusion
How does a globe-trotting NBA executive become a powerhouse disability advocate? In this deeply moving episode, Phil Hayes-Brown, CEO of Wallara and devoted father to Phoebe, his nonverbal daughter who lives with an intellectual disabilit...
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Episode 36
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44:44
Building Soulful Support: Breanna Jenkins on Reimagining Disability Care
What does it really mean to provide neuroaffirming support for young people with disabilities? In this heartfelt and eye-opening episode of Navigating Disability, we sit down with Breanna Jenkins, founder of
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Episode 35
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26:13
What the Misfire Taught Me: Letting Go of Shame and Learning to Live Again with Bruce Simpson
In this raw episode of Navigating Disability, hosts Kate Read and Jenn Abbott sit down with Bruce Simpson, a seasoned trial lawyer, disability advocate, and survivor of a profound mental health crisis.Bruce opens up about what...
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Episode 34
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55:23
A Mother’s Intuition: When Love Knows More Than the System
In this profoundly moving episode, we sit down with Giuliana Ferretti, mother, advocate, Advanced Enrolled Nurse, and founder of both Plan Wise Living and the not for profit charity Genovation. During this deeply personal conversation we discus...
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Episode 33
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43:21
Hiding in Plain Sight: What 27 Years of Shame Taught Me
What happens when you spend 27 years hiding a part of yourself the world told you to be ashamed of?In this raw and powerful episode, Chris Ruden opens up about growing up with a limb difference, the emotional toll of internalised ableism...
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Episode 32
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44:41
The Reality of Invisible Disability: Chanelle’s Journey to Self-Love
What happens when you live with a disability no one can see, and few believe?In this deeply moving episode of Navigating Disability, Chanelle Morris shares her powerful journey from shame and silence to self-acceptance and advoc...
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Episode 31
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44:05
Paralysis, Purpose & the Power of Sport with Chris Davis
What does it take to transform trauma into triumph? In this inspiring episode of Navigating Disability, we speak with Chris Davis, an elite para-archer, mental health professional, and proud husband. Paralysed at five due to a polio-type virus,...
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Episode 30
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56:04
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Surviving Burnout, Embracing Diagnosis with Laura Lewis
Laura Lewis is a woman of resilience, revolution, and relentless love. In this emotionally rich episode, Laura shares her journey of being a late-diagnosed autistic and ADHD adult, a mental health survivor, and an advocate who turned adversity ...
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48:46
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From Spinal Cord Injury to Emergency Doctor: The Journey of Dinesh Palipana
What happens when a life-changing injury collides with an unshakable dream? In this unforgettable episode, we sit down with Dr. Dinesh Palipana, the first quadriplegic medical intern in Queensland, as he shares his powerful story of loss, resil...
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48:02
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