Ep 5: “Orphan Black,” Reproductive Justice, and Disabled Women
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This episode celebrates the science fiction drama Orphan Black (BBC America) which ended in the summer of 2017 with their fifth and final season. Alice talks with superfans Maelee Johnson and Rebecca Cokley about eugenics, autonomy, technology, reproductive justice, feminism, and how the show resonates with them as disabled women.
Transcript
Related Links
Cussins, Jessica. (August 7, 2017). What Clones Think of CRISPR and Other Highlights from the Final Season of Orphan Black. Biopolitical Times.
About

Rebecca Cokley most recently served as the Executive Director of the National Council on Disability, an independent agency charged with advising Congress and the White House on issues of national disability public policy. She joined NCD in 2013 after serving 4 years in the Obama Administration including time at the Departments of Education, Health & Human Services, and a successful stint at the White House where she oversaw diversity and inclusion efforts. Currently she is consulting with civil rights organizations and working on her first book, but Rebecca got her feet wet in advocacy while working at the Institute for Educational Leadership for five years (04-09), building a number of tools and resources designed to empower and educate youth with disabilities and their adult allies. She has spent the last 15 years helping make stronger and deeper connections across civil rights communities and continues to see cross-movement solidarity as the only means of surviving these next four years. In 2015 she was inducted into the inaugural class of the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame and was the recipient of the Frank Harkin Memorial Award by the National Council on Independent Living. Rebecca has a B.A in Politics from the University of California Santa Cruz, is the proud spouse of Patrick and mother of Jackson and Kaya.
Twitter: @RebeccaCokley

Maelee Johnson is a Disability rights activist, medical marijuana advocate, media archivists and disability representation consultant. Her work currently includes holistic patient consultant/coach, comic book series co-creator/writer, and cannabis cuisine expert/instructor.
Twitter: @Mae_DayJ
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Credits
Cheryl Green, Audio Producer, Text Transcript
Alice Wong, Writer, Producer, Interviewer
Cheryl Green, Text Transcript
Lateef McLeod, Introduction
Mike Mort, Artwork
Theme Music (used with permission of artist)
Song: “Hard Out Here for A Gimp”
Album: NO BIG DEAL
Artist: Wheelchair Sports Camp
Music
Bell Club, Encounter, and Refraction by Podington Bear. (Source: freemusicarchive.org. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.)
Sounds
“VOCODER countdown” by Jack_Master. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.
“8 Bit Beeping Computer Sounds” by sheepfilms. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.
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