Message to The Future

Last week Rose Eveleth’s Flash Forward podcast celebrated its fifth year with an episode featuring messages to 50 years in the future from past guests including myself. I can only hope the Disability Visibility podcast reaches 5 one day! You can listen and read the transcript of this episode AND listen/read to all of the full answers.

For more, check out this 2018 episode from Flash Forward where I got a chance to talk with Rose about human gene editing. Below is my short message to the FUUUUUUUUUUTURE!

Message from a disabled cyborg oracle in 2020, Year of the Coronavirus 

First off, I want to say hello to all the cyborgs, mermaids, humanoids, aliens, and microbes that are thriving and ruling 50 years from now! Beep boop beeeeeep! Greetings from the dystopian hellscape that is the year 2020 in the United States during the coronavirus pandemic. Is podcasting still a thing? Is eugenics and inequality still around? Do disabled people still exist in your timeline? I really hope so although I imagine how we think and talk about disability has progressed for the better.

Back in my day, I had the delightful chance to be on Flash Forward podcast talking about human gene editing with Rose Eveleth. Talking with Rose and other folks make me realize that we are constantly creating and reimagining the future through every single conversation.

Most of my work is centered on building a future that we all deserve and need, one centered on joy and abundance, one where all bodyminds are accepted, where access is a cultural value, and that the weakest and most marginalized are the ones leading the way. Living during this current pandemic has taught me that many sick, older, and disabled people are our modern-day oracles telling our truths to a public that doesn’t want to hear or believe us. May you treasure the oracles that are in your communities right now and I hope you listen to them with an open spirit and heart. Smell ya later!