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Always Looking Up - Aubrey Smalls On Defending Our Right As Little People To Exist
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Aubrey Smalls On Defending Our Right As Little People To Exist

Always Looking Up

06/17/23

66m

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To start I would like to issue a trigger warning. In this episode we talk about bullying, sexual harassment and sexual assault. If these are triggers for you please feel free to skip this episode. For context, this conversation was recorded on Thursday, June 15, 2023.

I sat down with Aubrey Smalls. Aubrey is an actor and filmmaker with dwarfism. This episode was recorded a day after Little People of America, LPA, on social media and in an official press release, raised awareness on recent online and in-person bullying events directed towards the little person community. We provide greater context as to what was happening, discuss what those in the little person community, the disabled community at large, and allies can do to protect little people when this behavior occurs, and emphasize that no one and no platform has the right to tell a little person that they do not have the right to feel safe, to exist.

Follow Aubrey: Instagram: @theaubreysmalls TikTok: @aubreysmalls Website: https://www.dearaverageheightpeople.com

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: alwayslookingup227@gmail.com

This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin.

Previous Episode

In this week’s episode I sat down with Dr. Sami Schalk. Dr. Schalk is an Associate Professor of Gender & Women’s Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her interdisciplinary research focuses broadly on disability, race, and gender in contemporary American literature and culture. She is the author of the books Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women’s Speculative Fiction and Black Disability Politics. We discuss what it means to come into one’s disabled identity, how the portrayal of certain identities in fiction can and do influence real life, where Black Disability Politics intersect and conflict with the mainstream white-dominant disability civil rights movement and much, much more.

Follow Dr. Schalk: Instagram: @fierceblackfemme Twitter: @DrSamiSchalk Website: http://samischalk.com

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: alwayslookingup227@gmail.com

This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin.

Next Episode

In this week’s episode I sat down with Lillie Heigl. Lillie is an education policy analyst, focusing on disability, at New America, a new kind of think and action tank: a civic platform that connects a research institute, technology lab, solutions network, media hub and public forum. We discuss what it means to her to be disability adjacent, her work in disability advocacy, what it means for her to be a non-disabled person, that has grown up in the disability space, to be working in the disability space, the evolution of learning and listening to disabled voices, and much more.

Follow Lillie: Instagram: @lheigl LinkedIn: Lillie Heigl

Follow New America: Twitter: @NewAmerica LinkedIn: New America Website: https://www.newamerica.org

Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: alwayslookingup227@gmail.com

This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin.

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