
Melanie Waldman On Finding Comfort In Being Yourself
Always Looking Up
03/10/25
•64m
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In this week’s episode I sat down with Melanie Waldman. Melanie is a multi-award-winning filmmaker with the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge, a member of SAG-AFTRA, an on-air talent member at QVC, host of the Disability Reality Podcast (which, yours truly, will be making an appearance on very soon talking all things on Bravo), and she STILL somehow finds time to teach adaptive yoga to the disability community & beyond! We discuss disability as a collective and the healing power of connection within, turning adversity into joy, the opportunities that arise from authenticity and much, much more.
Relief For Disabled People Impacted By The Los Angeles Fires:
Richard Devylder Disaster Relief Fund: https://disabilitydisasteraccess.org/rd-relief-fund/
United Spinal Disaster Relief Grant: https://unitedspinal.org/disaster-relief-grant/
Inevitable Foundation Emergency Relief Fund: https://www.inevitable.foundation/erf
Follow Melanie: Instagram: @whereswaldman TikTok: @whereswaldman
Listen to Disability Reality Podcast:
Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast TikTok: @jillian_ilana Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: alwayslookingup227@gmail.com
Read With Me:
This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin
Previous Episode

Eliza Orlins On Pushing For Change Within The System
March 3, 2025
•53m
For context, this episode was recorded on February 19, 2025.
In this week’s episode I sat down with Eliza Orlins. Eliza Orlins is a career public defender who has represented close to 4000 people charged with crimes in Manhattan over the last 13+ years. She’s an outspoken advocate and can be found raging against injustice on her social media platforms. We discuss the misunderstandings and misrepresentations of the criminal legal system, the ways in which the system and how it is designed impacts those in marginalized communities including persons with disabilities, how she is pushing for change within the system as an advocate and as an activist, and much, much more.
Relief For Disabled People Impacted By The Los Angeles Fires:
Richard Devylder Disaster Relief Fund: https://disabilitydisasteraccess.org/rd-relief-fund/
United Spinal Disaster Relief Grant: https://unitedspinal.org/disaster-relief-grant/
Inevitable Foundation Emergency Relief Fund: https://www.inevitable.foundation/erf
Follow Eliza: Instagram: @eorlins TikTok: @eorlins Substack: Objection: Everything
Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast TikTok: @jillian_ilana Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: alwayslookingup227@gmail.com
Read With Me:
This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin
Next Episode

In this week’s episode I sat down with Felicia Gans Sobey. Felicia is a deputy editor of content strategy at The Philadelphia Inquirer. She is also a retired theater kid, an avid watcher of 90s/early 2000s TV, a Kindle obsessive, a dark chocolate lover, and a longtime friend of yours truly. As we are two Pisces girls turning 30, celebrating a friendship that has lasted half our lives thus far, I invited Felicia to ask and answer more audience questions about turning a decade older and much, much more.
TW: Mentions Of Pregnancy Loss
Relief For Disabled People Impacted By The Los Angeles Fires:
Richard Devylder Disaster Relief Fund: https://disabilitydisasteraccess.org/rd-relief-fund/
United Spinal Disaster Relief Grant: https://unitedspinal.org/disaster-relief-grant/
Inevitable Foundation Emergency Relief Fund: https://www.inevitable.foundation/erf
Follow Felicia:
Follow Me: Instagram: @jill_ilana , @alwayslookingup.podcast TikTok: @jillian_ilana Website: https://www.jillianilana.com Email: alwayslookingup227@gmail.com
Read With Me:
This episode was edited and produced by Ben Curwin
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