What Real Inclusion Looks Like: Disablity, Ableism, and Advocacy with Jenna Udenberg

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Send me a message via text or voicemail! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/fan_mail/new] 🎙️ Episode Summary What does real inclusion actually look beyond good intentions and surface level awareness? In this episode, I get to sit down with educator, author, and accessibility advocate Jenna Udenberg, founder of Above and Beyond with U, for an honest conversation about disability, ableism, and what true advocacy requires. Jenna shares her experience living with juvenile idiopathic arthritis and unpacks the realities that often go unseen, including the pressure to be labeled “inspiring,” the complexity within disability culture, and the emotional weight of navigating a world that wasn’t built with accessibility in mind. We talk about the difference between performative inclusion and real, lived inclusion, and the deeper internal work it takes to recognize and dismantle ableism in our everyday lives. This conversation invites you to rethink accessibility, challenge your assumptions, and consider what it really means to see people fully. 📖 Jenna’s Hidden Chapter Jenna’s hidden chapter is the part of her story before she had the language to understand her own identity. It’s the years of navigating a world that didn’t fully see or reflect her experience. Before discovering disability culture. Before realizing she didn’t have to earn belonging by being palatable, agreeable, or “inspiring.” That chapter led her to a pivotal moment of self-recognition, where she could finally look at herself and see her whole identity clearly. That truth now shapes the work she does and the way she shows up in advocacy. 🎧 Who This Episode Is For It’s for educators, parents, advocates, and leaders who want to move beyond performative inclusion and step into something more honest and impactful. It’s for those living with chronic illness or disability who are still navigating what it means to fully embrace their identity. And it’s for anyone willing to sit with discomfort, reflect honestly, and do the deeper work of understanding themselves and others. You don’t have to have a disability to be part of this conversation. Resources Mentioned * Jenna's Memoir: Within My Spokes — available on Amazon [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXXXXXX] * Above and Beyond with U (Nonprofit): aboveandbeyondwithu.org [https://aboveandbeyondwithu.org/] * Disability Culture Resources: disabilityculture.org [https://disabilityculture.org/] Connect with Jenna 🌐 aboveandbeyondwithu.org [https://aboveandbeyondwithu.org/] Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/support] 🌐 Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/ [https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/]and stay connected! 🎙️ Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters: Real Stories that Bring Light to the Hidden Parts of Life? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger [https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger] 🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay

Surviving a Brain Hemorrhage and Starting Over Twice: Dan MacQueen on Recovery, Discipline, and Resilience

Send me a message via text or voicemail! [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/fan_mail/new] 🎙️ Episode Summary: At 28, Dan MacQueen was living his best life in London- working in tech, traveling in Europe on weekends, active and untethered. Then a string of worsening headaches led to an optometrist appointment that uncovered a dangerous buildup of pressure in his brain caused by a non-cancerous cyst. What followed was emergency brain surgery, a massive brain hemorrhage on the operating table, and four weeks in a medically induced coma. When Dan woke up, he couldn't walk, couldn't talk, and had lost significant weight and muscle. He spent months relearning the basics, speech, movement, balance, before slowly rebuilding his life. Then in 2015, just as he was finding his footing again, a second brain surgery set him all the way back to the beginning. In this conversation, Dan talks about what recovery actually looked like from the inside. The nights in the ICU when the silence gave way to fear. The small victories that kept him moving forward. The discipline he built when motivation wasn't enough. And the mindset shifts that turned some of his hardest moments into his greatest lessons. Today, Dan is a speaker who brings those lessons to teams and organizations around the world and he's still navigating the effects of his brain injury a decade later. 📖 Dan's Hidden Chapter Dan's hidden chapter wasn't a single turning point. It was a decision he made over and over again when no one was watching: the decision not to let go. Not in the ICU. Not in the rehab center at three in the morning. Not after the second setback brought him all the way back to the beginning. Each time, he made the same quiet choice to keep going. To take the next step even when the road ahead wasn't clear. What makes that remarkable isn't that Dan is extraordinary. It's that he'd be the first to tell you he isn't. His brain scans came back average. And he carries that like a badge of honor because if an average person can do this, the rest of us have fewer excuses than we we think. 💛 Why this episode matters and who needs to hear it This episode is for anyone in the middle of something hard who isn't sure they have what it takes to get through it. It's for the person who has already overcome one thing and just got hit again. It's for anyone who relies too heavily on motivation and keeps waiting to feel ready. And it's for the person who needs permission to stop controlling the things they can't control and start moving on the things they can. You don't need a brain hemorrhage to need this conversation, but if Dan got through his, you might just be able to get through yours. Resources and Mentions * The Boy, the Fox, the Horse and the Mole — Charlie Munger * Epictetus — Stoic philosopher, "It's not what happens to you but how you think about it that matters" * Iron Mike Tyson — "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth" * Rich Roll — "Follows action" * Tim Ferriss — "Win the morning, win the day" * Whoop Strap — strain and recovery tracker Dan uses daily Connect with Dan MacQueen 🌐 www.macqueendan.com Support the show [https://www.buzzsprout.com/2463085/support] 🌐 Visit my website: https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/ [https://hiddenchapterspodcast.com/]and stay connected! 🎙️ Want to be a guest on Hidden Chapters: Real Stories that Bring Light to the Hidden Parts of Life? Send me a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger [https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/genevievekruger] 🎵 Background Music: "In Time" by Folk_acoustic from Pixabay

1. touko 202655 min

What Real Inclusion Looks Like: Disablity, Ableism, and Advocacy with Jenna Udenberg

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