The Be My Eyes Podcast

Sir Robin Millar is a legend. He's produced gold and platinum-selling records and launched the careers of artists such as Sade, Phoebe Bridgers and Cigarettes After Sex. But he wasn't always so comfortable in his own skin, or revealing to others in the music business that he was losing his vision. It all came to a head in his mid-thirties, as he returned to produce Sade's second album, only to have his functional eyesight give out almost entirely. Today, Robin is an incredibly accomplished, insightful and kind musician, businessman and philanthropist, and we were so pleased to sit down with him for this wide-ranging discussion about his life and career.

This week on the podcast, we're collaborating with Radiotopia and PRX to share the first episode of the new podcast, Blind Guy Travels. Follow along with host Matthew Shifrin as he shares his perspective on everything from LEGOs to online dating. In this first episode: Matthew explains how he studied the art of body language to become a better communicator.

Morten Bonde is a motivational speaker, author and senior art director at the LEGO Group – but he wasn't always that way. When he started losing the majority of his vision in his early 40's, Morten thought his world was falling apart. But rather than quit his job and give up, he started researching, a lot. Over the years, Morten has cobbled together his own blend of philosophy, psychology and spirituality that has helped him write a book, keep his job and have all sorts of new adventures.

Each week, the Broadeye Podcast explores knowledge gap for eye care professionals – and what greater knowledge gap than the one between ophthalmologists and the blindness community? For years, people have struggled to get referred for quality services from eye doctors when their vision changes or they become legally blind. In 2021, it's imperative that we start having meaningful conversations about how the medical and social practitioners of vision services can better communicate.

Ray came out in 2004 to accolades and, eventually, after the passing of the real Ray Charles that same year, took home Oscars for best film, best director, best actor and more. But what does Ray get right, and wrong, about what it's like to be blind? As one of the most famous portrayals of blindness, this is a pressing question, and so we invited back our blind film club – Sheri Wells-Jensen, Andrew Leland and Byron Harden – to help unpack it.

This week is a collaboration with the 13 Letters Podcast: From having his story written in Crashing Through to founding Accessible GPS company Sendero, Mike May has been a household name in the world of access and inclusion for decades. Mike joins us this week to talk about what it was like to have his eyesight restored after decades as a blind person, the evolution of accessible navigation, and what he's up to now as Chief Evangelist at GoodMaps.

When Robert Tarango was cast to star in Doug Roland's short film Feeling Through, he was a kitchen assistant at the Helen Keller National Center. On Sunday, he'll walk down the red carpet at the 93rd Academy Awards. Here's his story – and why it's so important for the future of inclusion in film and TV.

Some of our favorite podcast guests share their tips and tricks for shopping blind at the grocery store.

Blind psychologist Heidi Joshi gives advice for better mental health, finding the right therapist and her own experience navigating the medical profession.

Bryan Bashin (LightHouse for the Blind and Visualy Impaired, San Francisco) and Theresa Stern (Guide Dogs for the Blind) sit down to debate the merits, drawbacks, pros and cons of white canes and guide dogs.

Blind skateboarder Dan Mancina talks about how he gained confidence as a skater, his career as a pro skate team and the normal everyday struggles that make him no different than anyone else.

Kristin Smedley, author of Thriving Blind and founder of the new Assistive Tech Tank accelerator program, has a simple message: It's not blind peoples' responsibility to make the world more accessible, it's the responsibility of everyone to be inclusive. Kristin raised her two boys, Mitchell and Michael, to play sports, perform at a high level and never take "you can't because you're blind" as an answer. Today, Michael is in college and Mitchell is finishing high school, and they've benefitted tremendously from both having a parent who never doubted them and a technology landscape that's more powerful and inclusive than ever. In this episode, Kristin, Michael and Mitch join Will to share stories from childhood, recount their journey to blindness and inclusion advocacy, and get in plenty of good natured ribs at each other along the way.

Will Butler, Andrew Leland, Sheri Wells-Jensen, and Byron Harden join forces for the premiere of Season 3 to review the Oscar-winning drama, Scent of a Woman. The film starred Al Pacino as an infamous, grumpy blind man set against the world and starring alongside a young Chris O'Donnell. The question remains: How did Al Pacino do in portraying blindness, both in terms of autenticity and entertainment value?

For centuries, people have been laughing at caricatures of blindness in TV, film and entertainment – but how often are they laughing with us? Amir Rahimi has begun exploring the art of standup comedy as a fledgling comic in the Washington, DC comedy scene. Rahimi became blind as a teenager, and after fighting his vision impairment for years, he finally found peace in the ability to make people laugh. In his first few public sets, Rahimi plays with notions of masculinity, pokes fun at strangers who find his vision impairment fascinating, and isn’t afraid to joke about his own shortcomings as a way to “humanize” the blind experience and make it more relatable for the average, flawed human being. Rahimi sat down to chat with us about his successes and failures in developing his first ten minutes, and talk about his motivations and ambitions for what he hopes will be a long and fruitful comedy career.

What’s it like to hide your blindness from the world? Or not even know you’re blind in the first place? Caroline Casey was in denial for the first 28 years of her life. Her parents never told her she was legally blind, and by the time she got into the working world, she didn’t know how to be open about it. Holding back such an integral part of who you are can mess you up, and finally Caroline broke, realizing that it wasn’t worth it anymore. The funny thing is, that’s when her life really got good. Caroline chatted with us about her childhood, her work, and her new initiative to get 500 of the world’s most powerful CEOs to sign a commitment to include disability in their business agenda.

Growing up in the rolling hills of Northern California, Hoby Wedler always had a passion for exploration. Blind since birth and profoundly curious, Hoby explored phenomena small and large. He hiked mountains and rode bikes through rural landscapes. He learned about the plumbing and electrical wiring of his suburban home. But when he found his love for science he also found himself suddenly blocked by teachers and so-called mentors who said he should try something else. Now a PhD chemist, Hoby has found his way into a fascinating new career which started, oddly enough, leading wine tastings for Francis Ford Coppola. Hoby talks with us about his new business, Senspoint Design, and even convinces our host to try some of Dave Matthews' wine (yeah, that Dave MAtthews).

This week: a very special interview from the 13 Letters Podcast. 'Fearless' is a word many would use to describe Haben Girma, the first deafblind graduate of Harvard Law School. A disability rights lawyer, memoir author, and public speaker, Haben has certainly pushed the boundaries of how society regards deafblind citizens. Even with her many achievements, Haben would not consider herself fearless, but rather acknowledge fear as something critical in guiding one's life. She's met German Chancellor Angela Merkel, former U.S. President Barack Obama, and now we're lucky enough to sit down and talk with Haben on this week's episode of 13 Letters. On it, we'll discuss how politics affect the disabled, the importance of dance, and why a little bit of fear can push us in the right direction.

In the last two weeks, the whole world has changed. The global economy has all but slammed to a halt, people are locked in their houses and not allowed to leave except for essential tasks, and the self-isolation has presented humans with a whole new set of challenges they probably never imagined having. Today we take an overview look at how the blind community is reacting, share some resources as starting points for blind and low vision folks looking to learn more, and chat with Be My Eyes communications officer Cecilie Skou Anderson about what's going on in Denmark.

What would you do with $25,000? That's what the Holman Prize is all about. Any blind or visually impaired adult in the world can apply – and every year, the LightHouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco grants the Holman Prize to three lucky individuals. Initial submissions for this year’s prize are about to close, and so in honor of its fourth year, we’re sharing exclusive interviews with the three Holman Prizewinners from 2019. Learn more and apply at holmanprize.org.

Podcasters Robin Christopherson (Dot to Dot) and Steven Scott (Double Tap Canada) join forces every week on RNIB Connect radio to talk tech. Both longtime tech early adopters and well-known voices of the UK’s visually impaired community, the two are opinionated, adamant and any other adjective you could conjure up about their devices, tools, gizmos and any other tool you could imagine for making sight-less life a little easier. We caught up with them this week to get the latest and greatest on best apps, smart devices, wearables and other exciting news about blind tech in 2020.