A summer heat wave can't stop our intrepid podcasters. In this episode, the gang (well Michelle and Jack) goes abroad! From Brussels, Michelle interviews Alejandro Moledo, the Deputy Director and Head of Policy of the European Disability Forum. Then, Jack conducts our spotlight interview from a hotel lobby in Spain, where he speaks with Mercedes Lopez Miranda about her experiences being a person with a disability in Europe.



To learn more about the work the European Disability Forum does visit https://www.edf-feph.org/



To view the full transcript for this episode visit https://www.ndrn.org/resource/ndr-june24/



 

Stephanie Flynt:

What's your cold open going to be about?

Michelle Bishop:

It’s probably going to be that now.

Jack Rosen:

Probably that. I don't know. I'm tired.

Michelle Bishop:

Jack, I've never seen you so full of life and vivacious.

Jack Rosen:

Yeah, I don't know. It's too hot out to podcast.

Michelle Bishop:

Too hot to pod?

Hey, hey, welcome back to National Disability Radio. It is a little bit hot in D.C. right now and we are all a little bit blah, but I am one of your hosts, Michelle Bishop, the voter access and engagement manager at NDRN.

Stephanie Flynt:

And I'm Stephanie Flynt McEben, public policy analyst at NDRN, and please send coffee gift cards if you feel so inclined. You've got our little electronic email address. Okay, thanks.

Raquel Rosa:

And this is Raquel Rosa, your community relations specialist at NDRN and your final third of podcast hostesses.

Michelle Bishop:

Hey, Stephanie is fueled entirely by coffees. You know how most people are 75% water or whatever? Stephanie is 75% iced coffee.

Stephanie Flynt:

I am, yes. And I almost hate to say this because if people find out there might be a supply shortage, but they sell iced coffee in cartons and I was last summer years old when I found that out and it's been life-changing.

Michelle Bishop:

You drink cartons of coffee?

Stephanie Flynt:

They have iced coffee cartons, like half gallons.

Michelle Bishop:

You're telling me you drink a half gallon of coffee on a daily basis?

Stephanie Flynt:

Not a daily basis.

Michelle Bishop:

That's a little scary.

Stephanie Flynt:

Not on a daily basis.

Michelle Bishop:

Speaking of people who are energized and ready to go, where is our producer at?

Jack Rosen:

Oh, I was sending an email asking them to turn up the AC. Hi, producer Jack Rosen here. That's all I got. I'm genuinely miserable right now.

Michelle Bishop:

This is an enthusiastic episode we have for you all.

Stephanie Flynt:

Very enthusiastic.

Jack Rosen:

Yes. To be clear, I'm miserable about the heat, but I'm excited for our guests on today's episode. Michelle, you want to tell the people who we have on?

Michelle Bishop:

So I recently had the honor of traveling to Brussels, the home of the European Union, to bring you our very first international episode. We don't have applause, so now we have to start doing it ourselves. I actually got to visit the European Disability Forum, or EDF. They're an umbrella organization of persons with disabilities that defend the interest of over 100 million people with disabilities in Europe. As an independent nongovernmental organization that brings together representative organizations of persons with disabilities from across Europe, they're run by people with disabilities and their families and they're proud to be a strong united voice of persons with disabilities in Europe. EDF envisions a Europe where persons with disabilities are fully included in society on an equal ba...