This week we have put together a very special Giving Tuesday edition of the podcast. Giving Tuesday is a day celebrated as a global day of giving and a worldwide celebration of generosity, and is considered to be the opening day of the giving season. Blind Beginnings participates in Giving Tuesday every year, but this year we wanted to also give back and thank all our donors and supporters by telling some stories about the impact their contributions have on the youth we serve. Nika, Jinnie, Kolby, and Seerat join Shawn in this episode to share their experiences with Blind Beginnings and the impact that the programs that they participated in had. Thank you to all our supporters over the years -- this is for you.

This week Shawn flies solo and welcomes Ryan Fleury, Rob Mineault, and Sarah Mennell to discuss Ryan’s audio-described music video, “Make a Difference”. Ryan wrote and performed the song, Rob produced and edited the video, and Sarah wrote the audio description track, all combining into something unique and special. Shawn discusses the song’s origins with them, how it came to be an audio described music video, the challenges faced, and the growing popularity and importance of audio description.

This week Shawn and co-host Randi welcome Paralympic judoka Priscilla Gagné and her training partner Ali Briggs. We discuss topics such as how Paralympic Judo is adapted from its Olympic counterpart, what the training regiment is like preparing for competitive sport, and what it was like for the pair to go to the Rio Paralympics in 2016.

We are so excited this week to welcome Adam Wilton from the Provincial Resource Centre for the Visually Impaired to talk all things Braille with Shawn and this week’s co-host, Jinnie! They discuss everything from what Braille is and where people tend to find it in public spaces to how it’s being taught in schools and why Braille literacy is so vitally important. 

After 20 episodes, we thought it was about time the show went to the dogs -- Guide dogs, that is. Jill and Nika, who are both considering getting their first Guide dog, join Shawn and co-host Kolby this week to ask a wide variety of questions about what the training process and day to day life is like with a Guide dog. Some of the topics and questions might surprise you, so don’t miss this one!

With so many people stuck at home these days, maintaining physical health and developing a workout from home is more important than ever. That’s why we’re so excited this week to meet Tyler Merren, a blind Personal Trainer, Paralympic athlete, and motivational speaker who is working on developing a new app and website that provides fitness instruction in an accessible audio format.

October is Blindness Awareness Month, so we thought in light of that, it would be fitting to record yet another edition of our Ask A.B.B.Y. feature where the Blind Beginnings youth answer your questions about blindness. This week Jinnie, Keisha, and Clement join Shawn to answer the latest set of questions from you, our listeners! Thanks to all those who submitted questions, and make sure to keep them coming!

Our very special Thanksgiving episode! It’s a full house this week as we talk with Jill, John, Kolby and their respective siblings about what it was like growing up beside someone dealing with blindness or partial sight. It’s all about the importance of family with some side dishes of laughter and community - you don’t want to miss this one! Happy Thanksgiving!

This week we continue our conversation from last episode about the differences between being blind or partially sighted from birth versus changes over time. We discuss various experiences of how it impacted everything from daily life skills to making friends and even pose a hypothetical question of whether or not we’d restore our respective vision conditions if we could. The answers may surprise you!

This week we have gathered together a collection of co-hosts and guests including Nika, Jill, Randi, and Brodie in order to have an epic conversation that went so long that we had to break it into two parts! Check out this first part of our open and honest conversation about the differences between being blind or partially sighted from birth versus changes later in life. 

This week we’re super excited to introduce a feature that we will be revisiting from time to time here on the podcast. It’s a little something we are calling Ask A Blind Beginnings Youth! We have gathered a collection of our youth to answer questions about Blindness and Low Vision that we’ve received. It’s a frank and open discussion of a wide range of topics, from questions of fashion to escalator navigation. If you have ever been curious at all about being blind or partially sighted but were afraid to ask, you don’t want to miss this episode!

It’s a very special episode this week as we take a break from our normal format and offer our listeners a glimpse into one of our online programs, Exploring Work Wednesdays. This program offers up an interview style discussion about careers with adults that are blind or partially sighted. In this particular session we meet Mark, who is a Registered Massage Therapist and owns his own business, and his sister Lisa, a Psychiatric Social Worker. It's a frank and open conversation about what it’s like entering into the workplace as someone who is blind or partially sighted that you won’t want to miss!

The Blind Beginnings Youth Leadership Program has been one of the most popular and important programs at Blind Beginnings since 2010, and this week Jinnie and Nika join Shawn as co-hosts to talk all about the important skills that it helps build in the youth that attend. Bridget, who will be attending the program this year for the first time, joins the conversation as well and discusses what aspects she’s looking forward to and what skills she’s excited about building. 

How do people who are blind or partially sighted learn, access, and perform music? It’s a question that gets asked a lot, and this week Nika and Randi join Shawn and special guest Lori (who also happens to be Randi’s Mom) to discuss this and share stories of what it was like to grow up taking music lessons.

It’s that time of the year again when students all over the country begin to prepare to head back to school; however, with COVID, that means that this year is very different than most. This week Nika and Kolby join Shawn as co-hosts and welcome Jill, Ella, and Aman to the show to discuss what it’s like to be going back to High School or University this year and the anxiety, concerns, and challenges that they are facing as both students as well as students who are blind or partially sighted. 

This week Jinnie joins Shawn as co-host to interview the President of the Board of Directors, Betty Nobel where they discuss her childhood, growing up blind, her career path and what drew her to the Blind Beginnings organization. It's an interview that spans decades and you one you don't want to miss!

Shawn is joined on the show this week by two co-hosts who also happen to be working for Blind Beginnings this summer as Program Assistants -- Clement and Kolby! Together they discuss the social distanced hiking program currently running through the month of August and the importance of being able to get back out into nature as well as a rundown of how the hikes have gone this summer so far. And, while talking about the Great Outdoors, even manage to sneak in a discussion of favorite camp stories from years past!

This week Owen joins Shawn for co-host duties and the two welcome Sky Mundell, an Assistive Technology trainer at the Pacific Training Centre for the Blind, located in Victoria, BC. They discuss everything from Sky’s piano playing abilities and his performance in Vegas, to his favorite pieces of Assistive Technology to how he got started in the industry, with a lot of tech talk in between. If technology is something that excites you, then this is the episode for you!

This week we’ve got a huge show as Randi joins as co-host and brings the topic of how blindness is represented in various TV shows and movies over the years to a guest panel that includes Nika, Keisha, and Shawn. The panel discusses some of the hits and misses, what stereotypes are common (and annoying), and how representation has improved more recently. It’s our longest episode yet, but also the most thought-provoking and if you’re looking for some movie suggestions or want to know the answer to the burning question of whether or not Randi met Jason Momoa on the set of See, you won’t want to miss this episode! 

Ever wonder where Pouce Coupe is? Or how to spell it? Have you ever spent an evening thinking about what the difference between a violin and a fiddle is? Well these answers and many more get answered this week as Jinnie and Shawn welcome Nolan to the show, one of our young members who came to Blind Beginnings during the shift to online programming as the result of COVID. They talk to him about his YouTube channel, his eye condition, his favorite Blind Beginnings programs, life in a small town, and much more!