Show Notes
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.
More from 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.