In Episode 122: Embracing 2026 — A Reflective New Year’s Episode, Alycia and Marty Anderson kick off the new year with intention, honesty, and hope. They celebrate reaching over 120 episodes, reflect on 2025’s growth, challenges, and personal journeys, and share goals for community impact, leadership, and connection. With heartfelt conversation and practical reflections, this episode invites listeners to enter 2026 with purpose, resilience, and shared belief in collective progress.
In Episode 121: Closing the Year with Joy, Grace, and Holiday Intention, Alycia Anderson reflects on the year’s milestones, community stories, and personal growth. She explores how intentional celebration, rest, and meaning-making enrich the holiday season for people with disabilities. Alycia shares gratitude for lived-experience voices, lessons learned, and practical ways to craft holiday intention—inviting listeners to embrace joy, grace, resilience, and connection as they close the year together.
In Episode 121: Closing the Year with Joy, Grace, and Holiday Intention, Alycia Anderson shares heartfelt reflections on 2025. She highlights community wins, personal growth moments, and the power of choosing joy and grace—even amid challenges. Alycia offers intentional holiday guidance: slow celebrations, authentic connections, pacing for wellbeing, accessibility tips for gatherings, and gratitude practices that honor disabled experiences. It’s an inclusive, uplifting finale to the year’s conversations.
Marty and I closed out the year traveling to Kansas City for my keynote at SETWorks, a SaaS company building AI-powered tools with disability inclusion at the core. What unfolded was more than a speaking engagement. It was a full-circle moment sparked by relationships, challenged by travel realities, grounded in partnership, and fueled by the belief that inclusion works best when it is built in, not added later.
In Episode 120 – A New Era of Inclusion: Lilly Grossman’s Mission, Alycia Anderson chats with disability advocate Lilly Grossman, tracing her path from social work classrooms to policy boardrooms and lived-experience leadership. Lilly reflects on navigating systemic barriers in education and employment, the realities of dual-disability relationships, and launching Beyond The Box Advocacy to help others overcome structural exclusion. They discuss the power of storytelling, equity-driven change, and building access-centered futures.
In Episode 120: A New Era of Inclusion: Lilly Grossman’s Mission, Alycia Anderson welcomes advocate Lilly Grossman — a wheelchair user, social work student, and disability policy leader shaping systemic change. Lilly discusses navigating barriers in education and employment, her advocacy work with Beyond the Box Advocacy, and the need to redesign systems so access isn’t tied to poverty. She shares powerful insights on representation, belonging, and building a more inclusive future.
In this episode of Pushing Forward with Alycia, Alycia Anderson sits down with Eric Harris—former wheelchair basketball star turned disability rights advocate. Eric shares his journey from early medical challenges to excelling in adaptive sports, law school, and statewide policy work. Together, they explore homelessness, healthcare, education, and why disabled voices must lead decision-making. His message is clear: storytelling and authentic collaboration drive meaningful, lasting change.
In Episode 119: Pushing Forward with Eric Harris: From the Court to Capitol, Alycia Anderson welcomes wheelchair basketball champion, attorney and disability rights advocate Eric Harris. Eric’s journey from national titles on the court to policy influence in California demonstrates resilience, leadership, and purpose. They discuss his adaptive sports beginnings, legal career, advocacy roles, systemic challenges, and his belief that those most impacted must be at the decision-making table to create meaningful change.
On the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, I had the honor of delivering my Heart of Inclusion keynote for Uber—a deeply personal milestone in my advocacy journey. From a lifelong wheelchair user to international speaker, corporate leader, and disability business owner, I’ve devoted my life to breaking down barriers of ableism. Today reflects the ongoing pursuit of progress and the power of sharing our stories to move inclusion forward.
In this episode of Pushing Forward with Alycia, host Alycia Anderson chats with Sean Larkin — a neurodivergent advocate, musician, and passionate inclusion champion. Sean opens up about his late-identified diagnosis, discovering community through Employee Network Groups, and embracing neurodiversity as part of his identity. He describes how music (particularly his hand-pan work) became therapeutic, and shares a powerful message: “When you show up … one or two people not judging can change lives.”
