Title:
Theo Braddy | Living Legend Empowering the Next Generation

Subtitle:
The Relay Race of Leadership and Legacy: Bridging Generations with Words of Unity, Advocacy and Disability Awareness

Transcript:

Alycia Anderson: Welcome to Pushing Forward with Alycia, a podcast that gives disability a voice. Each week we will explore topics like confidence, ambition, resilience, and finding success against all odds. We are creating a collective community that believes that all things are possible for all people. Open hearts, clear paths.

Let’s go.

Welcome back to Pushing Forward with Alycia, friends. We’ve had a lot of really cool episodes this October, it being National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and this episode does not disappoint as well. We have another leader, advocate, groundbreaker. All kinds of amazing accomplishments this man has created for us to follow and has given us so much opportunity. Today, I am thrilled to host Mr. Theo Braddy , A renowned disability rights leader, appointed executive director of the National Council on Independent Living, NCIL, and to the National Council on Disability, NCD, in 2022. He was paralyzed at the age of 15, in a football accident. We wanna hear all about that. Mr. Braddy turned a life that detoured into decades of impact. I love that. And he’s leading the way in so much advocacy across our country and around the world. He sat on national corporate boards, he’s advised governors. The list go on and on. If one of us can accomplish one thing that he has, we will think that’s a win. And his resume is amazing, so impactful. I’m so happy to meet you. Our beautiful friendship has been growing over the last few months. Thank you so much for showing up on our show today. Welcome.

Theo Braddy: Thank you. Thank you for inviting me, Alycia. Appreciate it.

Alycia Anderson: We are so thankful and pleased and honored to have you on the show.

Where should we begin? I’ve been preparing for a few months. It’s NDEAM right now. Can we spotlight some of the talents and opportunities that this month brings and what emotions it brings up for you specifically?

Theo Braddy: Good question. Being employment awareness month. October? I think for the most part when I recall this moment is all about recognizing the value that people with disabilities bring to the table, right? And how so often society underestimate people with disabilities.

I don’t know about you, but I’m assuming you are very similar. I use the way society view me as my greatest motivator. It motivates me. I come to the table knowing that people without disabilities or decision makers are underestimating me. And so I use that to my advantage. And I think that goes on to really highlight why we need to have this month.

Unfortunately, gotta be a month. It should be a year-round thing. But, in regard to employment and how society, and employers, and business folks, and corporation view people with disabilities, I have seen it get better, but it’s still a problem. It is not about the physical barriers anymore, because I believe we have done a great job with that.

And even in my lifetime, I have seen that really improved. What really hindered people with disabilities is attitudinal barriers. I say this all the time. Ableism is our greatest challenge, right? You can improve physical barriers, but it’s a hard thing to change people attitudes about people with disabilities. Because they have been conditioned to believe a certain way about people with disabilities for a long time, based on a whole bunch of misconceptions and myths. And so as we do this awareness month, part of it is that education, because education is the key, right? How we can change people mindset and thoughts about people with disabilities.

So this is important. Awareness is important. But more importantly, interaction is important, right? I say this a lot, Alycia. How will you ever know me, if you don’t interact with me? If you don’t have a relationship with me? It amazes me how many people in this world, how many business folks in this world, can go through life and never interact or have a relationship with a blind person or deaf person.

Or anyone else with a condition or a disability. And if you can do that and you can go through a whole lifetime without ever interacting, or having a friend, or a relationship with a person with disability, you miss out on a lot of stuff. And you would never know me.

Alycia Anderson: And you would also carry around a lot of assumptions and unknowns.

Theo Braddy: Yes.

Alycia Anderson: And I talk about that a lot, too, is that whole concept of people looking, watching, absorbing, and creating assumptions that, in many times, are false narratives. Or those narratives you’re saying that you try to use to your advantage of society thinking less than, and then what I believe probably showing up and showing otherwise. Correct?

Theo Braddy: Yeah. Yeah. It take years to condition and believe a certain way. And I call that our worldview. Our worldview that we develop over a period of time sticks, right? It’s the way we believe, and it’s hard to change a person’s worldview. And our worldview come from television. It passes down from generation to generation. Movies.

Now more than anything, is social media. And once we develop our worldview, it’s intact, and it takes a lot to change that. And this is the thing about a worldview. People really don’t believe it can be flawed or wrong.

Once that belief a worldview about a group of people or a thing becomes solid in your mind and as your particular worldview, we don’t want to change it.

Even when you’re confronted with facts, it is very hard to change, right? And so, it’s important for people to understand this, that your worldview can be wrong or flawed. And we rarely ever think about trying to change it.

Alycia Anderson: And I think even on top of that too, I agree. Our worldview about disability is, to your point, taught through social media and interactions, or lack thereof. But it’s also taught from our parents at a really young age, the ones that we believe the most. And I’m shaking that world view of, ” Mom taught me this when I was two.

Look away.” You know.

Theo Braddy: No doubt.

And that’s become something we internalize.

Alycia Anderson: Totally.

Theo Braddy: Ableism can be internalized. We believe a certain way about ourselves. Because like you just mentioned, our parents can sometimes teach us the wrong way about a thing, right? And all of a sudden, you grow up and you believe in those things.

And it takes a while to come out of it. It took a while for me to come out of it. That’s why I always try to mentor young people with disabilities. It took me a while to understand that I was okay being carried. I was okay being brought up steps. And it took me a minute to say, ” All of this stuff is not about me.”

Sometimes it’s just about removing a physical barrier. And it sometimes takes a while before you can get that when you are a newly disabled person.

Alycia Anderson: I had the same thing for most of my life. The apologizing for being me and the acceptance of inaccessibility. And I think a lot of us do that. And I used to be so embarrassed and ashamed. Even now, as an advocate, I used to be like that. That I used to accommodate it and allow for it. But I do think it takes a long time to find your power, and your words, and your asks, and your own strength. So I think that it’s beautiful that you brought that up, ’cause I think a lot of us need to hear, ” It’s okay to go through your process to find your power, and that sometimes takes some time.”

Theo Braddy: It takes some time, but it is always important to meet the right folk. I was fortunate to meet the right folks, and learn some very good lessons. And I was also instructed by a lot of great people, but sometime you just gotta watch the right people.

Leadership is sometime caught instead of taught. You can watch people and mentor, or model what they do. And I had the privilege to do that. I’m a quiet person. I’m not always the one that speak up first.

But I watch folks that I admire and respect. And I try to do what they do, when I was a young person coming up. And you can catch that kind of a spirit, that kind of leadership.

Alycia Anderson: Catch the spirit and the leadership. I love that. I feel like that’s what you give off to other advocates that are coming up behind you. We watch you quietly and see your impact and your leadership. And I think that’s a beautiful way to describe it.

Theo Braddy: Yeah, no doubt. I picked that up from Justin. Justin Dart. He was a quiet spirit of a man. But an extraordinary. And his passion to do stuff and carry people. And you don’t always have to be the loudest voice in the room in order to accomplish great things.

Alycia Anderson: Justin Dart. Throwing out big names already. I love this. We just celebrated the 35th anniversary of the ADA. We’re celebrating all these things. Let’s talk about that movement for a minute and what that was in your life. What the memories were like. Maybe there’s one memory that really sticks of we’ve made something happen, or I don’t know.

Can you talk about that a little bit? Bring us back.

Theo Braddy: I came around that period of time, Alycia, when it was some great pioneers. They wasn’t pioneers at the time. They was just extraordinary leaders. And I was young and up and coming, and I watched them. I hung around a few of them, but mostly it was people I admired and I looked up to. A lot of people think I met Judy human.

I never met Judy human. I watched her a lot at National Independent Living Council conferences from afar. Matter of fact, I talk about this in my memoirs. I watched her from afar, but I was so nervous that I never went up and talked to her in person. And I encountered her many times because she was very connected to NCIL and attended the conference, but I never had the nerve to go up to speak to her.

Ain’t that crazy? And it was only later on that we developed a relationship. But, unfortunately, it was very close to her untimely passing too. So I never had that opportunity to really develop the kind of relationship I wanted with her. And that was all because I had that fear.

It wasn’t about her. She probably would’ve had a great time having a conversation with me, but it was about me. And so I tell this to a lot of young people, never hesitate. You see a leader or somebody you respect and want to get to know, go up to ’em and ask them question. Don’t do what I did.

But I did have the privilege of meeting Ed Roberts. I did have the privilege of meeting Justin Dart. And those were two people that I had an opportunity to meet and talk to, and learn about independent living. Justin Dart was one of the first person, I was probably around 28 years old.

And starting the center here in Pennsylvania. And we had just got this grant for $199,000 to start a Center for Independent Living, here in Pennsylvania. And it was the highest one at the time awarded. And I had this money, but I didn’t know anything about starting the center. And I looked at the time, we didn’t have a great deal of internet back then.

It was AOL, and Worldwide Web, and whatever. But I find a 60 minute documentary on Ed. That 60 Minutes had did. And I thought that’s fascinating, right? So I ran around and tried to find out, and I finally got his number and I called him up. And I had that money. I said, “Hey, come talk to me about independent living and I’ll fly you in.”

He came in for two weeks. We spent some time together. I was a sponge. I soaked everything up I could. We put on our first conference in Pennsylvania, it was called Becoming Your Own Best Advocate. We co-facilitated that conference together. He had this friend that was a karate instructor that traveled with him, and he put on a karate demo.

It was a great time. I still got all these great pictures, and we just had a great time. But that’s where I try to tell young folks. At the time, I didn’t know who Ed Roberts was going to become, in regard to history and all of that thing. But I knew he was an extraordinary leader at the time.

And if I would’ve knew what I know now, I would’ve probably spent more time really asking him more questions, and really getting to know him in a way that would’ve been intentional about what I wanted to be as a leader. But we never know that at a time. Same thing with Justin Dart. He was just a man that was doing great things at the moment.

I didn’t know what he was gonna become. And so we spend those time with folks not knowing the contributions that they will make. And sometime, we don’t spend the quality time that we should, right? Because we take that for granted.

Alycia Anderson: That is an incredible story. We just started this interview by me saying how starstruck I am by these incredible stories of our history in the movement, like I had with Tony Coelho, and now you. Those are massive opportunities of engagement, whether it was for a moment in time. That’s incredible history right there.

So I’m honored that you’ve graced this show with those lessons. Because, wow.

I’m a little bit again, like woo.

Theo Braddy: Yeah. And you talked about another one. Tony’s awesome. Awesome. What you did, right? You ask the right questions, you listen. Often, we don’t do that kind of stuff, and we wait til people leave this earth. And then we want to give them their flowers, instead of doing it while they are alive.

And so, that time you spent with him, that’s gonna be a memory for you that can nobody take away.

Alycia Anderson: This, too, honestly. I’m so passionate about this work, and to have my path cross with you, and with Tony, and with people like that is equally impactful for me. It growing into my advocacy and my business. So it’s just really full circle, and it’s giving back, and it’s so beautiful.

And just thank you for all the, I guess, the innovative inspiration back then, when you were just creating some of the first conferences, and some of the first moments for us to come together as a community and figure these things out.

Theo Braddy: We are facing a period in time right now. A lot of young folks. This is something that me and Judy human talked about when I talked to her. A lot of young folks don’t know who Judy human is. They don’t know who Tony Coelho is. They don’t know who Ed Robert was, right?

And that’s because we have this younger generation coming up, really post-ADA. What is it? 32 years?

Alycia Anderson: 35.

Theo Braddy: 35. And what we are seeing now for the first time is a whole young generation that don’t have a clue about the struggles of the first generation.

And that’s one of the things. The second generation rarely know what the first generation went through. And so, they don’t understand the sacrifice. They don’t understand what that first generation put online, in regard to sacrificing their bodies. And being in institutions, and living in their own feces, right? They don’t even know all of that stuff. Those struggles, right? And based on that, they take it for granted because a lot have been accomplished. A lot of things have been accomplished. And so their lives is absent from all of that inhumane stuff.

And you got all of these freedoms. Now don’t get me wrong, we still got a lot to do, but they got all of these things that they never encountered. Even today, when marginalized group don’t vote, they don’t know the sacrifice that people died for the right to vote.

And now they’re taking that for granted. So that younger generation, they need a bridge. Younger generation to the older generation. And Judy and I was trying to get together. How could we really mentor and develop the relationship that was needed for younger leaders with disabilities before the older leaders with disabilities are no longer here.

She dunno how pathetic she was when she said that, because about four weeks later, she was gone.

Alycia Anderson: Wow.

Theo Braddy: And so, we never really got together to plan and strategize the work that need to be done in order for us to come together. And we need that more than anything else, right? When the younger generation can talk and assist the older generation, the older generation function better with the people that they deal with.

And the older generation can talk to a younger generation, and benefit from what they know, they function better. And when they really start communicating, we can do some extraordinary stuff, but we are not communicating and benefiting from each other knowledge. Young people can do so much with the digital AI and all of that stuff that older folks know nothing about or can improve. I’m not gonna say everybody’s like that. But the older generation can improve by working with younger folks. But younger folks can learn some other stuff by working with older folks in regard to patience, wisdom, knowing the right moment to act. Because we have learned some things.

Alycia Anderson: Appreciation of the struggle.

Theo Braddy: Yes, right?

So when you can merge those two together and work in really a great way. Can you imagine the kind of things that we could do?

Alycia Anderson: I love this.

Theo Braddy: But for the most part, younger folks want to do their own thing. And older folks say “Eh, them young whippersnappers, they don’t know anything.” And so we have this great divide.

Alycia Anderson: Oh my gosh.

Theo Braddy: That we really need to merge and come together and start working better together. And I wish, like Judy wanted, that we can do some things to work together.

Alycia Anderson: I’m gonna raise my hand and you let me know. I’m 50, and I grew up. I’m part of that first young generation that went to school. I call it the first generation access kid. The disabled kid right after some laws were passed, and I agree with you. I remember life before, and I know what life is afterwards. And I think if you don’t have that multiple lived experience, you don’t understand what you have and you don’t understand the struggle, and how important it is to protect it.

Theo Braddy: Just even this year with all this stuff going on in our country, I have my breath taken away sometimes. What if our rights and our access are ripped away? Where do we go? What do we do? And it’s frightening. But I think it’s also because we remember what that was like before. Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: That’s powerful stuff.

Theo Braddy: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: Powerful.

Theo Braddy: And that’s worth a conversation too, because, a lot of stuff is being rolled back.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah.

Theo Braddy: And it might be even new to some folks, because that’s all they have lived for and lived with. They had all these wonderful things though. But things have shifted in a major way.

Even with nickel. The things that we was working on when we had an opportunity, especially with the Biden administration. There was some great things being done. We was working on air traffic safety and getting air lines for the first time to be talking about the ability to travel in your own chair and not get out your trip. You carried Hector. I forget that, but it was Silence of the Lamb. That chair they put you on, and drive you, and carry you up between the aisles where everybody’s watching you.

Alycia Anderson: Oh my.

Theo Braddy: And I know you know what I’m talking about. And so, we was making major progress with the safety travel rules. Now the airline industry and administration is trying to pull back 504 final rules for the first time. Medical doctors can’t use unconscious bias to treat people with disability or not treat people with disabilities, in regard to, devaluing people with disabilities versus people without disabilities.

They could not do that. That was now a requirement. It was a law. And then we made some Affordable Care Act final rules again, talking about making sure that people could not use unconscious bias in medical treatment and patrons. We were doing some really great movements towards making major changes, and all of these things now are under attack.

And all of a sudden, we are fighting things that we had already won. There’s a movement right now

Alycia Anderson: Yeah.

Theo Braddy: to put people back in institutions. Last executive order on homelessness and people with mental illness, are trying to line up, just go out and pick up people with disabilities and mental illnesses. And law enforcement don’t really understand how to deal with people with disabilities anyway. They misdiagnose and put people with autism and all kind of other problems in jail, because they don’t understand what they’re trying to do.

People who are deaf and so forth. They mistake that for all kind of wrong things, and all of a sudden, you’re in the system. And so, we already know that homelessness executive order is gonna get people with disabilities off the streets and put into institutions, right? And, so, there’s a movement, and even with that Texas versus Becerra. Now, Kennedy is talking about it costs too much to comply with 504. Why do we have to do that? Olmstead costs too much, right? And so, they’re trying to change 504, in regard to the Olmstead decision. And so, when you do that kind of stuff, and there’s a movement to do it. I don’t think a lot of people is aware of it.

All of a sudden, you’re turning the clock back.

Alycia Anderson: Majorly.

Theo Braddy: And this is the thing, Alycia, I don’t think it even is about money right now. The cost is that because we already know it costs more to put people in institution versus in the community. We know that for a fact, and I believe they know that too.

It’s about devaluing and the attitude that now decision makers have about people with disabilities. They don’t believe we deserve to be in the community. They want to institutionalize us again. They want to go back to the time of the ugly laws, when it was a crime to be a person with a disability, to be seen in public. It was a crime.

And that was not that long ago. And so, I’m sensing this movement by powerful people to make this, again, where it’s better to institutionalize people with disabilities versus integrating people within the community. Olmstead is becoming not something that we push for implementation, but something we want to pull back and draw back. And nobody’s paying enough attention to that.

Alycia Anderson: So what do we do?

Theo Braddy: We gotta be educated, we gotta be in the streets. We got to call people out, in regard to what they are trying to do, because they’re doing it in a way that is little by little. And little by little sometime turns into a movement. And we gotta be conscious enough, aware enough to know what they are doing. And they are doing it.

It ain’t just people with disabilities, it’s other marginalized groups. LBGQ+ community, based on the new administration, do not exist. They’re not human. They have taken their rights away. We allow that to happen. Then it moves on to someone else. And all of a sudden, just like when the Nazis did with the Jews, we are wiping out a whole generation of folks.

Because that’s what happened, right? That’s what happened. Hitler start saying, “Those are the folks that are taking your job. Those are the folks that are causing crime and violence. Those are the enemies.” Ain’t that happening right now? Yeah. Yeah. They’re rounding up folks.

And they’re saying that inner cities are violent and infested with people who doing all of these nasty things. And all of a sudden, people become afraid.

And so, it is okay to have military folks. And all of a sudden, when military can do whatever they want, people rights are violated in a major way. And there’s no distinction between the innocent and the guilty. You just picking up everybody. That’s happening right now. And we gotta pay attention to that.

Alycia Anderson: We do have to pay attention to it. Like you said, it’s happening in small move by small move. It’s so gradual.

Theo Braddy: Subtle.

Alycia Anderson: Subtle. It just slides right in. What’s the advice to that next generation that feels overwhelmed, that wants to contribute, to have an active role in combating some of these things?

Theo Braddy: Yeah. Again, we struggle, right? We are not doing things collectively and in a major way by pulling all our resources together. One thing I’ve always said, “We can do more together than we can apart.” And we are not doing a greater job at that. We gotta be better at working together.

And I see that’s not happening the way it should. We’re getting better at it. Don’t get me wrong. We gotta work in unity. And I said this a few days ago to somebody, “One of the most beautiful things that I saw in a tragic moment was when George Floyd was murdered in the streets.”

But right after that, everybody was out protesting. Young, old, White, Black, Asian American. It was everybody. It was just a beautiful tapestry of folks from all backgrounds, young, old, in the streets saying, “This is wrong. We gotta do something about this.” I’m seeing some of that right now, but not enough of it. We gotta do a better job at that. And it’s one thing, as a person living with a disability, to say to decision makers and legislators that I am being discriminated against, I am being oppressed. It’s another thing for somebody, who’s white, non-disabled, have power and influence to say, “Those individuals over there are being discriminated against and oppressed. So people who have the power and influence, and let’s face it, these individuals are people without disabilities, right? They can go places we can’t. And so, those who are not oppressed have to point out and say that those group of people over there are being oppressed.

Because they have the power and influence. When we could do more of that, then I believe change would occur. Because it’s just not a group of disabled folks over there protesting again, right? It’s people, human beings, recognizing that we are working together to ensure that everybody have the place at the table and have the ability to function as human beings.

Alycia Anderson: That’s what was the most beautiful thing when Tony was on the show, who was the main architect of the ADA, told the story of people in power on all sides of the political spectrum. Found something meaning the disability rights movement, ADA. They all came together for this commonality, for the betterment of humankind, and they could all connect in this story of disability. And that is what allowed these amazing freedoms for us to come about. Exactly what you’re saying. And for some reason, right now in our country and our culture, we can’t come together for some reason. It’s so unbelievable.

So it’s such a lesson of what they did back then that we need to be mirroring, modeling. Or we’re in big trouble.

Yeah. We are. But everybody seem like they have their own thing, their own way. And when I came to run NCIL, as well as be on NCD, I was always looking for that one big thing. And what I meant by that, is that one big thing that would bring everybody together, right? ADA was that one big thing.

Theo Braddy: Affordable Care Act was one big thing. Medicaid, I was hoping would be that one big thing. A lot of people benefit from Medicaid. Asset limits. I thought that was gonna be the one big thing, because so many people are locked into poverty based on their inability to put away some wealth and assets, based on outdated rules, Medicaid rules, right?

That you can only have so much money, and so forth. I’ve been looking for that one big thing that everybody could say, “I’m willing to fight for that.” And I haven’t seen it yet. And the only thing that, unfortunately, has come close to that, to really surprise me, is Trump. Donald Trump.

Alycia Anderson: Oh.

Theo Braddy: Not everybody, but a lot of people are coming together based on what he’s doing.

I have seen that. Because it’s affecting a lot of folks.

Alycia Anderson: Yeah.

Theo Braddy: In the beginning, they didn’t think it would. But now, a lot of people are realizing he’s doing some things that we need to fight for and fight against. And so he’s bringing folks together. I’m just wondering whether it’s too late.

Alycia Anderson: I gotta have faith it’s never too late. We are at our time, but I wanna go a little bit longer ’cause fascinating. You’re gonna have to come back on. I wanna lift up your organization, the work you do. Can you talk a little bit about NCIL, NCD, the work you do, and how community can lift you up and support all the incredible work that y’all are doing?

Theo Braddy: Yeah. I’m glad you asked this. We are gonna start protect IL campaign. And because we need the funds to do this, right? We need funds to mobilize folks, to get ’em to DC. We need funds to eventually, if we need to go the legal route, to stop some of this stuff.

So we’re gonna be creating the fund that we are hoping a lot of corporations and places will be able to pay into that fund, because we don’t have the ability to change things right now, other than going through the courts. Because, unfortunately, Republicans in charge, and the Democrats don’t have a great deal of power.

And so, when things or administration start coming at funding, and that is happening. Yeah. Administration is stopping a lot of funding, in discretionary funding for a lot of organizations that are doing some really good work no longer have the funds, or the staff for that matter, to do the work.

And so, we are hoping that we can maybe take on some legal battles if we have to, because we don’t want that to happen to IL. The IL movement, our network of Centers for Independent Living, our network of state independent living councils, we don’t want that to happen. We still want to be able to do the work, right?

And, unfortunately, right now, we can’t because we are fighting all of these little battles. We are putting out all of these little fires that we can no longer envision stuff that is gonna advance the lives of people with disabilities. Instead, we are fighting little battles. And it’s taking up all our time and resources, so we need to build some funds to do that.

So that’s what people can do. That’s what corporations can do, right? I believe, Alycia, that DEAI is not always gonna be bad. The pentium will swing back. And when the pentium swing, there’s still gonna be a need for corporations, and business, and big businesses to ensure that people with disabilities, marginalized groups are a part of what they do.

It’s over 61 million Americans with disabilities, and that is growing. That ain’t gonna change. And the only thing that is gonna change is how you feel about inclusion, how you feel about equity, how you feel about accessibility, whether you against it or whether you for it. And those corporations that believe it’s a good thing will speak up.

And they will, again, started to ensure that all people have a place in their businesses and their corporations, and not be afraid of administration that made it into something bad. It isn’t bad. It never was bad. And America is not a homogeneous world. It is a world that made up with all kinds of people, all kinds of disabilities, all kinds of identities.

And when you embrace that, we are a wonderful world, a wonderful country to be in. But when you don’t, that’s when you have a lot of work today.

Alycia Anderson: Strangers in a strange land.

Theo Braddy: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: And I agree with you, it’s gonna come back. My platform’s called The Heart of Inclusion, and very focused on all these things that you’re talking about. Very rough year, right?

Scary year, honestly, doing the work sometimes. But towards the end of the year, I’m seeing organizations start to calm, open up again, wanna be in community.

It’s not significant, but I am starting to feel a slight shift. And I’m so

Theo Braddy: Yeah.

Alycia Anderson: hopeful for next year, and moving forward.

Theo Braddy: I’m seeing it too. I’m glad you picked up on it. I’m seeing the glimpses of hope as well. And so hopefully we’ll build on that.

Alycia Anderson: Okay, so, we’re gonna leave all your links in the show. You have to come back, ’cause we didn’t even get to your personal story, which is unbelievable to me. But this was one of the most incredible conversations I’ve ever had. I will keep it in my memories forever. I’m so thrilled about it. Thank you for just everything that you’ve done for us.

You’re such an amazing man.

Theo Braddy: A lot of people have helped me along the way, Alycia, and I feel always that I’m obligated to give back. That’s it for me, and so whenever I can do that, please just call me back.

Alycia Anderson: I have one thing you could give back to our community before we go, which is a pushing forward moment. Do you have a little mantra, motivation, advice, quote, saying, anything like that, that you could gift away into the Pushing Forward with Alycia community?

Theo Braddy: I say this a lot, Alycia. And that is, what we need right now, in regard to older folks helping younger folks with disabilities, is the recognition that this is a relay race versus a marathon, right? And what I mean by that, in a relay race, you got four-legged relay race, right? The most essential and most important part of that relay race is how you pass that baton.

You can either pass it well, or you can fumble it. Right now, it is very important for our older pioneers and people who’ve been around for a long time to pass that baton, so that the next runners can finish the race. And that is so important, right? And I think we maybe on the third leg, before we can get to the finish line. But my job, as a older runner, is to pass that baton well, so that younger person, who has the fresh legs, can finish this race.

And so, that’s all I would ever want to do while I still got a chance, because I got more years behind me than I do in front of me. And so, I’m very particular about what I wanna do and what I want to say, and what I want to be involved in. And the most important thing for me right now is to pass that baton well.

Alycia Anderson: Oooh-weee, pass the baton. I love that. That’s a beautiful analogy. Thank you so much for coming on the show. I am so excited to release this next week. We are ending with you and this amazing conversation. And just thank you so much for your time. So happy we finally did it.

Theo Braddy: Awesome. Bye-bye now.

Alycia Anderson: We made it to the finish line of the podcast together. Congratulations.

Theo Braddy: I love it. Yeah, you got so much energy. I love that.

Alycia Anderson: Oh, thanks. More to come. We’re new friends forever now. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you to our community for showing up the way you do with the show every week. Please share this episode. Your communities are gonna love it too. There’s so much to take away and learn from. This has been Pushing Forward with Alycia and Theo, and that is literally how we roll on this podcast.

We will see you next time.