Kyle Khachadurian:
This episode is sponsored by ABLE Now, tax advantage savings accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities.

Emily Ladau:
Ready to learn more about ABLE Accounts?

Kyle Khachadurian:
With Able Now’s live webinars and other online educational resources, you’ll discover the advantage of Able Accounts and the National Able Now Program. Learn directly from experts who can answer your questions about this groundbreaking financial tool that’s available to eligible Americans with disabilities in all 50 states.

Emily Ladau:
Register for an upcoming webinar and learn more about Able Now accounts at AbleNow.com. Hi, I’m Emily Ladau.

Kyle Khachadurian:
And I’m Kyle Khachadurian.

Emily Ladau:
And you’re listening to another episode of The Accessible Stall.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Emily, I’ve just discovered a brilliant YouTuber.

Emily Ladau:
Like just now discovered Brilliant YouTuber?

Kyle Khachadurian:
Just now, yes.

Emily Ladau:
Okay, enlighten me. I’m always looking for things to watch.

Kyle Khachadurian:
His name is Mr. Beast. You may have heard of him. I’m making a joke, but actually what we’re about to talk about was the first and probably only Mr. Beast video that I will ever and have ever watched. No offense to him. It was my first time.

Emily Ladau:
I am pretty sure that the three minutes of it that I watched when you just told me about it 10 minutes ago, is the only Mr. Beast content I have ever watched.

Kyle Khachadurian:
And I’m sorry to tell you that for from now on, your YouTube feed will have nothing but his face in it.

Emily Ladau:
I already get advertisements from him, like, “First 5 million viewers to my channel get $1000.” Anyway, why are we talking about some random super famous YouTuber?

Kyle Khachadurian:
Because he did a thing about disability, kind of. He cured 1000 people of blindness.

Emily Ladau:
Okay. Okay, I think we have a lot to unpack here.

Kyle Khachadurian:
She said the thing, air horn noise here. I will say when I first saw the title of the video, I was like, “You can’t do that.” And then I remembered that cataracts is a thing, and it’s also according to the video, but it’s probably also true because everyone knows somebody with cataracts. It’s like the number one cause of blindness and vision loss in the world.

Emily Ladau:
Hold on. Can you back up because I think it’s important that we don’t make our listeners go watch this video and just kind of give a quick overview of what it is and then we can dive into why we’re talking about it.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Oh, yeah, okay. So in the video, Mr. Beast, who is known for amazingly entertaining charity filled videos, did this thing where he gathered up 1000 people around the world and cured them of cataracts by paying for cataract surgery in developing nations. But more importantly, and to the point of this episode, the United States of America.

Emily Ladau:
Well now, okay, all right. Where do we start here? Because there’s a couple of threads and obviously first and foremost, the one that we need to talk about as good disabled people, TM, is the curing narrative.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Yeah, it’s there. I’m at an age where, and this is another… It’s funny because of our talk the other day, but I’m at an age where if you offered me a cure for what I got, I’m like, “Yeah, give it to me.” And if you, I don’t mean you Emily, I mean you listener, don’t agree with that or wherever you fall on that spectrum, I respect you. I’ve been through it all. Disability and cures are a weird thing in our world, because the rest of the world is like, “Well, I don’t know. I’d rather be dead, so I don’t understand why you wouldn’t cure it.”

Emily Ladau:
Okay. So I feel like in our gazillion plus previous episodes, we must have talked about this. I’m sure we’ve talked about it.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Yeah, we have.

Emily Ladau:
Our feelings on cures, but my feeling is I don’t want a cure in the sense that I want you to fix my disability, but if tomorrow I could wake up without chronic pain, I would be thrilled.

Kyle Khachadurian:
I think I said the exact same thing. That’s really cool. Yeah.

Emily Ladau:
Yeah. That’s it. Like I’m fine with myself as a disabled person. I am not objecting to having a disability. What I object to is the fact that existing in this body is exhausting. And if someone was like

Kyle Khachadurian:
For reasons that are mostly not your fault too. It’s like everything around you.

Emily Ladau:
Right. And I mean really, if you really want to talk about cures, I’d rather you cure ableism and inaccessibility and maybe fix that instead of fixing me, but-

Kyle Khachadurian:
Put that on a shirt with a pink ribbon.

Emily Ladau:
You could give me all the ramps in the world and my body would still hurt.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Yes. I think, and this perhaps is another episode, but I think there is a difference though. When you cure something that is curable and well-studied. This is not a new novel thing. This is cataract surgery. I think that’s a little different than curing someone of a chronic disability they were born with, especially if you didn’t do it when they were born, assuming you could, assuming it was possible. That’s the other thing. If it’s impossible, what I got, you can’t cure. That’s why it’s very easy for me to say, of course I would take it because it will never happen.

Emily Ladau:
There’s definitely nuance here in the sense that you and I have particularly complex disabilities and there is no quick fix surgery. And so my feelings on cures are very complicated. And I think that I’m never going to come to a full conclusion on that because like you said, it’s not possible. So I just think we needed to get that out of the way before we actually dive into the crux of the video. Well, okay. Actually I changed my mind again because good disabled people, TM, also need to talk about the inspiration narrative and the charity narrative before we get to the problem that I know you actually want to talk about.

Kyle Khachadurian:
You’re absolutely right, I said this to Emily before we started recording. This is not what I’m upset about, even though this is something that would normally upset me. The reason that the “charity porn”, I’m doing air quotes, and it is charity porn, but the reason why it doesn’t bother me in this case is because he is known to be a very philanthropic person and he’s never been shy about the fact that he’s doing this for money so we can give away more money. I’m not saying that that makes it better, but I am saying I respect somebody who’s never really hidden that as opposed to someone pretending they’re just in it for the good. And some people might be, but a lot of them aren’t. And that’s just the way it is.

Emily Ladau:
Philanthropy is such a complicated thing because I saw a tweet from Mr. Beast pointing out the fact that people complain that people who have a lot of money should give that money away. So then he gives that money away and then people get mad at him.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Yeah. I’m not smart enough to solve that problem, but I am smart enough to recognize that it is a problem, and when you connect it and mix it with disability and all of the complexities that has by itself, it’s just this mess that we would be remiss if we didn’t at least knowledge.

Emily Ladau:
Right. And it’s really challenging to talk about wealth distribution without recognizing all of the good that can come from philanthropy, but also recognizing that when someone is like, “Well, I’m going to use all this money to cure a disability,” it’s essentially saying, “I think something’s wrong with you and we should probably fix that. And I have money, so I’m going to fix that.” And again, complicated, because this is cataracts. This is something that is indeed very fixable. But I have always really struggled with philanthropies idea that what they should do with their money is eliminate disability rather than create a more equitable world.

Kyle Khachadurian:
I completely agree, but it is complicated because to me, it depends on what it is. And for whatever reason, to me, with my personal beliefs, I feel like cataracts falls into a category that I’m way more okay with, than if philanthropy as a whole decided tomorrow they would put every scent they had into defining a cure for Larsen syndrome. That would bother me a lot.

Emily Ladau:
Yeah, I guess there’s a difference between, for example, the Muscular Dystrophy Association telethons that are like, “Look at these poor crippled children. Please donate now. They have no lives. Please save us from our misery.” That was a whole thing in and of itself, whereas if it’s like cataract surgery, “We’re just going to help you out a little bit. Here you go. Live your life.”

Kyle Khachadurian:
And that brings me to my main problem with the video. The reason I was so fired up about this from the moment this video came out, because my issue with it is, why are we letting people with a totally curable situation just be there and not help them? What is that? That’s not acceptable.

Emily Ladau:
Kyle, that’s called capitalism and the American health system.

Kyle Khachadurian:
It’s a joke. And I know that we both know it’s a joke. And I also know that everybody listening to this knows it’s a joke, but there is something like cartoonishly evil about the fact that a young man with more money than God had to be the person. He’s not the problem, but I’m just saying, why is that his responsibility? Why is it any one person’s responsibility? I do not agree with that. It’s like a societal, structural problem that just needs to be fixed. I don’t think it’s Mr. Beast’s job. I don’t think it’s my job. I don’t think it’s your job. I do think it’s all of our job. And yes, today it’s cataracts, but tomorrow it could be something else that we all agree is bad. I don’t know, COVID or something.

Emily Ladau:
Actually, I hadn’t thought about that until just now, but yeah. How about some of these philanthropists put their money where their mouth is and do something about COVID? Oh wait.

Kyle Khachadurian:
My issue really is with the way we do healthcare here, but the reason why this video really kind of touched me is because cataracts is just one extremely preventable problem that we just let people live with who don’t have money. It is not the only one.

Emily Ladau:
It’s the same thing with access to insulin, for example.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Yeah, exactly.

Emily Ladau:
Insulin is something that saves people’s lives, and yet here we are being like, “Ooh, sorry. You can’t afford it? Oh, we don’t really care.”

Kyle Khachadurian:
Yeah, we’d rather you just die. Yeah, it’s fine. We don’t need you. And I was telling Emily too, even if you are a very conservative person, and even if all you care about is your bottom line, your ROI, statistically blind people are the most unemployed disabled people that there are. My fiance knows the statistics, like 80% or something. Don’t quote me on the number, but she’ll correct me and we’ll put it in the show notes. It’s a very high number, even among us. Why wouldn’t you want them to be able to work and contribute to the economy if you’re that kind of person?

Emily Ladau:
I have a counterpoint to that, but I know that you’re trying to be conservative here when you’re saying this.

Kyle Khachadurian:
I’m not a conservative, so I’m trying my best.

Emily Ladau:
I know you’re not. Well, my counterpoint to that conservative take is that blind people can absolutely contribute to the economy without having to solve blindness as though it is a problem.

Kyle Khachadurian:
I completely agree.

Emily Ladau:
I know you do. When the problem is in fact that we perpetuate inaccessibility and a lack of inclusivity in our workplaces, and then we blame it on disabled people for not getting jobs.

Kyle Khachadurian:
What if we did both things?

Emily Ladau:
You mean provided proper healthcare for people and also employed people?

Kyle Khachadurian:
And remove all those barriers too. One at a time. Doesn’t have to happen overnight. That’s unrealistic. One institution at a time, until eventually-

Emily Ladau:
I’m sorry, everything you said sounds a little too utopian for me.

Kyle Khachadurian:
But it isn’t though. I just feel like that’s like… Utopia for me would be like, oh, we’ve moved past the need for money. I’m just asking for a world that doesn’t put you and I at a structural disadvantage that we didn’t ask for, didn’t want and are just doing our best to make it. And this isn’t really about Mr. Beast, right? It’s just about how charity in America, we, all of us, we like to feel like the heroes. We like to feel like the good guys. We all do. It’s literally in our… From the moment we’re born, our doctors slap us on the bottom and are like, “You’re in the greatest country on earth. God bless you.” And we like to feel good, but when it comes to systemic change, it’s like, “Oh, I can’t do that. That might help someone. I hate that.” That’s just who we are. And it boggles my mind. I’m not saying I’m not a part of it too. I’m just saying when I really sit and think about it, it’s weird.

Emily Ladau:
So on that note, now, a word from today’s episode sponsor. This episode is sponsored by Able Now, tax advantage savings accounts for eligible individuals with disabilities.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Ready to learn more about ABLE Accounts?

Emily Ladau:
With Able Now’s live webinars, you’ll discover the advantages of Able Accounts and the National Able Now program. Hear directly from experts as they answer all your questions about this groundbreaking financial tool for people with disabilities.

Kyle Khachadurian:
On the Able Now website, you’ll also find past webinars available on demand, as well as saving tips to maximize your money on the Able Now blog.

Emily Ladau:
These free resources will help you understand the ins and outs of tax advantage Able Now accounts. Learn how Able Now is helping eligible individuals in all 50 states save for the future without endangering certain disability benefits, such as Medicaid and SSI.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Feel prepared to start investing in your future with ABLE Now.

Emily Ladau:
Register for an upcoming webinar and learn more about ABLE Now accounts at AbleNow.com. Actually, that was just me taking a moment because I needed to process the visual of getting slapped on the butt and welcomed to America. But look, in all seriousness, I think what I struggle most with is the fact that I have two narratives that are completely at odds with each other. Where on the one hand I’m like, we have a horrible healthcare system that’s not helping people. And on the other hand, I’m like, we have a horrible mindset that’s assuming that we need to cure everyone. And so I’m having trouble juxtaposing those two viewpoints and processing exactly how I feel about the concept of philanthropy for a cure. And that’s basically just me summing up everything I’ve been thinking about this whole episode.

Kyle Khachadurian:
I’m not even in the cure everybody camp. I’m just like, cure people who would like to be cured. It doesn’t have to cure everybody, you know what I mean? Don’t cure anyone that doesn’t want to be cured. I’m just saying I don’t like the fact that there is a cure. Today, it’s cataracts. Tomorrow, it could be something, I don’t know, asthma or something. I don’t know. Whatever you, dear listener, whatever your most annoying health problem is, that is a common thing.

Emily Ladau:
Whoa. Would you like a list?

Kyle Khachadurian:
Yeah, but that’s my point.

Emily Ladau:
I got a list.

Kyle Khachadurian:
I know that we’re talking about disability because this is something that can lead to blindness and we are good disabled people and disabled lives are worth living. Yeah, that’s all true. But it’s curable. I’m not saying that that means that you have to do it, but the option I think should just be there without having to bankrupt you, if you want it.

Emily Ladau:
I think that’s what it comes down to. You should have the option to have access to it. I think that we can get a little militant as disabled people and be like, “Absolutely everyone should be totally fine with every part of their body and not change a single aspect of it.” And then at the same time, we can be militant in the sense that we’re like, “Everybody should have access to great healthcare and should be able to do whatever they want to their body.” And it’s like, oh, okay. Have it both ways, I guess.

Kyle Khachadurian:
I mean, I say that, but then I think, how much money did I spend fixing my teeth last year? It’s an amount that I don’t want to say out loud. It’s very, it’s weird because it doesn’t feel hypocritical to me, but I guess if I’m being as logical as possible, you don’t want to change yourself. Sure, okay. That’s a good moral message. That’s a good starting point. That’s a good root of belief. But there is some things you look in the mirror and you’re like, “I don’t like that.” And for some people, for me it was my teeth. For those 1000 people in the Mr. Beast video, it was the fact they couldn’t see. It’s fixable.

Emily Ladau:
Right. And I don’t think it was like, “Oh, I don’t like that.” It’s like, “Oh, we live in a society that is not making it easy for me to function, so therefore I would like this fixed.”

Kyle Khachadurian:
Exactly. Well, yeah, I can’t, to be fair, I can’t get in their head and tell why they wanted it. It could be that. It could be, I just didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t see. It could be anything. We are good. We have to put on our disability hats because that’s what we do here.

Emily Ladau:
But the problem is that we’re fixing people and we’re not fixing systems.

Kyle Khachadurian:
That’s exactly it.

Emily Ladau:
This is what we always take way too long to get to the-

Kyle Khachadurian:
No, no, no. This is a record though. This is only 19 minutes. That’s exactly it. It’s the same thing with the plastic straw. It’s like, “Oh, you want to ban the plastic straw to put the onus on recycling of the individual when really the problem with carbon emissions is caused by seven companies that contribute 80 to 90% of this issue?” And we have to throw away our plastic straws.

Emily Ladau:
Or pre peeled fruit, anyone?

Kyle Khachadurian:
Man, you know, you always have that. You can tell, but you’re right.

Emily Ladau:
‘Cause it’s always in my back pocket. I literally today was talking to my mom and she was asking me if I wanted something pre-sliced that she was planning on sending with me to my apartment because she is nothing if not the Jewish-est of mothers.

Kyle Khachadurian:
I love her.

Emily Ladau:
So we were talking about how do we do it in a way that’s the least wasteful? And then she brought up something about like, “Oh, I think I need to give you a vegetable peeler for the kitchen.” And I was like, “What vegetables am I going to peel?” And she was like, “Carrots.” And I was like, “No, I’m going to buy baby carrots because I don’t have the dexterity to sit there and peel a freaking whole carrot.” Anyway, this is a total tangent, but once again, pre peeled fruit wins the day because the problem is not the people who need pre peeled fruit. The problem is that companies have not come up with options for sustainable biodegradable packaging. Companies are the ones who are creating all of the waste. It’s not my fault that I have a hard time peeling a carrot. You’re going to have to do so much bleeping. But I just like-

Kyle Khachadurian:
It’s all right. No, but it’s the exact same thing.

Emily Ladau:
Fix the systems, fix the systems.

Kyle Khachadurian:
It was hard to get to the end of that. It was a very hollow feeling because on the one hand, yeah, cool. 1000 people can see again. And look, he gave a lot of them money and cars and all kinds of cool stuff. That’s great. On the other hand, God, it’s a YouTuber. It’s not like he’s even a doctor. He just funded a doctor.

Emily Ladau:
Right. It really bums me out because it’s a reminder that we do not have adequate transportation. We do not have adequate healthcare. We do not have adequate employment opportunities. We do not have adequate education opportunities. I mean, the list goes on, but I just think about the fact that I would love to live in a world where people could get their cataracts fixed if they wanted to, but they could also live with it because they decided it’s fine and the world is accessible to them, so it’s not actually an obstacle.

Kyle Khachadurian:
I could not agree more. And I know I’ve said this a bunch, but this is not about the cataracts. That was just the example in the video. But you’re right, you’re absolutely 100% right.

Emily Ladau:
Yeah. So I don’t know. I have such a hard time. Also, also, while I’m thinking about this, yes, this points to a systemic issue. We haven’t even really talked about it from an entertainment perspective though. And I recognize that Mr. Beast is the type of YouTuber, I think, who does things in an entertainment format, you were saying, so that he can earn money to then put the money back into it.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Yes.

Emily Ladau:
But I also take issue with the fact that our social problems have become entertainment. It’s the same thing to me as when you see an article go viral about someone’s GoFundMe and it’s like, I think it’s disgusting that they needed a GoFundMe. Perfect example was there was a town that rallied around a young boy who needed a wheelchair accessible vehicle, and his friend started a GoFundMe campaign for the family and got everyone to contribute money so he could have a wheelchair accessible vehicle. And my freaking question is why do wheelchair accessible vehicles need to be so cost prohibitive that we have a cute little feel good story at the end of the six o’clock news that his friend in elementary school raised money for him with a GoFundMe? Like, is that nice? Is he a good friend? Yes. But like, ugh.

Kyle Khachadurian:
It’s right up there with the same thing, but it’s like student lunch debt, which is something that, those words should not exist in that order. It’s like, yeah, good for you for doing that.

Emily Ladau:
You should see me and Kyle right now, because we’re so worked up about this that while he’s talking I’m like, gesticulating wildly. And while I’m talking he’s like, gesticulating wildly.

Kyle Khachadurian:
This is the most awake we’ve been in a long time.

Emily Ladau:
It is. And this is at night.

Kyle Khachadurian:
This is, it’s just because it’s so, you just want to shake a politician, say, “What are you doing? What are you actually doing?”

Emily Ladau:
Yeah. Just completely preventable. You want to know something else I saw on Twitter the other day, because apparently we’re just complaining about systems now? There was a sign posted somewhere saying that an employee was ill and had used all of her PTODs, but still needed time off for treatment. And would other employees in the building consider donating PTO days to her? And I was like, how about you just let this employee have some time off instead of forcing other people to give up their time off?

Kyle Khachadurian:
Honestly, I would. I just want to tell you that. I know you know that, but I would donate some, but I shouldn’t have to. That is not my job, an employee. It’s their job. It’s horrible. That is so… Yeah, it’s dystopian. I just hate it. It’s not a feel good story. And that’s the other thing too. It’s the way the media perpetuates, and this is Mr. Beast too. He’s media, right? They make it like it’s a feel good thing. And yes, curing people of something that they wanted to be cured of does make you feel good. Yes, okay. But the fact of the matter is, why does it have to be that way? There’s so many steps for it to be that way than it would be to just be like, “Hey, you have cataracts. Get a surgery to get it removed.” “Thank you.” “This surgery is paid for by your taxes.” “Wow. I’m glad I pay those.” “Thank you.” That’s it. That’s what it should be.

Emily Ladau:
As I think about all the taxes that I’m about to pay, to get what from society, exactly?

Kyle Khachadurian:
Roads and a big military?

Emily Ladau:
Cool. I love war and crumbling infrastructure.

Kyle Khachadurian:
They’re my two favorite things.

Emily Ladau:
Man, I’m so worked up now.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Isn’t it awful?

Emily Ladau:
It’s also, okay, one other thing that I’m thinking is how often when people like us critique stories like these, we end up having people calling us bitter.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Ugh. No, it’s not. He did a good thing for people that wanted him to do it. It’s not about that. Just think out. It does not exist in a vacuum. It’s a product of the society that we live in. That is the problem.

Emily Ladau:
I just think about all the times that I have been called a killjoy or someone who is like-

Kyle Khachadurian:
A wet blanket, yeah.

Emily Ladau:
Yeah, or I’m incapable of appreciating somebody else’s happiness. I’m not going to take that happiness away from you. Great. Cool. But at the same time, I also don’t want to perpetuate the message that we should feel comfortable with this or that this should be the norm. Because it’s not.

Kyle Khachadurian:
I feel that kind of way when we’ve talked about disability in the news to death, but I feel like when-

Emily Ladau:
This is a show about disability, of course we have.

Kyle Khachadurian:
I feel that kind of way when it’s three guys at a bachelor party and the bachelor, the person getting married is in a wheelchair, and so they lift him up so he can dance or something. I bet, man, that’s a good group of friends. And I bet he feels great. Why am I watching it? Why are you filming it? I mean, yeah, honestly, I’m part of the problem. ‘Cause I watched that. I’m like, I’m glad I watched that. Wow. He looks like he has a good group of friends. Wow. I’m so glad I saw it. Truly. But then I’m like, wait a minute. No, I’m not. That’s an intimate moment between you and your friends. That’s a super personal thing that I’m honestly kind of glad I saw, but I shouldn’t have seen.

Emily Ladau:
Or the whole narrative of, look at these amazing friends. Aren’t they such good people for doing this thing for this person? And it’s like, okay, maybe in the moment the person was happy, I’m glad for that person. I don’t want to take that person’s happiness away. But what I do want people to understand is that this doesn’t need to be a newsworthy thing. “Friends were good to friends. More at 11.” Come on.

Kyle Khachadurian:
I appreciate feel good news, but I will never, it feels like a missed opportunity not to bring up the fact that a lot of them aren’t, number one. And number two is, there’s reasons why we feel good when we watch them. It’s because we recognize something is wrong and that something is being done about the thing. And what we like to do and what we’re doing now is saying, okay, but what if it was just like that all or most of the time?

Emily Ladau:
Also, we need to flip our perception of what’s wrong. I can’t believe I haven’t brought this up yet, but when you’re watching, for example, those videos where a baby gets a cochlear implant and you see the baby “hearing” for the first time, but they’re actually just getting a bunch of mechanical garble into their head and you see the baby’s reaction and everyone’s weeping because it’s like, “Oh my God, the baby can hear.” And it’s like, yeah, because you thought something was wrong with that person because they couldn’t hear. We need to flip the script a little bit.

Kyle Khachadurian:
But it’s funny that you say that, because there’s as many videos of those as there are about babies getting their first pair of glasses and seeing something for the first time, seeing their parents clearly. I love those. I do.

Emily Ladau:
Or babies walking. I literally was thinking about this the other day, because my neighbor, he is going to be one and a half-ish soon, and he’s just starting to walk. And I, someone who hasn’t walked in years, thinking it’s the cutest thing. And when he stands up and waddles like a little drunk man, I’m like, “Yay.” And then I’m like, wait a minute. Is this ableist and problematic or are we excited about it? He reached a developmental milestone.

Kyle Khachadurian:
The ableist thing isn’t feeling good for him. It’s cool when babies do normal stuff, they’re figuring stuff out. It’s cool. It is. It’s cool.

Emily Ladau:
I literally looked at my mom as I was clapping for him and so excited because he was just waddling his little butt off. And I was like, I’m getting so excited about this thing that I cannot do.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Yeah, ’cause it’s cool to see, but okay, it’s cool to see someone do something you can’t do either. That’s why everybody watches sports. I mean, I don’t, but you know. I’m not saying… That’s a bad example, but I’m just saying it’s also-

Emily Ladau:
I don’t watch sports.

Kyle Khachadurian:
I know.

Emily Ladau:
I know.

Kyle Khachadurian:
But I’m just saying that’s just cool.

Emily Ladau:
Olympic gymnastics and figure skating. That’s cool. That’s cool, ’cause I can’t do that.

Kyle Khachadurian:
I’m stealing this from a comedian, but it’s something that, I don’t remember who it is, but there should be a benchmark guy at the Olympics in every event. Just a normal person just plucked out of the country they’re representing, just so that we could all get a better appreciation for how good those athletes are. Because I don’t know, you won the 100-

Emily Ladau:
Your average Joe, who just falls flat on their face?

Kyle Khachadurian:
Oh no. I mean, they have to be able to do it without hurting themselves.

Emily Ladau:
Oh, okay.

Kyle Khachadurian:
But I’m saying I want a normal person who doesn’t train for their entire life up to that point. Just as a perspective. Just for perspective.

Emily Ladau:
I think we’ve gone totally off the rails, as we usually do. First we get to our point about halfway through the episode, then we go off on tangents, then we bring it back around to final takeaways and that’s what we should do now.

Kyle Khachadurian:
God, if there’s one thing I want a listener to take away, first of all, watch the video. Don’t just listen for our opinion. Make your own. Seriously. But my point for the episode is like, there are systemic problems. When you feel bad about using a straw, a single-use straw, or using a plastic bag or buying something from Walmart, don’t feel guilty. That’s not you. That’s not your fault. That’s not your responsibility. Those responsibilities should fall on our corporate overlords in this country. But they don’t. But they should. And that should make you feel however it is you want to feel. So yeah, that’s my final takeaway.

Emily Ladau:
I just did this to myself today. I had to go to CVS to buy a bunch of stuff and I threw it all in the one reusable tote bag that I had. And that one reusable tote bag was really heavy and unwieldy for me to carry. And so the cashier said, “Would you like a second bag? We have giant plastic bags.” And I was like, “No, no, it’s okay. I don’t want to be wasteful. And so I will just carry everything in this one bag.” Could I have made my life easier? Absolutely. Did I? No, because I had some guilty conscience as though me taking one plastic bag from CVS was the problem.

Kyle Khachadurian:
End of the earth. Sorry to be the one to tell you.

Emily Ladau:
I also did my part by not letting them print out their receipt, which I could have used to wallpaper the apartment, it was so long. And it said they-

Kyle Khachadurian:
Did they actually not print it out or… Okay, okay.

Emily Ladau:
They didn’t print it out. They emailed it to me.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Sometimes they’ll say, “Do you want a receipt?” And I’ll say no. And then they have to print it out and they just crumple it up. But if they emailed it, that’s pretty good.

Emily Ladau:
Yeah, no, they gave me the option to have it emailed, which was great. So here I am leaving the store thinking, “Wow, I did my part today because I didn’t take the plastic bag and I didn’t have my receipt printed out.” But come on, I am not saving the world over here.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Meanwhile, I’m over here. DC has banned plastic bags forever ago. I have a whole thing of not only do I have tote bags, more than I could ever need, more than I can give away, and a bag of single-use plastic bags ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice. When I go to a store, I forget all of that and will refuse to pay the nickel bag fee. And we’ll instead shove everything into my pockets, just like an entire gallon of milk, 400 eggs. No, I’m not made of money, but I don’t mind paying the nickel. It’s a nickel. That’s a type of privilege that I have, but still, no, not going to make my life easy. I don’t care. 5 cents. I don’t care. Not going to do it.

Emily Ladau:
You know what? I think in honor of this episode, I’m going to use a plastic straw tomorrow and I’m going to feel great about it.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Yeah, because you know what? During that whole straw debate, which is funny now because the big one now is plant-based straws that look and feel like plastic straws. They’re so good. That’s great. I love that. That solves all of the problems. But I remember thinking, and I still think this, you don’t have to listen to this by the way guys, but you got to bring your straw. Who’s going to bring their straw? If anyone brings their straw to a restaurant, can you please email us? And I just want to know why you bring a straw. You bring your straw from home to a restaurant?

Emily Ladau:
Disabled people do that.

Kyle Khachadurian:
If you’re disabled, anything that I find weird when non-disabled people do it. If you’re disabled and you do that thing that I’m saying, I assume you have a very good reason. I’m leaving all of us out of this. We are a group. We have to stick together. Okay, I’m talking-

Emily Ladau:
Okay. So are you saying that we are actually the normal ones?

Kyle Khachadurian:
Let’s not go too far.

Emily Ladau:
Okay.

Kyle Khachadurian:
I couldn’t resist.

Emily Ladau:
My final takeaway. Disabled people should not require charity and do not require charity. And yet we live in a society where we are put constantly in positions that make us feel like we need to be on the receiving end of charity. And that is incredibly unjust, inequitable and downright frustrating. And in my ideal version of society, people like Mr. Beast would not have to exist because we would instead have socialized healthcare.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Yeah. I mean, he could still make those hamburgers. Those are pretty good. But yeah.

Emily Ladau:
He makes some other stuff too, right?

Kyle Khachadurian:
Yeah, he does a lot of stuff. I don’t know. This is the first Mr. Beast video I’ve ever seen, so I don’t know.

Emily Ladau:
Yeah, me too.

Kyle Khachadurian:
But I know that he is generally regarded as a more all right guy than not. At least for now. Who knows? Who knows?

Emily Ladau:
We’re going to be eating our words in like a year.

Kyle Khachadurian:
That’s why I put that there. Just in case, because I could be like “I told you”, even though I did not tell anybody. This has been another episode of The Accessible Stall. Emily, if they want to support the show, where can they go and do that?

Emily Ladau:
Patreon.com/TheAccessibleStall. Just $1, or more if you’re feeling generous like Mr. Beast, a month can help ensure that the accessible stall remains what?

Kyle Khachadurian:
Accessible. At Mr. Beast, please support our Patreon.

Emily Ladau:
Can you imagine? Okay. Can everyone help us start a new campaign, please? I would like someone to start a petition for Mr. Beast to support The Accessible Stall, and if he does not, he’s a very bad person.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Just kidding. But do that though.

Emily Ladau:
I’m not kidding.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Yeah, just $1 a month ensures that all of our current and future episodes and our past episodes, we’ve forgotten before, remain accessible. So yeah, do that if you’re willing and able.

Emily Ladau:
We transcribe all our episodes because we, this little old podcast that could, believe in providing access for everyone rather than shutting people out.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Yes. It’s weird, I know.

Emily Ladau:
On that note, thanks so much for listening,

Kyle Khachadurian:
And might we say you look great today. Your hair is so good.

Emily Ladau:
Absolutely killing it. Please go look in a mirror, if that is in fact accessible to you, and tell yourself that you’re sexy.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Because you are.

Emily Ladau:
We love you.

Kyle Khachadurian:
Bye.

Emily Ladau:
Bye.