Pushing Limits is a radio program by, for and about people with disabilities. It alternates weekly and airs on Odd weeks at 2:30 pm Friday on KPFA 94.1fm and is produced by an independent collective of radio journalists with disabilities.
Pushing Limits provides critical on-going media coverage of people with disabilities and bring the insights of the grassroots disability movement to the general public. We are a proud part of the disability rights movement and approach our programming from the left side of the political dial. The guests are almost exclusively people with disabilities and include everyone from individuals who have just become disabled to long-term movement activists.
Topics range from personal stories about individual disabilities to national/ international political and policy questions. We analyze the problems, put forth the solutions, voice our communal outrage, celebrate our strength, and spend a fair amount of time laughing.
Pushing Limits programs have included: “Spoken Word by Writers, Musicians and Radio Artists with Disabilities,” “Sally Zinman on Forced Treatment of People with Mental Disabilities,” “Police Violence and Disabilities” and “Eliminate Disability? We train a limited number of people with disabilities in radio skills.
Pushing Limits began broadcasting on KPFA in October of 2003. The program received a Certificate of Recognition from the Oakland Mayor’s Commission on Persons with Disabilities in 2006. To hear earlier programs, search the KPFA archives or look on the website at PushingLimits.i941.net. We’re on Facebook as Pushing Limits Radio. Contact us. (510) 848-6767 ext. 636, [email protected]
Pushing Limits Staff:
Sheela Gunn-Cushman studied journalism and broadcasting at Chabot College in the early/mid ’90s. It was there and then that she discovered how to channel anger into advocacy. She has been involved in the blindness and Independent Living movement ever since. It wasn’t until 2012 that the advocacy and the “hobby” that had never fully sprouted came together with her involvement on the Pushing Limits Collective. Now she interviews in the field, on Skype and in studio, and shares in the editing and production work.
Adrienne Lauby is a founding member of the Pushing Limits collective. She is a bisexual feminist who became disabled by severe asthma in her mid-thirties. The oldest daughter in a farm family of ten children, she graduated from Creighton University and earned a masters degree in English/Creative Writing from Sonoma State University. Her journalistic work began in college and with Women’s Press, an alternative women’s newspaper in Eugene, Oregon in the mid 1970s. She is current active in homeless issues in Sonoma County where she resides. Adrienne received the “Russ and Mary Jorgensen Courage of Commitment Award” from the Sonoma County Peace and Justice Center in 2014. Contact her at: [email protected]
Eddie Ytuarte is a 69 year old community activist who has lived in the Bay Area since the mid-1970’s. Currently he is involved in Oakland tenants rights. Mr. Ytuarte began his career as an activist in 1970 while studying to become a public school teacher. His introduction to progressive and Chicano politics deterred him from that pursuit. In forty plus years of activism, he has been involved with cultural arts promotion, working with the United Farm Workers Union, the development of a news service for Latino community newspapers. His work has included poetry, biligual/bicultural health care, perinatal health services, and tenant and disability rights. He can be contacted at [email protected]
KPFA has been home to Josh Elwood for many years and he considers his work colleagues extended family members. The station relies on Josh to ensure the mail room and recycling run smoothly and efficiently. Following the tradition of his father, Phil Elwood, who produced jazz programming for four decades, Josh began working at KPFA as an intern and, long ago, became an integral part of the team. His work with Pushing Limits includes live hosting during fund drives and for musical programs, pre-recorded essays and regular voicing of the lead-in station i.d.
Shelley Berman (pictured with her emotional service dog, Sparky.) has been part of the Pushing Limits collective for the past decade. Shelley started behind the scenes, doing audio editing, and progressed to the big time, taking over the microphone and beaming out our massive 59,000 watts to the masses. “My disability is depression. Sometimes I just can’t get up outta bed. Sometimes I can’t get myself to bed at night. Sometimes life seems like (only) the thorns on a bed of roses. All roads seem to lead to bed, so I’ll quit writing and go back to my comfort zone.” Humor: Intact.
Thanks for listening to Pushing Limits, and see you on the radio!