Tuesday Topics

Paul Edwards, American Council of the Blind
  • 5.0 (1)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY

Tuesday Topics is a weekly exploration of a single topic from a blindness perspective brought to you by the American Council of the Blind. Co-hosted by Paul Edwards and Rick Morin, this two-hour podcast features panelists and live questions and comments from the zoom audience. We hope to fully explore any topic we cover! Divergent opinions are encouraged!

  1. 4D AGO

    20260210 Tuesday Topics: New technology that make sports more accessible

    I think particularly people who are born blind often assume they know a lot more about how sports work than they actually do! I know that I take formations in football for granted and don't have a good understanding of how players are placed in cricket even though these are sports I follow. It will be interesting to see how two folks who have been blind all their lives (I think) experience new technologies that make football and basketball more accessible. I don't have a clear idea of what I am missing from tv! I know there are stats that appear! I know that there are replays and diagrams! I am aware that those who can see have much more information about what is going on than I do! Should broadcasters do more for people who are blind? I worked with the then Florida Marlins to create better access! They promised to make devices available that would provide audio description to those who attended the game but never followed through. What would we want audio description to include? Should we expect more from radio? I think that a lot more information used to be included in radio broadcasts! Was that because there did not used to be tv versions of every game? Should we expect more? Should we write a resolution that should be sent to sports leagues asking for particular things? What ought they to be? Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

    2 hr

  2. FEB 3

    20260203 - Tuesday Topics Affiliate initiatives for membership.

    Tuesday Topics will take a big risk! Lots of our shows depend on hearing from guests. We sometimes invite several guests to join us! This time we are making a different sort of invitation! We are inviting affiliates to tell us what they do to build membership! Virtually everybody knows about BITS and its hugely successful effort to increase its membership. We heard last night that it's important for ACB to get new members! We heard that, in spite of what we might have heard, at large memberships only constitute about 1 percent of our group! What are affiliates doing to encourage new members? What more could they do? Can they learn from BITS? Are there state affiliates that are doing cool things? What about local chapters? If this program is going to be successful we need to hear from affiliates who are doing cool things! If your affiliate isn't making special efforts, perhaps you need to listen to our program to discover some approaches that other states and groups are trying! Do you take special steps to assure that those who joined last year come back? Have you ever reached out to those who don't return to ask them why? These are just a few of the many questions we want to explore on our program that explores the other side of membership! We heard what ACB is doing! Now let's hear what our affiliates do! Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

    1h 59m

  3. JAN 28

    20260127 Tuesday Topics - Membership

    This is the time of year when our affiliates are getting ready to send in membership lists so we thought it might be a good thing to talk about the good, the bad and the ugly about how we are doing at the local, state and national level at encouraging new members. It's generally accepted that our membership numbers are falling. Why is that? Are there particular reasons it is happening to ACB? A few groups are growing! Who are they and why is it happening? What does falling membership mean? How is it affecting ACB'S ability to do what it's supposed to do! There are lots of other questions we will explore surrounding recruitment and retention and how we can do better! Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

    1h 59m

  4. JAN 20

    20260120 Tuesday Topics - Your bests of the best from 2025.

    It is still January so many people will still have a pretty good memory of what happened last year! We thought it would be fun to ask you to think back to last year and tell us about some cool things you found last year. We would like to hear about the best book you read! We want to know about the best movie you saw! (It doesn't have to be a new one!) We want to know about what you think the best song or album from last year was! Finally, we would love to know what the coolest thing you did last year might be! You are our audience and you are what makes Tuesday Topics vibrant and compelling! Help us again by sharing the books, movies, songs and events that made 2025 outstanding for you! Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

    1h 44m

  5. JAN 13

    20260113 - Tuesday Topics - the Totals versus the Partials.

    Tuesday Topics will encourage folks to consider an issue that could potentially create some interesting disagreements. As we take to the internet and a range of devices too numerous to mention, we will explore together a question that everybody has thought about but many have avoided discussing! Many people attempt to persuade us that there is only one sort of person with visual impairments. That person is "blind". In reality, according to some statistics I have seen, only ten percent of those with vision loss are totally blind. That leaves 90 percent of those with some loss of sight who have some usable vision. How do the two groups interact? Is either group privileged? Do people with some vision get treated fairly? Do people with no vision get treated fairly? Obviously I am talking about how folks are regarded by others with vision loss! All of us know that people with vision loss are treated unfairly by those without it! What does the attitude of partials look like? Do they perceive themselves as superior? Do totals feel that they are the only ones who are truly "blind"? Is there friction between the two groups? Are "partials" caught in the middle so that they are disparaged by those who can see and those who can't? These are just some of the questions we will encourage folks to explore next week on Tuesday Topics! Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

    1h 59m

  6. JAN 7

    20260106 - Tuesday Topics - Looking ahead with outsight.

    Usually on Tuesday Topics we attach our predictions to other elements like "how to keep your resolutions" or something similar! This time we are flat out prognosticating! We are gazing blindly into the future with the hope that something from the chaos of what is to be will trickle back to us! I would argue that these times are as hard as any time ever during which to look ahead! The art of extrapolation says that we ought to be able to take what has just happened and assume that these events will help us unerringly identify those actions that the events that have happened portend. Lately, friends, it does not appear to work like that! I will be fascinated to see what the team comes up with and what you believe will be the big events of 2026. From 7 to 9 PM Eastern time January 6 2026 Tuesday Topics will once more take to the internet. It is time for all of us to look ahead to 2026 and predict what we believe is in store for people who are blind, our country, the world and whatever other things we are minded to predict. With the new year less than a week old we will gaze into our crystal balls and dare to extrapolate from the present what we believe the next twelve months will hold. What will new technology look like? What will preoccupy ACB? Last year went in directions none of us managed to anticipate! Will wars end? Where will our economy go? How will artificial intelligence evolve? Dare we look ahead to the mid-term elections? Maybe not! What do you, our Tuesday Topics audience, see in the future? Join our effort to penetrate the unknown with bold predictions where no internet podcast or live program dares to go! Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

    1h 60m

  7. 12/17/2025

    20251216 - Tuesday Topics - The year 2025.

    Those of you who have been long time listeners to our show can probably guess what our topic is. At the end of each year we like to review the events that those of us on the team and you think are the most significant things that have happened during this year. We are pretty loose about what can be included but want to talk about blindness things, technology, movies, books and whatever else seems to come up. There are some things we know we should be thankful for and we like to look at some of those. There are probably some trends that are not so great and we will probably talk about some of those. The bottom line, dear topickers, is that we want to end up with a sense of 2025 that we can take forward with us to 2026. Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

    1h 60m

  8. 12/10/2025

    20251209 - Tuesday Topics - Vision With Closed Eyes.

    There appears to be a whole range of ways that the brain reacts to picturing something with one's eyes closed. I listened to a recent program where a condition was described that intrigued me. The term I heard was "afantesia" but that appears not to be the correct name of the condition. Essentially people who have this condition see nothing in their brains when they close their eyes and try to picture even something as concrete as an apple. At the other end of the spectrum there are people who have, again not the correct word apparently, "hyperfantesia". These individuals can be reading a fantasy novel with dragons or unicorns and, when they close their eyes, they can see images of these elements as clearly as though they were a part of the story. It appears that ten percent of folks are at one end and ten percent at the other end and the rest of us somewhere in the middle. Clearly people who were born blind will probably be at the not-see end but what about people who have lost their vision later in life? What do they see with their eyes closed? Are those folks on all ranges of the spectrum from nothing to everything? People who are born blind dream! How do they dream? Is there a difference between the way people who have seen dream? Do they dream with the sight they used to have? Does their ability to "see" lessen with time? Essentially, we want to explore perception awake and asleep. The questions I have suggested are just the tip of the iceberg. I will tell all of you about my dreams if you join us! So will others! I can tell you now that I see nothing with my eyes closed! Oddly en, I don't smell anything or hear anything either which, one would think, ought to be a possibility. Find out more at https://acb-tuesday-topics.pinecast.co

    1h 60m
See All (232)

About

Tuesday Topics is a weekly exploration of a single topic from a blindness perspective brought to you by the American Council of the Blind. Co-hosted by Paul Edwards and Rick Morin, this two-hour podcast features panelists and live questions and comments from the zoom audience. We hope to fully explore any topic we cover! Divergent opinions are encouraged!

Information

  • Creator
    Paul Edwards, American Council of the Blind
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    232
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2020, American Council of the Blind
  • Show Website
    Tuesday Topics