Our guest today, Philip Brubaker, notes that there’s unfortunately a real stigma around mental illness, and that needs to change. Philip is an internationally known and recognized filmmaker and videographic essayist. He also has bipolar disorder. In his most recent film, “How To Explain Your Mental Illness to Stanley Kubrick,” Philip tackles head on the often negative depictions of mental illness in Twentieth Century cinematography. In this deeply personal film, he juxtaposes his own journey with bipolar disorder with images from iconic films that show characters with mental illness as violent and suicidal. In the film, Philip challenges a manifestation of Stanley Kubrick to confront the way Kubrick portrayed mental illness and the effects those portrayals had on society.

This is not Philip’s first film on the subject of mental illness. His 2009 documentary, “Brushes With Life: Art, Artists and Mental Illness,” won multiple awards and was aired on public television. His work has been featured in the Adelio Ferrero Film Festival, the Mental Filmness Festival in Chicago, and the FILMADRID Festival in Madrid, Spain.

We’re joined today by Nicole Luongo, an advocate, author, and public speaker who has Cerebral Palsy. In 2019, Nicole started The Go Green for CP campaign to raise awareness for cerebral palsy in this country and around the world. Through her leadership, the campaign succeeded in getting at least one building or landmark in almost every state lit up in green on National Cerebral Palsy Awareness Day on March 25th and on World CP Day on October 6th. In 2021, she launched a campaign to have the White House light up in Green annually on March 25th. She also created the social media campaign What CP Looks Like.

Nicole is the author of Naked Desires, a book of poetry that chronicles her quest and challenges to find true love. She is a fitness enthusiast and has encouraged others to enjoy fitness and get moving, reshaping our notion of what fitness looks like.

Today, we are joined by two outdoor enthusiasts and avid hikers, Chris Layne and Daniel Wilson. Both Chris and Daniel are wheelchair users. They work with support teams and use specialized equipment to hike trails that are anything but wheelchair accessible. Chris has hiked up Mt. Elbert, the highest peak in the Colorado Rockies. It’s over 14,000 feet. Daniel has traversed rugged trails in the Lake District National Park in Cumbria, England, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Chris acquired her disability after a fall while hiking in her home state of Colorado in 2016, when a spinal cord injury left her paralyzed from the chest down. She went on to win the Ms. Wheelchair Colorado title in 2020, and she is both an active athlete and advocate for accessibility and inclusion in the outdoors and everywhere else.

Daniel became paralyzed after complications from spinal surgery following a fall down an escalator. After recovering, he became active in the British charity organization Sportability, which supports paralyzed athletes’ participation in sports – from archery and quad biking, to tennis and flying light aircraft. Now an experienced adaptive hiker, he competed in the Race The Sun fundraiser in the Lake District National Park.

We recorded our interview with Chris and Daniel in March, as Daniel was preparing to hike the West Highland Way trail in Scotland. Just this week, Daniel successfully completed that trail, along with ten support volunteers from around the world. Daniel is the first person in a wheelchair known to have successfully completed this historic 96-mile trail. He made the trek as a fundraiser for BackUp, a UK organization supporting people with spinal cord injuries.