Blind Person Tanja Milojevic | This Past Weekend #215
Subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts http://bit.ly/ThisPastWeekend_ Theo sits down with Tanja Milojevic, and asks her about her experience living without sight. Check out Tanja’s podcasts The White Vault https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-white-vault/id1267043823 VAST Horizon https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vast-horizon/id1461884747 This episode brought to you by… Skillshare Try 2 months free at https://Skillshare.com/TheoVon Find Theo Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiEKV_MOhwZ7OEcgFyLKilw Producer Nick https://instagram.com/realnickdavis Music “Shine” - Bishop Gunn http://bit.ly/Shine_BishopGunn Gunt Squad www.patreon.com/theovon Name Aaron Rasche Adam White Alaskan Rock Vodka Alex Hitchins Alex Person Alex Petralia Alexa harvey Andrew Valish Angelo Raygun Annmarie Reilly Anthony Holcombe Ashley Konicki Audrey Hodge Ayako Akiyama Bad Boi Benny Ben Deignan Ben in thar.. Benjamin Herron Benjamin Streit Bobby Hogan Brad Moody Brandon Kirkman Carla Huffman Charles Herbst Christian Coyne Christina Peters Claire Tinkler Cody Cummings Cody Kenyon Cody Marsh Crystal Dakota Montano Dan Draper Dan Perdue Danielle Fitzgerald Danny Crook David Christopher David Smith Diana Morton Dionne Enoch Donald blackwell Doug C Dusty Baker Fast Eddie Faye Dvorchak Felicity Black Gillian Neale Ginger Levesque Grant Stonex Greg Salazar Gunt Squad Gary J Garcia J.P. Jacob Rice Jamaica Taylor James Briscoe James Hunter Jameson Flood Jeffrey Lusero Jenna Sunde Jeremy Siddens Jeremy Weiner Jim Floyd Joaquin Rodriguez Joe Dunn Joel Henson Joey Piemonte John Kutch Johnathan Jensen Jon Blowers Jon Ross Jordan R Josh Cowger Josh Nemeyer Joy Hammonds Justin Doerr Justin L justin marcoux Kennedy Kenton call Kevin Best Kirk Cahill kristen rogers Kyle Baker Lacey Ann Laszlo Csekey Lauren Williams Lawrence Abinosa Leighton Fields Luke Bennett Mandy Picke'l Mariah Marisa Bruno Meaghan Lewis Meghan LaCasse Mike Mikocic Mike Nucci Mona McCune Nick Roma Nick Rosing Nikolas Koob Noah Bissell OK Qie Jenkins Ranger Rick Robyn Tatu Ryan Hawkins Ryan Walsh Sagar J Sarah Anderson Scoot B. Sean Scott Secka Kauz Shane Pacheco Shannon potts Shona MacArthur Stephen Selph Stephen Trottier Suzanne O'Reilly Theo Wren Thomas Adair Tim Greener Timothy Eyerman Todd Ekkebus Tom Cook Tom Kostya Travis Simpson Tugzy Mills Tyler Harrington (TJ) Victor Montano Victor S Johnson II Vince Gonsalves William Reid Peters Yvonne Zeke HarrisSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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I'm gonna be honest with you if you think she's not blind you're nuts so today's guest is um is a woman who's she's like kind of like the Amelia kind of sight heart kind of she's just that pioneer you know she's that she's that peeping bad girl so she is oh man I don't know what I'm talking about but she also is a voiceover actress she is a teacher she
works with people who have suffered from the same thing she suffers from today's guest is blind and I've always wanted to meet somebody that's blind and sit down with them and so I'm really grateful already ladies and gentlemen the talented and
lovely Tanya Milojevich I'm just sitting up here right now Tanya drinking some water yeah to drinking some water I kind of have some notes but I'm not really looking at them and
is it fun for you when people like kind of describe to you what they're doing around you or do you feel like it's helpful sometimes I can tell by audio cues so for example I could hear you opening your water bottle and taking a swig so but yeah especially sometimes if I can't tell by someone's tone I'll ask are you this or that or did I interpret this correctly but you know once in a while usually people's voices are expressive so I can tell and so you are a hundred percent blind like you've always been blind
actually I have retinopathy of prematurity so I was born sighted it was just that I was premature two months and had to sit in the incubator for a couple months and then the oxygen extra oxygen detached my retinas so I had to have some surgeries to reattach and I was very lucky to be able to come to the U.S. from Serbia where I was from and have those reattached somewhat here in the U.S. Here in the U.S. Dr. Ozi.
Like how blind are you though?
Like if I had to guess like do you feel pretty blind?
Oh totally.
I mean I have enough vision to get me into trouble, but it's about 22,000 in one eye and 2,700 in the other.
So every time I have a laser surgery because I developed glaucoma due to the scar tissue after my surgeries initially, the laser surgeries that I do or did every couple of years, haven't done one in a while, thankfully, those reduce my acuity each time.
And there is a risk that I can go totally blind in both of my eyes or one of them, depending.
When you say acuity, what does that mean?
I mean like what I can see, how well I can see things.
So the clarity and the detail that I pick up.
For example, if I say I have 22,000, what you can see at 20 feet, or rather what you can see at 2,000 feet, I can see at 20 feet.
So, you know, let's say you have better distance vision, the clarity of your vision is a lot more detailed and all-encompassing.
So your field is a lot wider than mine.
Mine is tunnel vision, which means my field is 10 degrees.
Okay.
So a lot of times, like I hear about people that are colorblind, and to me, that seems like, honestly, like kind of a bunch of bullshit.
Do you feel like that?
I mean, I think colorblind is definitely a thing.
There are people that are born colorblind where their hues are like gray, black, and white, and that's all they can really see.
They have different monochrome tones of But to call it colorblind, like I feel like it should be like, do you ever feel like Like, let's call it like, hey, kind of confused, you know?
Yeah.
Let's don't go all the way to blind.
Like, blind seems like almost something that should be a little bit more reserved for people that actually can't really see that well.
Do you guys, is there any vibe like that in the blind community where there's like kind of like, you know, like darkness beef with like people that are colorblind or anything like that?
In terms of that, not that I've noticed, but people do get upset over the terms visually impaired versus totally blind.
Some people like to say that they have a visual impairment or they are low vision, depending on what their acuity is and how much, whether or not they can read print.
So for example, someone that can see traffic lights outside in the daytime, they can read signs, they can read print and navigate maybe with minimal use of a cane, they call them high partials.
And then there are people who are totally blind or who have some light perception.
And we do like to categorize ourselves, some of us, in those various categories.
But then there are a lot of people for the sake of the public who just say, even if they're not totally blind, I'm blind, and just call it a day because the public gets really confused.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because I don't want to be a high partial.
That sounds like somebody that's trying to be fancy to me.
Like, I would rather be.
I know.
It's us.
Yeah.
Like, look, guys, I'm out.
Okay.
I'm a high partial.
I don't associate with you.
Go away.
Yeah.
High partial sounds like somebody that's like in one of those, like that movie with Katness Everdeen, you know?
Oh, yes.
I'm a high partial.
Put me near the cornucopia first.
Yeah.
Because I give you the best weapons.
Yeah.
That's what it sounds like.
Because there's a lot of high partials, even just in regular, especially in Hollywood.
This place is full of high partials, man.
Oh, man.
Jesus.
It's really, it's a little bit creepy almost out here.
So do you, like, so if I reach across the table right now and touch your hand, like if you put your hand out, right?
Mm-hmm.
Okay.
Can you tell by like touching my hand, like, like how old you feel like I am?
Or do you.
Oh, that's an interesting question.
I've actually never got that.
Well.
Because I can imagine your senses are better than mine.
Or this is my perception is that your senses are way better than mine.
So I'm thinking, like, you know, do you, is your sense of touch like at a level that I couldn't even imagine, you know?
So I would say that it's all in how much you use it.
I think anyone is capable of developing sense of touch more or hearing, vision, et cetera.
So you focus mainly on what you see around you, and maybe don't focus as much on audio cues because you don't need them as much.
You can see what's around you, and that sense compensates for the others.
That is your primary sense.
For me, I would say mainly my hearing is my primary.
And of course, I read Braille, so I use touch for that.
But what's interesting is I would say my sense of touch in my index fingers is better than my sense of touch in my other fingers because I use that for braille and have developed that sensitivity in those fingers.
So do you learn something then about like almost do you feel like so then with that being said, like so your sense of touch in your index fingers is much more acute because you use it for braille.
Use that's your main fingers you use for braille, right?
I would say so.
Do you then do you think that this could be possible that if somebody used their shoulder for braille for long enough that they would be able to develop a sense of how to read even?
Or their toes.
There are folks that, like I've seen.
Oh, toe off.
So you're talking about people that are just toeing off, huh?
Or they use their toes to read, yeah.
Like a guy, like that sounds like a line a guy would use on a girl, you know, like, hey, I can use my toes to read.
Oh, yeah, like a pickup line at a bar.
Let me read your shirt.
I can use my toes, you know?
Yeah, I mean, they do make braille shirts, right?
And it says, don't read me or don't touch me or something in braille.
And then as you're reading, you realize that?
They have a bunker sticker I know that says you're driving too close and it's in braille and it's on like which makes sense really.
I'd love to see that.
Yeah, if you're that close, I think you got to back off.
You got a problem.
You're going to get run over.
Yeah.
But so you feel like for you, your sense of hearing is really acute?
I would say I've developed it more so and I pay attention to minute sounds.
Whereas that kind of goes both ways because in dance music, my boyfriend loves to put up the music really loud because, you know, sometimes, like, especially if working out or something.
So there are in dance music, high-pitched, buzzy noises that almost sound like an electric chair, you know?
And it's painful.
Like the louder it is, the painful it is.
And I just have this like instinctual, ah, you know, recoil reaction, put my hands over my ears.
No.
And he thinks it's the funniest thing ever.
Who makes some of the most painful music out there?
Because obviously if you have very acute senses.
There is a German band that I've heard.
I think it's called Republic One or something.
Oh, yeah.
And it is, I'm just, I sit there.
I'm like, no, turn the volume down.
And what about an American artist, maybe?
I mean, that makes some really, really, you know, just some real junk.
Like, I mean, I'm thinking for me, it's Nikki Minaj.
Oh, yeah.
Some of her songs are interesting.
I could see that.
But is there a band or something that kind of you're like, oh.
Hmm.
I would say probably some of the death metal bands, like, and I used to love death metal, so I'm not trying to rag on them here, but Cannibal Corpse.
Oh, yeah, that's it.
For example, they got some, it's just painful, high notes in the solos and the.
Well, they don't want you to live through the songs, a lot of it sounds like.
No, they want you to become a cannibal corpse.
Yeah, they have ulterior.
It sounds like they have really ulterior motives.
Yeah.
I think so.
Is there, it's just so interesting.
So it almost, it seems, so to your sense of hearing to me, it would almost be like almost, it would seem like a superpower almost a little bit.
I don't know.
I mean, if I were daredevil and had a weapon in my cane, that'd be awesome.
But yeah, no, I wouldn't say it's that good, but it does certainly help in picking up cues and what's going on in the environment around me.
So especially for navigation, I use my sense of hearing.
Let's say there's a waterfall that I know I'll have to pass or keep behind me as I'm traveling forward.
And then there's an ice cream parlor and they play particular music and there are smells associated.
All of that not only triggers memory to help you like sort of map it out in your head, but it gives you a constant that you can rely on as you're traveling or even when you're watching films without audio description.
Do you feel like a detective a little bit then?
Like every day when you wake up, do you feel like almost like Inspector Gadget a little?
Because you got to kind of like figure it out.
Hey, maybe that'll make my mornings a little easier, especially when the week drags on and I just want the weekend to be there so I can enjoy and record and have fun.
Yeah.
Hey, I'll try that.
That's a good suggestion.
But do you feel like, like, I'm just trying to think of what it's like to not like, you know, to be, to not have sight, to be blind, to be sight impaired.
Like, I'm trying to think of like if my brain would wake up every day and the world would seem like more vibrant.
Yeah, is that what it seems like?
It can, certainly.
Especially if you're looking forward to the day and you're in a great mood.
It can definitely seem filled with a lot of different things.
It can get a little overwhelming sometimes.
Not having sight, you mean?
Yeah, if you're in a loud environment, for example.
Oh, yeah.
Like being at a bar or a club, even at a convention or like a Chelsea handler.
Yeah.
Listening to her.
Yeah.
Sorry.
It just sometimes slips out of me.
But so places like that, because why there's too much going on?
There's too much.
And sometimes what I do, what helps in those situations, because it's hard to navigate if, first of all, if there's flashing lights, like at a carnival, loud music, loud, a lot of people talking, it's hard to orient yourself.
So what I'll do is I'll, like if I'm standing somewhere waiting to navigate, I will put my hand on something that doesn't move, some solid object, like a chair or table, and just stand there and kind of listen and try to figure out where stuff is.
Or if possible, navigate when the environment is quiet, map it out for myself, and then it's not so, you know, crazy.
Yeah.
But the dog actually, my dog here, Naboo, she's very good at navigating outside.
So if I'm in a loud restaurant, which happens a lot, you know, loud music, I'll just say, okay, Naboo, outside, outside, find the door.
Find the door.
Come on, come on, come on, come on.
Do you want a treat?
Let's go.
And she finds the door and she helps you leave.
And she's very beautiful.
Oh, thank you.
And she also, I noticed, has she has very beautiful eyes.
Yeah, she wears makeup for me.
I don't have to.
She has not real makeup, but she's got markings around her eyes, and it looks like eyeliner.
That's what I've been told.
It's so funny when you, when I met her a few minutes ago, when you introduced me, the first thing I noticed about her, I never noticed about, I mean, I'd seen some animals with pretty eyes and stuff before they got Smushy the Cat has some beautiful eyes.
He has an Instagram page, but she has beautiful eyes.
It's almost, at first I was like, holy smokes, like did they, did you guys swap eyes or something?
Like, cause she's got some, like, it's just crazy.
It's almost like that you were carting around a real set of freaking peepers right there on Naboo.
Do some animals, do you get a different sense from certain animals than other animals?
I'm just wondering, like, if you can get different senses than I can from animals.
Do you mean like bonding type or their intentions?
Yeah, do some animals feel to you like, like what does a dog seem like to you?
Oh, they're very lovey.
Usually they pick up on our emotions and our body language as well as facial expressions really well.
And the body positioning, like where their tail is positioned or how they're laying sometimes, or even the enthusiasm of how they greet us, those can tell us a lot about how they're feeling.
And I find myself talking to her like she's a real person, you know, all the time because she's with me everywhere I go.
Wow.
That's so interesting.
And now what about a cat?
Do you have the same interactions with a cat?
I used to have a cat when I was a kid, and I had a very, you know, solid bond with her.
She was an outdoor cat, and she would sleep in bed with me sometimes.
Or I used to carry her by her neck, I guess, as a kid, my mom told me.
Oh, yeah.
Which is not the right way to carry a cat.
But she never cared.
Like, she was so sweet and chill.
She didn't.
Was she alive, it sounds like?
I know, right?
If you ever carry her by her neck, it could be.
That was a little bit of, just didn't care.
But animals got along with me just fine.
Do you get different vibes?
Can you get a different intuition from, say, like a snake or a frog?
Do you feel like they have?
I'm just trying to think of.
I used to like them as a kid.
But then when they start wrapping around you, the more you know about them and how easy it is for them to just choke you to death, the scarier they are and more intimidating.
I think reptiles are hard to read.
Some people have a knack for it.
Me personally, nope.
I have no idea.
I just always feel like I could be in danger of getting, I don't know, squeezed to death any moment.
Right.
There's no ability to kind of know what they're thinking or feeling.
Not with reptiles for me.
That's so interesting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I can't read them.
They're so cold and detached.
And it's all about what they want.
But a cat also, I feel now that I'm an adult, they're okay.
I'll pet them, but I don't trust them very much.
I'm more of a dog person.
Yeah, no, I agree.
I saw two cats the other day sharing a cigarette outside of my building.
A cigarette.
Not to say I knew they were up to no good, you know?
Yeah.
And yeah, thank you.
I think I've just like, I was thinking about this last night.
I was like, when I was young, one of my favorite, one of the first people I ever remember meeting was this kid named Doug Huvall that I went to school with and I was in second grade.
And he had a stutter.
And it was the most fascinating thing like I had ever heard.
Like, because everybody I'd heard talked the same.
Like everybody just talked, you know?
Oh, yeah.
And so when he suddenly had like this voice that was like, it was, he was like a, like he was like a, like, like an instrument a little more, you know, it was just so, it was unique.
And I was like, oh, man, this is the best.
And I remember I started impersonating him.
And then the teacher at school thought that I was making fun of him.
Right.
But I wasn't.
I just wanted, I wanted to be like different, kind of like he was.
You know, I wanted to be, I don't know.
I just.
Yeah.
It just seems so unique to me.
And so I think then I've always just had like this, just this affinity for what it would be like to have something unique, like no vision or, or a unique, like, you know, like they have a guy, sometimes you see on the internet who doesn't have any arms and legs and he like does all these stunts and everything.
So cool.
This little, yeah, this kind of little buckety kind of bad boy, you know?
So I guess, like I was thinking last night, I was like, I wonder if your imagination is different than mine.
Actually, I'm very imaginative.
I'm a huge fan of horror, particularly.
Of horror films?
Horror films, horror books, music, radio dramas that are involved with horror.
For example, like The White Vault, for instance, Fast Horizon, check them out.
They're awesome.
Are they?
Oh, yeah.
They're Full and Scholar Productions, actually.
And is that one you're doing voiceover?
Yes.
Right.
Okay.
So I mean, I've got to plug these shows because I'm so excited about them.
No, of course.
And we're going to plug them too whenever we bring the, we'll do an intro for the show later.
Yep.
We'll make sure to plug them.
Oh, thank you.
So first let's talk about imagination a little.
Nabu.
Sorry about that.
That's okay.
So there was just a knock at the door.
I'm not sure who it was, but so Nabu lets you know when she does.
She alert barks.
She does.
Actually, what's funny, I work at Perkins School for the Blind at the Perkins Library.
And at work, if somebody comes by my office, she's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Like she gets all worked up.
She barks maybe five, six times, but quick, just to let me know they're there.
Can you tell the tone, even down to the smallest level in her bark, like if she's trying to, if she's trying to be, like alert you, or if she's trying to let them know that you're there?
Or like are you able to different like notice different levels of like intonation that she has in her voice?
Yes, I am.
For example, if she's startled, she'll do a very quick, short, High-pitched bark.
And then, if somebody comes by that she doesn't like, she'll get up and walk over to them, just be like, you know, just like growl.
Get out.
It's like my mom.
My mom used to do that when I bring this kid Wayne over all the time.
Just growl.
Yeah.
Yeah, she would.
How dare you?
Get them out of here.
Oh, yeah, dude.
And he was a bit of a deviant.
But yeah, your imagination, like I was thinking last night, I was like, my imagination is almost kind of limited by colors.
You know, I wonder if like my imagination got caged up, you know, because it's like limited a little bit by knowing like what a lot of different colors are and how the world is kind of, or how the society we live in is kind of built, you know?
Yeah.
Well, you can definitely expand all that, like noticing smells whenever you're somewhere, let's say out and about, walking by shops or something.
You can smell all the different things coming out of a shop.
And sometimes you can even tell where you are based on the smell.
So just starting to notice that in your own life too, actually meditation exercises help with that mindfulness where you notice, oh, I'm having this thought or I'm thinking about what I need to do, but I'm just going to let it go and think about, you know, let's see where my thoughts go naturally and what do I notice around me?
Like something like a sound of a fan can be soothing, kind of white noise, intermittent, can cause your brain to focus harder on a task that you're working on.
And that's all mindfulness.
So doing something like that can help you get to that same level that I'm mentioning where you're discussing all the five senses and how they implement, how they work together to create that multi-sensory picture of where you're at.
Yeah.
So, but in terms of imagination, actually my friend and I, as teenagers, we used to get on the phone, and this is when people actually used to talk on the phone instead of texting and Instagramming and tweeting to each other.
We would sit on the phone for hours.
I kid you not.
And sometimes we would do online MUD games, you know, where you would, that is like a D ⁇ D sort of online.
Now that's Dungeons and Dragons, you're saying.
Right, right.
And you can play these how because.
So you know how online they have a graphic system and multiplayer verse, et cetera.
This is all done through command line.
So you modify it by going in, you bring up like a command line box, kind of like we used to do with DOS back when.
HTML, we can enter in code.
And you enter textual text commands, like the old text adventures used to be in the 90s on the old DOS systems.
And you would enter commands.
And then a lot of the games now, you can insert a sound pack, which would take the place of some of those longer command line prompts.
And we can listen to sound effects in 3D space and figure out where we're at.
Environments and things like that, spells, all of those have sounds related to them.
Ah, I see.
So by adding in sound packs, you're able to get more of an experience where you can actually enjoy a multi-sensory.
Like a video game experience, kind of.
Now, so with virtual reality kind of looming, does that seem very exciting to like the blind community?
Oh, yes.
Deep End Games actually produced one called Perception.
And it's about this main character who's blind, and she's got to go to her grandfather's house, go through it, and solve the mystery of what happened to him and how he died.
Wow.
And it starts off, it's fully voice acted.
It's 3D audio space.
And I contacted them.
I was like, hey, guys, you're awesome.
Like, how do I play this?
They're just like, oh, we believe it's accessible.
Let us know.
So I've got to get my nephew to help me out here.
And what's it called again?
I'm going to write that down.
Perception.
Perception.
It sounds really, really interesting.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
The trailers are amazing and the voice acting is spot on.
And so when you're listening to these types of things, I mean, you get everything from sound, right?
I mean, you're not able to.
Yes.
And then you have like some kind of extra, I believe it's her or it's like an extra voice that tells you where you are and how many meters away from something you're standing.
And that would additionally help you navigate.
And there are also iOS virtual reality games out there.
And are you able, like, so a virtual reality game, like for me, I would take the head, the video, the visual set, like the goggles, and put them over my head, over my eyes.
And then, you know, I would have the headphones on.
I would listen to the experience, but I'd also be able to see it.
For you, what is that experience like?
It's more just sound-based?
It's more sound-based, where you would have the set of headphones on and everything would be in binaural audio, which is a simulated 3D space.
Oh, wow.
Okay, so it's a different type of audio specifically for people that are hearing impaired?
They actually make it for anyone who wants to play the game.
A lot of these have graphical interfaces built in, so anyone can play them.
The goal is just to make it fully accessible for all, which is great because if you have a little bit of vision, you might be able to see the graphical interface as well.
I see.
There's a YouTube video of a guy that has a lot more vision than I do, I would say.
He plays a Star Wars virtual reality game and is able to move the lander around successfully on his own without dying.
I see.
And he gets super excited about it, obviously.
But your imagination, like, so you have color in your imagination when you're imagining things?
Yeah.
I'm losing color perception a little bit.
So my ability to tell shades apart, like blue-green, for example, if they're close, or if purple is close to blue sometimes, it's hard to tell.
But I do imagine it for what color I have that will enter into it.
And of course, it goes into dreams as well.
So can your dog tell like if someone is lying?
I wish.
You think?
She can tell if someone is trustworthy or not.
It's sort of like that saying where you believe kids, you can't fool a baby or a dog.
You know that saying, I'm probably saying it wrong here, but...
But she can certainly tell if someone's not trustworthy.
She doesn't like them.
She gets a bad vibe and maybe will bark a little bit more if they show up and doesn't trust them, doesn't really want to go near them, avoids them.
We were on the bike path once just walking with a couple people.
And there was some guy that was walking down the bike path for some reason.
She didn't like him.
So she pulled us way over into the grass, went around him, and just kind of stopped as he walked by because he was like, oh, hi there.
Oh, wow.
And so I said, hi.
And she just stood there and just didn't want to move until he walked by, just staring at him.
And you were able to just kind of feel that vibe from her and take those cues 100%.
Yep, because she was standing very still and kind of tense.
Right.
And you trust her wholeheartedly.
There's no like, unless it probably comes to a treat, I'm guessing, there is no misconception about what her intentions are.
Yeah.
It's, she's a pretty spot-on, trustworthy dog.
That's pretty cool, huh?
Yeah.
My first service dog was like that, too.
But this one is a lot more protective of me.
Not to the point where she'll bite or attack.
I do think if I was being mugged or someone was trying to attack me in some way, she would step in and try to bite them at that point because she's protective.
But she wouldn't just bite somebody out of nowhere.
Now, do you feel like you said you like horror films?
To me, it feels like you're already like in the dark a lot.
Like I would feel, I felt like it would be double scary.
Hey, you want to promote me for In the Dark?
I'm happy to be on that show.
I had to say that.
Is that a show?
It's a show.
It's a blind protagonist on the CW.
It's a series.
Wow.
I didn't even know that.
I haven't seen that show.
That was a pun.
Okay, so half perfect.
No, I know that.
Yeah, I know you do voiceover work, and I want to learn more about the characters you play in those.
But yeah, I'm just curious, I guess, like, you know, why the horror genre?
Do you feel, like, I'm wondering, just is there any correlation between what your daily kind of existence or experience with the world is?
And if you think it ties into liking that genre?
That's a good question.
I think it ties into, I love adrenaline rush and just that whole fight or flight response where.
But isn't it every, I feel like everything would be an adrenaline rush, G, like a B. It's true.
When you're crossing a street, if a car just comes out of nowhere, you're like, oh my God, I'm going to die.
It's so crazy.
But in this case, you're able to experience.
Like every 10 minutes is the X games, I feel like, for you.
It can be, depending on where you're at, whether or not you're getting assistance or if you know where you are.
Like when you're lost, oh my God, that's anxiety-provoking.
Yeah.
Especially at night.
And what if your dog wasn't there?
What if Nabu wasn't there?
Yeah, that would be harder.
I'd have to figure it out with my cane, and it would be a lot slower of a process.
I'd have to slowly map out my surroundings and find, let's say, the nearest street crossing and then the nearest building and ask for help.
Like just go in.
I've done that before.
Oh, I'm sure.
Yeah, like Lyft, Uber.
Drivers, a lot of drivers don't speak the language very well.
They don't understand a lot.
Like, what do you mean the language of sight or the language of just English?
English, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
There's a lot of dudes.
And they don't speak any language, a couple of them.
I know, right?
Yeah.
I've had some guys that don't speak anything, dude.
They just, you pick a letter of the alphabet out of a hat.
They have no idea what you're talking about.
Exactly.
They can't read signs.
They can't read anything.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
It's frustrating.
So I went to the Chumsford Center for the Arts once, and they dropped me off.
Like, the guy had no idea.
He's like, building, building.
I'm like, sir, I need to go to the Chumsford Center for the Arts.
Here's where it is.
Like, this is what it looks like.
There's a sign right outside.
It's huge.
You can't miss it.
I'll tell you.
If I can see it, I'll tell you.
He's like, a building?
Oh, no building.
No, no building.
I'm like, yeah, obviously I can tell as well that there's no building.
We're in a parking lot.
Come on.
Drive around the parking lot.
Let's find it.
No building.
I'm like, all right, see you later.
See you never.
See you later.
You're getting a three-star rating.
Sorry, buddy.
Do you find that do you find that, so more about that horror genre.
Sorry, let me think because I'm not that good of a thinker.
But more about the horror genre.
So is it, because yeah, when you said that, like crossing a street, I can't even imagine not being able to see and crossing a street.
Right on red is not a fun thing.
It would just be so scary.
Like what you don't know if the guy over to your left is like not paying attention or he's in.
And a lot of people are on their phones, so it's more of a risk for anyone crossing.
Now, can you feel that vibe if somebody's on their phone?
Does that feel like a different vibe than somebody just sitting there?
Like say if I'm just sitting here.
Yeah, unfortunately not.
I can't tell that at all.
It just looks like they're sitting waiting to proceed at the next cycle.
Right.
What does it feel like?
Can you get a feeling from it, though?
Not really.
Like I can't tell unless the person kind of pulls forward and then stops and then pulls forward.
Then I can tell that they're distracted.
Okay.
But I don't really get any intuitive feelings from it.
Mainly what my intuition works on for me or works well with me is, let's say a friend wants to go on a job interview and they tell me, oh, I'm going on a job interview at noon.
What do you think?
Am I going to do well?
And I'll think, okay, so I'll put what I know about this person's style as well as the person they're going to see and what their history with this person was, what they told me their previous interaction was, and then my gut instinct.
And I'll kind of come up with an intuitive, I think you'll do great.
Or I'm not really sure this is going to work out, but this will lead to other opportunities for you.
And it usually turns out to be that way.
Do you feel like more of a computer than a person sometimes?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
That's, that's actually very accurate.
Because social interaction can be nerve-wracking.
I have a little bit of social anxiety in certain situations.
Yeah.
And I like the pre-programmed like five questions when you start a conversation.
How are you?
You know, what do you do?
You know, where do you live?
Those five like small talk questions that it helps give you more of a world, a little bit of a World to start with.
Like little, like, yeah, it helps give you some information.
It helps give you yeah, it does.
But it's also, as a person who can't make eye contact, it is very difficult if you're in a group to find when is a good time to jump into the conversation and add something to it.
So it's like being stone then.
Yeah, kind of.
I think.
Because, yeah, I've been high sometimes and I'm standing there and then I don't know when to jump in and then everybody leaves, you know?
You're like, where'd you go?
And you're like, dude.
I know.
We asked you if you wanted to ride, but.
Oh, you did?
What is this?
I don't remember that.
Do you feel like a damsel in distress sometimes?
I feel like if I saw, like, if there's a woman walking around who's, who's blind, then I'm, I feel like, is she like a sitting, like, not a sitting duck, but is she, um, is she like a sitting, like, do you feel like a potential victim possibly of her?
Uh, so I did more so when I was at, like, I went to school at Simmons for undergrad.
And what is that?
Oh, that's a, sorry, that's a school in Boston.
It's, it's an all-girl school.
Okay.
But in that area, like the Fenway area of Boston, as you know, the Red Sox play there.
It's like a lot of events, a lot of drunk people.
A lot of alcoholism.
A lot.
So it can be a little unnerving.
Like, I've had people just go, you know, when I'm walking by or something.
Or like, hey, baby, you want to like, you want to, you want to come over and talk to me or whatever?
I'm just like, no.
So I had my service dog.
That made me feel a lot better.
And then I took self-defense and I took campo karate.
So it's like, I know the basics.
I know how to shove my fingers into somebody's eye sockets.
Like that will stop them right away.
Or, you know, you shove your fingers up their nostrils and you just go, boom.
Or into their neck, into their atoms album if they're a guy if you can reach them.
Oh, yeah.
So you just, you just know the basic defensive strategies and it really gives you a lot of confidence.
Like you feel better traveling at night in that area.
But other than that, I'm not sure.
But do you feel like a potential, like because you're sight impaired, right?
And I'm going to keep using different terms because I don't know what I'm talking about.
No, you're good.
But do you feel like my intentions are good?
I mean, yeah, I don't.
Sometimes I get vibes from people where I feel like they may not have great intentions and I'll just cut the conversation short and move on.
Okay.
Yeah, I don't want you to feel like that for me.
Do you feel like that's good?
No, no.
Okay, good.
No, not at all.
No, I know that you, you know, like I know you do voice acting.
I know you do podcasting or in that universe.
Yeah.
But I mean, yeah, I've just, I've never got to spend time with someone that couldn't see, you know, so I've just always been curious.
No, no question is a bad question.
You know, everything is fine.
Like I don't get offended or anything.
I'm happy to try to give you a slice into what it's like.
Yeah.
Although every person who is blind has a different perspective on their life depending on when where they're at.
Really?
Oh, yes.
Now, when you say where they're at, do you mean where they're at in what?
So in terms of like how long they've been blind, when they lost their vision, whether or not they have some usable vision, or if they were born with no vision.
People who are born with no vision, their concept development is depending on who taught them and what school system they were at, they may or may not have concepts of different things like what certain animals look like, for example.
And so where you on that scale, you have some concepts.
Some concepts, yeah.
There are some things like, for example, when I read in books where it says, so-and-so's eyes sparkled with amusement.
I'm like, what does that mean?
How did they sparkle?
Does it like, did they have more tears in their eyes because they were so amused?
And so the light was catching off of the tears and glistening on their eyes.
But I have actually, like, one time I was holding my niece when she was a baby and I was looking at her eyes and I could see the sparkle.
It was like the first time I could see that.
It was so cool.
Oh, yeah.
Babies have more of it.
I think to me, that thing is like, it's like a light behind somebody's eyes that's like not like a moisture thing to me.
This is my perception of it.
Yeah.
And it's like something of like peacefulness or comfort.
So I think you see that or like excitement can sometimes like flare it up in people.
In younger people, I think excitement flares it up.
In older people, I think sentiment or like nostalgia, that's a great one.
Joy, like things like that really kind of happiness.
Things that kind of mold like or fluff your emotion positively.
I think those are things that would add like a sparkle to somebody's eye.
Oh, that's sweet.
You know?
Yeah.
Yeah, I just like, now what about like, do you close your eyes ever or you just like, there's no point in it?
Oh, well, because I have some vision.
Yeah, I do.
I close my eyes like when I'm going to go to sleep or let's say sometimes I'll be light sensitive.
So if I don't have my sunglasses and it's super bright out, I'm on the beach and the sun is glaring off the sand, throwing up light, it's just agonizing.
So I close my eyes.
So what does that feel like for you?
That just feels like an intent, it's just an intense, like what, whiteness kind of color?
It kind of, yeah, kind of like, well, because, I mean, I can see general colors.
So let's say I'm looking at the yellow sand and it's just a lot of light.
It kind of washes everything out.
And it's, unless I'm squinting really hard and my eyes start tearing, I'm unable to really make a lot of other things out for long before my eyes start to water.
So at that point, closing them is the best.
But it is similar to just this glaring white field of light.
And then I close them and it's red because, you know, that's when you close your eyes, that's what you see.
It's bright.
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And now let's get back to this beautiful blind episode.
And now, what if I put like a woman like 50 feet away from you, okay?
And I put your mother 50 feet away from you, right?
Yeah.
Do you think you would know the difference between the two of them?
If they talked, yes.
If they didn't say anything at all?
So if I could see...
Can you feel that you're...
Can you feel like that your mother is close, like, you know what I'm saying, kind of?
Through the feeling-wise, no.
Because like I don't have any extra sort of intuitive sense of who is who unless I have some additional cues.
Okay.
So it would depend on the contrast, the lighting, like if it was decently lit, but no glare.
Let's say like an overcast day, cloudy day, and somebody was 50 feet, but the background was not complex.
So I wouldn't get confused by trees or houses in the background.
I see if you're very specific.
Exactly.
Very just like, just like nothing almost.
Right.
Yeah.
So like let's say they were standing on the beach, right?
They were standing on sand and there was nothing else to clutter the background.
I would be able to see them, but then if I could preview whose clothing or outfits looked like what, and if they had very contrasting compared to each other outfits, I'd be able to tell, okay, that's my mom standing on the left and this is mystery person number one on the right, you know, because they're wearing a white shirt on the right, my mom's wearing a red shirt.
Right, right.
Like, so the more clues you have.
So it's a lot of clues.
A lot of puzzle pieces.
So the detective analogy earlier was good.
So it's a lot of clues when you can't see.
A lot of cues and things you put together.
Do you find that, do you get any sense that certain cultures are friendlier than others?
Oh, certainly.
Like in the UK and here in the US and Germany, they're very inclusive of people with disabilities in general.
And the UK in particular has made a lot of wonderful strides, like audio description captioning, for example.
Wow.
They audio describe like double the amount that we do and that we're mandated for.
Oh, they're chatty.
I mean, they are chatty.
Yeah.
Especially if they've been drinking.
But no, I'm making a joke here.
So they have, so you're saying that the UK really is kind of the leader in that sort of world?
I would say the UK, Germany, you know, they've done a lot to include people.
And even Switzerland, I would say.
And then the U.S., definitely.
I hope it continues to go that way.
And other countries in Europe, like, for example, where I'm from, Serbia, they are not as inclusive.
They're a little behind the times.
Yeah.
But they're getting there.
I know Perkins is working with them through Perkins International to try to teach teachers from there how to better instruct their students and include them, get them prepared for mainstream work.
And then in India, for example, they're working hard to get some of the, I guess, poorer families, communities to include people with disabilities in the workforce.
So it's getting there.
It's just the first world countries have to help the third world to get there.
And the problem is also, we can't get half the first world people to freaking get a job or to go to work.
Jeez.
We need to help our own people.
It must be, do you, can you tell like when you get a vibe or when you're around someone who can see, who has all the faculties, and they're like, oh, they're not even.
Trying?
Yeah.
Sorry.
No, it's okay.
Yes, definitely have had that experience before where people complain that they can't find a job, but they're not really trying.
Like they're just collecting the unemployment, you know?
Yeah, you're like, I can't find.
Yeah, I can't find it.
I'm like, you know, I'll take any job here at this point.
Like any additional side gig would be welcome.
But you're not, what do you want me to do?
You mentioned earlier that you have a boyfriend.
I would imagine that it's, let me think about what I think when.
He's also visually impaired as well.
He is?
Yes.
Well, he's missing out.
I'll tell you that.
Your beautiful young boy.
Thank you then.
And I'm not trying to, I mean, I'm always trying to hit on everybody a little bit, but at the same time, I would never be disrespectful to your boyfriend.
Oh, no, no, no worries.
Yeah, I think I'll say this for myself, especially when I was young, I would probably be scared if someone was blonde, you know?
I feel like I get it.
Yeah, and I don't mean this in a negative way.
I'm just trying to be earnest.
Yeah, I was probably scared.
I was probably, you know, I didn't know what to do, I would think.
If I go engage with them, am I going to mess things up or something?
Like whatever's going on in their world, like am I going to… A lot of people don't know how to approach the blindness community.
I think on our end, what we could do better is communicate what we're thinking and how we're feeling because our body language is a lot less.
Like a lot of us sit still or don't move a lot because we don't have the concept of, you know, like, for example, Italians, like they talk with their hands or moving around like this and whatever.
For us, we don't really have that as a natural part of our lives.
Like we don't gesticulate.
Gesticulate.
Yeah, that's good.
And that's off-putting to others who have that as part of their, or they use, they get cues from others how they're feeling through the body language.
100%.
Yeah, you get a lot of that.
Yeah, you get clues just from somebody's activity.
If they're, yeah, just there, you can get a lot of, a lot more clues.
Yeah, I didn't realize how many clues it is.
Oh, yeah.
So it would be good on our part to communicate, oh, I'm not upset.
I'm just, you know, I'm thinking or like, I know my face probably looks like I'm pissed off right now, but I'm just I'm spacing out or I'm not really, I'm thinking about what I have to do at work tomorrow.
I'm not pissed at you because sometimes our facial expressions don't match how we, how we're feeling or what we're thinking.
Wow.
And that can be off-putting to people.
Also, I had to be told this because I used to sit like this where my hands were across my stomach, crossed over myself.
And that looks like you are closing or that, I guess.
No thanks, Nefranius.
I'm pregnant.
Yeah.
As girls is usually about 13 years old.
So different times.
But to you, people would, what clue is that giving off to people?
That I'm closed off and not welcoming interaction.
Oh, yeah.
So you have to sit very open, like your arms have to be out to your sides.
You know, I've actually read a bunch of stuff on body language just to try to understand the concept of it.
And then a lot of people also, when they shake someone's hand, if they're blind, they're just like, oh, God, how am I going to do this?
So what I do as a person who's blind is I'll put my hand out first and I'll be like, oh, nice to meet you.
Yeah.
Toward the middle of my body because, you know, you don't want to put it way out to the side.
That just kind of looks weird.
And you're exuding friendliness by taking the cue first and taking the awkwardness out of the situation.
So it's just, we have to educate ourselves on body language and make it more comfortable.
I love how you have just an ability.
I mean, and this is just such a neat gift that you see, that you probably, I think as a person to seem to have, is to recognize your part in things.
Like, you know, instead of saying like, oh, everybody needs to do this or people could do this, it's like, oh, the blind community or as a person that's sight impaired, we could do this.
These are things.
It's like, yeah, we all, we all can.
Soft skills.
Yes.
But we all can always help our own situation, even if we think something else is like really impairing us.
Yeah.
There's always like our own part in it.
Kill them with kindness.
That's the way to do it.
Yeah.
If you can.
If you're grumpy that day, just don't talk.
Yeah.
Or just kill them.
Just, just, oh, my God.
Look, you got me into the horror films.
Are you the ones making me think of the dark arts in here?
Take that axe, you know?
Oh, my God.
Take the hatchet.
Oh my God.
It must be, I mean, do you could, if you, if you're blind, do you feel like everybody could be a killer?
Hmm.
Sometimes.
Like, there's so much more opportunity for you to think there are people that are killers.
Like, I can see people.
I'm like, oh, they're not killers, you know?
Yeah.
But for you, I feel like you could always be like fantasizing there's somebody in the distance with like a bow and arrow or something unique.
Oh, yeah.
Sometimes you can freak yourself out that way.
Wow.
Like, oh, my God, a bunch of zombies are going to break into this car and they're going to eat me.
Yeah, like your imagination must be able to.
Oh, yeah.
Does your imagination, is it very active?
It's very active.
Wow.
Yeah.
Like, if I watch a horror film, like, for example, I just saw The Haunted, the series on Netflix.
Have you seen it?
No, I haven't.
Oh, it's scary.
Yes, a little too real.
And so horror films, I just thought of this because they have so many more sound cues.
They do.
They do.
And the sound design is amazing.
Yeah, because it's, yeah, it's trying to build up an emotion, whereas a lot of other things aren't really doing that.
They're just kind of telling a story like point blank.
Yeah.
Like Bird Box, for example, with Sandra Bullock.
Yeah.
Super amazing sound design with the minute sounds that you would hear in your environment.
Only they're exaggerated enough just so that anyone can notice them.
And they're not as crazy with the jump scares, which gets old.
Yeah, I agree.
Horror films, they got lazy, really.
They did.
Yeah.
I miss the old, when I was young, they had Jason Voorhees.
They had like Friday the 13th and some of those things.
Nightmare on Elm Street.
Yeah.
Michael Myers.
I bet that stuff.
I bet the Halloweens were really good, probably the early ones.
Yeah, yeah, they were pretty good.
I think they could have done, I mean, this is 70s, but I think they should have made it stereo versus mono, where it's like coming out of just one channel in the center and then the music is stereo.
Yeah.
It could have been, but, you know, for what it was at the time, it was really good.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, I'd love to see.
I wonder how interesting it would be if you designed this, like helped design the sound for a horror film.
I bet that would be fascinating.
That would be awesome.
Do you feel like we use the skills?
Because that's such a unique skill that you, like a sensory ability to connect to a sound at a level that I couldn't do.
Yeah.
You know, because your senses in that space are more acute.
I wouldn't want to make it 5.1 surround, like most movies are anyway, where it surrounds you.
You wouldn't want to?
I would.
I would want to, yes.
And I would want to make the...
That's when you would hear them off to the side.
But otherwise, they're coming from the center.
So both channels directly boom in front of you because the camera's focusing on them.
What I would want to do is create like a virtual reality horror movie where you walk through like a fly on the wall and you get to hear these things happening and the people move around you in space, like 5.1 surround sound.
Because that would make it more real, especially if things were happening to you.
And if you could make it like a 4D sensory experience where not only do you have the movie and the headphones around everything's happening around you, but you would smell things like blood, for example.
Or maybe you'd have props to use along with the movie.
Like, let's say you have to kill the killer.
So, you'd be given a prop gun.
Oh, wow.
Something like that would be amazing.
You could actually feel and you and have.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Huh.
That would draw so many audiences, I think.
Just maybe you're talking like 5D.
I mean, maybe you're doing, you need another D. Go all out.
Yeah.
It's just so, yeah.
It's like, well, I wonder, do people, does Hollywood come and tap into the blind community to learn more about sound?
Or are there groups that do that?
It seems like it would be almost like a gold mine or they would, that, you know, they would go to a mine that has the value in it.
Is there any connection?
To my knowledge, no, but I do know that they have experts and consultants that they go to.
For example, for the movie Bird Box, I know they went to a couple of people who are blind to inquire about how things were being portrayed, like Braille, for example, signage and things.
I'm not sure on the sound design if they went to someone who's blind, but I am aware of the BBC does like 3D audio, radio dramas for their programming.
And they did employ someone who's totally blind as a sound designer.
That is one example that I can think of.
And I know there are sound designers out there.
I just don't know if Hollywood collaborates, but that would be great.
That's a great idea.
Yeah, because you guys are like hawks almost.
Do you feel like a bird?
Is there an animal you feel like a little that you kind of relate to a little bit more?
Like, is there an animal you feel in the world and you're like, oh, that animal has a very similar experience maybe to mine a little bit?
Has that ever happened?
And it can be a no.
I'm just trying to wonder.
Besides an AI, I would say maybe like an artificial intelligence, a computer, you know?
Oh, I see.
A machine, you know, cyborg.
Because you feel a lot of times things are more like a machine almost.
Like you have to get clues, you get information, and then you're able to build more of a world.
Which is the same way people do programming.
Yes.
And you can reprogram your brain.
So, for example, like habits you don't like, you can reprogram yourself to not like those habits that you love.
Now you must have a much more, because you're right there at the atomic, I bet you have more of an access to the atomic level of that than I would.
Because I'm out here in this comfort zone, you know, just a damn sugar lizard out here, whereas you're down there working with the building blocks more inside of your senses sometimes.
So is it easy for you to do that, to like reprogram yourself?
I'm just fascinated with psychology as a person.
And I think that's just more of my own interest than my ability to work with it.
But if you believe something, it's funny how the more you believe something, the more it is.
So if you put something out there into the universe and say, oh, I want this to be this way, it will.
Or if you have a negative sense of something, that the self-fulfilling prophecy will happen as well, which is unfortunate.
But it seems like you get what you put out there.
So in terms of my ability to improve my programming and adjust, I have to constantly believe that it will work.
If I stop believing it's going to work or I give up or I get lazy, it's not going to work.
It's just going to go back to where it was.
It would feel like it would be easier for you to give up because you don't, it just feels like it would be easier.
Does it feel like that to you ever or you don't know what I'm talking about?
Do you understand what I'm saying kind of?
I do.
Like with depression, with getting down or yeah, I guess so.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It certainly can.
Like in my early 20s through my mid-20s, it was a factor in my life as well as high school because I had a lot of challenges with math, getting through math.
I was just to quickly mention I was mainstream.
So I went to public school and keeping up with calculus or pre-Calc trig, all that.
When the teacher was understanding and helpful, it was okay.
I was able to work with them.
The later, the more advanced the concepts got, the less time the general ed teachers had to work with me on it after school, before school, et cetera.
And I would fall behind sometimes.
My grades would drop and I was huge into having good grades.
I didn't want to fail out or not pass the MCAS or even the SATs I needed.
It was important to get a good score to go to a good school.
Wow.
And so I pushed myself and wasn't always succeeding in math and felt like, okay, what am I going to do?
I got really depressed.
And also the fact that it was harder to make friends was making it worse.
But when I got a dog, man, it was so much easier to make friends.
People love dogs.
Oh, yeah.
And as long as you're putting the attention on the dog and not yourself to begin with, people feel a lot more comfortable.
So I use that as my kind of helpful strategy.
And working through depression, I have a couple of really good friends who were going through similar times.
We helped each other out.
We were there for each other.
And it's important to recognize when you're down, let yourself be down, and then find a way to pull yourself out.
Mine was creativity, just being as creative as possible.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And you can see that even in your work.
I mean, it seems like you really go beyond what people would, what an everyday person would expect of a blind person.
Like you kind of want to kind of change the norm a little bit.
Yeah.
Technology helps us level the playing field.
Yeah, it's interesting because you work now in voiceover, you are a character actress, right?
Yes.
Yeah, I do a lot of accents and different characters, put myself into them.
Yeah.
One of the best pieces of advice I ever came across with acting is, I don't know if you agree with this since you're an actor yourself and stand-up comedian.
I found that they say that when you put yourself into whatever character you're playing, whether or not you're dressing it up with an accent or not, if you put your own truth into it, it is what they're looking for.
Just heard that today from Gianni, actually.
Oh, really?
Yeah, he's actually our actor on set, whose heart is Gianni, and he's just in a film, and yeah, he was just helping me with some lines earlier, and he literally said that like a half hour before he got here.
Congrats.
Nice.
It's a small, so yeah, it's a small circle of truth right here.
Yeah.
So is that, and how did you get into that?
Did you stumbled into it?
Really?
Oh, yes.
Thank you, Stephen King.
I went to my local library to pick out, I used to get books on tape.
Oh, yeah.
Those are good.
Oh, yeah.
We used to get movies at the library.
You remember that?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
I used to borrow those too.
Yeah.
Force my family to watch all these horror films that they hated.
So dark arts.
Dude, I would be so scared if I had a blind child who brought home horror films all the time.
They don't want to piss me off.
I bet they wouldn't.
Did your family ever get...
Now you're making me think some people would be scared of blind people.
Oh, oh my God.
Yeah.
Not in a way, yeah, but like in a way, yeah, like in a way where like, like maybe you're actually just pretending and you're working for the other side or something.
Oh, yeah.
Like recoveration.
Blind or something.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Like what if they're just, you know.
See, they would make really good Russian spies, right?
Yeah.
No, I'm just kidding.
No, I'm not.
Yeah, I think so.
But I could see, especially at young ages, people being very, I guess, like, it must.
Some people must, you must be able to just see a clear line in people.
Like some people are just so empathetic, probably.
And so, like, did you see a lot of that growing up or do you see a lot of that more of as an adult?
That's, let's see.
So as a kid, I did notice that the teachers around me did try their best to accommodate.
A lot of them just weren't sure what I needed.
I was a dual learner, so I used large print on a video magnifier and braille.
And so they were always like, oh, so you use print, but how are we supposed to, what do you, what do you exactly need here?
Yeah.
They were so confused.
So they were like empathetic to a point, but they were also stressed out because they're like, oh, God, we have like 30 kids and we have to accommodate this blind kid.
Oh, my God.
What am I going to do?
But the kids at that age, the younger, the better they were.
They were more accepting.
But then middle school, high school, they were just like, see you later.
Yeah.
You know, but in college as an adult, I found a mixture of both where people were really mature and cool about it and interested to know.
And it helped that I went to a liberal school as well.
But Simmons, you said, right?
Simmons, yeah.
Now, a lot of pervy dudes just trying to bang a blind gal or what?
Honestly.
Well, there's a lot of that too.
I can imagine, yeah, because there's a lot of guys, you know, kind of like different types of styles of stuff, you know, and I just wonder if that, did you get some of that?
I did.
I got some of that kind of thing where people were trying to flirt with me, but a lot of the time I didn't pick up on it because I'm like, who would want to flirt with me?
Right.
You know, I guess my confidence was not as solid at that point.
So I was just like, nobody likes me.
Why would anybody want to talk to me?
Oh, man.
That must have been such a tough feeling, huh?
Yeah, it was kind of, it contributed to the depression for a bit there.
But that happens.
All teenagers sort of go through that whole angsty period in their lives where they're like, my life sucks.
Everyone hates me.
Nobody understands me.
Why am I even here?
Yeah.
But I didn't pick up on it.
Like friends would tell me, oh, so-and-so is totally hitting on you.
I'd be like, really?
How do you get that?
Where do you get that from?
Well, the comments and whatever, they were staring at you.
I'm like, really?
Okay.
That's cool.
Not interested, but that's cool.
And in college, would you get some more pervy type of dudes?
I could see a guy that's been like, or even a guy not pervy, just very honest.
Like, hey, I've always wanted to make love to a blind woman.
Is this something you'd be interested in?
Yeah.
I got, like, when I did the online dating thing for a bit and put on my profile because I was sick of dealing with people that found out that I was blind and then were like, see you later.
Just ghosted.
So I was like, no, I'm done with this BS crap.
Like, I'm just going to post right here that I'm visually impaired.
If you don't like it, like, don't even bother to.
Blind AF.
That's what I'd put on there.
Blind ever after.
Yeah.
Oh, blind as fuck.
Blind as fuck.
Nice.
Just to be, you know what I'm saying?
Like, might as well also be progressive.
You know what I'm saying?
Like, not only am I blind, dude, but I'm so fucking blind.
Exactly.
It's like John Cena, like, you can't see me, you know?
Blind as fuck until I drink.
Right.
So I. Would you have guys that came in like that?
So you dated online, and so then you just put blind?
I did.
Yeah.
And was that easier?
It was, honestly.
People just knew and they weren't like all weird about it when they found out.
I mean, I met up with a couple of them and then was just like, yeah, no, I'm good.
You know?
Yeah, that's basically, I think that is online dating for everyone.
I think you described that.
That's everybody's experience.
A lot of time spent, you meet up and then, eh.
Yeah, you're just like, interesting.
I met a mathematician one time and he talked about math the entire time.
I'm like, dude, you do realize I hate math, right?
I really hate math.
It's like, let's just talk about random stuff and then go our separate ways because I'm never going to contact you again.
I'm just going to be honest.
You're like, man, I wish I was blind and deaf right now.
Seriously, right now?
That would be great.
Well, look, that's how I feel.
Like, sometimes I'm like, gosh, I wish, sometimes I wish, you know what's crazy is I wish, and I guess it's a selfish thing to say to somebody that can't, that has, that's sight impaired, but that sometimes I wish I just could shut down some of the sensory overload.
Well, see if your computer, you can just go visual or ocular sensors off and just turn it off for the moment.
That would be great.
But I'm waiting for the days when not only the singularity happens, but we're able to get a chip in planet that can't be hacked.
Apple, you listening?
I know.
That way we can turn off senses we don't want for the time being.
Oh, wow.
You think that could be plausible?
It certainly makes sense, huh?
Self-driving cars are a thing, so I don't see why not.
This could help a lot of people out.
Do you feel sometimes like you have more of an intuitiveness to I don't even know what, but maybe how people are feeling sometimes?
Yeah, like are there, are there intuitions that you, that you just, if you had to just trust your own instincts or something, are there things that you, what can you do better than people that can see that, and maybe they could do it better.
It sounds like a job interview.
could do they did they may be able to do it better but they're not able to recognize it because they don't live in the same space that you do like is And not even in a braggadocious way, but what do you feel like you have more of an insight into or more of a ability to do than people that are almost overwhelmed with sight or just that are that have to see all the time?
Yeah, I would say focusing on one task.
In our technology-driven ADD age, it's impossible for people to focus on anything longer than three seconds.
We're kind of like Dory the Goldfish, right?
Oh, yeah.
So from finding Nemo.
Her memories like that.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I remember her.
Yeah.
Cute.
Comic, comedian reference, right?
But we tend to get distracted very easily to different things and get bored quick.
I would say that if I'm interested in something, I can focus on it until I'm done with that.
So whether it is a particular song or a particular movie, I like to, I really enjoy personally art.
And I don't know if this is related to me being blind or if this is just a personality thing, but I love admiring people's art, whether it is through something auditory art like tap dancing or going to the Nutcracker and listening to an audio described version of the performance.
I can really enjoy all the nuances of the work and the time that went into practicing and practicing and completely solidifying their performance to get to that point.
Like Broadway plays, for example, I love them.
I can pick up on people's voices.
There's so much going on.
There's so much going on.
Specific.
Hamilton is hard to follow.
I could tell you that.
But it's hard to hear about on Twitter, too.
I feel you.
But I imagine that it's great.
I haven't been, but I've got the songs of it.
Lion King was the last Broadway musical that I went to.
But I could imagine that because there's a lot of...
But it's very specific and it's organized to portray something, to portray a show, to portray a story.
Yeah.
Art imitates life.
And so you're able to put that together.
Yeah.
I love it.
It's brilliant.
And in general, just being able to focus on one thing or another or pick up on things others don't.
I've noticed that we tend to pick up on other sensory cues that folks didn't, maybe someone who's sighted, who's around us, did not because they were focusing on what the person was wearing totally.
You know, oh, so-and-so, you know, I love their hairstyle or whatever dress that was this brand and this material.
I'm like, I have no idea what you're talking about.
But, you know, their voice expressed this or their footsteps, you know, they sounded kind of less confident because their gait was stumbly or not even or what have you.
Wow, it's so crazy.
I feel like you have like such a, I guess just like you have such the ability to hear and be able to interpret things so much.
It just feels like such a unique skill kind of.
And anyone can develop it.
Like if, you know, and obviously this is not something I would ever wish upon anyone, but let's say you lost your vision temporarily due to something, some surgery or what have you.
I love surgery too.
Yeah.
I do.
So you love surgery.
That's awesome.
I could see it happening.
I listened to your last episode where you were discussing you were thinking about being a doctor.
Oh, yeah.
And then they brought you in and they just kind of dumped you into it all.
That must have been horrifying.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, with Tom Segura in?
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
But yeah, surgery, I mean, watching it is interesting too.
Yeah, I guess.
I mean, that kind of stuff kind of creeps me out.
I mean, I think, you know, if you're in the horror flicks, it might be more your vibe.
You know, it might be a thing.
One of my colleagues had a major abdominal surgery, and he was supposed to go to sleep under local, but as you know, it never works like it's supposed to.
And he woke up and he was awake during the whole thing.
He was traumatized, poor guy.
Yeah.
Awful.
Yeah, just kind of moseying around during your own lobotomy.
That sounds awful.
Yeah, it sounds risky.
Yeah, definitely for your psyche.
Yeah, it sounds risky for your psyche.
Anyone can develop those skills of recognizing nuance in sound.
So then we get lazy with our site then.
We get – because we have site, we – Or sight lazy.
Right.
Like you take it all in visually.
Oh, yes.
You don't need to do that.
You don't need the additional sound cues because you can see it.
Yeah.
It makes sense.
Yeah, it makes sense, I guess.
But it also, it makes me almost forget about the other senses that I have sometimes.
I get so just used to looking at the picture, you know?
But actually, for Halloween, one of my favorite games to play with friends was blindfold everybody and then stick their hands in bowls of stuff and tell them, oh, this is worms when it's actually spaghetti.
Yeah.
Like peel grapes.
Oh, you want to hold an eyeball?
Yeah, you're like, welcome to my world.
So does everything, does the world feel a little bit haunted since you can't see that much?
Like, does everything feel kind of like, is it spooky or does it feel like kind of like you're in sound of music?
Or like, what does it feel like, I guess?
It depends on my frame of mind.
So if I freak myself out in some way by watching something or, I don't know, hearing some story that really sticks with me and I'm out and about by myself, I'd be like, oh my God, I'm going to get murdered.
This is really creepy.
And then try to come up.
Sometimes I'll even try to come up with a story or like, even if I do get startled, I'm like, okay, how did I do that?
Like, what did I do to get startled?
I'm going to need this for voice acting.
So I'll try to bring it over, bring over those natural reactions and keep it in mind.
Like, how do I react?
And I'll watch movies and I'll pay attention to the actors, how they do it and what makes them a good performer and try to adopt it.
So I kind of multitask it all.
But sound of music, if I'm really excited about something, like I'll tell you, when I got this opportunity, I was so excited.
The last couple of days have been like, oh my God, the world is awesome.
Oh, that's awesome to hear that.
Yeah.
That's cool.
Yeah, we were really excited too.
You know, we've been trying to find somebody.
Honestly, we've been trying to find a blind person for a while.
Really?
Yeah.
So we need more blind people, I think.
Hey, I can recommend some more people if you need.
If we have follow-up questions, I think this has been very interesting.
We have a couple video calls that came in as well.
Sure.
So let's put our headphones on.
And this first one comes from Marco.
Hey, Theo, Marco from New Zealand.
My question is, if there's one thing that she comes across every day that sighted people don't understand that they could change to help her, what would that be?
Gang gang.
Gang gang, Marco.
Thank you.
That's a good question.
Tanya, what do you think about that?
So should I leave these on or take them off?
Yeah, we'll listen to them.
We'll leave them on.
We have a couple more.
We have a couple that we had a ton, actually.
We procured a couple.
So one thing that sighted people could do, in my opinion, that would help is if they could just let us know what specifically makes them uncomfortable in situations and what we could do better to sort of put them at ease, that would be helpful for us because then it wouldn't be all on us to try to figure out how to make people comfortable.
But then also, we should get better about asking for help, I think, if we need it.
But then I guess sighted people should trust us to know what we need and when we need help and just to let them know what it is.
And also don't be afraid to ask questions.
That's one of the things a lot of people are uncomfortable with, which I get.
I mean, I would feel the same way.
I don't know much about mobility issues.
So if I were talking to someone with mobility issues, I would feel like, oh, I don't want to offend them.
I don't want to ask anything that's rude or ignorant.
And it's hard because you're making yourself vulnerable by asking.
But my thought is just put it out there.
If you have any questions, go for it.
And the other thing is giving directions.
I think people need to get way better at that.
It's like, it's over there.
It's that way.
I'm sorry, where?
To my right, to my left.
And then I just start pointing in every cardinal direction, north, south, east, or west.
Which direction?
Yeah.
Oh, they're always like, yeah, go a couple blocks to you smell a little bit of skirt steak and then take a left.
Nice.
What?
Nice.
You're like, what's going on around here?
What are you on?
Yeah, that's a great question.
It's interesting because it just sounds like really communication, you know.
Do you feel like in the times that we're in right now, or like not the times, but as the times that like the media likes to make it feel like we're in with like social justice warriors and everybody getting offended, that people I've noticed are less, feel less comfortable asking questions that can actually be helpful?
Do you notice any of that?
Like people are more worried about offending you than they are about engaging with you?
All the time.
It's just easier not to engage than risk offending someone and getting sued, right?
Everyone's afraid of getting sued.
And that must come down tougher even in your community because, or not in that, in this lawsuit way, but just or maybe so, but also just that, you know, you need more communication.
Yes.
I think communication for us is key because we may not be able to tell body language or eye contact whether the person is interested in communicating with us or interacting.
So just talking and literally talking everything out, which doesn't sound intuitive at all because you guys are used to body language and just kind of, hey, I'm pointing at you.
Hey, you know, gesturing and what have you.
So that's a big gap right there.
And if we all just used our words a lot more instead of memes and emojis, I think we'd get more.
We need to go back to the 90s.
I know, huh?
Yeah.
Back when there was some real actually information.
I know.
I know.
I miss that.
Yeah, it's interesting.
And now we have movies with all texting.
Like the whole movie is texting and Skyping, right?
Yeah.
It's like, what is that even about?
What is this?
Yeah, that's regular life.
I know.
What else do we have?
Let's take another question that came in.
This was actually a Patreon question.
So it was comes from Dalton Windam.
He said, if you had perfect vision for just one day, what would you do during that time?
Ooh, that's awesome.
Probably look at the coral reef or go to all the tourist attractions like the Grand Canyon and maybe climb a mountain, look at the view.
All the things that are visual I would probably want to do.
Like all the traditional and maybe even...
I'd want to incorporate that somewhere in that day.
So yeah, you take that worry out of your field and then you can just be even more free, probably.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, do some on-camera work with perfect vision would be awesome.
Yeah, that's cool.
That is a good one.
Anything else, Nick, that came in that you liked?
Yeah, this was a frequently asked one.
We had two that were really frequent.
Here's the first one.
What up, Theo?
What up, Tanya?
Gang.
What up, Theo?
What up, Tanya?
Gang, gang.
Anyway, I was wondering real quick, Tanya, you know, do you have dreams?
And when you have dreams, do you see things?
Do you just hear things?
Like, I mean, I guess seeing things, I don't know, it might sound ignorant to say that, but I just, I've often wondered what happens when blind people dream.
Do you have, like, I don't know, visions maybe?
I don't know.
It's a good question.
Let me know.
That's interesting.
Yeah.
What are your dreams like kind of?
That was cool.
And yeah, I do dream and see things in my dreams.
Like I have, I wouldn't say my sight is any better.
Some of my friends that have had more sight before tell me that their dreams are a lot more vivid and visual.
So everyone is different with that.
And the more people you ask, the different responses you're going to get.
But for me, it's, I can see things the same as in real life.
But the difference is that my brain kind of knows where everything is.
So it's like, I'll know what everything looks like, even though my vision isn't better.
I'll know where everything's placed.
And it's all already mapped in my head.
So it's like intuitively just knowing where stuff is, which is cool.
Also, I am able to hear things the same way.
And I haven't mastered lucid dreaming.
I'm trying to.
That would be awesome.
If I could just control my dreams, change them up, make, you know, fly.
Like I was able to do that once where I dreamed that I was in an airplane and the top came off kind of like in a car.
I was like, really?
Yes.
I swear to God.
And we're going up and up and down some mountains and the top, it was like a convertible airplane.
Yeah.
And it was like on clouds.
They were like cotton candy from the circus.
Oh, wow.
It was just kind of floating on clouds and the top of it opened.
And then I sort of was like, huh, I wonder what would happen if I jumped out without being scared.
Jumped out and I put my hands out to my sides and I was just floating and flying around the plane and along the clouds, sitting on them and floating on clouds.
It was awesome.
Dang.
That was the only time I was able to control it, but I'm working on it.
Dream journals.
They're a thing.
Yeah.
I'm trying to get that wet dreams.
Do they have wet dreams if you're blonde?
If you have the, do they have, I don't know, do women even have wet dreams?
Yeah, I would say so.
I mean, yeah, that's a thing.
It happens once in a while, like when you either don't expect it or if you really like somebody.
Yeah.
It just like, it comes up.
Or a lot of the times what used to happen for me as a teenager is like, it would be like some burning building or something crazy, like at a Terminator.
And then the random guy would show up and be like, do you want to live or you want to die?
Let's go.
Yeah.
You know, and then just go from there.
And then I'd wake up like just as I was getting into their car.
I was like, what the hell?
Really?
Why is this happening?
Why do I have to wake up right now?
This isn't cool.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
I've had something like that.
Yeah.
I mean, not with the guy, but with a woman, you know.
Right.
Yeah.
What else do we have here?
We got one more video question.
Let's do.
And honestly, this was probably sent in by 12 different people.
This is from Andy Ferguson.
Yo, what's good, Theo?
This is your boy Andy up in Portland, Oregon.
What's up, Andy?
I had a question for Tanja or Tanya.
I don't know if it's a soft J. It's a question that has kept me up many a night just wondering, how do you know when you're done wiping?
Gang, gang.
Okay, so I guess that's a, if you're going to the bathroom, if you, you know, if you're going to the bathroom, how do you know when you're done wiping your body?
That's kind of like the question where people ask when you're in the shower, how do you see to shower, right?
Right.
It's like you keep your eyes closed and you shower anyway.
Yeah.
It's one of those things where you can just like, you use a bunch of toilet paper.
And then if you're still not, you know, if you're still not clean, then you get a bouday set, right?
Yeah.
And you just use that on your toilet and you're good.
And it's actually cleaner and you use less toilet paper.
Yeah.
But no, it's like seriously, yeah, you just, you just wipe everything a couple times and you make sure it's not uncomfortable.
And if it's not, you're good.
Yeah.
And you move on and do a couple extra swabs on deck.
Exactly.
I feel you.
Just like anybody else would.
Yeah, don't just do one time.
I don't care who you are.
Please don't.
Yeah.
You don't want to get stuck on the hair, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
You got to tighten it up.
Do you feel like I'm wondering, was sex very scary since you were sight impaired?
Like, was that something that was, it was just kind of regular?
No, it was one of those things where it was like, oh, I'm going to try this now.
Let's do it.
Yeah.
And, you know, it's, it's the same, again, with, with like anything else, you got to communicate about everything.
Yeah.
And just be upfront.
And it can be really awkward for sure when you're, like, it's your first time or whatever and you're trying to learn your own preferences and things.
It can be really awkward, but you, you've got to find ways to make things less awkward.
So you play games.
I don't know.
You like maybe you do some role playing down the line just to make things fun, you know, keep things fun.
And you have, if you're not into it, you've just got to be honest.
Be like, hey, dude, not today.
I'm good.
Yeah.
Just communicate.
Communication.
You know, it's funny, the longer that we sit here, I just forgot that you were blind for a second.
Nice.
That's pretty crazy.
I don't know.
It just like, yeah, I don't know what for some reason it was just like, I don't know, a second ago, I just totally forgot about it.
Not that it matters.
Not that I was thinking the whole time, oh, you know, Tanya can't see or Tanya's sight impaired, but I just forgot it.
Yeah, well, no, it's like a tiny person or a tiny part of who I am.
And it doesn't obviously make up anyone's identity.
It's just an obstacle or, I mean, you could think of it as an obstacle or just a part of you that you live with and you adapt life to, but it's not really who you are.
Like your personality, everyone's personality is blind, is different from the others.
And although there are similarities in our experiences, like finding shoppers at stores and getting very vague information on everything, or the whole experience where people start helping you and you can tell after five minutes, they're just like, oh, are you going to ask me about one more thing?
Please, just go away.
Yeah, because you need more information, right?
You have a lot of questions.
You do, yes.
Like you need to know what brand it is, what the size is.
You know, if you're looking at shoes, for example, what other styles they carry and do they have them in your size?
You want to feel everything in the store, which people just get.
Oh, that's pretty wild.
People are like, no, please don't do that.
Yeah.
That's like a pervert at ah.
That's like Gianni when he goes to one of those bunny ranches.
Nice.
You know, he just wants to feel everything in the store.
Like a pervert at a sex store.
Nick.
You and Nick at, Nick was also a premature baby.
I don't know if you guys have.
No, I didn't know that.
preemies.
Yeah.
I was a two-pound preemie.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
And Nick came in.
I think he was ready to wrestle.
What'd you come in at, Nick?
I was pretty heavy.
I was in that four to six pound range.
Nice.
Nice.
They called him Big Nick around the incubators.
So last question I have for you is, is your sight impairment, is it in your eyes or is it in your brain?
Oh, that's a good one because cortical visual impairment is now the leading cause of blindness in the U.S. That's what I was thinking.
Yeah.
No, I'm joking.
I have no idea what you're talking about there.
Oh, it's a processing issue where that would be classified as a brain issue, where your brain is just unable to make sense of the images it gets from your eyes.
So there is that.
That's a leading cause now.
But no, mine has nothing to do with the way my brain processes anything.
It is related to my optic nerve, which connects my eyes to my brain.
And a lot of the strands on those have deteriorated.
The more they deteriorate due to glaucoma, the less I'm able to perceive, which is why my field of vision is so low.
It's like looking through a TP tube.
You just see directly what's ahead of you.
The funny thing about that is, though, when people run across my path, like in front of me or they step in front of me, to me, it looks like they just appeared out of thin air, like they're not there and then they're there.
And I'm like, whoa.
Dang.
So every one of your neighbors is like David Blaine.
Yeah.
That's so interesting.
Do you feel like you have a different insider relationship with like a higher power because of your impairment?
No, I wouldn't say.
I'm not really religious.
But even like spiritual?
Do you feel like even in your spirit, do you feel like...
I would say because I'm so fascinated with the supernatural in general, I feel like I can pick up if there is residual energy or spirit activity or something.
I used to do as a hobby, like in paranormal investigation.
Hell yeah, you did.
Yeah, it was so much fun.
Yeah, you did, dude.
It was so much fun.
And this will take us into – Yeah, just before we get out of here, we'd like to hear about your two shows.
Yeah.
Yeah, specifically, yeah.
Yeah.
So I'll mention Vast Horizon, which is done by Fulham Scholar Productions.
Caitlin and Travis are super talented as a team, and they also created the White Vault, which I encourage you to check out.
But this is creeping horror.
Like this starts out where it sets up the story and the characters, and it's this agronomist who wakes up on the agronomist.
And what is that?
Like she's a scientist.
She studies plants and stuff.
Okay, so a plant person.
So she wakes up on a colony ship and she wakes up alone.
Like she's got a tube down her throat and she's like, oh my God, I'm dying.
Wakes up, the medical computer gives her some basic info.
And then she realizes that there are no bodies.
No one else is on board.
She's the only one alive on the ship that she knows of.
And gets out of the med bay, tries to figure it out.
No lights, only emergency auxiliary lights are on.
And she starts making contact with the ship's AI.
I get to play the AI, which for me is amazing.
I love it because I'm so obsessed with artificial intelligence.
And I have like an Alexa at home and everything.
Oops, sorry, guys, if I set off your devices here.
That's okay.
We don't have anything.
I mean, the listeners, yeah.
Oh, that's great.
Oh, I used to go on the radio and blow a dog whistle all the time.
Nice.
And change the whole freaking town, dude.
That's great.
Yeah, it was pretty good.
So that sounds pretty fascinating.
Somebody wakes up on a ship and nobody else is there.
Yes, exactly.
And she needs to survive.
Okay.
And it tells her story through flashback.
You find out how she ended up there and what her mission is.
And there are many critical things on the ship that she needs to take care of, including the incubators, you know, the babies in the nursery.
And it just gets steadily creepier.
There will be a couple seasons.
And this is all over audio, right?
Yep, this is on fasthorizon.libson.com and the whitevault.libson.com.
You can also find it on Himalaya, which is an app which allows you to stream podcasts you can listen to.
And we'll put the links in the information so people can check them out.
Sweet.
Can you feel when people are looking at you?
Sometimes.
It feels kind of like the hair on the back of my neck stands up.
does that tell you that we have like a unique energy that is like used through our eyes?
Like, is there something like, um, I, yeah, you think of your eyes just as intakers, but they're really, I think it's that, that like your energy is focused on me so I can tell that you're like directly engaged or looking at me directly.
Yeah, it's kind of like when you watch any ghost paranormal investigation show, like paranormal state, you know, ghost, yeah, I'm blanking on the taps team there.
Oh, I blanked on everything.
Yeah.
Jesus Christ.
So you kind of, you feel like that sense of someone is there or they're watching you.
Man, it sounds now it just seems so interesting to be blind because now you get to live in like this constant like horror novel where anything could happen.
Isn't it great?
Everything's kind of hunting you.
It's just such a, I'm out here with all this color and all no, you know, it's just kind of milling around with all this freaking, you know, just information that's not really as fascinating sometimes.
I mean, it is, but I think what it is, and I don't mean that in a bad way, I mean it in the sense that it's like I forget about my other senses as much.
Like I think, yeah, just being sense lazy, like I forget about like, if I had to close my eyes and sit somewhere for a while and just smell or just hear, like what would I even pick up about the world that I'm in?
Try it.
Try it.
It's a lot of fun.
They have actually a five senses museum exhibit in one of the museums in Denver.
Actually, they had that recently.
It was cool.
You know what would be really neat is if you went and sat somewhere like in a specific place like in the world, right?
And you did a thing where you just like, you Told people like as an audio tape, you told people like all the sounds that were there, and so then someone could go sit in the same place and just notice them.
Yeah, because that's a thing.
Like, I wouldn't even probably notice until someone said, Hey, do you hear?
You'd be like, Oh, wow, that is crazy.
I didn't even know what that, you know.
I think it could just you might be able to be like a liaison kind of into like a like a sound Sherpa kind of, you know, where you could take us up in like a, you know, just kind of in a, just recognizing that that sounds going on around us a lot of times.
Yeah, absolutely.
Um, you can do that with any kind of, like, there are apps that will help you identify bird calls.
That's a big hobby with a lot of people.
I like a warbler, too.
You like them?
Yeah.
A warbler?
Yeah.
Yeah, they're kind of cool.
Well, it's not like you don't like them, really.
It's okay.
So-so about it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I guess I'm, I mean, I don't like them that much, but I do like them, though.
Yeah, but there are so many ways to do that.
I mean, there's an app called Vision Sim, which will simulate different visual conditions, like retinopathy, prematurity, diabetic retinopathy, et cetera.
And the camera will, you look through your camera at objects, and you'll see them to the degree you want to apply that visual impairment.
So you can adjust the slider to 100%, which is total, to 0%.
So try it out.
It's free.
It's made by the Braille Institute, and it's on the Apple Store.
What am I saying?
The App Store.
I will check it out.
I will, and we'll put the link to that as well.
Tanya, we just want to thank you so much for being here and joining us today.
And yeah, I'm curious to check out some of your voiceover work.
Thank you.
And just, I don't know, continue to have your voice in my ears sometimes.
Oh, absolutely.
I really appreciate this opportunity.
And thank you so much for having me on the show.
Yeah, thank you just for being so candid.
And just I really feel like I just, I kind of learned a lot, I feel like.
And I'm grateful for you for being willing to let me learn, you know, and not being judgmental, you know.
No, and you, and you're super, you had some wonderful questions.
So I appreciate your ability to ask some thought-provoking things that I hadn't thought of either.
Well, communication, right?
Like you just said.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Yep.
Now I'm just folding on the breeze and I feel I'm falling like these leaves.
I must be cornerstone.
Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this peace of mind I found.
I can feel it in my bones.
But it's gonna take a little time for me to set that parking break and let myself all wine shine that light on me.
I'll sit and tell you my stories Shine on me And I will find a song I will sing it just for you and And I will go away to the face.
Don't run away from me.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm Jonathan Kite and welcome to Kite Club, a podcast where I'll be sharing thoughts on things like current events, stand-up stories, and seven ways to pleasure your partner.
The answer may shock you.
Sometimes I'll interview my friends.
Sometimes I won't.
And as always, I'll be joined by the voices in my head.
You have three new voice messages.
A lot of people are talking about Kite Club.
I've been talking about Kite Club for so long, longer than anybody else.
So great.
Hi, Sweet.
Is it deal?
Anyone who doesn't listen to Kite Club is a dodgy bloody wanker.
John.
I'll take a quarter pottle of cheese out of the glory.
Sorry, sir, but our ice cream is broken.
I think Tom Hanks just butt-dialed me.
Anyway, first rule of Kite Club is tell everyone about Kite Club.
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