Episode Details

It was my honour to welcome Luke Anderson to This Is Your Strange and Beautiful Life! Luke Anderson is a speaker, singer, dancer, harmonica player, accessibility advocate, and athlete of the body turned athlete of the spirit. He is relatively famous for co-founding the revolutionary StopGap Foundation, a registered charity that builds bright and beautiful ramps across Toronto and North America. StopGap’s mission is to “bring people together to take practical steps to make spaces more accessible.”

I think about this interview every day. Please enjoy!

Luke Anderson: “I’ve developed a way of life that recognizes the possibilities of what I have now. And the way that I’ve chosen to recognize my physical situation right now is that, at the time of my injury... I was experiencing a piece of the pie of life. That was my periphery, that was my field of view, a slice of the pie of life. And because of the pie of life. And because of my injury and it helping me broaden my perspective, I’m now able to see a new slice of that pie of life. So, that kind of speaks to what I was saying... to see that moment, that injury I sustained on October 27, 2002 as a gift. It gifted me an opportunity to see life through a new lens.”

Links and Resources

Luke Anderson on Instagram: @lukewanders_on

The StopGap Foundation: stopgap.ca@stopgapfoundation

StopGap on HotDocs: Stop Gap Measure

StopGap, The Luke Anderson Story: Watch on YouTube

Luke's Harmonica Teacher Nico Tyson

Erica on Instagram: @erica.j.schmidt

Erica's website: ericajschmidt.com

Erica's Interview with Luke Anderson

00:00:00 Riveting clips from Luke Anderson’s Interview. Watch and understand immediately why you MUST listen to the end.

00:01:48 This Is Your Strange and Beautiful LifeTheme Song + Luke Anderson’s bio

00:04:55 Language in the world of disabilities. How to empower, connect, remove barriers, and create a sense of possibi