In this episode of The Future is Sick, Charlie talks with Atlas Jackson, a disabled PhD student in Critical Medical Anthropology and co-director of Degenerates Collective about navigating the U.S. health insurance system, medical gaslighting, and the politics of mobility aids.

Atlas shares about his work with the queer and disabled DIY arts and mutual aid space on Chicago’s South Side, and why building accessible community spaces outside capitalist institutions is so important. The conversation bridges scholarship, lived experience, and organizing, pointing toward a crip future where care isn’t gatekept by institutions and mobility is normalized as a human right.

Topics we discuss:

• Navigating the U.S. health insurance system

• Medical gaslighting and disability

• Mobility aids and access politics

• Queer and disabled community spaces

• DIY care, mutual aid, and creativity

• From genocide studies to Critical Medical Anthropology

• Degenerates Collective and South Side Chicago

• Imagining liberatory crip futures

Learn more about Atlas & Degenerates Collective:

Instagram: @morbidlemur @degenerates.collective

Find the full episode transcript on our website:

www.sickfuturescollective.org/podcast

The Future is Sick is a podcast by Sick Futures Collective — made by and for sick and disabled people, and for anyone imagining more supportive, creative, and liberatory futures.

Learn more about Sick Futures Collective:

Website: www.sickfuturescollective.org

Podcast page: www.sickfuturescollective.org/podcast

To share your art, writing, or creative work with the Crip Commons Hub, visit the Sick Futures website or email stories@sickfuturescollective.org

The future is sick.

In this episode, Charlie talks with health equity advocate and systems strategist Austin Puca about living with lupus, chronic illness, and the everyday negotiations of being in a body you’re constantly learning how to live in. From avoiding the sun and navigating flares, to food, fatigue, trust, and care, this is a generous, funny, and free-flowing conversation between two friends. Austin also shares what it means to show up for one another through diagnosis and uncertainty — including being a steady source of care and knowledge when Charlie was first diagnosed with lupus — as together they explore community care, interdependence, and what futures shaped by sick and disabled wisdom can look, sound, and feel like.

Topics we discuss:

- Living with lupus and chronic illness

- Trust, communication, and being believed

- Community care and interdependence

- Food, cooking, and nourishment during flares

- Bodies, time, and change

- Imagining sick-led futures

Learn more about Austin:

Instagram: @likethecityintexas

Find the full episode transcript on our website: www.sickfuturescollective.org/podcast

Watch the full episode on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/Yk_RtjFWQAA

The Future is Sick is a podcast by Sick Futures Collective — made by and for sick and disabled people, and for anyone imagining more supportive, creative, and liberatory futures.

Topics we discuss:

- Chronic illness and diagnosis stories

- Art as language, survival, and care

- Narrative Medicine

- Grief, identity, and crip time

- Community-building and collective imagination

Learn more about Sick Futures Collective:

Website: www.sickfuturescollective.org

Podcast page: www.sickfuturescollective.org/podcast

To share your art, writing, or creative work with the Crip Commons Hub, visit the Sick Futures website or email stories@sickfuturescollective.org

The future is sick.

In our first episode, Charlie talks with artist and narrative medicine professional Sal Marx about creative survival, illness stories, and futures where sick and disabled people lead the work of rebuilding care systems. This conversation explores art, care, grief, and the everyday realities disabled people move through.

Learn more about Sal:

Website: salmarx.myportfolio.com

Instagram: @salmarx11

Find the full episode transcript on our website: www.sickfuturescollective.org/podcast

Watch the full episode on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/d-1PRzPtPZw?si=De__sh1oXdE6MKTU

The Future is Sick is a podcast by Sick Futures Collective — made by and for sick and disabled people, and for anyone imagining more supportive, creative, and liberatory futures.

Topics we discuss:

- Chronic illness and diagnosis stories

- Art as language, survival, and care

- Narrative Medicine

- Grief, identity, and crip time

- Community-building and collective imagination

Learn more about Sick Futures Collective:

Website: www.sickfuturescollective.org

Podcast page: www.sickfuturescollective.org/podcast

To share your art, writing, or creative work with the Crip Commons Hub, visit the Sick Futures website or email stories@sickfuturescollective.org

The future is sick.