This Past Weekend - Blind Person Tanja Milojevic | This Past Weekend #215

Episode Date: July 18, 2019

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.

today's guest is a she's blind man I'm gonna be honest with you if you think she's not blind you're nuts so today's guest is 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 want 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 time I'm not drinking some water yeah to drink some water kind of has some notes but I'm not really looking at them and is it fun for you and people like kind of described 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 hmm 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'd have some surgeries to reattach and I was very lucky to be able to come to the US from Serbia where's from and have those reattached somewhat here in the US here in the US yeah dr. Ossie like how blind are you though like if I had to guess like like do you feel pretty blind oh total I mean it I have

enough vision to get me into trouble but it's about 22,000 in one eye and 2700 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 and in my both of my eyes are 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 you 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 color blind 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 I do you ever feel like yeah let's call it call like let's call it like hey kind of confused you know like 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 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 their 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 high partials and then there are people who are totally blind or who are lights who have some light perception and we we do like to categorize ourselves some of us in 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 that would be me really confused yeah yeah because I don't want to be a high parcel that sounds like somebody that's trying to be fancy to me like I would I know it's us yeah 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 Katniss Everdeen you know oh yes I'm a high partial put me near the cornucopia first yeah the best weapons yeah sounds like because there's a lot

of high parcels even just in regular do what especially in Hollywood this place is full of high parcels man oh man Jesus it's really that'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 that's an interesting question I've actually never got that um well cuz I could imagine your senses are better than mine or this is my perception is that your senses are way better than mine so so I'm thinking like you know do you is your

sense of touch like at a level that I could couldn't even imagine you know um 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 etc 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 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 I've 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 say your sense of touch in your index fingers is much more cute because you use it for Braille use that's your main fingers used 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 yeah they would be able to develop a sense of how to read even or their toes there are there

are folks that like I've seen oh toe-offs you're talking about people that are just towing off or they use their toes to read yeah that's like a guy 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 they have a bumper sticker I know that says you're driving too close and it's in Braille and it's on like nice which makes sense really I'd love to see that yeah if you're

that close yeah I think you got a back off you got a problem you're gonna get run over yeah but so 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 my newt sounds whereas that kind of goes both ways because in dance music my boyfriend loves to put up the music really loud because it you know it's sometimes like especially working out or something so there are in dance music high-pitched buzzy noises that almost sound like a 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 anything is the funniest thing ever who makes some of the most painful music out there because obviously 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 I'm just I sit there I'm like no what about an American artist maybe I mean that makes them really really you know just some real junk like I mean I'm thinking for me it's Nicki Minaj oh yeah some of her songs are interesting that I could see that but is there a band or something that kind of you're like hmm I

would say probably some of the death metal bands like I and I used to love death metal so I'm not trying to rag on them here but um cannibal corpse oh yeah that example they got some it's just painful high notes and in the solos and they don't want you to live through the songs 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 would almost be like almost it seemed 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 yeah no I wouldn't I wouldn't say it's 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 your 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 when every day when you wake up do you feel like almost like Inspector Gadget a little because you got a kind of like that would be cool hey maybe I'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 thinning thing yeah yeah 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 blonde to be sight impaired like I'm trying to think of like if my brain would wake up every day and ever in 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 in a great mood it can definitely seem filled with 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 right like a Chelsea handler yeah concert yeah yeah yeah sorry just some of slips out of me but um so

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 Naboo yeah very good at navigating outside so if I'm 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 do you want a treat let's go and she finds the door and she helps you leave mm-hmm and she's very beautiful oh thank you and she also I noticed that she has very beautiful eyes yeah she wears makeup for me 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've seen some animals with pretty eyes and stuff before they got smooshy the cat has some beautiful eyes he has an Instagram page but but she has beautiful eyes like you it's almost at first I was like holy smokes like today did you guys swap eyes or something like cuz 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 on on Naboo do some animals do you get a different sense from certain animals and other animals I'm

just wondering like if you can get different senses than I can from from animals do you mean like bonding type or yeah 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 in our body language as well as facial expressions really well hmm and the body positioning like where their tail is low is positioned or how 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 so 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 on my 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're a little bit of just didn't care but animals got along with me just fine do you get a

different vibes like 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 actually snakes kind of freak me out I used to like them as a kid they 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 no 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 adult they're okay I'll pet them but yeah 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 I was just gonna say I knew they were up to no good you know yeah and yeah thank you I think I'm just like I was thinking about this last night I was like when I was young one of my favorite the one of the first people I ever remember meeting

was this kid named Doug Huval 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 talk 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 hmm 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 well 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 you know this little yeah this kind of little bucket he kind of bad boy you know so I guess like I was thinking last time 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 and horror films horror films horror books what music radio dramas that are involved with horror for example like the white vault for instance pasteurize and 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 and 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 gonna plug them to whenever we whenever we bring the we'll do an intro for the show later yeah we'll make sure to plug him but oh thank you so so first let's

talk about imagination a little yes Naboo sorry about that it's okay so there was just a knock at the door we don't I'm not sure who it was but so Naboo lets you know when she does she alert barks she does actually what's funny what 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 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 of 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 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 she'll get up and walk over to them just like hmm you know just like growl get out my mom used to do that when I bring this kid Wayne over all the time just growl yeah yeah 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 by colors you know I wonder if like my imagination got caged up you know because it's 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 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

exercise is help with that mindfulness where you you notice oh I'm having this thought or I'm thinking about what I need to do but I'm just gonna 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 an arm 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 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 Instagraming and twig 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 Dungeons and Dragons you're saying right right yeah and you can play these how because so you know how online they have a graphic system and multiplayer verse

etc 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 right HTML we can enter in code mm-hmm and you 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 mm-hmm 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

I see so by adding in sound packs you're able to get like a more of an experience where you can actually enjoy a multi sensory like a video game experience now so with virtual reality kind of looming does that seem very exciting to like yes 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 and it starts off it's fully voice-acted it's 3d audio space and I've contacted them I was like hey guys you're awesome like

how do I play this they're just like oh we we believe it's accessible let us know you know so I've got to get my nephew to help me out here and what's it called again I'm gonna 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 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 where you are and how many meters away from

something you're standing and that's all that would additionally help you navigate and they're also iOS virtual reality games out there and you're you able like so a virtual reality game like for me I would take the head the video the video the visual set like the goggles and put them over my head my over my eyes and then you know I would have the headphones on I would listen to the experience but I'll 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 who wants to play the game a lot of these have graphical interfaces built in so anyone can play them I see the goal is just to make it fully accessible for all and which is great because if you have a little bit of vision you might be able to see the graphic in a graphical interface as well let's see there's a YouTube video of a guy that has a lot more vision than I than I do I would say he plays a Star Wars virtual reality game and is able to

move the the lander around successfully on his own without dying I see and he gets super excited about it obviously it's and but your imagination like so you have color in your imagination 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's saying I'm probably saying it wrong here but that's what we do here 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 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 take those cues a hundred percent yep because she was standing very still and kind of tense right and you trust her a whole heartless there's no 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 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 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 right now do you feel like you said you like horror films yes there are 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 you want to promote me for in the dark happy to be on that yeah I had to say is that a show it's a show it's a blind protagonist on the CW oh wow I don't

even know that yeah that was a pun so okay perfect no I know that yeah I know you do voiceover work and I want to I want to learn more about the about the characters you play in those but yeah I'm just curious I guess it like you know what um like what's what 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 ever I feel like everything

will be in a general and rusty like a bee 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 gonna die but in this case you're able to like every freaking like every ten 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 you know 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 uh Naboo 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 lift 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 yeah English yeah oh yeah there's a lot of dudes and then I'll speak any language a couple of them I know right yeah I've had some guys that don't speak anything dude that is but you pick a letter of the alphabet out of a hat they have no idea

what you're talking about they can't read signs yeah I know I know it's frustrating so I went to the Chumpsford Center for the Arts ones and they drop me off like the guy had no idea he's like building building I'm like sir I need to go to the Chumpsford 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 built we're in a parking lot like we're come on yeah yeah let's find a no building I'm like

alright see you later see you never see you later you're getting a three-star rating sorry buddy um do you find that um do you find that so more about that horror genre sorry let me think cuz I'm not 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 and then 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 sure and a lot of people are on their phones so it's a more of a risk for anyone crossing now does can

you feel that vibe if somebody's on their phone I feel like a different vibe than somebody just sitting there like say if I'm just sitting here yeah unfortunately not I can't 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 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 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 those five like small talk questions that helps give you more of a world a little bit of world to start with mm-hmm and like a little it 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 stoned then 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 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 city it like not a sitting duck but is she um is she like a city like do you feel like a potential victim possibly ever ah 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 sorry that's a school in Boston it's it's an all-girls 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 on 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 yeah we're like hey baby you want to like you want to you want to you want to talk to me or whatever I'm just like no so I had my service dog that made me feel a lot better right and then I took self-defense and I took

Campo Grotti 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 oh yeah boom or into their neck into their atoms up with their guy if you can reach them oh yeah 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 unless you feel like a potential like because you have your sight impaired right now I'm gonna keep using different terms because I don't know what I'm not you're good but

do you 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 know like I know you do voice acting I know you do podcasting or in that universe yeah I mean I yeah I 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 is fine like I don't get offended or anything I'm happy to try to give you a slice into into

what it's like yeah although every person who is blind has a different perspective on their life depending on when that 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 like what certain animals look like for

example and so were you on that scale you have some concept some concepts yeah there are some things like for example when I read in books where it says so and so eyes sparkled with amusement I'm like what does that mean how do they sparkle does it like do 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 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 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 mm-hmm in younger people I think excitement flares it up in older people I think sentiment or like nostalgia nostalgia that's a great one joy mm-hmm like things like that really kind of yes happiness things that kind of mold like our or fluff your emotion oh like positively I think those are things that would add like a sparkle to somebody's

eye maybe that's sweet you know yeah yeah I just like now what about like like would you close your eyes ever 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 gonna 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 yeah agonizing oh 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 right for a 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 if there's it's bright hmm if you aren't sure then you are gonna be because the truth is that this past

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slash T H E O V O N to start your two months now that skillshare.com slash Theo Vaughn 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 mm-hmm 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 like can you feel that you're I'm just trying to get an idea if this makes any sense can you feel like that your mother is close like you know 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 it was 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 very specific mm-hmm exactly so just like just like nothing almost right yeah so let's say they were standing on the beach right they were staying 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 mm-hmm 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 mm-hmm a lot of cues and things you put together do you find that or 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 other chatty mm-hmm I mean they are chatty yeah especially if they've been drinking but no I'm making a joke there 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 to include people and even Switzerland and I would say and

then the US definitely I hope it continues to go that way and other countries in 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 mm-hmm and then in India for example that they're working hard to get some of the I guess poorer families communities to include people with disabilities in the workforce mm-hmm so it's getting there

it's just our the first world countries have to help the third world to get there which in the problem is also have we can't get half the first world people to frickin get a job or to go to work jeepers we need to help our own people it must be do you can you tell like when you get a vibe 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 selecting the unemployment you know yeah you're like I can't find

yeah I can't find like you know I'll take any job here at this point like any additional side gig would be welcome but you're not you want me to do you mentioned earlier that you have a boyfriend is it is it I would imagine that it's let me think about what I think when I'm he's also visually impaired as well yes well he's missing out I'll tell you that thank you that I'm not trying to I mean I'm always trying to hit on everybody a little bit but at the same time I'm I would never be disrespectful your boyfriend um no no no worries um yeah I think I'll say this for myself especially when I was young I would probably be scared if

someone was blind you know I would be like at it yeah and I don't mean this in a negative way I'm just trying to be honest I would feel oh yeah yeah I was probably scared I was probably you know I didn't know what to do I would think yeah if I go engage with them am I gonna mess am I gonna mess things up or something like whatever is going on in their world like am I going to hey you're not alone a lot of people don't know how to approach yeah the blindness community I think on our end what we could do better is communicate what 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 this and whatever for us we don't really have that as a natural part of our lives like we don't right just to circulate just to circulate 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 from somebody's activity if they're yeah just there you can get a lot of a lot more clues yeah I didn't know 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 well 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 yeah I guess no thanks

yeah it's usually about 13 years old so different times but but to you that see people would what clue is that given off to people that I'm closed off and not welcoming interaction 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 like they're just like oh god how am I gonna do this so what I do as a person was blind is I'll I'll put my hand out first 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 we have to educate ourselves on body language and make it more comfortable I love how you have just an ability minutes 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 pardon 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

site 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 him with kindness that's the way to do it yeah if you can if you're grumpy that day just don't talk yeah just kill him huh oh my god you got me into the horror films are you making me think of the dark arts in here take that axe you know it must be so I mean do you could if you if you're blind 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 as somebody in the distance with like a bow and arrow or something unique oh yeah sometimes you can freak yourself out that way like oh my god a bunch of zombies are gonna break into this car and they're gonna eat me yeah like your imagination must be have 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 that the series on Netflix have you seen it no I

have no 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 cuz it's yeah it's it's trying to build up in emotion whereas a lot of other things aren't really doing that they're just kind of telling true story like point blank yeah like bird box for example with Sandra Bullock yeah super amazing sound design with the sat 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 and I agree yeah horror films kind of they got 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 oh yeah some of those things Nightmare on Elm Street yeah Michael Myers I bet that stuff I bet the Michael Mike the Halloween's 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 yeah 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 design this like help design the sound for a horror film I bet that would be fascinating 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 yours your senses in that space are more cute I wouldn't want to make it 5.1 surround like most movies are anyway where it surrounds you like the you wouldn't want to I would I would want to yes and I would want to make the so you

know how when people are on camera the actors unlike audio drama they are in the center unless they're coming on to set from another room 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 can 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 yeah or maybe you'd have props to use along with the movie like 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 a you 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 one you need another d go all out yeah it's just so yeah it's like well I wonder do down do people does Hollywood come and

tap into the blonde community to learn more about sound or their groups that do that it seems like it would be almost like a goldmine or they would that you know they would go to a mine that has the value in it is there any like 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 a BBC the

BBC does like 3d audio radio dramas for their for their programming and they did employ someone who's totally blind as a sound designer that 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 cuz you guys are like hawks almost do you feel like a bird is there an animal you feel like a little bit 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

is that ever happening there it can be a no I'm just I'm just trying to wonder besides an AI I say I would say maybe maybe like an artificial intelligence a computer you know I see machine you know cyborg because you feel a lot of times things are more like a machine almost like you have to get clues yeah 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 what now you must have a much more because you're right

there at the atomic I bet but 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 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 my own interest than my ability to work with it but if you believe something it's 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 that's but it seems like you get what you put out there so in terms of my ability to improve my programming and adjust it's I have to constantly believe that it will work if I stop believing it's gonna work or I give up or I get lazy it's not gonna work it's just gonna go back to where it was is it 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 is I understand what I'm saying kind of I do like the 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 keeping up with calculus or pre-calc trig all that yeah when the teacher was understanding and helpful it was 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 etc and I would fall behind sometimes my grades would drop and I was huge into having good grades yeah didn't want to fail out or not pass the MCAS or you know even the SATs I needed it was important to get a good score to get 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 gonna do you know I got really depressed and also the fact that it was harder to make friends was making it only adds to it worse but when I got a dog man it was so much easier to make

friends people love dogs oh yeah as long as you're putting the attention on the dog and not yourself to begin with people feel a lot more comfortable hmm so I use that as my kind of helpful strategy and working through depression I 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 and 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 when 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 hmm just heard that today from Gianni actually who really yeah he's actually our actor on set who's here is Gianni and he's a yeah he was just in a film and and yeah he was just helping me with some lines earlier and he literally said that like a half hour before you got here it's a small so yeah it's a small circle of truth right here so is that and how did you get into that did you stumbled into it really 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 should get movies at the library you remember that or oh yeah oh yeah I used to borrow those two yeah force my family watch all these horror films that they hated it's so dark arts dude I would be so scared if I had a blind child who brought him horror films all the time they don't want to piss me off I bet they wouldn't do your with your family ever did they did your family ever get cuz here's another thing now you making me think some people would be scared of blind people oh my god yeah like 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 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 yeah I think but I could see especially at young ages people being very I guess like it must with 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 um 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 used large print on a video magnifier and Braille and so they were always like uh so you use print but how are we supposed to what do you what do you exactly need yeah 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 gonna 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 yeah Simmons you said 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 cuz there's a lot of guys you know kind of like different types of styles of stuff you know and I just wonder if 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 cuz I'm like who'd want to flirt with me right you know I guess my

confidence was not as 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 or they're like true 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 and be like really what 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 that's cool not interested but that's cool and in college or would you get some more pervy type of dudes I could see a guy that's been like hey or even a guy not pervy just very honest like hey I've always wanted to make love to a blind woman is just something you'd be interested in you know I 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 we're like see you later just ghosted so I was like no I'm done with this BS crap like I'm just gonna

post right here that I'm visually impaired if you don't like it like don't even bother blind AF that's what I'd put on there you know the blind ever after yeah oh blind as fuck you know blind as fuck yeah just to be you know I'm saying like might as well also be progressive you know I'm saying like not only my blind dude but I'm so fucking blind exactly John Cena like you can't see me you know blind as fuck until I drink so I have guys that came in like that so so you dated online and so then you just put blind I did yeah and it was that easier it was honestly people just knew and they weren't like all weird yeah

about it when they found out I mean I met up with a couple of them and then was just like yeah now good you know yeah that's basically I think that is all I'm getting for everyone think you describe that yeah that's everybody's experience yeah a lot of times fan you meet up and then yeah yeah you're just like interesting I met a mathematician one time and he talked about math the entire time like dude you do realize I hate math right I really hate math like let's just talk about random stuff and then go our separate ways because I'm never gonna contact you again to be honest you're like man I wish I was

blind and deaf right now right now that would be great look that's how I feel like sometimes I'm like gosh I wish sometimes I wish you know what's crazy as I wish and I guess it's a selfish thing to say to somebody that can't that has that sight and pair 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're listening I know

that way we can turn off senses we don't want for the time being oh wow you that could be possible but it certainly makes sense huh self-driving cars are things so I I don't see why not with 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 other intuitions that you that you just if you had to just trust your own it 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 sounds like a job

interview they 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 there yeah I I know what you mean 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 or that have 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 she's her memories like oh yeah yeah I remember yeah cute comic comedian reference right but um we 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 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 voice so much going on mm-hmm there's so much going on specific Hamilton is hard to follow I can tell you that yeah 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'm his it is but I a Lion King was the last time oh Broadway musical that I went to but I could imagine that because

there's a lot of a lot of stuff going on but it's very specific and it's organized to portray something if to portray a show to portray a story yeah art imitates life and you're able to put that together mm-hmm yeah I love it it's 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 we tend to pick up on other sensory cues that folks didn't maybe someone who's cited 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 it 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 gate was stumbling or not even or what have you so wow it's so crazy I feel like you have like such a I guess just like you have such you're that 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 and obviously this is not something I would ever wish upon anyone but let's say you lost your vision temporarily due

to something mm-hmm some surgery or what have you I love surgery too yeah I do so I could see it surgery that's awesome I could see it happen I listened to your last episode where you were discussing you were thinking about being a doctor and yeah and then they brought you in and they just kind of dumped you into it all that must have been horrible yeah oh with Tom's cigarette yeah yeah yeah but yeah surgery I mean watching it is interesting yeah yeah I guess I mean that kind of stuff kind of creeps me out I mean I think you know if you're in a horror flicks it might be more your vibe you know it might be 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 mm-hmm and he woke up and he was awake during the whole thing he was traumatized poor guy it was just Jeepers yeah awful yeah just kind of mosey and around during your own lobotomy that sounds awful yeah it sounds risky yeah definitely for your psyche yeah that sounds risky for your psyche anyone can develop those skills of recognizing nuance and sound but so then we get lazy with our psych then we get or cuz cuz we have sight we yes you use it as your primary sight lazy right like

you take it all in visually oh yes I know I am yeah you know additional you know sound cues cuz you can see it yeah it makes sense yeah it makes sense I guess but it also it makes 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 oh yeah oh this is worms when it's actually spaghetti yeah like peel grapes oh you want to hold an eyeball so does everything does the world feel a little bit haunted since

you can't see that much like is everything feel kind of like is it spooky or does it feel like kind of like like you're in sound of music or like what does it feel like I guess it depends on my frame of mind hmm 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'm like oh my god I'm gonna 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 gonna

need this for voice acting so I'll try to bring it over bring over those 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 yeah that's cool yeah we're really excited too you know we've been trying to find somebody um honestly we've been trying to find a

blind person for a while really yeah oh 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 of 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 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 yeah we'll leave them on we have a couple more we have a couple that are okay we had a we had a ton actually we got 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 in situations and what we could do better to to sort of put them at ease that would be helpful for us because then it wouldn't be all on us to try figure out how to how to make people comfortable but then also if 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 aren't comfortable 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 I'm gonna 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 just put it out there if you have any questions go for it yeah the other thing is giving

directions I think people need to get way better it's like oh yeah it's over there it's 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 southeast or west which which direction yeah oh they're always like yeah go a couple blocks to you a smell a little bit of skirt steak and then take a left what nice nice you're like what is 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 yeah with like social justice warriors and everybody get a getting offended that people are 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 a tougher in 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 yeah 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 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 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 a right it comes from a Dalton Windham he said if you had perfect vision for just one day what would you do during that time ooh that's awesome probably hmm look at the coral reef or go to 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 want to do like all the traditional and maybe even oh I'd probably want to be on set for a day and just act without having to worry about not meeting my mark 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 you liked yeah this this was a frequently asked one that 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 we 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 the question you know interesting yeah what are your dreams like kind of are they yeah so first of all I want to compliment you on the stereo recording you had there that was

cool and yeah I 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 gonna 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 that dream really yes we're going up and down some mountains in 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 I wonder what what would happen if I jumped out yeah 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 that was the only time I was able to control it but mm I'm working on it dream journals their thing yeah I'm trying to get that not wet dreams they have wet dreams and if you're blind if you have the did they have I don't do women even have wet dreams oh yeah I would say so I mean yeah that's a thing it 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 out of 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 yeah oh yeah yeah I've had some 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 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 it's a soft J it's a question that has kept me up many a nights 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're you know if you go into 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 was like you keep your eyes closed and you shower anyway yeah it's 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 boudet 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 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 yeah do a

couple extra swabs on deck you know I feel you just like anybody else would do 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 hairy you know yeah yeah you got to tighten it up do you feel like I'm wondering was sex very scary since you were side 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 gonna 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 to 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 you have if you're not into it you just got to be honest be like hey dude not today I'm good yeah yeah yeah yeah communication mm-hmm you know it's funny the longer that we sit here they'll let the just forgot that you were blind for a second nice that's pretty crazy and I don't

know it just like yeah I don't know what for some reason it was just like I don't know just second ago I just totally forgot about it not that it matters not that I was thinking the whole time oh you know time you can't see yeah on your side impaired but I just forgot it yeah well no it's like a tiny person or tiny part of who I am and it doesn't doesn't obviously make up anyone's identity is just a 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 you can 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 like no please don't do that yeah that's like a pervert at a 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 sex store Nick was all the things you and Nick at Nick was also premature baby I don't know I didn't know that so yeah I was a two pound preemie oh wow yeah and Nick came in I think he's ready to wrestle would you come in that night I was in I was I was pretty heavy I was in that four to six pound ring they called him big Nick around the incubators you know yeah so

that's um a last question after 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 US that's what I was thinking yeah I'm joking I have no I have no idea what you're talking about oh it's a processing issue where that is 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 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's 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 like it's it's like looking through a TP tube yeah you just see directly what's in 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 so everyone your neighbors is like David Blaine yeah that's so interesting um do

you feel like you have a different insider relationship with like a higher power because you have because of your impairment no I wouldn't say I'm not really religious so but even like spiritual like do you feel like even in your spirit like do you feel like oh that's a good question 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 it was so much fun and and and this will take us into you want

to tell 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 okay which is done by full and scholar productions Caitlyn 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 in the characters and it's this agronomist who wakes up on this what agronomist and what is that like she's a scientist she studies plants and such okay so plant person mm-hmm so she wakes up on a 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 ships 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 a like an Alexa at home and everything whoops sorry guys if I set off your

devices here that's okay we don't have anything I mean she's the listeners the listeners 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 frickin's town dude that's great yeah it's 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 baby is in the nursery and it

just gets steadily creepier there will be a couple seasons and this is all over audio right yeah this is on vastrisen.libson.com and the white vault.libson.com you can also find it on Himalaya which is an app where which allows you to stream podcasts you can listen to and we'll put the links at the we'll put the links in the information so people can check them out sweet can you feel when like people are looking at you sometimes it feels kind of like the hair on the back of my neck stands up mm-hmm you know it does that tell you that we have like a unique energy that is like used through our eyes like is there's

something like I yeah you think of your eyes just as intakeors but they're really I think it's that that like your energy is focused on me so I can tell mm-hmm that you're like directly engaged or looking at me directly I don't know how to put it except you feel watched so it's yeah it's kind of like when you watch any ghost paranormal investigation show like paranormal state you know mm-hmm ghost yeah I'm blanking on the 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 they're they're watching you mm-hmm man it sounds and now it just

seems so interesting to be blind because now you get to live in like this constant like horror novel or anything that happens everything is 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 just kind of milling around with all this frickin you know just information that's not really as fascinating sometimes I mean it is but I think what it is 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 some more for a

while and just smell or just hear mm-hmm 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 we really need is if you went and sat somewhere like in a specific place like in the world right mm-hmm 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're 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 we could take us up in like a you know just kind of enough just recognizing that that sounds going on around us a lot of times yeah absolutely you can do that with any kind of like there are apps that will help you I don't identify bird calls mm-hmm that's a big hobby oh yeah a lot of like a warbler to you like them yeah a warbler yeah yeah they're kind of cool well

something you don't like them really so so about it yeah yeah yeah I guess I'm I mean I don't like them that much but I do like them that but yeah but but there 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 etc and the camera will you look through your camera at objects and you'll see them to the degree you want to imply to apply that visual impairment so you can adjust the slider to a hundred percent which is total to zero percent mm-hmm so try it out it's free it's made by the Braille

Institute and it's on the eye are the Apple Store what I'm saying the app store I will check it out I will and we'll put the link to that as well tell you we just want to thank you so much for being here and join us today and and yeah I'm curious to check out some of your your voiceover work thank you and 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'll just I kind of learned a lot I feel like and and I'm grateful for you for

being willing to let me learn you know and not be in judgmental you know and you and you're a super you had some wonderful questions so I appreciate your your ability to ask some thought-provoking things I hadn't thought of either well communication right like you just said thank you so much thank you now I'm just on the breeze and I feel I'm falling like these leaves I must be cornerstone but when I reach that ground I'll share this piece 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 brake and let myself on my

now