Remaking Normal with Alexander Freeman | Long Form Conversations on Norms, Culture, Society

In this episode, I take a deep and urgent look at the real economics of disability in the United States. I move beyond surface-level conversations to break down how income inequality, benefit structures, and health care systems shape the daily financial reality for millions of disabled Americans.

I unpack the key differences between SSI and SSDI, explain the strict asset limits that many people must navigate, and walk through how ABLE accounts work — including how they can help individuals build savings without immediately losing critical benefits. I also offer clear, practical actions you can take to set up an ABLE account and start building financial breathing room.

If you have ever wondered why financial security can be so difficult to achieve while living with a disability — or how the system is designed to work — I break it down clearly and honestly.

Find out about the documentary "My Own Normal" at myownnormalmovie.com and consider working with Alexander on a feature film by visiting outcast-productions.com. Subscribe to the Outcast Productions LLC YouTube Channel @OUTCASTPRODUCTIONSCo and follow @realalexanderfreeman on Instagram.

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In this episode of Remaking Normal, Alexander Freeman takes a deeply personal and urgent turn—examining disability, history, memory, and power through the documentary "Disposable Humanity" a documentary that confronts one of the most overlooked truths of the Holocaust: disabled people were among the first groups targeted by the Nazi regime.

Alexander reflects on how some of the most violent and dehumanizing actions in human history were once framed as reasonable, efficient, even compassionate. Institutionalized cruelty did not arrive suddenly—it was normalized through language, policy, and bureaucracy.

"Disposable Humanity" centers on Aktion T4, the Nazi program that systematically murdered disabled people under the guise of medical care and so-called mercy. What the film makes impossible to ignore is that this violence began not with chaos, but with ideas—with doctors, institutions, and governments reframing human beings as burdens and death as treatment.

Alexander’s own documentary "True Value" narrated by Oscar winner Chris Cooper which explores employment, labor, and the deeper question beneath them all: who gets to decide the value and worth of a human life?

"True Value" is now streaming on Kinema at: kinema.com/films/true-value-wcpqr1

That same question sits at the heart of Disposable Humanity—only at a different moment in history, with devastating consequences. One film examines devaluation in the present. The other shows us where that thinking can lead when it is left unchecked.

Alexander also reflects on the work of director Cameron S. Mitchell, whose film is the result of years of personal, multi-generational research.

This episode is not just about the past. It is about how cruelty is normalized in the present—when disabled lives are discussed in terms of cost, when care is framed as burden, when antisemitism is dismissed as background noise, and when dehumanizing rhetoric is excused as politics.

Learn more about the film and how to watch or support it at disposablehumanity.com.

Host a screening at a school, synagogue, community center, library, disability organization, or workplace.

Follow @disposablehumanitymovie on Instagram and help ensure this history is seen, remembered, and discussed.

Find out about the documentary "My Own Normal" at myownnormalmovie.com and consider working with Alexander on a feature film by visiting outcast-productions.com. Subscribe to the Outcast Productions LLC YouTube Channel @OUTCASTPRODUCTIONSCo and follow @realalexanderfreeman on Instagram.

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In this episode of Remaking Normal, Alexander Freeman tells the story of entrepreneur, disability activist, tedx speaker, influencer, mentor, author, TV personality Collette Divitto of Collettey's Cookies and the movement she is building by creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

@colletteyscookies

Find out about the documentary "My Own Normal" at myownnormalmovie.com and consider working with Alexander on a feature film by visiting outcast-productions.com. Subscribe to the Outcast Productions LLC YouTube Channel @OUTCASTPRODUCTIONSCo and follow @realalexanderfreeman on Instagram.

Support the show