The Game Plan is a space to strategize, organize, and posterize for the future of the disability rights movement – subscribe, rate, review, and join us!

This time on The Game Plan, Eric is joined by Dolores Canales (director of community outreach for The Bail Project,) a national leader and incredible activist in the fight to end solitary confinement. Dolores and Eric talk about their lives, activism, the history and future of disability and incarceration movements intersecting, and their shared work in the California Mandela Campaign, which seeks to end the use of solitary by any name in the state's locked facilities. Dolores' personal connection to the work is remarkable, her own life and her family's has been both afflicted by these issues but also brought great joy from the community of resistance. Dolores has traveled, uplifting the real needs, experiences, and stories of incarcerated people, to the far reaches of California, to Washington, D.C., and in pursuit of new learning and new models, as far as Norway. Dolores’s passion and knowledge on this critical issue are luminous, and we’re thrilled to have her on the show.

Content warning: There is discussion of suicide at 19:27-19:42 and 30:08-30:50.

Links:

• Book recommendation: Ending Isolation: The Case Against Solitary Confinement

• The California Mandela Campaign

• The Bail Project

The Game Plan is a space to strategize, organize, and posterize for the future of the disability rights movement – subscribe, rate, review, and join us!

This episode of The Game Plan is historic—our first episode with two guests! We couldn’t think of two better people to join Eric than Conrad Crump and Tremmel Watson, whose friendship and connection to each other, and their work, are infectious. Together, they share about their disparate upbringings, which led to Conrad and Tremmel’s unlikely friendship, and their unique journeys with disability identity. The three also pay homage to two indomitable Black and disabled voices, activist Assata Shakur and R&B singer D’Angelo. Conrad and Tremmel’s mutual passion for activism, representation, and their roots is a call for a world where we can all find liberation. This episode is a balm for the soul, and we hope you enjoy. “Alexa, play some 90’s R&B.”

Content warning: There is discussion of violence and trauma at 20:35-21:00.

Links:

· Activating Change: https://www.activatingchange.org/

· The Autobiography of Malcolm X: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/106490/the-autobiography-of-malcolm-x-by-malcolm-x-as-told-to-alex-haley/

· Brad Lomax documentary: https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/brad-lomax-documentary/33589/

In the latest installment of The Game Plan, host Eric Harris is joined by Roque Bucton, an incredible advocate, organizer and artist who has led in blind, low vision, mental health and cross-disability spaces for decades. The two friends discuss Roque’s childhood growing up in the Filipino community and rough climes of Los Angeles in the 70s, what it’s like living at the intersection of multiple disabilities and so much more. Roque’s remarkable life has included playing in a blind band, practicing martial arts at an all-blind dojo, learning to play traditional Filipino gong music, and more than this one episode could hope to include. Roque also shares how he found peace with fully losing his eyesight in adulthood by taking a page from the animal kingdom. Roque’s peaceful spirit is contagious, and this episode brings it all.

Links:

• The Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture Festival

• Access LA

In the latest installment of The Game Plan, host Eric Harris is joined by Vance Taylor, a leader in both the disability and emergency preparedness space. Vance and Eric commiserate about the unexpected joys of being a parent with a disability, muse on what constitutes being an inspiration, and reflect on how natural disasters cut across party lines. Vance discusses how his work has brought him all over California and previews his next challenge—running for state assembly. From literal run-ins with members of Congress to the trials of being an A’s fan, this episode’s got something for everyone. The Game Plan is a space to strategize, organize, and posterize for the future of the disability rights movement – subscribe, rate, review, and join us!

Links:

· California Office of Emergency Services: https://www.caloes.ca.gov/

· Emergency Preparedness Block Party: https://www.disabilityrightsca.org/events/emergency-preparedness-block-party

This time on The Game Plan, Eric Harris has a conversation with DRC’s capo di tutti capi, Andy Imparato, a fierce national disability rights advocate for over 25 years. The two brothers in arms discuss California’s storied history as the cradle of the disability rights movement, express hope about the current landscape and future of disabled representation in politics, and define the need for disability issues to be a priority for California’s next Governor. It’s an expansive conversation about where we’ve been, where we are at, and where we should go with the disability rights movement—plus an unexpected secret origin featuring Tracy Chapman. The Game Plan is a space to strategize, organize and posterize for the future of the disability rights movement – subscribe, rate, review, and join us!

• State of the State Report

• Artist Roberto Lugo

• Tracy Chapman – All That You Have Is Your Soul

Content Warning: Discussion of Sexual Violence and Sexual Assault. Timestamp of potentially triggering content: [00:14:00 - 00:15:06]

On this inaugural episode of The Game Plan, Eric Harris is joined by Vanessa Ramos, all around kid dynamite and special advisor to DRC’s Investigations Unit. They dive into their mutual origin story opposing the CARE Act, the landmark mental health bill that set off California's current nightmare direction on homelessness and mental health policy, discuss advocating for people with mental health disabilities, Vanessa’s personal connections to her work, and her experience taking an outsider's approach to government. The Game Plan is a space to strategize, organize and posterize for the future of the disability rights movement – subscribe, rate, review, and join us!

Information about the CARE Act

Town Hall — Informing the Community about Bad Mental Health Bills in 2025

Vanessa’s Instagram

Substack on the current bad bills in CA