Episode 36: Exploring the World Through Sensory Experiences with Dr. Hoby Wedler

Episode 36 Show Notes

Experiencing the world isn’t just about sight, it's about tasting, touching, hearing, and smelling, too. Using all our senses helps us connect more deeply to the world around us.

Dr. Hoby Wedler is a chemist, entrepreneur, and advocate. He holds a Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry from UC Davis and founded the Wedland Group to explore how our senses shape emotions and connections. He creates unique food and drink experiences that help people appreciate the little things in life. He also works to break stereotypes about disability, inspiring others to reach their full potential.

Dr. Wedler is also the founder and CEO of Hobie and Company (Hobie and Co online), part of Wedland Group. His company offers amazing blindfolded tasting experiences that help people explore their nonvisual senses. He shares his passion for sensory experiences on TikTok, where he has around 200,000 followers. Lastly, he runs Emotitec (emotitec.com), a company based in Italy.

Connect with Dr. Hoby Wedler on LinkedIn, the Wedland Group, and EMOTITE.

Transcript

Lily Newton: Hey, Hey, listeners, and welcome to another episode of Everything You Know About Disability is Wrong.

Erin Hawley: Today on the show, we have Dr. Hoby Wedler.

Lily Newton: Dr. Hoby Wedler is a celebrated chemist and entrepreneur Holding a PhD in physical organic chemistry from the University of California, Davis, doctor Wedler has carved out a unique niche by focusing on how sensory experiences shape human emotions and reactions.

Erin Hawley: Dr. Wedler's work focuses on product development in the food and beverage industry, as well as designing and performing unique multisensory experiences called tasting in the dark.

Lily Newton: Beyond his scientific achievements in organic chemistry and as an entrepreneur, Dr. Wedler is a passionate educator and advocate in science and business, inspiring a wide audience through lectures, workshops, and mentorship programs. Please welcome to the show, Dr. Hoby.

Hoby Wedler: Yeah. How are you doing?

Lily Newton: We are so excited to have you on the show.

Hoby Wedler: Excited to be with you. And and I'm really excited to extend the work of just whatever is possible for folks with disabilities. You know? A lot of people say we can't. You know? My my whole thing is is is we can. And if anyone says the word impossible to me, I look at that word and I put an apostrophe, a little apostrophe between the I and the m, and I say, I'm possible.

Erin Hawley: I love that.

Lily Newton: Yeah. We haven't even started the questions, and you've already given the thesis for our podcast. Yes. Exactly.

Erin Hawley: And I think it's a good segue into our first question.

Lily Newton: Before we get into questions, Erin, we should do audio descriptions.

Erin Hawley: I'm sorry.

Lily Newton: Sorry. We forget every episode, but we're gonna do it this time because I put it in bold.

Erin Hawley: Alright. So I'll start. This is Erin speaking. I have red hair, blue eyes, and I'm wearing a green shirt. And I'm in my bedroom sitting on my in on my wheelchair.

Hoby Wedler: Nice.

Lily Newton: Thanks, Erin. This is Lily speaking. I am a white multiracial person with, half brown, half blonde hair split down the middle, Cruella Deville style. And I have, green eyes, and I am sitting in my home office with a lot of disability advocacy books behind me and a poster that says we are meant to change. I'm wearing my usual black turtleneck and my gold chain that I will fidget with throughout the entire episode.

Hoby Wedler: There we go.

Lily Newton: And then Dr. Hoby, you can go ahead.

Hoby Wedler: Hey. I'm Dr. Hoby Wedler. I, am sitting in an office with a pretty white boring wall behind me. 37 years old and, have my hair pulled to the side a little bit as I adjust my hair as I'm speaking. And I'm wearing, a nice polo shirt with just a a full zip fleece jumper on top of that.

Erin Hawley: Nice. Great. That's a lot. It's so good to hear you.

Hoby Wedler: What I love about Easterseals and the reason that I joined, Cadillac, which is the company that I'm a part of, which you all need to know more about and I will share more about is because I just want people with disabilities to have the best opportunities they can in life and really move through life in the best way possible. So that's that's my whole goal and point in life is to just help people do what they can, you know, and be the best people and the the the most well represented people they can possibly be. So that's my goal.

Erin Hawley: I love that. Perfect. Our first question. The name of our podcast is Everything You Know About Disability Is Wrong, and what do people get wrong about you?

Hoby Wedler: Wow. Erin, that's a that's a great question. What do people get wrong about me? Think about that for a minute. I think the main thing that I don't under that people don't understand about me is how much I offer to the world around them and how valuable I am as a business consultant. So I really do work a lot as someone who's hardworking, who's caring in the business world around me, and I wanna help people succeed. I wanna help people thrive and all this. And I don't know necessarily that people understand, like, what I can do. They see my profile, and it's like, you do.

You know, who are you? This sort of thing. So, I also feel like in terms of accessibility, people try to be really helpful. And help is great, but let's talk to the people who are using the help to understand how we can help them. So a flight attendant yesterday, who I love very much and who shall not be named here, was in the process of helping me get my bag and cane down from my overhead bin yesterday. And she made an error and totally dropped my bag on the floor, which my computer fell from about five feet down to the floor, and my bag sort of opened up and stuff was all over the aisle and, you know, it's a little bit embarrassing. And what was hard to explain was this idea that this is not you. This is not the person doing who's who's got the issue with with what they're trying to help with at all. It's more the person who's being helped and understanding what disability is and what disability is not. Right? And where should we step in and help?

Lily Newton: Yes. Absolutely. We have talked a lot about also the additional layer of, like, consent to help Yeah. Before stepping in because I think people tend to assume that if they're quote unquote, helping, then they should do whatever they wanna do without maybe asking if it's the necessary help. I also I liked what you said about your people not maybe not knowing everything you have to offer because you are quite multi dimensional. And we talk about on this podcast a lot the way that non disabled people sometimes tend to desire to put disability into recognizable boxes.

Hoby Wedler: Right.

Lily Newton: Of, like, this is the lane this person is in, and you are in multiple lanes, so you're very hard to kind of box. So I think that makes total sense to me that people might not immediately know. Alright. And speaking of your profile, our box.

Hoby Wedler: Thank you for acknowledging that.

Lily Newton: It's a good thing. It's cool. You're in you do so many cool things. And, I mean, I knew you from social media, but even just doing more research. Yes. My fiancé is an aspiring chef and loves your videos because I'm super I'm super autistic about well, I'm autistic about everything because I'm autistic, but I'm I'm super autistic about learning how to cook in that anytime he tells me that I need to do something in my cooking, unless I understand, like, the scientific process behind it, my brain doesn't wanna do it. And your videos are really great. Like, one of your videos convinced me that I should be drying my chicken before I cook it.

Hoby Wedler: You totally should. It was down on October 6. But watch it.

Lily Newton: He had done that. He'd been telling me to dry my chicken for a long time, but I didn't until I was like, oh, a Milliard reaction. Okay. Like, so, yeah, I love your content. And so our if our listeners may know you from social media as well, and you start your videos often saying you are your nonvisual sensory guide to the greatest things in life, which is an incredible intro. And I have to ask to you, what defines the greatest things in life?

Hoby Wedler: To me, the greatest things in life are the things that people don't know they're not experiencing. So in in so many ways when we can just let ourselves experience life and not worry about what we're not experiencing, that's when we make magic happen. Right? So how when does it come forward that we allow ourselves to just basically say, in so many ways, I am here to just enjoy the life that I live and the life that I wanna work with and the life that I wanna use to my advantage. Right? How often is that that we're not allowed to say that? You know? And for me, the greatest things, not being a nonvisual guide to the greatest things life has to offer, saying, remember to live your life too, you know, and enjoy everything that comes your way. And sometimes, we live our lives so visually. In fact, 85 to 90% of our lives, I think, we live visually, in terms of what we perceive. How can we perceive more when we just let ourselves do it?

Lily Newton: What a phenomenal answer.

Erin Hawley: I know.

Lily Newton: I'm smiling ear to ear right now because it's just so gorgeous. And, like, I feel like it is the kind of true embodiment of, you know, the common phrase stop and smell the roses. But in reality, that yeah. There's so much to be experienced. And I think the way that in your content you talk about the sensory experience, it really speaks to me on the level of that, like, I am in the pursuit of a pleasurable experience of this life.

Hoby Wedler: Every time.

Lily Newton: Yeah. And It helps me.

Hoby Wedler: How can we shift our mind to allow ourselves that experience every time?

Lily Newton: Yes. And from, like, a neurodivergent expect, experience, I think that there's something really beautiful about giving yourself the space to honor your senses. And, yeah, that kind of pursuit of pleasure for me has really resulted in taking the time to stim, whether that's taking the time to smell the smells I like to smell or, you know, just move my body and feel what that feels like. So, yeah, I your content really speaks to me.

Erin Hawley: I'm happy about that.

Lily Newton: Well, I'm glad. How did you get started, like, making that content? You, you know, you have such an experienced background. Adventure?

Hoby Wedler: It's such a fun story here. I, and and and a silly one, maybe a bet. I had a TikTok channel in the past that had, you know, 10,000 followers or something for a spice brand that I started. But I started with a coach, in mid twenty twenty four, and she said, just get on TikTok. Talk about what you love. Talk about things that you care about, you know, and really help the world understand that you are out here to change the way that we think about sensory perception. And I did that, and I just started going. And I got the 200,000 followers. Like, what? It's crazy.

Lily Newton: I love that, and I love the simplicity of that. I'm just like, put yourself out there for the things that you love.

Erin Hawley: That's right. That's all you gotta do.

Hoby Wedler: You've gotta get out there, and you've got to just get out on whatever way you can, whatever platform you you you have, you can, whatever, and present yourself as you want to be seen in the world because we have the power of controlling what we do in the world and how we represent ourselves in the world. And that is what we you know, it's our it's our gift. Right? And that is what we have. So present yourself how you want to be respected.

Erin Hawley: I think that's great because you can't really control how others perceive you, especially others who don't know you and maybe only see you online or, you know, out and about. But, like, you, to a large extent, can control how you behave as far as how you want to present yourself. And I think that is really important too as far as how you perceive yourself because when you're out there, you know, showing yourself, you fully understand how I don't know where I'm going with this. Yeah. Like, how you forget yourself is very important to how you perceive your disability.

Hoby Wedler: That's right.

Erin Hawley: At least in my opinion. Because, you know, I've dealt with I'm sure everyone here has dealt with ableism and false assumptions about who you are, that if you know who you are, that is a very strong force that kind of allows you to brush off ableism to the most part, three, at least.

Hoby Wedler: Yeah. For me too, Erin. And that's so special to you you say that because I think that the most important thing we can do in any sense of the the word disability is to just understand what we can do. You know? And society says that everything you about disability is wrong, and that's your podcast title, which I absolutely love, by the way. For me, it's all about figuring out what I do that other people don't do that makes me happy, that makes me sing, that makes my life thrive in so many ways. Right? So that's who I am. And, you know, I am a person with this with a disability. I'm not gonna be blind, but my disability doesn't necessarily define who I am and what I do.

I'm I'm sort of my own person sort of above and beyond all that. You know? And when we live our lives with disabilities, we need to understand and embrace the fact that our culture and where we live and how we live defines us, but also what we make of ourselves and how we show the communities around us that we can do what we can do because that's what relates to them. It creates business. It creates social opportunities, it creates so many things that are so special for moving life forward and living the best life we possibly want to live. And for me for me, very personally, this is a very personal statement, I want to allow people in so in in every aspect of life that they take on to live a life where they feel free, where they can walk to the store and buy what they want. Look. You know, people with disabilities are often told, oh, you're you're in you do what you do. You know, you do what your caregivers do for you.

I want someone to walk down and buy a bottle of wine or vodka or whatever if they wanna do it. It doesn't matter. I want someone to walk down to the market and buy whatever they wanna eat, whatever they wanna do, whatever they wanna interact with, and then do that and live their life and enjoy it. Because that's what life is all about, is figuring out where we can be independent and then being independent and join the heck out of the independent life that we live. 

Erin Hawley: Yeah. I definitely want to touch on the word independence because in the disability community, there's this idea that, like, you can't be independent because you have caretakers, which to me is, like, bullshit because

Hoby Wedler: Yeah. Me too.

Erin Hawley: You know, independence to me means being able to live my life the way I want to, and it doesn't matter if I have caretakers. No one in this world lives by themselves successfully. Everyone needs anybody else to live, to survive, to eat, to have clothes, to do anything, really.

Hoby Wedler: Yeah.

Erin Hawley: So that's what independence should mean, I think.

Hoby Wedler: I agree. Erin, I agree so much. Independence is not about who's taking care of you, who's doing whatever. It's about what we can do ourselves to make our lives better in so many ways.

Lily Newton: Thank you both for sharing on that because I think, Erin, we've talked about this in the past that, like, the independent word, it's a hard one to talk about because, yeah, because of all of the assumptions. And I think that you both just helped click something into place for me of that, like, it's really that autonomous nature of, like like, wanting to be able to make my decisions for myself is what's most important. But in, you know, in a capitalist society, it can feel really easy to think independence means I need to push through and ignore my needs and not accommodate myself. And that's that's far from the opposite. Independence has to I completely agree with everything you both said. The independence, there's, like, the beauty in it.

Hoby Wedler: Well, there's a spectrum too of independence. And I really am gonna read a book someday that I have not written yet, and I'm not promising a listener. It's gonna come anytime soon. But I wonder how to book called the Spectrum of Independence, which is all about how accessible and how independent can we all be in life that we live.

Erin Hawley: Yeah.

Lily Newton: I love that so much. I just yeah. It goes back to everything we've been saying about, like, it's funny how you know what you stated about being that being a very personal statement. It's it's kind of wild how it feels like a unique or rare statement, which boils down to I want everyone to enjoy themselves. And that's the one and one.

Hoby Wedler: The whole point here is everybody was given a gift, a huge gift by being on this Earth, and let's just allow them to have fun.

Erin Hawley: Right. I think that's, like, the end game for everybody is just to enjoy life.

Hoby Wedler: Yeah.

Lily Newton: I hope it should be.

Erin Hawley: Yeah. Right.

Lily Newton: It can get especially it can get really easy to get caught up in, like, the hustle culture of it all. And I'd love to remind myself that there's no title or accolade that will make me enjoy life forever. I have to just do that myself. I have to work for that.

Hoby Wedler: That's right. We get to we we've been given a gift, if I will say this, of life, and we need to just take the most that we got from it. And who cares if we're disability oriented and have disabilities and whatnot? It's all about what people make of us.

Lily Newton: And the, I'm trying to think of the way to word this, but I love that we've touched on the, like, personal desires of how you want to spend your life. Because, you know, I think that there's like, I've experienced the assumption of the fact that sometimes because I can't necessarily be super social all the time, that maybe that means I'm not enjoying my life, because I like to spend a lot of my time staying at home watching movies that I've seen a million times. Like, but for me, that is joy. That is what I want to be doing at that moment.

Yes. And that I think is the really beautiful thing is when you let go of the assumptions of like, what needs to look like you're choosing pleasure and what actually is the feeling of choosing pleasure. Oh, I just love this conversation.

Erin Hawley: And that's so me.

Hoby Wedler: that's so amazing. Well, you just expressed that and, Erin, that you expressed what you did earlier too. I think I think there's a complexity here with how we experience pleasure, how we experience life, how we experience what we do, etcetera, etcetera. And I really like to think of it for me as I am doing what I do as a person with disability excuse me. I think about it in this way. I do what I do as a person with a disability because I enjoy the life that I live. I struggle a lot as well and I love as my escape, you know, audio described videos, things that are online on Netflix, which are very prominent now, actually, that are audio described and just sort of getting doing my own thing and getting away from the world and and and watching my own my own stuff. You know, we all love this and we all have our ways of experiencing art, experiencing science, experiencing everything that we do, but I think it's really important for people with disabilities to be able to say.

And this is a really, really important thing that I'm about to say for me, need to be able to isolate ourselves from the life that we live and just step into really loving ourselves and understanding ourselves and doing what works for us. Right? So whether that's listening to what I just talked about, videos online that are audio described or listening to NPR National Public Radio, which is one of my huge, huge, huge passions that's always out of my house Or whatever the case may be, with your disability, you have to know what is right for you. And figuring that out is hard. Right? But that is so incredibly important to me to figure out what makes you not go out and be an entrepreneur like I am and get a bunch of work, but what makes you you? What makes you who you are? And for me, what makes me who I am is my partnerships that I have in life. I've got great parents. They've been great my whole life. They've been amazing role models for me all along and provided me with strength and determination and everything. And even they taught me in a very not, I will say, not nice, but not ableist way that there's no substitution for amazingly hard work in everything that you do.

So that's that's been a big part of my life too. And, you know, they are partnered with my with my partner who I've I've known for many, many years and who's been a partner of mine for about twenty years where my disability is not the thing that defines me. Like, disability is just a thing. Right? My blindness is just like having brown eyes for me. Mhmm. And that, I think, is so incredibly important for people to remember is that disability should not define you.

Lily Newton: I completely agree, and I like the statement on the it's like having brown eyes. We talk sometimes about the way that it's like a neutral statement disability, like, when I tell people for the first time, like, Oh, I'm autistic. The worst response is something that comes back feeling like pity. Like, oh, I'm sorry to hear that. And I'm like, well, well, I've been this way my whole life. This is my experience of the world, and my experience of the world matters. So I am sorry you're sorry, but that's not my experience of it. And I think that is.

Hoby Wedler: And and not my problem.

Lily Newton: Yeah. Absolutely. And, and at the risk of sounding like the, like, you know, disable disabilities can be superpowers, which I know can be frustrating. I do agree, though, that there is a unique or distinct perspective. And in a world where perspective is so important, and personal brands are so important. The disabled perspective cannot be overlooked. And it's something, if you are someone with a disability, that you have to offer is a perspective that other people don't have.

Hoby Wedler: And, really, what I would say to that, which I think is so smart, is that your statement is so smart. I mean, what I would say to that in response is that, you know, we see the world differently and we're never gonna see it the same And a different a different view, a different way of thinking about the world is so incredibly important to everything that we do.

Lily Newton: So Absolutely.

Hoby Wedler: I agree with you is what I'm saying is that, yes, we see the world differently but that difference is going to make the world a better place. What I would say is that like if you bring people on your team and I'm a businessman myself and a successful businessman, I might say, just because I love what I do. If you bring someone on your team who has different levels of understanding that you do, you change what you can do business wise, and you make it possible in ways that you never thought possible. So that's what I love.

Lily Newton: Yes. That is I mean, one of the areas Easterseals has a lot of programs is employment, programs and helping people with disabilities find employment. And that is something that whenever we're talking to companies, we're trying to get people to understand, you know, money talks, right? And we, the more people you can appeal, whatever your product, your service, your whatever to the better. So why would you not want someone who can bring an experience or a perspective that can bring more people into your consumer base? It just it's common sense.

Hoby Wedler: Money talks is not a not a false expression.

Lily Newton: Right.

Hoby Wedler: Yeah. Yeah.

Lily Newton: Yeah. I think. Go ahead.

Hoby Wedler: Totally thrilled to chat with you both about disability and about how we all sort of tie the loose ends together our own ways, you know, because the thing about disability that's sort of most important to me is that nobody is the same. We try to lump people, oh, you're blind, you're deaf, you know, you're autistic, whatever whatever the case may be in terms of who you are. But everybody is unique, you know, and that's what makes us so incredibly special and what makes this culture so incredibly important to understand and to think about. Right? It's like, who are we really?

Erin Hawley: Right. If you've met one person with a disability, you've met one person, and that's it.

Hoby Wedler: That's right.

Erin Hawley: Because everyone is different.

Hoby Wedler: That's right. And all beautiful and all amazing in their own ways. And by the way I also contend as we talk about disability that everybody has disabilities. Maybe it's something you don't like talking about. Maybe it's a way you move your right foot. Maybe it's whatever. But everyone of us has every one of us has a disability. I really do think that's important to say.

Lily Newton: Yeah. I think it's a really important perspective too, especially as we start to understand, like, the way that, like, trauma and mental health can affect people. And, you know, I think about what you just said, the level of, like, some people have a hard time talking about something. Like, if you've been through things in your past that affect the way you communicate, the way you move through life, that is whether you want to identify as or not, but that is a disabled experience. Right. And I think you're so right. And, also, you know, it's the only group that anyone can join at any time.

Hoby Wedler: No. We're the we are the minority that anyone can become a part of anytime, and I think a lot of people are a part of it but don't choose necessarily to admit that. And it's a beautiful minority. I love like, I have gained so much from being a disabled blind person. It's it's not even funny. Like, disability is on the surface at this advantage. But in reality, such an incredible advantage because of what we can do with it. Absolutely.

Lily Newton: I mean, that's where, like, accessibility becomes such a big deal and, like, this world could be so cool if we had enough accessibility that disabled people could access the things they need to do the cool things they want to do. Like, we have really cool ideas. And, yeah, there's just so much beauty in our community. And, I mean, obviously, there's we never shy away from that. There's struggle and hardship and in access and awful things, but there's I think that's kind of what you said. The common narrative is the disadvantage. So there's something really important about bringing up that advantage.

Hoby Wedler: Yeah. And and remembering, like, what where is our our unseen advantage that we don't often talk about? You know? Where where are we really powerful?

Lily Newton: Absolutely. Well, this is shifting gears a tiny bit, but I'm just interested a little bit more in your kind of overall story, because it feels like even from just talking for this last half an hour, you can tell that, like, your passion is a fuel in your life. It's just it's so apparent that you have so many passions. And, you know, there's your your work in general combines so many things when we're talking about food and flavors, and you're a chemist, and you work in sensory perception. So how did you get involved in all these different areas? And I'm I'm, like, did it begin in chemistry? Because I know you started doing liking science at a young age. What how did you merge all of these different passions?

Hoby Wedler: That's a great question, Lily. And I love it. So I, I'll give you a bit of a long answer. Pardon by my wife in advance.

Lily Newton: Long answer welcome.

Hoby Wedler: I, you know, my parents started it all with being just so open to having a blind child. Like, it was not a big deal to them. They honestly didn't know blind people in the past, you know, and and understand what blind people could do. And when they had me, it was like, oh, okay. We and we've done all the genetic testing. We've done everything, and here he is. Great. You know? Let's let's do this.

Let's let's run with it. And they grabbed a couple of the horns and actually horns and actually worked with an agency that I love to highlight anywhere I can called the Blind Babies Foundation, now called the Little Learners Division of the White House for the Blind and Visually Impaired in San Francisco, which is another California organization and when I worked for them and still is to help parents really embrace what their kids can do and remind them of what their kids can do in so many ways. So that was a really incredible opportunity for me and then you know, I grew up, and and my parents never substituted hard work. It was like, you're gonna work probably two times harder than your sighted brother, and that was fine for me. He got stuff done quicker, and I spent more time doing it. They also never hired anyone to do any work on the house because they wanted us to learn how to do that. So we did everything ourselves. And, you know, I was pouring concrete when I was seven years old.

I was, replacing drain pipes when I was six years old and, actually got to know a plumbing system really well, which is fairly small at, a cabin that our family, stays at and runs up in California near Tahoe Lake Tahoe, that is, and really enjoy that opportunity to know the plumbing system. And what's funny is now I think I'm one of the only few people that that knows that system, my father. So a lot of people call me and say, hey, Ham. How does this work? You know, what what are we doing? And I can I can explain it to them and and really get back to them? In high school, chemistry was interesting because I had a teacher that was really good. I, first of all, you know, I was discouraged from taking honors chemistry, and I said, let me just take the test. I took the test, and when I got the high score on the exam to place in honors chemistry, they said, oh god. We got to come to you. Okay? We're gonna do this.

And the thing was, really figuring out how lab spaces would be accessible. And I worked for them and myself as well to figure out, you know, we can make this work. We can make this accessible if we try. And, we brought in a student who had taken the class the year before me who wanted teaching assistant opportunities or TA opportunities, and we were able to give her that for being my lab assistant and reader and scribe on exams. But for me, it was a matter of my parents not jumping in and saying, oh, we've got this. We're gonna control this for you. Don't worry about it. It's all gonna be fine.

And saying, how do you should deal with this. What's your what's your goal and how do you want to do this? And for me, as someone who can sort of grab the bowl by the horns, if you will, and do things myself, That was an incredible opportunity for them to say what do you think? And I should say that my mother was a teacher of the visually impaired for thirty five years and and started when I was about six years old So really had an influence on me from her work and and from what she did, and I think was influenced to do that work based on what, what I did in in in my life and who I was. But just looking forward, and and and not necessarily in everything I've described just presently, what gave me the passion was high school chemistry, going to college, studying chemistry, explaining to people that I could do what I what I wanted to do, and ultimately earning a graduate degree in chemistry from professor Dean Tantillo at UC Davis really made it what I wanted it to be and made chemistry sort of my passion and something that I could hang my hat on and be proud of, as a as a blind organic chemist. But what I love now about having finished my PhD, which was a grueling and harrowing amount of work, by the way, but something I would never trade for anything. What I've learned is that I just love expressing myself in the world through food and drink. What I love more though is understanding people and connecting with them on levels like we're connecting today. Right? That's the most important thing to me is making human connections and letting those connections just survive and not only survive but thrive as we live the lives that we live.

Erin Hawley: I love it.

Hoby Wedler: I Willie, I don't feel like I really got your question right.

Lily Newton: There's no right on this podcast. We don't believe in that word. It was it was exactly what we needed to hear at this moment that well, one, I have to back up because you started when you started answering that question, both Erin and I lit up because we love to talk about parents who assume competence in their disabled kids. It is so important, and I think, someday we'll have to go back and tally it up. But I'm gonna add this to the number of episodes that have one of us saying, go moms.

Hoby Wedler: Go moms. Go dads. Go parents.

Lily Newton: Yes. We it is just so important and They made us. A recurring yeah. It's such a recurring theme on this podcast. And every time it gets brought up, I say this that I think that makes sense because we this podcast, we're highlighting people who are doing really cool things. And it goes back to what we were saying about no one is truly individual or independent. You know? We are who we are because of who raised us and the experiences we had. And it makes so much sense that the type of parents you're describing who had you pouring cement at seven Oh, yeah. Created this person who now, you know, is such an entrepreneur and is so willing to change people's perspective. Like, just bravo.

Hoby Wedler: Oh, thank you so much. It's very kind of you to say that. But the other thing I would add is that don't let yourself hold yourself back either. Like, try to just even if your parents didn't believe in you, just push out of your shell in so many ways as much as you can and just get out in this world. And Easterseals and one of the reasons I love serving the the board that I serve in Northern California and Hawaii, which runs two Easterseals offices is like Easterseals is a way of getting people to say, let me just do me. Let me get out there. I'm not anything other than me, and that sold me.

Erin Hawley: I love hearing that because, like, that's what we're trying to do every day at Easterseals is just, like, letting people live their own lives.

Hoby Wedler: That's right.

Erin Hawley: Live their own lives.

Hoby Wedler: That's it.

Erin Hawley: And it's great to hear that.

Hoby Wedler: And how can we you know, one of the questions that I would I would ask everybody to think about is what is your disabled or non disabled, just anybody out there. Think about your best life and think about what you would do to accomplish that. And whatever any of us can do to help make that happen, let us know, but try to live that best life that you have.

Erin Hawley: Yes. Absolutely.

Lily Newton: Yeah. I'm I'm giddy having that, the tie there to Easterseals and the feeling of, yeah, helping people live their best life because that is absolutely the goal here, and it's so wonderful to talk about our incredible affiliates who are doing such amazing work and truly meeting people where they're at saying, you know, this is the one of the things that makes Easterseals difficult to market is that each of our affiliates are doing such different services because they are meeting their community.

Hoby Wedler: Correct.

Lily Newton: Where they're at. Correct. And that, I think, I I'll take the difficult marketing because it's it's cool to see just how vastly different the services are depending on who they're who they're meeting where they're at. And it makes sense that the services would be different because like we've said throughout this episode, everyone's best life looks different. And when you assume what a disabled person's best life looks like, it's usually not a good thing. Instead, why don't we ask people, what does your best look life look like, and how can I help you get there?

Hoby Wedler: But, Lily, I love what you're saying there too. And so number one, yes. And number two, I think that it's it's amazing how similar the things that we all want in life are. You know, we need financial stability. We need comfort in the work that we do. And I think that we can and with Easterseals in particular, we can find those places for people.

Lily Newton: I completely agree.

Hoby Wedler: I'm so excited, guys. Man, this this really I needed this this morning. I got on a from a flight from from Europe at 8PM last night, and, I needed a pick me up this morning. You did it.

Erin Hawley: Oh, you too. I love that. Thank you.

Lily Newton: That makes me very happy because Yes. That's you know, it's like a a micro version of the letting people do what they want. That's kind of also why, this podcast has, like, the title in itself is kind of the only, like, direction we give our guests because we just wanna give people space to talk about what you wanna talk about. Like, that is really cool.

Hoby Wedler: And let me be super, super transparent here. I don't wanna be political at all. But, to be a little political for just a quick second here, I don't like the way society judges us for who we are. And if someone sees, oh, this person has a disability, that application gets thrown to the side for someone who's able-bodied with the same level of skills that you or I have. You know, I think we need to realize, that talent is available, and we need to pay for and support talent as a government and really understand what people who might have a different viewpoint of the world can do. You know? I my research was funded, and three years of my work was funded by the National Science Foundation as a very prestigious Brigactor Fellowship that I got. And, like, I don't know if that would be available now. And to me, we need to just embrace, everyone for what he or she can do or she or he can do and really understand that the possibilities that are out there for us without worrying and getting held up on what is the disability? What can this person do? You know in in many cases I hate even saying that I'm blind on a on a job application or whatever I'm doing because I just want to be considered as me, you know, it's who I am and I flaunted my blindness to the NSF when I got my my fellowship but I think it made a lot of difference but I don't know what, what's gonna happen in the future.

Hoby Wedler: Let's just see. But let's remember, you know, my number one message and goal is to remember that we are who we are, no matter what. And we do things that we do in life because we care, and we shouldn't be, judged by label of what our perceived disability might be. Does that make sense?

Lily Newton: It makes complete sense. And, yes, it's certainly the it's certainly something we're all thinking about, and I think I'm so grateful for this whole episode just because I think there's so much, importance here in the, like, understanding of what this population that is so often overlooked has to offer. Right. And I think that's super important. So we we don't have a ton of time left, but I wanna touch on this because you mentioned the work you do, with our Easterseals affiliate. Can you just tell our listeners a little bit more about that? I'd love to just hear more.

Hoby Wedler: Absolutely. It's it I'll be very brief. I, my attorney so this is a let me just say you've got to talk to people who introduce you to other people, okay, in every way possible. Take your social network so far, as far as you can possibly dream because if you don't do it, you won't meet certain crazy amazing people. So I know a good friend, Ginger Johnson. Ginger Johnson is a world connector. She's a great person. Any of you who wanna get in touch with Ginger should do so.

Hoby Wedler: Ginger introduced me to a man named Justin Breen who calls himself a super connector and a PR guy. Justin introduced me to Rick Citron, and Rick Citron introduced me to Connie Santilli who brought me onto the board of directors of Catalyte which owns two Easterseals affiliates. So I do what I do. I'm I'm a good person. I care about what I do and that really brought it home for me and did it for me with meeting Rick and meeting Connie and making everything happen is just figuring out where the possibilities are. And Connie was on the board because she cared about the work and really appreciated, what Easterseals did, and and I just jumped on as well because I love, I love what I do, and I love it all. And I also introduced, your your production company to, the woman who's the CEO of Easterseals, Northern California Easterseals Hawaii by the name of Andrea Pettifor, and, we recommend interviewing her as well. But my point here is a very, very, very important one that I want everybody to dig into, which is your connections are amazing, and take advantage of everybody you know.

Erin Hawley: Create advice.

Hoby Wedler: In the nicest by the way, in the nicest possible way. Don't take advantage in a mean way by any means, but, man, everybody you know is special to you, and remember that.

Lily Newton: Man, that's such an interesting and telling thing in that, you know, the phrase take advantage of is, like, often thought of as, like, a negative thing. But when you and maybe this is, you know, my obsession with language here showing through. But the take advantage at its simplest thing is just to take the advantage, grasp it. Like, you know someone who knows someone you wanna meet, Take advantage of that. Make that connection. And I think that there is something, about being proud of your value. And, you know, this is a perfect loop back to the start of our interview, the first question that people, you know, maybe underestimate the value you have to offer, don't understand the value you have to offer.

Hoby Wedler: That's right.

Lily Newton: If you don't take advantage of these moments, you will be underestimated, unfortunately, that and it's it's really important to advocate for yourself. There's so many amazing people out there advocating for communities as a whole, but remember that it's okay to advocate for yourself.

Hoby Wedler: It's okay to advocate for yourself, but it's also okay to build others up and build the communities around you up and whatever whatever makes sense there. Just keep in mind, I think, so importantly that, you know, we need to we need to bolster each other up as much as we can. I care mentally about you all and, you know, want us all to live the best life we can.

Lily Newton: Well, your care and joy and passion truly just, you know, is radiating from you. It's, like, wild to, feel someone's care through a screen, but you are someone who does that. So it's been truly just a joy chatting with you. I love your work. Can you tell our this is the moment to plug yourself. Tell our listeners about, ways they can follow you online and also other cool work you're doing that they might not know about.

Hoby Wedler: Absolutely. So I'm I'm the, founder and, CEO of a company called Hobie and Company or Hobie and Co as it's listed online, which is an affiliate of my main company, Wedland Group, where we do amazing tasting experiences that are truly blindfolded and, really bring people to to to understand their nonvisual senses. I also have a TikTok channel, which I'm very grateful has gotten, about 200,000 followers over the past six months. That, might be the way that we all we all found each other here. But, you know, I'm a nonvisual sensory guy, and I want you just to enjoy my whole goal is for everybody just to enjoy the best things life has to offer in every sense possible. Finally, I have a company out of Italy called Emotitec, e m o t I t e c h, emotitec dot com. If you can put that in the show notes, it would be great. That is a company based on that.

Hoby Wedler: We think the world a better place than we found it through neuroscience and products that we build. So we're we're really building products that focused on sensors that, use sweat and non completely non invasive techniques to understand our hormone levels and what we're going through, what we're dealing with in life, and that sort of thing is really special to me. But, I'm at Hoby Webler, h o b y w e d l e r, on, on all social platforms, and and please reach out to me on LinkedIn, on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, x, whatever you want it to be. And I wanna leave you, Erin Lilly, with three things that are just so incredibly important to me. Here they are. Number one, we are not alone. If you feel in this life that you are alone, you're not. You have people here to back you, people here to support you, people here to make a difference and show you what is possible.

Hoby Wedler: K? You're not alone. Number two, we are enough. We as a society, we as people with disabilities, we as anyone in this world are enough. Right? We are enough. And number three, you are amazing. Every person in this world has something that amazing that We just have to find it. And then once we find it, we have to throttle it and advertise it and make it a big deal. You are not alone.

Hoby Wedler: You are enough, and you are amazing. Those are my messages if you don't take anything out of this show that I want you to know.

Lily Newton: Incredible. You've got me, choking up over here. Listeners, thank you for tuning in today. What a joy we have had. Doctor Hoby Wedler, thank you so much for being here. This was such an incredible episode. I know you said it was a pick me up for you, but it certainly was for Erin and I as well.

Hoby Wedler: Thank you so much. Thank you both. I I just love you guys, and and I love what Easterseals does. And being on the board that supports people with disabilities in so many aspects of life is just so special to me.

Lily Newton: Well we love you right back, the love is palpable through the screen like I said. I can't wait for this, episode to be out which if you're listening to this it's obviously out and we're at the end of the episode so thank you for listening. Thank you for tuning in, watching the video. If you're on YouTube, we are so grateful for everyone who, cares for this podcast because it's the joy of Aaron in my life right now. Like, it's so fun. I love doing this. I love meeting amazing people like yourself. And, Aaron, I love you.

Erin Hawley: I love you.

Lily Newton: Thank you again, Doctor Hoby. We are just so grateful. And listeners, tune in next time for another episode of everything you know about disability is wrong.

Erin Hawley: If you liked what you heard, go ahead and subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts.

Lily Newton: Thank you to our listeners. And as always, thank you to Easterseals for giving us the space and resources to share such authentic conversations from within the disability community to our listeners.

Erin Hawley: And I'll see you next time for another episode of everything you know about disability is wrong.