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

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

Topics we discuss:

• Navigating the U.S. health insurance system

• Medical gaslighting and disability

• Mobility aids and access politics

• Queer and disabled community spaces

• DIY care, mutual aid, and creativity

• From genocide studies to Critical Medical Anthropology

• Degenerates Collective and South Side Chicago

• Imagining liberatory crip futures

Learn more about Atlas & Degenerates Collective:

Instagram: @morbidlemur @degenerates.collective

Find the full episode transcript on our website:

www.sickfuturescollective.org/podcast

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

Learn more about Sick Futures Collective:

Website: www.sickfuturescollective.org

Podcast page: www.sickfuturescollective.org/podcast

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

The future is sick.