Episode 14: I Got Bit by the Zombie and I'm not Telling You

This week's episode of A Friend for the Long Haul - a Podcast for Long Covid Friends features Jacob. Listening to the very beginning, I realized that I refer to Jacob as "him." Their pronouns are they/them, and I'd like to acknowledge that and apologize for making assumptions. YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DO WHEN YOU ASSUME.

I'm just gonna add a list of where you can find them now, because they are lovely and I am an old lady and if my three sons grow up with even half of Jacob's empathy and ability to show compassion to others as well as himself I will have done a good a pretty fine job. They've actually made it really easy: https://jacjack.carrd.co/ has all platforms linked and I'm probably about to copy them.

You'll see their content first on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@midwestsidegunn

I started following Jacob when a few of their videos started making the rounds in the long covid community. Jacob does not have long covid, but received a zine from a friend who does and that zine started making them think about how messed up it sounds. They started learning (imagine, a person not affected by your condition starting to listen and learn about it to protect themself and to protect their community!) and then started becoming more vocal about being covid conscious on social media.

In this episode, we discuss:

• what led them to becoming more vocal about covid
• their pandemic experience
• integrity in the chronic illness and disability space
• tone policing and being Black in the covid conscious community
• the intersection of covid justice/activism & disability justice with all of the other major sociopolitical things happening right now (Palestine, Sudan, Congo, etc)
• Disco and the importance of Donna Summer

and so much more <3

In addition, Jacob made us a disco playlist that I've been bopping around to for about a week and you'll love it. Links below:

Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/disco-innit/pl.u-JPAZZK2IX0ygP4

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0efn9oT1r09C72k7j0yoog?si=854d1adbb0214201

THAT'S RIGHT JACOB IS SO CONSIDERATE THEY TOOK THE TIME TO MAKE THE PLAYLIST ON TWO PLATFORMS BECAUSE YOU MIGHT HAVE PREFERENCES AND THEY UNDERSTAND THAT

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Be sure to follow me on Instagram at ⁠https://www.instagram.com/afriendforthelonghaul⁠ for updates and unhinged content.

My website is: ⁠https://sites.google.com/view/friendforthelonghaul⁠

Don't forget to check out the pod playlist on Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3n0GXLFRWqDJyifglNNM4K