I love it when cool things happen to cool people I know. Mike Phillips, who is 27 and has spinal muscular atrophy, is featured on the season debut of Ira Glass’s This American Life. I know Mike mostly through his writings on various Mac-related websites (yes, I read Mac sites even though I don’t own a single Mac; me=sad poseur) and I’m also Facebook friends with Mike’s girlfriend Sara (who totally owned me on Scrabulous). The episode, which is centered on the theme of “Escape”, details Mike’s efforts to live independently after years of depending on his mom for his daily cares. A short clip is available here and more details on the episode can be found here, including a great picture of Mike and Sara.
Since I don’t get Showtime and the episode isn’t yet available on iTunes, I’m forced to obtain it through less scrupulous methods. Legal niceties won’t stand in the way of me supporting a fellow member of the SMA clubhouse.
I just checked out the entire segment. It was great! Thanks for blogging about it. I wish I could somehow loan you my Showtime On Demand feature, although even if I could it would be difficult to loan it to you from 1200 miles away.
I just saw the episode yesterday after a friend directed me to it. What a great piece of journalism. Ira Glass and everyone involved did an excellent job of giving the audience a non-biased, authentic, matter of fact portrayal of Mike’s situation. It wasn’t cheesy or patronizing. Awesome stuff. Being a 29 year old man with Duchenne MD, I can relate quite a bit to Mike’s circumstances. I live with my parents and my relationship with them can be a little bumpy at times. I stumbled upon your blog while looking for contact information for Mr. Phillips. I would really like to correspond with him via e-mail. I have been inspired. 🙂 Do you have an e-mail address or any contact info you could possibly send me? Thanks.