TCO 290 | Accessible Fashion

290. Peloton Battles Porn Bots Plus Our Interview With Mindy Scheier

TCO 290 | Accessible Fashion

 

We discuss:

  • Peloton works to remove porn spam bots.
  • At long last…a Hanukkah ride.
  • Peloton is getting ready to another day of in-person classes in the studio.
  • Peloton to host their first in-person adaptive class.
  • “Shop The Class” comes to the Tread.
  • Peloton Cooldown is here.
  • Members of the Row team did an AMA on Reddit. **image**
  • Forbes reviewed the Guide.
  • DR. JENN – Staying motivated now that it’s cold and dark.
  • Salena Samuela had her baby!
  • Robin Arzon was on Crypto Café podcast.
  • Emma Lovewell was on the New YorkHer Podcast.
  • Rebecca Kennedy has new Strength programs for the Guide.
  • Shape.com spotlights various instructors.
  • Rad Lopez was PIX11 News.
  • Angelo has Clean Meal Tips: Soup & Salad Edition
  • The latest artist series features Whitney Houston.
  • BIRTHDAYS – Camila Ramon (12/18)

 

All this plus our interview with Mindy Scheier!

Watch the episode here

 

Listen to the podcast here

 

Peloton Battles Porn Bots Plus Our Interview With Mindy Scheier

We should start by saying that this is our last episode of the year.

We will not be having an episode on December 30th, so happy new year. Happy holidays to everybody. Whatever you celebrate, enjoy the heck out of it.

If you celebrate nothing, enjoy celebrating nothing.

Enjoy celebrating that too.

That’s our hope for you. We will be taking off, and then we’ll be back after the first of the year.

I think we should tell people.

We will be back on the 1st of the year as a Gemini XIII Podcast. It’s a podcast network that we were invited to join. We’re very excited to do that.

It’s also going to be a whole new system for loading.

If our next episode is late, it’s growing pains.

If on January 6th everything goes awry, you know why.

We should probably be careful saying that because things have gone awry on January 6th in the past. This will be a little different.

It’s very different. Not nearly as consequential.

It’s a podcast network. It’s some of the people that were behind Cadence 13, which does Goop and Crooked Media, which is Jon Favreau’s collective podcast. They sold that to a big radio conglomerate, and now they’re doing it again. They invited us to partake, so we’re partaking. We’re very excited. I supposed they’ve got a little marketing wing that’s supposed to try and help us get out there in front of people. It shouldn’t mean much to you except maybe if the next episode is late. Beyond that, we’ll get that situated I’m sure and everything will be fine in the long run, but from what you hear, it shouldn’t be any different.

We’re just excited about it on our end.

For sure. It was a cool thing to be invited to be a part of it. We are excited. What pray tell do you have in store for people?

We are wrapping up the year for Peloton for us. We’re going to talk about porn because that seems like a good time.

You had me at porn.

I know. That’s true. There’s a lot of stuff that’s going on with Peloton, but there’s not a lot going on with instructors because of the holiday. It’s pretty quiet on that front. However, there’s a lot going on with Peloton in general. We will talk about the stuff we do know about with instructors. We also have a visit from Angelo. He’s going to be talking about the warm flavors of the season, like getting clean meal tips for soups and salad instead of cold stuff that’s actually healthy.

We also have a visit from Dr. Jenn, talking about how to stay motivated now that it’s cold. There are lots of topics. I’m sitting in a sweater. I know this is happening in a lot of places so I’m not complaining, but this is hilarious to me. You have to know that here in St. Louis, tomorrow morning we will get up and it will be 35 degrees. By noon it will be 25 degrees. By 5:00 PM it will be negative 5. That’s our day. I have my sweater on and I’m ready.

We’re here prepared. Before we get to all that, shameless plugs, don’t forget we’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart, TuneIn. Wherever you find a podcast, you can find us. While you’re there, be sure and follow us so you never miss an episode. Maybe leave us a review. That’s always helpful and appreciated. You can also find us on Facebook, Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page, join the group.

Don’t forget, we have a Patreon, Patreon.com/TheClipOut, where you can get these episodes add-free. A lot of times they get to you a little early. If the editors are done early, then we ship it to you early. You also get bonus content. If you’re a Patreon subscriber, you already knew all the Gemini XIII stuff and you’re like, “I already know all of this.” In fact, you probably found out something that we didn’t even say in that part, so look at that too.

You can also find us on YouTube, YouTube.com/TheClipOut, where you can watch all of these episodes. Don’t forget, we have a newsletter. You can send it for that at theclipout.com, where you get all the links and things like that sent to you on a weekly basis. There’s all that. Let’s dig in. Shall we?

We shall.

Christmas came early. What’s in your stocking? Peloton has been battling spam porn bots. As much as we’re pro Peloton around here, I’m rooting for the porn bots. How do you not root for porn bots?

It seems like that’s what most men say. Most men have been replaying, “I didn’t get one” or “Why is this a problem?”

Many people have reached out to me. “Tom, could you send me those? Just so I know what to be on the lookout for.” I’m like, “You know there are lots of porn on the internet.”

You guys are so predictable. There’s a little square this big that has porn in it and you’re like, “I want to see.”

All I can think about is Bill Hicks used to have a routine about people going to see Basic Instinct. He’s like, “Why? There are 90 minutes of dialogue and two seconds of vagina. Do you know that there are movies where there are 90 minutes of vagina and two seconds of dialogue? If that’s what you’re going to the movie for, that is inefficient.”

It is so funny to me what pulls people in. Peloton is asking that you do not subscribe to these when you get a follower request. They’re also asking that you send an email with the name of the account that followed you to their spam accounts email. It is spam-reports@onepeloton.com. They wanted to get on this right away to make sure that people were not offended or that few people were offended as possible. They felt bad about it. All joking aside, there are kids on the platform. You only have to be 13 to be able to use it so it is a problem.

Seriously, it is. It’s good that they’re getting out in front of it. Although I will say my friend, Kevin, who was in episode five. He’s on Reel Spoilers. We’re on that together. He didn’t know this was happening, but he got the email from Peloton that says spambot. The way the headline was written, he thought that he was in trouble like they thought he was doing it. He was like, “What is happening?”

Kevin, follow The Clip Out.

He’s like, “I listened to Tom talk enough in a week.”

If he just follow the page, he would’ve known though. He does follow.

I thought it was interesting that since he didn’t know what was going on, that was his first thought. He and I have both been getting a lot of PayPal scams lately. It’s like, “You violated something. Call this number.” It isn’t PayPal but they do it in a way that it’s hard to tell.

They’re trying to suck you in.

This is why I married you. Anyway, be on the lookout for porn, boys. Also, girls, if that’s your jam.

I feel like most people are taking the necessary steps.

At long last, there’s a Hanukkah ride.

There was a 20-minute Hanukkah ride and a 10-minute cool-down ride, both by Bradley Rose. They dropped encore. They were not live.

The Hanukkah ride was hard though because they told you it was twenty minutes but it lasted for eight nights.

I think that some people would’ve been very happy if it had lasted eight nights. There has been a lot of discussion around this, and I am not going to waste my time with any negativity here. I will say this, I personally am glad that Bradley Rose stepped up and did this. No, he’s not Jewish. He talked about it on the ride. He also talked about the fact that he wanted to be an ally of the Jewish people. I believe in that. Also, somebody reached out to him before he did the ride or before the ride aired. He said that he was honored to do the class.

Clothing is powerful in terms of your confidence and self-esteem. It is your identifier of who you are in the world. Share on X

He truly believes it was important for someone to stand up with you and spread love and light this holiday season. He truly hopes you and the community enjoy the ride. For the most part, people have been very complimentary. Bradley Rose, my hat’s off to you, sir. That was needed and I’m so happy that you stepped up. I will also say we do have Jewish instructors. It does not matter if they did not want to do the class or if they did want to do the class. It doesn’t matter why or why not they didn’t want to do it. It’s none of our business. The fact is it happened and we should all be happy about that.

I’m glad that if the Jewish instructors, for whatever reason, did not want to host this ride, it didn’t prevent them from having the ride. I think they should first get a ride of refusal for obvious reasons. If for whatever personal reason, it didn’t click with them, then I’m glad they figured out a way. In my head, all I could think was Irving Berlin wrote White Christmas and he’s Jewish. Neil Diamond has got a Christmas album, also Barbara Streisand. It’s okay. As long as you’re not deliberately leaving out the people of that faith that wanted to do it, the important thing is the community got a ride like this.

I agree with you. I know I’ve said this on numerous episodes now, but I am sick to death of all the complaints. No matter what people say or do or try to be positive, there is somebody that has a negative spin on it. I don’t think that some people realize that they suck all the air in positivity out of the room. What is that movie that they talked about? It was that vampire show on Netflix. I thought that was dumb. That one character is the guy that goes around sucking all the life out of the room.

He’s not a blood-sucking vampire. He just sucks the life and energy out of people.

All you negative people out there, that’s what you do. Just stop it. I’m not saying you need to be Pollyanna, but let’s not make an issue out of everything.

It looks like we’re going to get an extra day of in-studio activity for the public.

I’d been getting this vibe for a while. I had asked about this to some Peloton folks and I was told, “We can’t talk about that.” The instructors talked about it, so now we can talk about it. It’s happening in February and I think for the record that we might be seeing more than one day added on next year. We will see how that all pans out. This is for the London studio because Sam is the one that talked about it. I think that this will also be for the New York studio. They have been in sync the whole time that they’ve both been opened. I think that there is every expectation that both studios will be adding Thursday to the agenda for February. As you guys go to start your classes, keep on the lookout for that.

That’s great. I know that so many people want to get in there. I know at this point that they can never open that studio up enough to accommodate the demand. Anything that they can do to alleviate that pressure can only be a net positive, except for the people who hate to look at other people on bikes while they take their classes.

It’s so funny though how if you’ve been around for any length of time, that only ever happened because of COVID. If there had never been COVID, there would’ve always been people staring back at you. Obviously, I don’t take classes but from what I hear people say and seeing you on it, it seems like they’ve gotten better about being able to minimize people that were like, “Look at me,” when they were on a ride.

They have. Now they’re in a different place. They’re on the left-hand side of the room. They’re still visible the entire time, but they’re not in the center of the room. It makes a difference because whenever you’re looking at the screen, it’s the center of your room instead of screens, for the most part. Therefore, it draws your eye to it. Now, those people are over to the left. However, the naysayers like the way the London studio is set up that there’s a big board behind them instead of a mirror. They can’t see the people at all. That’s what they want, but that’s not the way that the American studio has ever been. I personally hope they don’t change that.

I haven’t taken a live ride in a long time, and I saw that several of my friends were going to be on Jenn Sherman’s epic sing-along ride from this past weekend. I decided to take that, and if you couldn’t see the people, I would’ve been so sad because that speaks to that class if you’re literally singing along. They even added a microphone now so that you can hear the people in the class singing. That’s new. That has never been done before. They went around the room and kept changing the view. As people were singing and they were doing their hands above their heads, it showed the whole room. It filled my heart with joy to watch it. Don’t take that away.

Especially when the whole point of Peloton was to replicate the in-studio experience.

I know, but even people that had been a Peloton member before, they’re like, “I don’t like the people now.” There are people that it disgusts them to watch that. Because of that, you’re always going to have days that have people in them and always going to have days that don’t have people in them.

I get that.

I also think that’s because they want to film special events that have nothing to do with it. They want to drop it encore. They want to have the ability to film that without dealing with people in the studio. I always think that’s going to be the case from here on out. I don’t think it’ll ever go back to seven days a week.

I tend to agree, especially if they’re bringing in big names.

It’s a liability.

They don’t want to drag Babyface or Bowen Yang through a whole crowd of people if they can avoid it.

Although I have heard there are something like 10 or 11 entrances into that studio. There are a lot of secret entrances. I don’t want people to go look for them, but I think there are ways for the instructors to get into the studio. Therefore, people who are coming in as celebrities might have special entrances.

It’s interesting that if that’s the case, they don’t seem to use it. The day when we were there, Cody came walking through and he was barreling through. You could tell he was trying to send off the vibe of like, “I’m late. Let me get to where I need to be.” Not in a shitty way, but if there were those other options, I’m surprised that he didn’t use it.

Who knows though? Maybe it’s walking further. Maybe you can’t get dropped off in an easy spot from an Uber or whatever. These are questions I don’t know the answer to.

Figure it out. You’re Clip Out Crystal. There has also been a change in the pricing.

We’ve been talking about changes that are coming in January and they are beginning to drop. We have one that for the app you can get twelve months of membership for the price of ten, so you get two months free. Also, you can switch it. If you already have a Peloton membership, you could cancel your subscription and switch to annual billing. They say that you will not lose any account data or workout history. This is for the app only. This is for $129 a year. That’s twelve months of paying $12.99. It’s for that, not the all-access one. I just want to be very clear.

Do you think we’ll see something like that for all-access? Just between you and me, do you think you’ll see that?

I think most of the changes they’re planning to make are to the app. That’s my feeling. Right now, they’re focused on that membership change. I think the all-access, they made changes to last year. I’m not saying there won’t be any more ever but right now, the focus is on the app pricing.

Peloton and Logan were spotlighted for hosting the first-ever in-person adaptive fitness class.

You might remember back on December 3rd that they celebrated International Day of Persons with Disabilities and they had a special event at Peloton Studios in partnership with the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. They had over twenty members affiliated with the Reeve Foundation for two in-person classes. One was an adaptive strength and one was an indoor run. I know we talked about this already a couple of weeks ago, but we thought it was cool that Peloton had done a press release about it, and that it is getting press for having done this. It’s a very cool thing.

If you like Shop the Class on the bike, you’ll love it on the tread.

Now you can Shop the Class on the tread. For those of you saying, “I don’t want more ads served to me. I’m crabby about this,” remember it is only during the last minute. It’s literally during the cool-down. You don’t see it until the last minute. When that happens, you still don’t have to click on it. It’s just an option to say, “Look, you can click on this,” and then it will send you an email and you can purchase the looks if you would like to. You are not required to click on it. You don’t have to have it sent to your email. It is very low-key. It’s not even a true ad. It’s more of a call to action. It’s smart of Peloton. I think we are going to see more things like this.

It’s a cool feature because so many people do want to know what they’re wearing. We get asked that all the time. I said we like anyone has ever asked me anything. They just asked me to send them the porn screen grabs, which that is a fair delineation of duties.

I’ll send the clothes, you send the porn. You send non-clothes, I send non-clothes.

It’s very Yin and Yang. I think this is smart. People by and large want it, and it’s better than having ads for Coke scrolling across the bottom or things like that. Also, we’re going to get to it later, but there’s a Whitney Houston artist collaboration coming up. Don’t you think that’s an ad? That’s an ad. There’s a Whitney Houston biopic coming out in two days. I promise you, that’s an ad. I’m not saying that money even changed hands but if you don’t think that the Whitney Houston camp agreed to a Peloton ride two days before the biopic opened as a way to raise awareness overall of Whitney Houston, you are crazy pants. You’re getting ads all the time.

All of these artists series are linked to things. They’re almost all linked to things that are happening with the artists.

You got Taylor Swift because the Midnight album came out or a tour was launching, etc. It’s all an ad.

That’s why it’s so much work for these guys to get these artist series done. It’s also why you can’t be like, “I want whichever artist.” You can’t do that because it has to be relevant at that moment, and it’s not always.

Why do you think an actor is on the Tonight Show? It’s because they have a movie or a TV show coming out.

It’s called Making the Rounds.

That’s how it works.

I think most people know this.

I do too. The Peloton Cool Down has been released.

I always love seeing these stats.

I know you do. You like your numbers.

TCO 290 | Accessible Fashion

 

That’s pretty impressive. What is that fifteen billion? Fifteen billion minutes were spent working out from the Peloton community. That’s pretty cool. There have been 594 million high-fives, most of them from my stalker and 119 million kilometers traveled in scenic classes. That’s just the scenic classes.

We picked this up from Peloton UK. It’s interesting that they measured it in kilometers.

I love this, 173 million workouts taken between 8:00 AM and 11:00 AM. I’m definitely one of those people. I love these stats. It’s so fun to see.

Forbes.com has a review of the Guide.

I feel like Peloton is doing a big push right now for the Guide. I’ve seen several of the stores posting about the Guide. I have seen all three of the Peloton Facebook pages posting about the Guide like, “We have it in stores. It’s the perfect gift.” They got Forbes in line to do a little write-up on it. They are saying that it is the perfect fitness gift for somebody who is looking to stay fit or to get fit.

I thought the article was interesting because it started from the perspective of why we need a Guide and what it is for. They were skeptical when it came out a year ago and now that it’s been out for a year, they’ve come around on it. I thought it was interesting.

That’s the case for a lot of people. It may not be something you use all the time, but if you like to do strength, it is fun to be able to see yourself next to the instructor so you can check your form. They do have a cool thing going with the weights now that you can say, “I have 5-pound weights and 10-pound weights. I always use my 5-pound with my bicep curls.” It remembers all that for you now. That is a huge improvement. I hope that they continue to launch improvements like this.

It’s very smart that they’re pushing it around the holidays because its price point is so much lower than a regular piece of equipment. If you have a friend or a loved one who loves their peloton but hasn’t pulled the trigger on the Guide, this is a much more affordable way to feed their Peloton addiction than you got somebody to be like, “Here’s a tread. Here’s a rower.” Throw a Guide at them. Obviously, there are some people that still don’t want to spend $250.

There are some people that you don’t want to spend that on. Some people are $20 people.

If you didn’t have a Guide, I’d be like, “Yeah, let’s throw a Guide and now she’s got everything.” I think it’s smart. I do too. There was an AMA, which means Ask Me Anything over on Reddit and they were talking to some Row instructors, Katie and Alex, and one of the Row designers, Nick Breeser. They had some interesting information over there.

They did. They talked about how you can do a Just Row and you can set a distance goal. If you wanted to pace yourself or test yourself like, “How fast can I get to 500 meters or 2,000 meters?” or whatever you wanted to do. You can do that by doing Just Row and setting a distance goal and set it to the desired distance. That’s a good way to test yourself over time. It’s almost like an FTP test, “Here’s how far I can go. Here’s how fast I can do it.” That’s pretty cool. That was one thing that stood out to me.

It was interesting to me that somebody talked about, “Can you measure rowing like a power meter does with bikes? Is there a way to do that?” One of the design people answered, “The Peloton Row relies on various measurement algorithms that continuously self-calibrate to measure power accurately. While the Row’s drive train doesn’t rely on a load cell the way that a Bike+ does, it can still measure power with very high accuracy.”

I thought that was interesting because a lot of people talk about that. One other thing I did not grab a snapshot of but I wanted to talk about was I have been hearing people complain about some of the noises that it makes. They’re like, “This makes noises. Why is it making noises?” It’s because of the way that the drive train goes in and out. It still makes some noise because it’s going to sometimes be a little bit faster on the release. Sometimes it’s a little bit slower due to the drag. A lot of people, including myself, have been saying it’s completely silent.

They are surprised that there’s any sound.

Some noise is normal that you’re going to hear whenever you’re pulling the handle in and out. I would say it’s not continuous, but there is some noise that you can hear. It’s almost clicking like it’s engaging or disengaging, and that’s normal.

From the little bit I’ve seen, it seems normal that when there’s in and out, you’re going to get some noise. That’s how you know you’re doing it right. The more noise, the faster the release. I was giving rowing tips. That’s my gift to you this holiday season.

They also said there’s going to be a Guide that’s going to have noises so that you can be like, “This is a normal noise,” and you’ll be able to test it.

Let’s normalize all the noises. Whatever noise that needs to be made, it’s okay by me. No noise shaming here.

That’s good to know. It’s an equal opportunity noise maker. The most interesting thing that came out with the AMA is that somebody wanted to know, “Am I going to be able to take rowing classes on the app?” Peloton already said this, but in case you still felt like you didn’t know, the Row classes are currently available only on the Row. In the future, they will be on the app. We don’t have a date, but there you go. That’s from the designer. It’s happening. It’s just a matter of when.

If you needed nineteen sources on that, here’s the twenty of them.

They’ve literally said it won’t be available at the beginning. I don’t know what other words you guys need to hear, but for those of you still questioning it, that is straight from Peloton. It’s happening. It’s just a matter of when. Pass it along to anybody who asks.

Coming up after this, Dr. Jenn has tips on how to stay motivated now that it’s dark and cold.

Joining us once again is Dr. Jenn Mann, licensed marriage, family and child therapist, and sports psychology consultant. She also has an app called No More Diets that you might want to check out. It’s Dr. Jenn.

Hello.

It’s so good to have you back. This is a tough one. This is from Diana. She is looking for some motivation because it is cold outside here in the Midwest anyway. Now it’s sweatsuit season. How do you get up and get moving?

First of all, if you’re struggling with sweatsuit season, you are probably motivated by some of the wrong things. On one hand, I get the cozy like it’s hard to change into your exercise clothes when it’s cold and all of that. If you’re finding that you’re like, “I am dressing in layers so now I don’t need to exercise,” your exercise is probably too focused on weight. It’s time to find another why. In general, I don’t like connecting exercise and weight.

I know people do it all the time, but I think that it is detrimental that there are so many other reasons to exercise, for health, endurance, getting better and stronger bones, flexibility and strength. There are so many other reasons. It’s important to re-evaluate your why and to also shake it up and find some new and different classes.

If you’re someone who sticks to the bike and the tread, start taking some strength classes or some Pilates or some yoga. Shake it up a bit. Sometimes we just need variety. Try a new instructor or try a new series or try the rower. Try something different, an outdoor run instead of an indoor run even though it’s cold. It can be fun to layer up and go out into the cold. When I lived in Boston, I had some amazing runs in the freezing cold. Try to shake it up and changing your why is key here.

That’s a good point. I do like to run outside in the cold, but you have to be in the right head space for it. It’s not like you can just wake up at 5:00 AM any day and be like, “I got this.” You got to be in the right head space for that.

I don’t think you should wake up at 5:00 AM any day.

I know you don’t.

I think that’s when you should be going to sleep.

I get your point about disconnecting it from weight loss, but that’s difficult because it’s such an easily quantifiable metric. I know that with my own journey, I have to remind myself, especially now that the scale doesn’t move all that much for me anymore. Some days that does feel like a failure because that’s what you’ve been doing. That’s been the easy quantifiable metric. It’s difficult to shift that thinking.

You totally made my point. You’re at your goal weight, so weight can’t be your motivator because you’re not getting that gratification. To me, you can’t control how your body responds to exercise. Your why can’t be something that is out of your control or it’s going to set you up for failure. It’s going to set you up to not be motivated. You should be able to look at it in different ways. I even look at it like three years ago, I was struggling to carry in a case of water. Now, it’s easy for me. I can put it on my hip. I can throw it around. It’s a small little thing, but it makes me go, “My strength workouts are working.”

Running up the stairs, I’m not out of breath at all. I feel like I have a different set of lungs. It’s important for people to look at what other things motivate them. You guys know and I’ve talked a lot about my why is I want to live a long time. I want to be able to dance at my grandchildren’s weddings. I want to be here for as long as possible. When I feel like I don’t want to get on the tread, I think about my kids. I think about, “How long do you want to be here to see them? What can you do to help extend your life and make the odds in your favor for this?”

Oftentimes, people get so focused on weight and bodies that they forget all the other amazing benefits that exercise has, and also mood. It helps you sleep better and reduce anxiety. It helps with depression, getting some serotonin, getting some endorphins, and all that sort of stuff. You don’t get it in the beginning. Some people say, “I’ve never had it.” The more fit you get and the better your cardio gets, the better your chances of getting those bursts of energy.

I don’t have to ask Crystal to open jars for me anymore.

Whenever I’m hustling you across someplace because we’re late, we have no problem. You have no problem doing that anymore, Tom.

You shared the perfect story of when you guys were running late, you had to run back to your car to get something you had forgotten, and then ran back to the event you were at and neither of you was out of breath, especially, Tom. That’s the why. The fact that you can live at a different level than you did before is amazing. That’s such a concrete measure of you being healthier. Your lungs are in better condition. You are stronger. It’s so cool.

I’ve improved my lungs so much. I can start smoking now. I got myself some wiggle room there. Thank you so much for all of that. Until next time, where can people find you?

You can find me on all social media @DrJennMann. You can also find me on In Style Magazine. I have a weekly column called Hump Day With Dr. Jenn.

Why can't we just get back to the basics of how lucky we are to be in the skin that we're in? People with disabilities seem to have figured that out a lot before. Share on X

Thank you.

Selena Samuela had her baby.

She finally did. Torin James Virtue was born on December 17th, and she says ready to shreddy.

On the first day? I would think that’s a rest day. I’m not a fitness instructor in case no one has noticed, but it seems to me that after you get pushed through a birth canal, you get to take a break, both of you.

Maybe tomorrow. Anyway, congrats to Selena and her family for a beautiful baby boy. We are so happy your baby is here. All the instructors have now had their children.

They’re all out into the wild.

That we know of. There could be another pregnant instructor we don’t know about.

We’ll have to ask Erica McLean.

Erica, pull out those cards.

She’ll know before the pregnant woman will. Robin Arzón was on Crypto Cafe with Randi Zuckerberg podcast. Is that any relation?

I don’t know. I’m going to go with yeah.

It seems like that’s the way the world works. Crypto Cafe and that’s on SiriusXM. They’re also a podcast network now. That’s pretty reputable. It’s about as reputable as a cryptocurrency podcast can get.

This was more about her talking about her Web3 thing, which I know can have cryptocurrency, but it’s not the main driver of the conversation.

Speaking of podcasts, Emma Lovewell was on the New YorkHer podcast with Caroline.

She was there. It looks like she was on via Zoom.

That’s how everybody does that stuff these days.

I know. I just can’t help but find it interesting because she had this big background behind her like somebody was going to be in the studio with her. That’s why I said that.

I’m sure in a perfect world, they would love you to come to the studio, but they also know that that’s not always achievable.

COVID is making another ugly comeback. I know that there are a lot of places where they’re wearing masks again in New York and so they’re probably trying to limit that again.

That makes sense. Rebecca Kennedy has new strength programs for the Guide.

So does Ben Alldis.

He didn’t put it on Instagram.

He did. He’s right there. You met him. There are going to be new ones coming. It’s going to be Straight to the Core with Rebecca and The Stronger You with Ben Alldis, which cracks me up because that is such a Tonal title. Anyway, that’s coming out. It’s going to be Guide exclusive on January 2023. Seven weeks later, everybody else can get it. If you don’t have that Guide, it’s on sale right now. It’s a perfect time. We were talking about early. Grab it so you can be one of the first people to have brand-new programs.

Shape Magazine has a pretty lengthy article spotlighting a multitude of instructors.

This was published back on December 15th. It’s three Peloton instructors. This was called The Motivation Issue. It was all things motivational.

I have an issue with motivation.

If you’re going to have a motivation issue, you absolutely need to include Peloton. They included Camila Ramón, Jess Sims, and Callie Gullickson. All three were highlighted and talked about all things Peloton and what motivates them and their cool workout gear as well.

It’s a very lengthy article. Some of them are like three paragraphs.

This goes on and on. I know you can’t see it, but Tom has been scrolling for a while.

This article is so long, it has credits, photographer, hair and makeup, and editorial.

I always see hair and makeup, Lynsey Buckelew. I see her tagged on Instagram all the time. We should have her on the show. I would love to hear that.

Rad Lopez was featured on the PIX11 News.

He represented everything Peloton and talked about how much he loves what he does and gets to do it every day.

That’s Channel 11 in New York if people are wondering what the hell that is.

I had no idea. Good for Rad.

I have all of the media stored in my brain.

I do know. Isn’t that the TV station that randomly interviewed you in New York that time we were there?

No, that was TV1 because I was like, “Can you introduce me to Robin Scherbatsky?” Because that was the channel that Robin Scherbatsky on How I Met Your Mother worked for. The lady started laughing. I was like, “Sorry, do you get asked that all the time? She’s like, “You’re literally the first person to ask that.” I was like, “People are weird. Why wouldn’t you want to meet Robin Sparkles?”

I love that show.

We were flying home the day after Thanksgiving. They stopped us and they were like, “How’s the holiday airport traffic?” I’m like, “It’s good enough that I can stop and talk to you.”

That was pretty random.

TCO 290 | Accessible Fashion

 

She’s like, “I can tell by your accent that you’re from the Midwest. You’d stop and talk to anybody.” I was like, “That’s truthfully hurtful.” It can be both. Coming up after this, Angelo has clean meal tips and the soup and salad edition for you.

Joining us once again from MetPro, it’s Angelo here to answer your nutrition questions.

Thanks for having me back.

We appreciate you. I have a question from Liz. She says that her go-to meals are smoothies and salads but she’s always cold in the winter. Do you have any warm salad or soup ideas that are easy? She says, “Very easy and clean.”

Liz, I have no warm solid recommendations. I’m so sorry. However, I have lots of warm vegetable recommendations, which are like salads. It’s at least the same color and the same food group. I typically recommend against warm salads, but I have lots of warm food recommendations. I am a big fan of quick and easy. I’m a fan of portable, low-perishable, and things that you can take on the go. This time of year, I’m the same way. I love soups. I love warm things. I love quick things. I’m a big fan of smoothies and salads.

Based on what you’re telling me, without knowing more about your preference and palate, I think there are going to be some great soup options and stew options that you can make. My wife has been eating a lot of split pea soup as a base. What you can do is you can actually very simply add things to that. You can do the same thing with a broth-based, just a chicken broth or a beef broth, whatever you prefer. Add in some quick vegetables or even pop in.

I know it’s a sin to pop a can, but you can pop a can. You can even get canned organic vegetables if you know where to look. I’m a big fan of mixed veggies like peas and carrots and things like that. That can be quickly and easily added to a broth, and turn it into a stew. You can put in any meat and protein. Even tofu can work. It takes on the flavor of whatever you’re making, a ratatouille.

You can use some slow-digesting carbohydrates such as replacing the white potato with rice like quinoa, brown rice, jasmine or wild rice to add bulk to your stew or your soup. It won’t add a lot of calories. It’s something that’s quick. There are other quick options because it sounds like that’s probably why you’re doing these smoothies, Liz. It is because you want something fast and on the go.

The fruit is still fast and on the go. You could do some grapes. You can do an apple. These are portable things. They’re quick and easy to grab. Maybe you can get a little bit of protein and fat via a handful of almonds. Grab an apple and you can run out the door and you’re good to go. That’s quick and easy. It doesn’t take a lot of time. I have some clients who are in the medical field, surgeons. They’re always coming to me saying, “Here’s a situation. I’m in operation during these hours. I have somebody opened on the table. If I’m going to scrub out, I need something I can eat in five minutes.” For these individuals and people who are on the go, there are ways to get quality nutrition.

I use softer proteins. I’m a big fan of ground turkey. We do a goulash of ground turkey, black beans, and brown rice mixed together. What you have is the contents of a burrito, but just the healthiest ingredients without the tortilla shell that adds unnecessary carbohydrates. For some hardcore clients, I’ve had actually add green beans out of a can. I know it’s a sin, but it’s fast. It’s something that’s easy. You can put it in the microwave. You can have some green beans and because they’re soft, you can digest them quickly.

Those are to give you a wide range of ideas because what sounds good to one person, doesn’t necessarily sound good to another person. Individually, think of those ingredients, beans, rice, ground turkey, and extra lean ground beef. Those things are quick. They work well. You can do the same thing with shredded chicken, things along those lines. You can make yourself up a stew. You can make yourself up a broth.

You can still do smoothie beverages. Instead of making them frothy with ice, make them in water and let them chill. Instead of in the freezer, put them on the counter for a few minutes and you’ll have a cool drink, but not a cold drink. Those are still great options that work. You can add some protein powder on the run. Hopefully, I’ve given you at least an idea or two mixed in there that you can run with that will help you out.

Those were good ideas. I have to give a plug for the MetPro website, MetPro.co/academy. If you go out there, there’s a whole section of recipes and there’s a soup roundup which I’ve been using a lot for people lately.

If people would like stuff like this tailor-made for their fitness goals, where can they find you?

Another week, another artist collaboration. This time, it’s with the legendary Whitney Houston.

Did you know that she has a biopic coming out?

“That’s an ad and I want no part of it,” said the guy who got done reading an ad. I’m always happy when the artist collaborations are someone I’ve heard of.

A lot of us feel that way. It’s comforting like, “I’m not so old.” I loved Whitney Houston’s music when I was a teenager. I remember going to the state fair and I won a Whitney Houston poster for my wall. I was very excited.

I thought you were going to say Whitney Houston was at the state fair. She was always a big deal.

It’s Missouri. Come on.

She doesn’t have any songs about tractors. I’m not going to let her at the state fair in Missouri.

She was like, “I want to dance with somebody,” and they were like, “I don’t know if we should allow dancing around here.”

There are eight counties where we don’t even allow dancing. Footloose is a Greek tragedy in this town. We want no part of that. I still remember Whitney Houston from Silver Spoons.

She was on Silver Spoons?

You don’t remember the Whitney Houston Silver Spoons episode where she and her dad’s assistant fall in love, but she has to go be with her career? Maybe it was that he couldn’t handle being second fiddle in her shadow thing.

Was she playing herself?

I believe so. It was very early in her career before she had a hit.

I have no idea what you’re talking about. It’s a big variety of instructors that will be joining this particular artist series. We’ve got German instructors, UK instructors and of course, American instructors. It’s across the board.

For people watching on YouTube, here is Whitney Houston on Silver Spoons. I did not make this up.

It’s 1985 you all.

This actually occurs. She was on Silver Spoons starring Ricky  Schroder before he became a nut job.

Those are the good old days.

Also, the man who would be Carlton.

Is that really? I know nothing about this. This is so funny. Look at him.

That’s the dad’s assistant and then they become an item, but she’s going to be a big star and they have to go their separate ways.

It’s Ricky, not Richie. I must be getting Silver Spoons and Richie Rich mixed up. In my defense, they look alike.

They do look alike. Although I think now, he’s Rick  Schroder because he’s a man now.

That’s for the best. Take the Y out. I agree with that. That was a little rabbit hole.

You know I love my pop culture rabbit hole.

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I had noticed that. Carlton looks so young.

He was working way before that because he’s the kid in the Michael Jackson Pepsi commercial. That’s how he first became famous because he could do the moonwalk. For a while, nobody knew how to do the moonwalk.

It was hard to do.

He’s in the Pepsi commercial with Michael Jackson and then that launches his career. In season one of Silver Spoons, Ricky Schroder’s friend that you saw all the time was played by Jason Bateman.

I remember that too.

It was a much better show. Jason Bateman spun off into his own show. It was weird, he played a different character, but the character’s personality traits were virtually identical. It could have totally been a spin-off, but they didn’t make it one. It was called, It’s Your Move and it’s maybe the best forgotten ’80s sitcom ever.

I love it when you go rogue.

He plays a con artist, but he’s a high school kid. He’s always coming up with these big elaborate scams and it was a funny show.

I was training for Ozark.

Exactly. I think someone finally leaked it on YouTube. The last I checked, there are only 12 or 13 episodes and they’re all available on YouTube with a 14-year-old Jason Bateman. Go check it out.

We missed one last episode, but we’re backing up because we don’t want anyone to feel left out. I’m sure she listens all the time. On December 18th it was Camila Ramón’s birthday.

Happy birthday.

Coming up after this, we’re going to interview Mindy Scheier. She is the creator of Runway of Dreams, which you’ve heard us talk about in the past. We got to go and check out their show in New York and it was a blast. She’s going to tell us all about Runway of Dreams and her love of Peloton. That’s coming up right after this.

Joining us is Mindy Scheier. Mindy, how is it going?

How are you?

We’re great. We are so excited you are here. For people who don’t know, you are the Founder of Runway of Dreams. We were so honored to be able to come to your event a few months ago. The fashion event was amazing.

We had a great host.

You did and your organization is cool. We think everything you’re doing is amazing.

Thank you.

I am curious about the whole grand scheme of the timeline, when did you find Peloton? How did you decide, “I’m going to get the Peloton?”

Like many other people, it came around the COVID time. I love spinning. It was almost therapeutic for me. When that element of being able to go to a spin studio went away, that’s when we decided to get it. I was very manipulative that I said it was for my husband’s birthday. It was really for me.

Does he ever use the Peloton?

I nag him enough but yes.

It’s like when men get their wives lingerie for Valentine’s Day. They say it’s for them.

It’s exactly that. I was like, “I got you the best birthday present of all time.”

“I will be using it all the time.” Were you going to spin classes often before COVID hit?

I was a three-time-a-weeker.

Do you feel like you still do three times a week or has that changed since you have the bike at home?

It has changed but it’s more flexible. My schedule was very rigid when I was going to a studio. Now, I can do it anytime I want. I can take any type of class that I want. If I feel like my arms look a little saggy, I run and do a ten-minute arm situation. It has added much more flexibility to my life.

That makes a lot of sense. One of the things I was wondering is whether you stick with a bike. You said you do some strengths. Do you have some strengths in there? Are those two modalities that you stick with or do you throw some other things in there too?

When my daughter comes home from college, she likes the bootcamps. That’s when I do those, although I cry. I love it so much because I feel it the next day, but she motivates me to do it. It’s good because, at my age, you need a little bit more balance, not just the spinning piece.

The strength is good. It’s good for you. It’s good for everybody.

Yes, I know. It’s so good that we’re having this little chat because now I’m going to feel even more guilty not doing it more often and more types of classes.

I’m so glad I could make you feel terrible. There are a lot of people like that though. People generally lean toward more strength or they lean toward more cardio. You’re a cardio person. There’s nothing wrong with that. Tom is the opposite. He hates cardio.

You do? You prefer strength.

I prefer none of it.

I love the honesty.

Exercise is the worst. I don’t understand you people and how you like it so much, but I get zero enjoyment out of it.

That’s refreshing. I love it.

If I’m going to do it, I’m going to do strength just because I don’t like being out of breath and my heart rate. I don’t like being sweaty. Not that you don’t get sweaty with strength, but it’s not in the same way. All about it, I don’t like it.

Fair enough.

TCO 290 | Accessible Fashion

 

If you don’t mind, tell people the story of how you started Runway of Dreams. How did that become a thing?

I’m a fashion designer by trade. I’m also the mom of an almost 18-year-old son, Oliver, who has a rare form of muscular dystrophy. When he was young and about to go to school age, it became very clear that he was going to have challenges with dressing himself. The thing that I love more than anything is getting dressed every day. For Oliver, it was a daily reminder of what he could not do, which are buttons and zippers, putting pants over his leg braces, tying his shoes, etc.

He wore a uniform every day, sweatpants and a t-shirt, maybe a sweatshirt because that was the only articles of clothing that he could independently dress himself. When he was eight, he came home from school and said, “Mom, I want to wear jeans. I don’t understand why everybody else gets to wear jeans except for me.” It was such a kick in the stomach moment not only as a mom but somebody that dedicated my whole career to the fashion industry. I needed my eight-year-old to remind me of how powerful clothing is in terms of confidence and self-esteem.

It is your identifier of who you are in the world. This was back in 2013 and I decided to take my background and have a small goal, very sarcastic there, of changing the fashion industry to be inclusive of people with disabilities. That’s when I launched Runway of Dreams to help the industry not only understand that people with disabilities make up the largest minority on our planet, estimated at 1.8 billion people. It’s also estimated that someday, there may be more people on the planet with a disability than not.

With those types of statistics, it’s almost mind-blowing that we are not thinking about making products such as clothing, accessories, and footwear that allow millions more people to be able to wear the same products. This is an example behind me of the first piece that we did. In 2016, we launched with Tommy Hilfiger and made fashion history by developing the first-ever mainstream adaptive clothing line. This shirt back here is a typical Tommy button-front shirt that we’ve made that closes, and its magnets instead of buttons. That is the genesis of how we now work with the industry to help them understand that just because something has been done in a certain way before doesn’t mean that that’s the only way, and there isn’t a better way.

I can’t imagine how you take something that you call a “small goal,” by the way. Where did you start with that? Clearly, you had contacts. As you said, people had done it, X, Y and Z forever. How did you even approach that conversation?

When you are in a space that has never been done before, it almost in an odd way makes it easier. Anytime I made a little movement or I got in the door to talk to the team at Tommy Hilfiger, it was a huge success because it hadn’t been done before. Nobody got that far. Anytime that I had a bit of a milestone, it was so much more than had ever been done. I had nothing to lose. There were zero mainstream brands that were in the adaptive space.

You had no competitors.

I had nothing to lose. In a way, it’s harder on the front end than I am trying to push a boulder up a mountain. Believe me, I could paper this office in the number of noes that I got or, “Good for you. What a great idea. We’ll be rooting from the sidelines.”

“Let us know when you get there.”

I was like, “I’ll show you.” We’re still at the place where we are scratching the surface, but the fact that we launched with Tommy in 2016 and we had one brand on our runway to where we were in 2022 with Logan being our emcee and we had 13 brands on the runway is extraordinary.

In the New York Fashion Week, you’re the only show with multiple brands presenting simultaneously, which is amazing. It’s funny, on the one hand, they all work together for one night, but you could tell in the room that they still don’t like each other.

They were still very divided. They were all there together and that in itself is an important call out. To have competing brands like Target, Kohl’s, and JCPenney all on one runway for the same mission, and we are going to do this together as an industry is an amazing progress.

It was still very much like an eighth-grade dance though. All the boys are on one side and all the girls were on the other. Was there any pushback to getting them all in one room like that? Was anybody like, “It’s either us or nobody?” Was there trepidation?

Fortunately, no. The brands are in it for the right reasons, truly and authentically. Having more brands to be able to come into this space only allows for the best peer pressure ever because the brands that were in the room that are not in space are now like, “We are behind. We got to get caught up. We need to be on the runway next.”

Silence is deafening. I’m curious from a business aspect, there are so many different permutations of disabilities that you might have adaptive needs for that are unique. How do they decide that this is a fit that will service enough people? At the end of the day, it still has to be profitable or at least revenue neutral.

One of the reasons why it took so long for this to happen is because when you look at it from the vantage point of the immense diversity amongst disabilities like Oliver has muscular dystrophy. There are 40 different strains of muscular dystrophy that affect the body very differently. When you multiply that out by the 1.8 billion people, that’s an enormously overwhelming task that brands were like, “No, thank you.” It’s not like I woke up one day and I was like, “This is how we’re going to do it.” I did a year’s worth of research. That’s all I did. I did focus groups and surveys. I went to hospitals, PTs, OTs, and everybody to get and understand whether there are commonalities between vastly different disabilities and clothing challenges.

It was about the approach of allowing more people to be able to wear the same products. As the example that I showed before, closures were the number one challenge amongst both physical and cognitive disabilities. Whether it’s not having the understanding of putting a button through a buttonhole or it’s not having the ability to physically put a button through a buttonhole. Changing the way that the product closed helped many different categories of disabilities. When you look at it from that perspective of modifying what already exists, that was the way in. It’s the ease of dressing and making it possible for more people to wear the same product.

On the other side, there’s a huge part of the population that’s never going to be able to dress themselves. They need a caregiver full-time. The amount of time that it takes for a caregiver to dress a person is almost cut in half or even more than that because it’s so much easier to dress the person with modification. Rather than taking it by category of how we are going to help people with disabilities versus people with cerebral palsy, it was zooming out and saying, how can we modify the product to allow more people to wear the same product?

One of the things that struck me watching the fashion show was how happy everyone was. They felt good you could see that. It was incredibly touching. If somebody had said, “You’re going to go to a fashion show and feel like you could ball your eyes out,” I would’ve thought they were crazy, but that’s exactly what I wanted to do.

I would also say that if someone had said to me, “You’re going to go to a fashion show and be interested,” I would’ve been like, “Crystal will want to go to this. It’s Fashion Week so I will be a good sport and go along and keep my mouth shut.” It was fascinating to watch the show in a way that I did not anticipate.

That’s unique for you, guys. I don’t know that we would’ve felt that way at other fashion shows.

Please don’t make me go to a different one.

You always have a seat at our show. I hope you always come. That’s an important piece and something that folds into the mantra of Peloton. I have not experienced more people since I have been on this journey that are comfortable in their skin more than people with disabilities. It is inspiring that they, and I like to include myself in this too as a caregiver of Oliver, are focusing on the important things in life.

They are here present. They have goals in life. They have hopes and dreams like everybody else. They feel so lucky to be where they are. That is something that as the typical able-bodied person, we miss out a lot on that. Why can’t we get back to the basics of how lucky we are? How lucky we are to be in the skin that we’re in. People with disabilities seem to have figured that out a lot before many able-bodied people that I know don’t feel that way.

A lot of people want to assimilate and be seen as “normal.” When you have some aspect of who you are that’s easily seen as a separator, at some point, you just go, “It is what it is,” and you lean into it.

They lean like no other population that I’ve ever had the privilege of being included in.

I’m curious as to where people can find this adaptive clothing.

I saw Kohl’s and Target there. Do they have a section and we just haven’t seen it because we don’t need it? Is it online only? Are there certain stores or locations?

Everything right now is online only. We’re moving towards having products in store as well. It can be found like any other category under their umbrellas. It’s no different than plus-size, couture or what have you. It’s adaptive. That is probably one of the more exciting pieces of this journey. It is that we are creating a new category in the world of fashion.

It is not about clothing for people with disabilities. It’s clothing that is adapted for people that need a different fit for their body or a different closure or a different way to get the product on and off the body. Maybe it opens in the back instead of the front so that you go in arms first versus trying to manipulate your arms through arm holes.

That piece of creating a category is the foundation of the second company that I started in 2019, which is Gamut Management. We are a consulting and talent management and accreditation company exclusively with and for people with disabilities. We only represent people with disabilities. We only work with brands to help them develop products for people with disabilities.

Our accreditation arm developed a seal of approval for products that are in the adaptive space so that the population has that trust factor that people with disabilities were involved in the development of the product. With the seal, the companies have the benefit of showing the population that they did this authentically and that they did this the right way.

I’m curious how it came to be that Logan was able to be the announcer that night. Is that through your Gamut Management company? Did that all come together that way?

It was a little bit of both. We are always looking in the population for people with disabilities that are making their mark or trailblazing their way, and Logan checked every single box. It’s because we also want to show the population that hopes and dreams are real. Here is somebody that did it and is paving the way in one of the greatest new industries in the past decade of physical activity. Somebody with a disability at the helm is phenomenal. It was a no-brainer when we decided to ask Logan to be our emcee.

I have a question for you about modifications. I think of doorknobs. Doorknobs are forever like you grab and you turn. Nowadays you see more and more with handles that you can push down on. That was driven by making them more accessible, but we all ended up benefiting from it. Who hasn’t entered a door carrying a package, and used your elbow to open the door so you don’t have to set down all your stuff? Sometimes there are benefits for non-disabled people that they never even considered. Are there any modifications in clothing that you think will break out and become a new standard way that you’ll see a shirt, a shoe or a pair of pants?

I think so. The magnetic closure is number one. Anybody could wear that. I have two other children. My younger son is like, “Magnets are bust. I never have to do another button again in my life. Sign me up.” What you are saying is important as there are a gazillion things that were developed for people with disabilities. The most popular is texting. Texting was developed so that people who are not able to communicate in a typical way would be able to communicate. Now, it’s the number one communication tool that we all use. Even glasses, which is a multibillion-dollar industry, was a medical device at its inception. Adaptive clothing will be the same. We’re already seeing it. How many sneakers do you see out there like Kizik?

Those shoes that you had are amazing. I know both of our kids would love those.

BILLY Footwear, for example, had revolutionized the way it was on the runway. A way to get the shoe onto the foot without having to lace and undo everything. They’re super cool for kids and adults. Anybody could wear them. Nike with the flying sneaker is for anybody that’s choosing not to have to deal with laces anymore, which when you think about it are a big pain in the butt. Do you know when the button and the buttonhole were developed?

1700?

I’m going to say early 1900.

It is mind-blowing how much work we still have to do to really make this world accessible. Share on X

Try this, 1300.

I never thought it would’ve been something super old.

You always see the Renaissance era where they’re wearing all those big puffy blouses. I didn’t think they had any buttons.

Laces too. Think about corsets. They were all laced. Everything had laces in it. The fact that we are still using that technology in today’s day and age when we literally run our lives through this thing is mind-blowing. Through Gamut, this is something that we are tasking industries to say, “We live in a technology world, let’s do better.” Let’s think about what the next iteration of how we wear clothing is or how we put footwear on. Let’s get to the program.

When you’re talking about eyeglasses as a medical device, now they’re so commonplace that your healthcare won’t even cover them. You got to get special optical insurance and more to cover glasses, which you can get better coupons out of the back of the Yellow Pages.

It’s now a full thriving humongous business.

You’ve grown so much. You said you’re just scratching the surface. Where do you want things to be? Where’s your dream?

My dream is that someday we don’t have to have these conversations. It is so commonplace that in any store you walk into, if you need adaptive, here it is. If you need plus-size, here it is. It is part of our mainstream world, and our world starts to understand that if it works for people with disabilities, it will work for everyone.

I do love to share this one story that crystallizes it beautifully. There was a school teacher that was going to school and it was a snowy day. He was in a wheelchair. The custodian was shoveling the stairs, and next to the stairs was the ramp. The teacher said to the custodian, “Would you mind shoveling the ramp so that I can get into school?” The custodian said, “Let me just finish this. That will be my absolute next thing.” The teacher said to him, “If you shovel the ramp first, everybody can get into school.”

That’s such a great point.

That’s where I hope we get to be. We don’t need to be talking about this anymore. It’s part of life. It’s part of our mainstream world. This exists and that exists. There are options, and people with disabilities aren’t othered or considered anything else because everybody can use the same product in one way or the other.

I love that. Back to Peloton, I wanted to ask, do you have a favorite instructor that you ride with, run with or strength with?

Still Logan. Now that I got to spend so much time with him, I can honestly say that I have such a massive crush on him. I did say this to my husband, so it’s fine. He is so delightful and amazing. I’m crazy and obsessed with Cody. He’s the one that does get me mentally to get on the bike. Sometimes I’ll walk by the bike and we have a little bit of a fight like we have a standoff of who’s going to win. I think about Cody and what he could say to me today. If I want to kill myself, it’s Jess Sims.

That’s for sure. She is a tough lady.

When you’re done, you’re like, “Yes. I am a woman.”

Do you have any advice for people that are just getting the bike?

My advice would be to try all of the options that are available. Because I came from such a spin world that that’s what it’s for. That’s what I would do on the bike, whereas my daughter uses it for everything, yoga, arms, stretching, and bootcamp. That would be my advice. Look at everything that you can do from one app and one bike or one screen. It is amazing.

What is your why for exercise? Why do you choose to workout?

It is therapeutic for me. Even though now that I’m 51, it takes me a little bit of time to be like, “I got to workout,” but then when I’m done, I’m like, “This was the best. I’m so happy I workout.” My goals have changed a little as I’ve gotten older. Now I just want to be healthy versus, in my younger ages, I cared more about definitions or all things. That ship has sailed. I’m moving to a different stage of life now. I want to look good, but I care more about taking care of my body and my heart, and keeping things going.

Is there any modification you’d like to see from Peloton?

What I would love to see more of is more instructors with disabilities, and being able to find a way to make it available for multiple types of disabilities. I would love to see somebody in a wheelchair be an instructor or somebody that doesn’t speak vocally and has used a device to speak. Peloton has such a platform that people would learn so much. Even listening to Logan’s first class, I can’t imagine the feedback, emails or messages that Peloton must have gotten about him sharing his story. He was so authentic and real. Peloton has that platform to do that. The more we can get diversity in instructors, skin color, sexual orientation, and all of that, let’s get the disability population more embedded in there as well. That’s what I’d love to see.

Those are wonderful goals. One thing that Logan does that stands out to me is every time he starts a class, he describes what he’s wearing. It’s such a small thing, but if everybody did things like that without thinking, just that one thing alone. I feel like I need to get better with social media because it’s like one more step that you have to type in the description of things.

Thank you for that reminder. I also start every Zoom with a visual description. I was so excited to be on here that I forgot. We never know who’s watching, listening or anything. I am a White woman with freckles and curly red hair. I’m wearing an adorable gold beaded headband and a shirt with puff sleeves, and I am so excited to be here.

We are so excited to have you here. How can people get involved with Runway of Dreams? How can the Peloton community support you and what you guys are doing?

Thank you so much. I would love to have everybody go to RunwayOfDeams.org or GamutManagement.com. For everyone here that has a disability, come join our talent pool. The only criteria that we have is that you have to have a disability to join Gamut. Let’s start talking about it. That is something that needs to happen.

When was the last time I saw somebody in the handicap-accessible dressing room in a store? Never. It’s either mom with strollers, sometimes it’s used for storage, or you’ve got a couple of friends. Let’s think about what you said about the doorknob. Think about what it must be like for somebody with a disability to navigate this world. How many things from the minute they open their eyes to the minute they go to sleep are a challenge?

I can speak from a personal perspective. It is a daily challenge for Oliver. Every single day, from the moment he gets out of bed until he goes to sleep, ranging from when he has to use the soap dispenser at school. It’s difficult for him. He doesn’t have the strength to push it. It would be so much easier if he just put his hands underneath and it just came out, but not every place has that. It’s all of these things. They are navigating a world that wasn’t made for them. That is the conversation that we need to have.

These are the things when you wake up tomorrow, imagine going into your closet and not having anything that you can independently dress yourself in or showing up to that meeting with appropriate clothing because you can only wear sweats. Is mind-blowing how much work we still have to do to make this world accessible.

This is not even remotely the same thing but on a micro level. I know how maddening it is when you get a weird cut on your finger and all of a sudden, everything you try to pick up hurts a little bit. You start to figure out ways to work with this other hand. You’re trying to put on shampoo but it stings. I can only imagine if it was something significant, not just a stupid cut on a finger, and how that would start to encroach and manifest itself in so many different micro frustrations throughout the day.

One other thing that we need to remind ourselves of is that we’re renting these bodies. At any point in time, any one of us could acquire a disability, whether it’s surgery, an accident or getting old. It is a fact that every single one of us at some point in our life could join this population. When you think about it from that perspective, wouldn’t you want to be in a world that is ready for you if that happens?

You make a great point.

What is your leaderboard name?

It’s MinnyShy.

I love it.

You generally won’t find me on so much because that’s the first thing that I swipe away. I don’t want people to know that I’m 25,456th on the leaderboard so I prefer not to look at that.

I’m at the bottom too, Mindy. It’s okay. We’re on there.

I think something is wrong with my bike. I’m knocking on the screen. I’m like, “I think it’s broken.”

You’ll have to get your husband a new one for his birthday, and then he can have his old one.

Exactly.

Thank you so much for joining us. We greatly appreciate it. We normally ask where people can find all your stuff but I think we hit all that. If we missed any, feel free to share.

Are there any personal socials you want to share or anything like that?

I would love anybody to follow us on social media. It’s Runway of Dreams or Gamut Management. Please help us raise the voices and be a part of raising a voice about making this world more adaptive for people with disabilities.

TCO 290 | Accessible Fashion

 

We are truly impressed with everything you are doing. We think it’s amazing.

Thank you so much for having me. This was such a joy.

This was such a joy for us. Thank you.

I guess that brings this episode to a close. Don’t forget, there will be no episode on December 30th, so don’t freak out when it’s not there. We are very regular with our episodes and so when one doesn’t show up, people sometimes get upset, which is nice that you’re upset that we’re not there. We’re just trying to save you the headache.

If you see anybody else post about it because I can’t promise I’m going to be up early on the 30th. I get to sleep in once a year.

We will be back on January 6th just like always. Until then, where can they find you?

They can find me on Facebook at Facebook.com/crystaldokeefe. They can find me on Instagram, Twitter, and the leaderboard @ClipOutCrystal.

You can find me on Twitter @RogerQBert or Facebook at Facebook.com/tomokeefe. You can find the show online on Facebook.com/TheClipOut. While you’re there, like the page and join the group. Of course, don’t forget our YouTube channel at YouTube.com/TheClipOut. That’s it for this one. Thanks for tuning in and until next time, keep pedaling and rowing and running.

 

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About Mindy Scheier

TCO 290 | Accessible FashionRunway of Dreams is promoting people with disabilities in the fashion industry and advancing the future of adaptive design and innovation… bridging the gap between the fashion industry and people with disabilities.

 

 

 

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