She Doesn't Want To Cure Her Blindness | Molly Burke
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How did Molly Burke's vision loss begin and what is her exact diagnosis?
I live in a world that's not made for me. Not your average influencer and YouTuber diagnosed at four years old with a rare eye disease. The doctors told my parents, one day she's going to go blind, but we don't know when it will be. I was slowly losing my vision. And then at 14, I very quickly lost the majority, leaving me now only with light and shadow. My disability has given me so much. Yes, it is taken from me, but is also given to me. I am good as I am. What I would suggest to doctors, is what my doctor eventually did. She sat down with me and she said, can I ask you a question? I said, go for it. She said, do you actually want to be cured? And I said, no.
Welcome back to the Checkup Podcast. Today's guest is Molly Burke, an incredibly successful creator, motivational speaker, and one of the most recognizable advocates for the blind and disability communities. She's built an audience of millions by showing the world what living without sight actually looks like. all with honesty, humor, and a lot of swagger. In our conversation and in her new book, Unseen, Molly opens up about the eye condition that took her vision, why she doesn't want to be cured, the bullying she faced as a result of her disability, how she was taken advantage of by a nonprofit organization, and what it's really like navigating a world that wasn't built for you. From dating to tech to even falling off stage, we get into all the details.
It's raw. eye-opening, and one of the most powerful conversations we've had on the show.
Do you want to kush, baby? I know you're so excited, but you can just kush and take a nap.
Okay.
What does kush mean for him? Lay down. Ah, okay. There we go.
There you go. See, you just chill. You're just going to listen to mom natter on like you always do.
How is Elton on flights?
He's good. I mean, I swear the planes are getting smaller and smaller.
Yeah, it's because they're trying to get the profit higher and higher. So our space shrinks.
Yeah, it's like I try to do like premium economy when I can, which is definitely really helps. It's easier when I'm traveling with somebody like my partner because then I have the leg room for both of us that he can use up. When I'm flying alone with him and I need to make sure he's just in my space, it's definitely tight. And I just pray I get a dog lover next to me.
That's my question. So I've flown with Bear before because Bear was a hospital dog. So when I would bring him to the hospital, he qualified as an emotional support animal. But then they removed emotional support animals from planes. And I just remember the few times that I did take him, people were... either all obsessed and wanted a pet and it was disruptive because of that, or the flip side where they said, you need to swap my seat. I'm not sitting in the vicinity of a dog. I remember, and I would get Barry's own seat as well, just to make it even a little bit roomier for him. And his tail touched a gentleman that was sitting next to me who started yelling and saying, a German shepherd attacked me before.
And now I feel like this dog is attacking me. And I'm like, sir, he's not even facing you.
He wagged his tail. How is that an attack? Yeah, no, I mean, I've been a guide dog user for 18 years. He's my fourth guide dog. So I've experienced all sorts of stuff traveling all over the world with them. And it's exactly what you're saying. People are either like, oh my God, I hope I'm next to you. or they are like so grumpy, so irritable. And it makes me so anxious now when I travel, especially when I'm alone, because I can't even see necessarily when they approach to sit next to me. So it's like, I can't gauge at all what their facial expression is or what their energy is gonna be like. And sometimes they sit down and don't even notice him, cause he's so quiet and he's black. So like on the ground, because I pre-board, they like won't even notice he's there.
And so I have to be like, just so you know, there's a dog down here. And then sometimes they're like, oh my God. And so it's like, you get all sorts of reactions.
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Chapters
3 chaptersSpeakers
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