The Sunday Long Read gives way this week to a Sunday Long Watch and Long Listen.

Last week I had the privilege of interviewing two Jesus and 1st Century historians – Professors Joan Taylor, currently in Wellington, and Prof. Helen Bond at the University of Edinburgh, who jointly authored and presented the BBC Channel 4 documentary Jesus’ Female Disciples and the book Women Remembered about Jesus’ Female Disciples.

Because the history of Christianity was written by men, the two scholars argue, the importance and contribution of the women to the spread of the Jesus message has been largely overlooked - women who preached, healed, baptised and even bankrolled the movement.

You can find their documentary JESUS’ FEMALE DISCIPLES here:

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Today I am catching up with Blake Forbes and Paul Barlow

Blake has a disability. He has spastic cerebral palsy with mild autism and ADHD, but that hasn’t stopped him running a very effective interview podcast called BFG (short for Blake Forbes Gentle) which he produces with co-host Paul Barlow .

Paul has a media background and, in addition to working with Blake, runs his own podcast show entitled Paul The Other One.

Blake has become an effective advocate for people with disabilities and at the moment is rightly concerned about the loss of respite funding for care givers.

And Paul is into anyalizing the Local Body elections.

Kia kaha Blake and Paul .Thank you for a very enjoyable and informative conversation.

If you want to check out Blake’s Channel you can find it here:

https://www.youtube.com/@thebfgpodcast

Paul’s personal channel Paul The Other One is here:

https://www.youtube.com/@Paul...theotherone

Paul is a former political commentator with a background in media studies and pop culture, and has over 35000 followers of his content from across Aotearoa.

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Thanks to the generosity of my paid subscribers who help fund my Head2Head interviews are free to access. Please consider supporting my public journalism work by becoming a paid subscriber for $10 a month (including GST) as only paid subscribers can comment in the chat room.

Part of my job as a public interest journalist and documentary maker is to give a voice to people in our community who find it difficult to be heard.

Disability access to houses and public buildings is one of those issues that doesn’t get enough attention in Aotearoa New Zealand, and as advocate Nick Ruane points out in today’s interview, any of us can find ourselves having to use a wheel chair as a result of an accident or illness or simply because of mobility problems associated with aging.

Accessing public spaces is something we recognise by law as a right everyone should have - a right that is embedded, for example, in The New Zealand Building Code.

These regulations, however, don’t apply to the buildings we inhabit most each day - our private homes or rental accommodation. This is a much greyer area where voluntary accessibility is encouraged and, in some cases, incentivised, but not compulsory.

Private landlords, for example, are not legally required to provide no-step entries, wide doors, accessible bathrooms or even lever handles instead of knobs.

There is however government support for modifying existing homes to accommodate people with disabilities, including the Ministry of Health’s Housing Modification Service, which provides funding for necessary changes such as ramps, stair lifts, and accessible bathrooms.

You can find out about what is available and may be possible here:

https://www.govt.nz/browse/health/help-in-your-home/modifying-your-house/#825

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