The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) is excited to introduce the first-ever episode of the PandA Pod, a brand new podcast. The podcast name, PandA Pod, was inspired by the Protection and Advocacy (P&A) System - P&A...or P and A…as panda, get it? Just like NDRN, the PandA Pod content is all about P&As and provides useful and entertaining training and technical assistance to P&As and our allies in an all-new format. Keep coming back to the PandA Pod for a range of disability rights related topics from some of your favorite NDRN staff and our special guests all year long.

PandA Pod kicks off with a three-part series called Disaster, Disability & Democracy! This series focuses on voting rights and census participation of people with disabilities, and how these areas of democracy relate to disasters and emergencies.

During the inaugural episode, entitled Power at the Polls: Voting Rights When Disasters Strikes, NDRN chats with Mary Ciccone of Disability Rights New Jersey who explains the state's efforts to get ballots to all voters immediately following Super Storm Sandy, with some important lessons learned. Following Mary's interview, we check in with Neal Kelley of Orange County Elections in California about elections under the threat of wildfires, and some best practices for advance preparation.
Transcript
Michelle Bishop:

All right y'all, are we ready?

Erika Hudson:

Yes.

Justine “Justice” Shorter:

I think we are.

Michelle Bishop:

Here we go. Let's do it.

Justine “Justice” Shorter:

Hey....

Michelle Bishop:

Welcome fearless listeners. Today is the first-ever broadcast from PandA Pod.

Justine “Justice” Shorter:

Hey now!

Michelle Bishop:

If you haven't heard, PandA Pod is NDRN's brand new podcast channel designed to deliver training, technical assistance, useful and most importantly entertaining content the P and A's and our allies in an all-new format. Keep coming back to PandA Pod for podcast series on any range of disability rights topics from some of your favorite NDRN staff.

Justine “Justice” Shorter:

That would be us.

Michelle Bishop:

And our special guest all year long.

Erika Hudson:

If you've tuned in today you're just in time for our first episode series of Disability, Disaster & Democracy. Where we're going to be talking about elections and census data and how it all relates to emergency preparedness and disaster planning. But without further ado, let's introduce our host for the PandA Pod, Justice.

Justine “Justice” Shorter:

Hi everyone. It is I, Justine "Justice" Shorter. I am the Disaster Protection Advisor here at NDRN and I am absolutely thrilled to be joined here today by my two spectacular co-hosts.

Justine “Justice” Shorter:

But let me... And we'll go into a little bit more, more about the series, but before we do, let's go ahead and kick it over to Michelle.

Michelle Bishop:

Hey, this is Michelle Bishop, you may know me as your Voting Rights Specialist here at NDRN and I can't pass up this opportunity to also give a shout out to PAVA #IRL, my video blog, check it out.

Michelle Bishop:

And now let me introduce Erika, Queen of the Pun.

Erika Hudson:

That's an honor and a privilege to have that name, but my name is Erika Hudson. I'm a Public Policy Analyst here at NDRN and my main focus is Census 2020 that is quickly approaching and I also have the opportunity to work with the rest of our public policy team here at NDRN on various sorts of topics. But so excited to be with you all today and excited for th...