"Unfiltered Resilience: Dawn Olson's Journey is a deeply personal and educational podcast that explores the intersection of disability rights, personal growth, and societal change. Hosted by advocate and storyteller Dawn Olson, this podcast creates a space where vulnerability meets strength, where difficult conversations become opportunities for connection, and where listeners are invited to reimagine what's possible.
Each episode weaves together Dawn's lived experiences with thoughtful reflection and practical insights to challenge perceptions, provide valuable knowledge, and inspire action.
Most people get on a plane and worry about legroom. I get on a plane and hand over my legs.
When I fly, my wheelchair goes under the plane with the luggage. And my chair is not a bag. It is how I move through the world. So every time I watch it get wheeled away at the gate, there is this moment of here we go, hoping it comes back in one piece. It has been broken before. It has been lost before. One time it ended up in Dallas while I sat in Salt Lake City, and I had to borrow a chair from a hospital overnight just to make it through the trip.
In this episode I tell you what flying is really like for me. The searches. The time an agent talked to everyone around me except the person actually sitting in the chair. The day my TSA Pre-Check did not matter at all. And a new rule that says airlines do not even have to fix your wheelchair when they break it, like my legs matter less than somebody's suitcase.
I am still flying. I have a trip planned for spring. You do not get to stop living. But I want you to know what it costs, and what it would feel like if I could just roll onto a plane and stay in my own chair. The first place I would go is Nova Scotia. I would go in a heartbeat.
If you have ever had to fight to be treated like a person, this one is for you.
I answer every email: unfilteredresiliencepodcast@gmail.com (mailto:unfilteredresiliencepodcast@gmail.com)
24 Sept 2026
They Missed It All — Series Finale
This is the finale.
A heads up before you start: this one goes to harder places than the last. We talk about children being punished, secluded, and shamed, and about what happened inside institutions. If that's close to home for you today, it's completely okay to skip this one or come back to it later.
When I was a little girl, my mother gave me a piece of gum before she left the school where I'd been sent. I dropped it, a staff member threw it away, and when I fell apart, they put me in an isolation room. For most of my life, I thought that meant something was wrong with me.
In this final conversation, Karyn Harvey — the psychologist who helped me name my own trauma — tells me what those adults actually missed. Not because they were monsters. Because they were taught a model of control, when what a frightened child needed was comfort. And hearing a professional say that out loud gave me something I'd been waiting my whole life for: the freedom to stop blaming myself.
If you were ever the kid nobody read correctly — the one called difficult, or too much, and never told why — this one is for you. You weren't being bad. And it wasn't your fault.
Thank you for being here, for all of it.
With love and gratitude to Karyn Harvey.
I answer every email: unfilteredresiliencepodcast@gmail.com (mailto:unfilteredresiliencepodcast@gmail.com)
28 Aug 2026
That's Not Your Fault: Naming Trauma with Karyn Harvey
Today is a first for me. I have never interviewed anyone on this podcast before, and I will be honest with you, I was nervous. Now that it is done, I am really proud of myself.
My guest is Karyn Harvey, a psychologist who has spent about 40 years working alongside people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. That is her resume. Who she is to me is a friend, a mentor, and the person who helped me put a name to what I had been carrying my whole life.
This is part three of the series, and it turned out so big I split it in two. Part one is about one thing: what trauma actually is, and the relief that comes when someone finally tells you it was not your fault.
Karyn talks about being told early on that you cannot do therapy with people with IDD, and going back to school anyway. About what happens in a group when someone realizes they are not the only one. About people in their sixties and seventies only just learning that the weight they had been carrying was put there by something done to them.
For me it was simpler than that. I wasn't being naughty. It was trauma, and nobody had ever told me.
Next time, Karyn and I go somewhere harder. We go back to the piece of gum.
Until then, hold onto this: behavior is communication.
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Podcast Authority Score: 21 / 100
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Engagement
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