Episode 3: "Daphne" and the Stories We Tell with Amanda Leduc

In episode 3, Halley welcomes author Amanda Leduc to the Spontaneous Mutation podcast where they discuss her book, Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Spaces.

Halley opens the episode sharing her life-long fascination with the Greek myth of Daphne, a water nymph who was turned into a tree to escape the pursuits of the God Apollo. Halley was inspired to write this song and use Daphne as a metaphor for making the decision to stop pursuing surgery on her jaw. In her conversation with Leduc, they discuss expectations of stories and who gets to be the hero or princess, and how we make room for disabled stories. They also discuss creativity and writing, criticism, and the major turning points in Amanda’s life that led her to write the book.

The song playing on this episode is called, “Daphne”

Bio: Amanda Leduc joins us today to talk about her work and experience as a disabled creative and activist. In addition to Leduc’s book Disfigured: On Fairy Tales, Disability, and making spaces, which was shortlisted for the 2020 Governor General’s Award in Non-Fiction, she is the author of the Centaur’s Wife, The Miracles of Ordinary Men, and her soon to be published new novel Wild Life. Amanda has cerebral palsy and is a sought after speaker across North America on accessibility and the role of disability in storytelling. 

Links:

https://amandaleduc.com/

https://amandaleduc.com/media/

https://www.instagram.com/amanda.leduc/

https://www.facebook.com/AmandaLeducAuthor

The “hope quote” that Amanda mentions during the podcast is hard to pin down, but we think it may be this quote from Jon Foreman, lead singer of Switchfoot: “hope is a defiant thing: hope stands on the bloody knuckles of a boxer, with bruised eyes and bloody teeth, broken ribs and a gut-wrenching smile. Hope rises up from the dirt, defiant and proud, beaten but undefeated."