{"podcast":{"title":"Aaron’s Opinion","slug":"aaron-s-opinion-2998888","podcast_index_feed_id":2998888,"rss_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/show/5920599/episodes/feed","website_url":"https://www.spreaker.com/show/aaron-s-opinion_1","image_url":"https://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/9b801cb639b9f35b6dd73973659f037e.jpg","author":"Aaron’s Opinion TV","episode_count":367,"summary":"This is the podcast where we speak about critical issues in the blindness community. Help 1 person today help 1 million people tomorrow! Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/aaron-s-opinion--5920599/support .","last_synced_at":"2026-07-22T06:18:57.166000+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/aaron-s-opinion-2998888"},"episode":{"title":"Sideways with Stephen","slug":"sideways-with-stephen","published_at":"2026-07-21T15:01:01+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/aaron-s-opinion-2998888/sideways-with-stephen","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/aaron-s-opinion-2998888","url":"https://www.spreaker.com/episode/sideways-with-stephen--73079835","audio_url":"https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/73079835/imported_e34be6f0_6568_4fc0_a1a9_21b5fbecb58e.mp3","summary":"Aaron, thank you for your interest in Sideways Innovations, LLC. My name is Stephen Poirier, alias Blind Yoda. I noticed at a very young age that I could not see well but my teachers thought I was simply lazy. When I told them I could not see through the cloud on the chalkboard, they did not understand. This was confusing to me and my family since I knew I had a problem. I saw many specialists without results. Though I was able to participate in sports, my academic abilities were very limited. When I turned 14 years old, I was finally diagnosed with Juvenile Macular Degeneration which is now known as Stargardt disease. At this point I was declared legally blind. Music became my only focus, mainly drumming. At 22 years of age I finally had to accept my blindness and attended the Carroll Center for the Blind. During one of my mobility trainings, a man taking a right hand turn hit my blind mobility cane, knocking it out of my hand. He stopped and said, “I did not see you”. I replied, “If I had a light saber you would have seen me and I would have cut your car in half!” Hence, the concept of the Light Sword was born! Fast forward 40 or so years later, I created the Light Sword Blind Mobility Cane out of a modified light saber. Today, my focus is to bring vision to the sighted, enabling them to better see the blind community at night in a cool and stylish way. Looking forward to talking with you! Stephen Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/aaron-s-opinion--5920599/support .","meta_description":"Aaron, thank you for your interest in Sideways Innovations, LLC. My name is Stephen Poirier, alias Blind Yoda. I noticed at a very young age that I could…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":5730,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/aaron-s-opinion-2998888/episodes/sideways-with-stephen/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/aaron-s-opinion-2998888/sideways-with-stephen.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}