This week, Ryan Olson, a mechanic turned web designer and programmer, joins Tim for a nuanced discussion about life after diagnosis, finding community support, and maintaining your masculinity as your muscles deteriorate. Both men discuss their career shifts from physical to less physical jobs and how this affected their ability to relate to other men and their own “manliness.” Reflective, Ryan discusses how faith helped him overcome isolation, body and masculinity issues, and inspired his recent shift to app design. As Ryan learned through his faith, “Set your face like flint,” remain strong emotionally, but allow your masculinity to soften, as it creates room for others.

Connect with Ryan on Instagram: @heythatryan

Check out his Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thatryan

Learn more and join the waiting list for Flint: an app designed to help Christian men build daily discipline. Flint is a daily mission briefing — not a devotional app. Scripture. Consistency. Covenant. Built to forge the man you're called to be.

Website: https://thatryan.com/apps/flint/

No one knows the experience of living with FSHD better than those who have it. FSHD Straight Talk features stories of life with this rare disease. Tune in to learn from, laugh, celebrate and sometimes grieve with fellow members of the FSHD community. Whatever your journey, we hope you’ll find yourself in these episodes and know you are not alone.

On the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, listen for a new episode of FSHD Straight Talk with Tim Hollenback! These episodes highlight members of the FSHD Community who are living rich, full lives and diving into their experiences with FSHD.

If you would like to share your experiences living with FSHD, please reach out via email or send us a message on social media.

Email: FSHDRadio@FSHDSociety.Org

You can find new episodes on YouTube and Facebook. You can also listen to the episode on your favorite podcast app. Subscribe on YouTube or your podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode!

Introducing the High 5 Challenge, an awareness and fundraising campaign created and led by folks living with facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy (FSHD). The campaign seeks to increase awareness of FSHD’s existence and it effect on muscles, specifically, the inability to raise your arm to give a high five.

In this episode, Tim meets with challenge founder Jack Gerblick to talk about the idea behind the challenge and how to participate. Jack and Tim are joined by Nick Logan, an actor known for Boots (Netflix) and the challenge’s greatest hype man as Nick raises awareness and funds to cure FSHD, which affects his mother Martha. Inspired? Join the FSHD High 5 Challenge via the steps below!

How to Participate
5 steps is all it takes to fundraise and raise awareness about FSHD. Will you join us? 1. Donate today: $5, $15, $50
2. Post to social media: #HighFiveChallenge
3. Tag 5 friends in your post.
4. Include the donation link in your post.
5. Like and share posts from fellow High 5 participants!

Donation Link: www.fshdsociety.org/high5

No one knows the experience of living with FSHD better than those who have it. FSHD Straight Talk features stories of life with this rare disease. Tune in to learn from, laugh, celebrate and sometimes grieve with fellow members of the FSHD community. Whatever your journey, we hope you’ll find yourself in these episodes and know you are not alone.

On the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, listen for a new episode of FSHD Straight Talk with Tim Hollenback! These episodes highlight members of the FSHD Community who are living rich, full lives and diving into their experiences with FSHD.

If you would like to share your experiences living with FSHD, please reach out via email or send us a message on social media.

Email: FSHDRadio@FSHDSociety.Org

You can find new episodes on YouTube and Facebook. You can also listen to the episode on your favorite podcast app. Subscribe on YouTube or your podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode!

Justin aka TurfTank returns to the podcast for an engaging conversation about adaptive sports and maintaining your athletic passions as FSHD progresses. A life-long golfer and former Course Superintendent, Justin shares the story of his return to golf via adaptive sports, after FSHD took him, temporarily, off the course. Justin also discusses starting The TurfTank Foundation to help fund research into FSHD and additional forms of muscular dystrophy.

• Learn more about The TurfTank Foundation: https://theturftankfoundation.org/about-us/
• Learn more about US Disability & Adaptive Golf (USDGA): https://www.usdgagolf.org/

No one knows the experience of living with FSHD better than those who have it. FSHD Straight Talk features stories of life with this rare disease. Tune in to learn from, laugh, celebrate and sometimes grieve with fellow members of the FSHD community. Whatever your journey, we hope you’ll find yourself in these episodes and know you are not alone.

On the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, listen for a new episode of FSHD Straight Talk with Tim Hollenback! These episodes highlight members of the FSHD Community who are living rich, full lives and diving into their experiences with FSHD.

If you would like to share your experiences living with FSHD, please reach out via email or send us a message on social media.

Email: FSHDRadio@FSHDSociety.Org

You can find new episodes on YouTube and Facebook. You can also listen to the episode on your favorite podcast app. Subscribe on YouTube or your podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode!

Almost 1 year to date, Art Abrams went from podcast listener to podcast guest, BetterLife FSHD Ambassador, and Leader of the new Iowa Chapter. In this episode, Tim and Art discuss life after diagnosis, workshopping how to tell folks, and the importance of finding and creating community support. For Art, lonliness constitutes one of the hardest parts of FSHD, inspiring him to make sure no one ever faces FSHD alone. This heartfelt, artful episode is not one to miss.

No one knows the experience of living with FSHD better than those who have it. FSHD Straight Talk features stories of life with this rare disease. Tune in to learn from, laugh, celebrate and sometimes grieve with fellow members of the FSHD community. Whatever your journey, we hope you’ll find yourself in these episodes and know you are not alone.

On the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, listen for a new episode of FSHD Straight Talk with Tim Hollenback! These episodes highlight members of the FSHD Community who are living rich, full lives and diving into their experiences with FSHD.

If you would like to share your experiences living with FSHD, please reach out via email or send us a message on social media.

Email: FSHDRadio@FSHDSociety.Org

You can find new episodes on YouTube and Facebook. You can also listen to the episode on your favorite podcast app. Subscribe on YouTube or your podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode!

This week we’re sharing a remastered version of an episode from 2022 featuring Claire Szabo-Casella, author of The Red Scooter Diaries and start of the short documentary film of the same name. During this phenomenal conversation, Claire and Lou discuss their efforts to create more accessible spaces in AZ to increase quality of life for folks with FSHD and additional disabilities. Claire and Lou discuss how they met, the vulnerability and trust required for an inter-abled relationship, and how to make sure you always keep growing and exploring.

You can watch The Red Scooter Diaries here: https://www.youtube.com/@redscooterdiaries

In 2024, Lou passed. He is greatly missed by Claire and their Arizona FSHD Community.

No one knows the experience of living with FSHD better than those who have it. FSHD Straight Talk features stories of life with this rare disease. Tune in to learn from, laugh, celebrate and sometimes grieve with fellow members of the FSHD community. Whatever your journey, we hope you’ll find yourself in these episodes and know you are not alone.

On the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, listen for a new episode of FSHD Straight Talk with Tim Hollenback! These episodes highlight members of the FSHD Community who are living rich, full lives and diving into their experiences with FSHD.

If you would like to share your experiences living with FSHD, please reach out via email or send us a message on social media.

Email: FSHDRadio@FSHDSociety.Org

You can find new episodes on YouTube and Facebook. You can also listen to the episode on your favorite podcast app. Subscribe on YouTube or your podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode!

Tim kicks off 2026 by interviewing Jessica Ryley Hammond, a counselor running for Harford County Council. A lifelong athlete and horse-rider, Jessica was inspired to run for County Council because her rural community expanded so quickly, the infrastructure couldn’t keep up. In addition to discussing how FSHD affected her ability to ride, Jessica touches on how FSHD impacts her ability to climb hilly neighborhoods and the useful ability to hold a stone-face. We look forward to tracking Jessica’s campaign with the primary in June 2026.

Learn more about Jessica’s platform on her campaign Facebook page.

No one knows the experience of living with FSHD better than those who have it. FSHD Straight Talk features stories of life with this rare disease. Tune in to learn from, laugh, celebrate and sometimes grieve with fellow members of the FSHD community. Whatever your journey, we hope you’ll find yourself in these episodes and know you are not alone.

On the second and fourth Tuesday of every month, listen for a new episode of FSHD Straight Talk with Tim Hollenback! These episodes highlight members of the FSHD Community who are living rich, full lives and diving into their experiences with FSHD. If you would like to share your experiences living with FSHD, please reach out via email or send us a message on social media.

Email: FSHDRadio@FSHDSociety.Org

You can find new episodes on YouTube and Facebook. You can also listen to the episode on your favorite podcast app. Subscribe on YouTube or your podcast app to make sure you never miss an episode!

• Website: https://facetoned.com/
• FaceToned Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Face.Toned
• FaceToned YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoMx6vZAfZ2n8opQDIp7tlg
• Carme’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carmefarre_com/