March 2025

Post date: April 4, 2025

We had a good group of 5 last night (March 31st) at our Zoom meeting. After check-in, we all wanted to watch the Survivor clips that John Moore of the South Carolina Chapter so graciously put together and shared. Chris and I got a real education because neither of us watches Survivor! So thanks to our younger members for filling us in on the "gameplay". I did take a screen picture of us watching the video, but *rats*, somehow it didn't make it to my clipboard.

Anyway, John had curated 5 scenes from the show with a discussion pause between them. We used those pauses and discussions ranged from Mitch's stuttering and what/if he might be using any "fluency tools", to the others' reactions to his stutter, to the whole concept that "Survivor" is a show where to "win" you need to be the last one standing, making pacts and building relationships that you will probably need to "betray" to win. None of us liked that role model of behavior, to say the least. That said, these particular clips did seem to show some genuine revealing of vulnerabilities (Mitch's stuttering and Ava's autism) along with support from team members and even "non-team" members. The highlight, of course, was Mitch's response to Jeff's question about how he would like others to respond to him when they see/hear him struggling. What a wide-reaching venue for educating the public and spreading the word about stuttering. 

A big thank you to John Moore for sharing the video!