Gaelynn Lea on her Memoir "It Wasn't Meant to be Perfect", Music, Disability, and Connection

Gaelynn Lea on her Memoir "It Wasn't Meant to be Perfect", Music, Disability, and Connection

From Conversations with Musicians, with Leah Roseman by Leah Roseman

April 9, 2026 · 1h 21m · Season 6 · Episode 11

About this episode

Gaelynn Lea discusses her memoir, disability rights, and the importance of communication and music in the lives of people with disabilities.

I’m delighted to welcome back Gaelynn Lea , the disability rights advocate, author, singer-songwriter, and fiddler. If you missed my first conversation with her last year it’s linked in the show notes. I really enjoyed reading her memoir It Wasn’t Meant to be Perfect , and if you haven’t ordered it yet we hope you will after listening to this episode. Gaelynn goes into some of the themes in the book and you’ll be hearing great stories that didn’t make it into the final edits. In fact, you’ll hear about the editing process and about her new book project as well! We start with the documentary Crip Camp which focuses on Judy Heumann and disability rights. You’ll also hear about Denis Huna and inclusive music making, the importance of ASL and other sign languages. We got into the importance of improving communication with medical professionals with people living with disabilities and also why Gaelynn chose to write about love, sexuality and marriage in her memoir. We also did a deep dive into motivating and encouraging music students . We’re including clips from 3 of Gaelynn’s music videos and the full videos on her YouTube are linked in the show notes. Complete Show Notes with ALL…

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