In this episode of The Future is Sick, Charlie talks with Cat Polston, a disabled public servant and former social worker, about housing, policy, and what it means to survive long enough to imagine stability.

Cat shares her journey from experiencing housing instability and navigating chronic illness to working inside government systems to make programs more accessible, humane, and grounded in real community needs. Together, they explore how policy quietly shapes everyday life – from sidewalks and schools to who gets housing and who is exposed to environmental harm, and why disabled people are often the first to feel the consequences of poor policy decisions.

They also discuss the tension between public systems and mutual aid, the myth of independence under capitalism, and why interdependence is not a fallback but a foundation. The conversation moves through survival, stability, and what it looks like to care for community both within and beyond institutional systems.

Topics we discuss:

• Housing as a human right
• Chronic illness and survival mode
• How policy shapes daily life
• Disability and public service
• Mutual aid vs. public systems
• Interdependence and community care
• Burnout, self-care, and labor under capitalism
• Liberatory disabled futures

Find the full episode transcript on our website:⁠

www.sickfuturescollective.org/podcast⁠

The Future is Sick is a podcast by Sick Futures Collective — made by and for sick and disabled people, and for anyone imagining more supportive, creative, and liberatory futures.

Learn more about Sick Futures Collective:

Website: ⁠www.sickfuturescollective.org⁠

Podcast page: ⁠www.sickfuturescollective.org/podcast⁠

To share your art, writing, or creative work with the Crip Commons Hub, visit the Sick Futures website or email ⁠stories@sickfuturescollective.org⁠

The future is sick.