Gary Schoelerman and Joe Burns of the Louisiana/Mississippi Regional Group, were recently interviewed for an award-winning local radio program and podcast entitled The Tactile Traveler that began airing on Apple Podcasts on August 1 and will eventually be broadcast on National Public Radio (NPR) and other outlets and platforms. 

The subject of the podcast was “Visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall” during which both veterans recounted their tactile experiences and the emotions they evoked at the Wall.

The Tactile Traveler is the brainchild of semi-retired career journalist Nick Isenberg, who hosts the program, which appears on Apple Podcasts on the first Tuesday of every month. Isenberg seeks to “empower blind people to see the world and help sighted people see the world in a new way.” The show is now in its fifth season.

Isenberg lost his right eye as a baby, the result of excessive oxygen pressure in the incubator he lived in for 10 weeks following his premature birth. His left eye served him well as he pursued a successful career as a well-known and popular journalist in radio and television in Colorado, Florida, and Iowa. His byline has appeared on NPR, Market Place, and Voice of America. However, in 1983, a cataract in that eye suddenly hardened resulting in seven surgeries over the next decade. In 2019, his left eye was surgically removed, leaving him totally without sight.

In 2017, during the struggle to save his eye, Isenberg spent time in training at the Colorado Center for the Blind. From that experience came the inspiration for The Tactile Traveler.

“Frequently, as people lose their eyesight, they become more and more isolated,” Isenberg has written. “The Tactile Traveler hopes to empower people, not only to go literally around the world, but around the block to new adventures in their lives.”

To listen to the Apple Podcast that includes Gary’s and Joe’s perspectives, click here.