Latest / Harder Than Life / Defying Limits: Ezra Frech’s Journey to Redefine Disability

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Defying Limits: Ezra Frech’s Journey to Redefine Disability · Harder Than Life

• 0:01
  Now at Lowe's, faster quotes start at the Lowe's Pro Desk. Got a material list handwritten on a sticky note or saved as a photo? Perfect. Bring it to us and get a quote in minutes. And if you don't see what you need on the shelf, we'll help you get it. You can access thousands of products beyond what's available in-store or on Lowe's.com, right from the Lowe's Pro Desk. Build quotes faster and source the materials you need to keep your jobs moving. Just like that at Lowe's.
• 0:37
  I'm Kelly Siegel, and this is Harder Than Life, a podcast about self-love, self-awareness, business, and health. We tell outrageous stories and boil everything down to simple, practical advice you can start using today. Let's get living. Welcome back to the Harder Than Life podcast. Today's guest, I went down a rabbit hole, and this young man at just 20 years old, Ezra Freck.
• 1:03
  is already changing the game. A decorated Paralympian, world medalist, and founder of Angel City Sports. Ezra made his Paralympic debut at 16 in Tokyo and hasn't slowed down since. He's racked up international medals, shattered athletic barriers, and become one of the boldest voices pushing the boundaries of inclusion in sports. Whether he's soaring in the hydromp,
• 1:29
  crushing the 100-meter sprint, or reimagining how we see disabilities in athletics, Ezra leads with heart, grit, and higher purpose. But he's not stopping at medals. Ezra's here to shift the culture from building inclusive communities through Angel City Sports to launching a new docuseries with NBC Sports and Peacock.
• 1:50
  He's teaching the world a new definition of strength, ability, and what it means to show up fully. He's done this despite being born with the congenital limb differences, missing his left knee and shin bone with only one finger on his left hand. We're going to dive into his remarkable story.
• 2:09
  I'm the Harder Than Life podcast, and I don't know of anybody that's harder than life than you, my friend. Welcome. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you very much for having me. I'm excited to be here and looking forward to our convo for sure. Yeah, we're just going to kind of flow with everything. But I think that the first way to start this off, let's talk about this adaptive docuseries that's coming out on Peacock, because I think it's going to unravel your entire story. So what inspired you to create this adaptive and what do you hope to take away from it?
• 2:38
  This documentary has really been a deep project of ours for five plus years. It was originally just my parents filming my life as a young kid, just filming everything that I was doing. And then ultimately that spread and led into this idea of these stories aren't told, right? Disability stories aren't told in the way that they should be. They're not portrayed in the mainstream media the way they should be. And how do you.
• 3:04
  get the average American viewer to understand disability in the most digestible way, in my opinion, I think it's a high level sports doc. And so that's what this is. It's a sports documentary. It's everything a sports documentary should be. It's entertaining. It's fun. It's exciting. There's lots of drama and chaos and highs and lows. And then ultimately for me, right, the peak of the peak
• 3:24
  And it's just the behind the scenes of all of that. I want people to watch this because they want to be entertained. That's the purpose. And then the ramifications of them watching the documentary is disability just looks differently in their minds. They view it differently because you see it in a new light. And that's the takeaway. But at its core...
• 3:43
  We're here to entertain the people and our stories are entertaining. And this journey has been entertaining. And so we felt like it must be shared. So it follows myself and three other athletes on the Paralympic team. Three episodes, about 45 minutes each. It's just my whole life, pretty much. You see my whole life right there. This is going to air just after it. We're going to bump it up and we'll have the show notes. So everybody goes to it. And I write this all the time. I believe everybody's built with magic and resilience.
• 4:12
  You were born with it. So tell the listeners, immediately when I got this across my desk, I'm like, I have this gentleman on. And then I went, I told Sarah, I went down a rabbit hole for hours on your social media. You are one of the happiest, handsome gentlemen. And you would never know that you were born with this.
• 4:33
  Walk the average person, including me, through, like, how did your parents, like, if you don't have a shin bone, how is your leg, I mean, you wouldn't know this, but they've told you a story, so how is your leg attached?
• 4:47
  And then when did they make the decision? I know it was, I think you were 11 months old. They made the decision, let's sever this. And then they put a blade on. Walk us through that. Absolutely. Yeah. So I was born with, I had one finger on my left hand and I had a lower left leg that was pretty much just curved up towards my waist.
• 5:07
  So I didn't have a shin bone. And it basically were to if I were to get older, it would just continue to grow upwards towards my waist. It would just be it would be unfunctional. I would I would be completely immobile. And so pretty early on, my parents knew that the thing to do was to amputate. And so at about three years old, I had a 15 hour procedure where the doctors amputated my leg right at the knee. And then they took the big toe that was formerly from that left foot and they put it on my left hand.
• 5:35
  So it was an amputation and a toe-to-hand transplant. And the thought process is you have one finger. You can't really pick anything up. You're holding things against your body. But then you get a second finger. You can pick things up. You can hold things. Totally changes your hand functionality. And so that surgery was really important because it, A...
• 5:53
  gave me a stump that I could fit into a prosthetic and then I was gonna be way more mobile. And then I got a second finger, I could pick things up, I could hold things. So that surgery was really transformational. And like you said, I mean, the reality is living with a disability is not easy. Everywhere you go in public, people staring, pointing fingers, whispering, you feel like an outsider a lot of the time. And having that be the case during quite formative years of your life, your childhood, your upbringing, that's where you develop your self-confidence. That can be tough.
• 6:21
  But my parents were the most amazing I could have most amazing parents I could ever ask for. I mean, my mom would tell me as a young kid, you walk into every room with your chin up, your chest out, you walk in like you own the place, don't retreat to those insecurities.
• 6:39
  I was basically not allowed to hide my disability. It was something that I just learned to embrace as a part of who I am. And then eventually those insecurities just dissipate and fade over time, but really because of my parents. I love that. It warms my heart because what started the Heart of the Life movement was I grew up with parents that were just...
• 7:00
  absolutely abusive and they were never around. So I broke that cycle and I love my daughter and I pay it forward and I tell her the same thing. So I look forward to meeting your parents one day because they're the, like I said, went down your rabbit hole with your social media and you were one gregarious, happy-go-lucky. Look at his smile. I hope you guys are watching this on YouTube. He's got a beautiful smile. He's confident. I'm gonna ask you one or two more questions about the disability. And then we're gonna get into the mindset of it. Since it was the left,
• 7:31
  hand and left leg is there some kind of um uh medical reason why it affected your left side i think there is if i remember correctly it's called um femur fibula ulna syndrome i could be i could be mistaken funny that i don't even really know my own i'm just gonna say that look you're you're extremely humble that you don't even care you just said i mean let's go this is what i got this is the cards i've been dealt let's go
• 7:56
  Exactly. So, I mean, I think that's what it's called. But yeah, affected my left side entirely. But yeah, it's interesting, right? When you grow up with a disability, and you sort of overcome those early years of not feeling like you belong and whatnot.
• 8:11
  I mean, I never think about my disability. It's just there. It's just what I do. I just live life and I don't know anything different. And so that's totally the antithesis of someone who acquires their disability, right? If you live 20 years of your life and then God forbid someone gets into a car accident and then all of a sudden lose a leg or have to be in a wheelchair or whatever it might be, totally different. And it's a totally different journey. For myself, I just
• 8:35
  I don't know anything different. And so this is just, you know, the fact that I don't even really know my own diagnosis here is funny. It's just the proof that I really kind of don't care. I just live my life. Disability is a part of that. But at the end of the day, if you're born with an obstacle and you're forced to overcome it pretty early on, then everything else beyond that point is just sort of water under the bridge, if that makes sense.
• 8:56
  You're proving that it's not even a disability, my young friend. You are a remarkable human being. Thank you. Did I read this right that you started giving speeches about this at four years old? Yeah. I mean, I grew up just like I said, my parents didn't let me hide my disability. I was always sharing. I was always talking about it. And you see that in the doc. They basically walk through that sort of timeline of what it was like. How did I get involved in giving speeches at four years old?
• 9:23
  And the reality is, if you live with a disability, everywhere you go in public, there's people who are always going to come up and say, what's wrong? What's wrong? How did you lose your leg? So you get pretty used to sharing your story. You get pretty used to speaking about it. And because I grew up that way, I just I knew my story like the back of my hand. I was able to speak, you know, pretty well in front of crowds and people because I had just done it my whole life.
• 9:46
  that sort of progressed into me actually giving motivational speeches and public speeches because there's so much to learn and take away. And I feel like anything I can do to make disability a little bit more normalized and sort of share my story, if that helps somebody else, then I'm all for it. You're incredibly grounded, young man. You're incredibly grounded for anything. How do you stay grounded when the world wants to put you on this pedestal? That's a good question. I
• 10:15
  You know, there's a story that I love about Marcus Aurelius, actually, where at the peak of his success, he had somebody who he hired to literally just whisper in his ear every now and then, you're just a man.
• 10:31
  And I love that. And so regardless of the things I hope to accomplish or have accomplished, the documentary, social media success, sponsors, this, all that, I like to almost tell myself, you're just a man. And I love that quote because, and I love that story because it exemplifies sort of the thought process of a high achiever or someone who's super ambitious, which is you can be...
• 10:59
  driven by a lot of different things and you can accomplish a lot of success and you can feel proud of that success, which I am, you know, I for sure have an ego. I think ego drives us in a lot of
• 11:12
  I'm just a man. You're just a man. And that is sort of the ultimate equalizer, which is regardless of what you've done, you're still just a man. You have flaws. You get up the same way as everyone else. You oftentimes deal with the same struggles as most people. You just happen to have accomplished a lot of success that most people, whatever, think is cool or looked up to or aspire to do. I like to think I have people around me.
• 11:36
  who remind me that I'm just a man. And that's more than I could ask for, you know, in the people that I'm surrounded by. And so, yeah, at the end of the day, we're just men. That's it. Simple as that. Ezra, I'm going to tell you a little secret, but there's a lot of people listening. I'm Superman, so...
• 11:56
  Oh, man. But I'm going to put you on blast because I did hear your ego and I loved it. It was such a good ego. Telling the Today Show that you were going to win gold if they showed up. I'm going to be rooting you on and no pressure there. But I like that. I like putting pressure on myself. That's how I've succeeded is throwing it out there. Oh, don't.
• 12:19
  Don't jinx it and don't put it out there because if I fail, not you. You just put it out there. So let's talk about the mindset behind that. I 100% agree with you. I think that most people fail in life because they set goals that are too easy to accomplish. They accomplish those goals. But then in turn, you leave tons of potential on the table because you didn't think you were capable of more. I don't think there's a single person on earth that stumbles into greatness. Right.
• 12:48
  It's a process. You believe you're capable of accomplishing something and then you accomplish it. And so for me, I've always been the most vocal about my goals. I've put it out there. I've put it into the abyss and then you hunt it down afterwards. But the first step is putting it out there. You know, people always talk about, like you said, they don't want to jinx it. They don't want to say it. That's total BS. I don't believe in any of that.
• 13:13
  I think the way you enact the law of attraction is by vocalizing something, right? Believing you're capable of it and then hunting that down with everything you have. And so people would always call me and say, before I won my first world title, they'd say, Hey, you know, are you sure you want to say that you're going to win the world title? Are you sure you want to publicize it? What happens if you don't win it?
• 13:36
  And my response to them is I will never not vocalize my goals out of fear of not accomplishing them. Because that's me even admitting that there's an ounce of insecurity and there isn't. And so I'll always speak it. I'll always put it out there and then hunt it down. I love that. You're my young son or my brother, my brother. Do you feel more pressure now that you're –
• 14:00
  you've achieved a little bit of celebrity status about the LA, uh, 20, 28 games. That's a good question. I mean, I don't, I don't really feel pressure. If I were to have felt pressure, it definitely would have been around Paris, the last Paralympics. I mean, for four years straight, I said in every single interview, guaranteeing I was going to win the gold. I'm
• 14:24
  I started a 100-day countdown on social media where I posted a video every single day for 100 days until I win the gold. I couldn't have made it more public, and I probably couldn't have put more pressure on myself. But at the end of the day, when I was in the village, when I was competing, I didn't feel any pressure. I just felt free. I felt like this was my destiny. I feel like if you're hunting, your purpose is...
• 14:49
  You're not going to be worried about these external expectations. And that's what it was for me. I was so confident that I was going to win that nothing anyone else said or did would matter at all. Even if they believed I was going to win, that they knew that was going to happen. So when I believe in something so holistically, I don't feel like I feel pressure at all.
• 15:10
  And so now in this case, leading into LA, I feel the exact same way. And once again, I'll say it in every single interview. I'm just as confident, if not more confident than I was going into Paris, that I'm going to win golds. And so...
• 15:24
  I don't feel any pressure because of that. I think that pressure is also a little bit of a figment of our imagination. It is what – pressure is what we make ourselves think it is. And so in the sense that if you are always associating pressure with something really negative, you're going to be constantly overwhelmed by it. I don't see pressure as a negative thing. I see it as actually something that is just a part of success and a positive thing. And if you see it like that, then once you –
• 15:53
  feel those expectations. It doesn't bother you. It's like, yeah, let's go. Believe that I can do it because I believe it as well, if that makes sense.
• 16:02
  Now at Lowe's, faster quotes start at the Lowe's Pro Desk. Got a material list handwritten on a sticky note or saved as a photo? Perfect. Bring it to us and get a quote in minutes. And if you don't see what you need on the shelf, we'll help you get it. You can access thousands of products beyond what's available in-store or on Lowe's.com, right from the Lowe's Pro Desk. Build quotes faster and source the materials you need to keep your jobs moving. Just like that at Lowe's.
• 16:30
  Oh, Ezra, where did you learn all this? You're quoting Karmic Law, Marcus Aurelius, your positive mindset. Where do you learn all this? I'd like to say I read a ton of books, but I really don't read as much as I should. So I like to think of myself as the ultimate consumer.
• 16:46
  I like to consume knowledge. I consume lessons. I consume society. And then I utilize it to motivate myself or, you know, inspire myself or take from things and add it to my repertoire of whatever it be, stories or lessons. And so I'm constantly taking inspiration from a variety of places. I think that's how the best in the world do it.
• 17:08
  is one, two, 3% more motivated can be the difference between a gold medal and a silver medal. So I'm constantly trying to take in motivation and inspiration and utilize it to my benefit. And whether it's a Marcus Aurelius story, whether it's right, you know, his book meditations, whether it's some content that I consume online or a Ted talk that I listened to, I'm taking it all in and I'm trying to figure out how I can frame it in my head to make myself most successful.
• 17:35
  I was recently at an event when I was with Justin Gatlin and he was, and the mindset
• 17:41
  of you guys is amazing because to me, it's preparation meets opportunity. And your publicist was telling me that you're one of the hardest workers she's ever seen. She gets exhausted just watching you. So you can, you can be do all the coyness, but I'm gonna tell you, you're the hardest worker in the room. And when you have to have the mindset to work for four year to shave one one hundredths of a second, which it could be the difference between gold and silver.
• 18:06
  That is some definite killer assassin mindset that you got to bring day in and day out. That's a freaking kudos to you. But let's go back when you were 16 and you were competing in the Paralympics in Tokyo. What were you telling yourself at the starting line? Tokyo was an interesting games. It was right in the heart of the pandemic. I was young and I knew that I could...
• 18:29
  walk away with a medal. I actually felt like I had the opportunity to win the high jump in Tokyo. And it was pouring rain, couple things didn't go my way, and I missed the bronze medal bar with the clip of my prosthetic. So my whole body gets over the bar and then the prosthetic clips it at the last second.
• 18:47
  And so just it was a devastating moment overall. Once again, all of this is in the doc, which is awesome. Like you're going to get I'm excited for you to watch it and just see the behind the scenes. It's hard to fail, period. Then again, hard to fail on the world stage in front of millions of people. When you've said very publicly, you're going to medal, you're going to medal, you're going to medal. It was definitely a difficult process to work through that. I was young. I was really heartbroken. But I just turned that into motivation. It just lit a fire under my belly. I...
• 19:16
  you know, trained unbelievably hard. I grinded, you know, 10 times more. I sacrificed 10 times more. I set the lock screen on my phone as a photo of the medalist that beat me in Tokyo. So I would every day I'd wake up and look at that photo and be like, never with the words, never again. So never again, was I going to let that happen. So I basically learned from the loss in Tokyo. We changed a bunch of things and I moved through it. But yeah, I look back on that
• 19:43
  that memory really positively, despite how negative it was, because I actually don't think I am where I am today without that moment. And so as crappy as it feels in the moment, we need that sometimes. I think that you have to learn to lose before you can win. I really do. I, you have to be humbled and understand and, and you want it that much more. So I, I, you know, I'm, I think everything happens for a reason.
• 20:08
  I wanna ask a question about, I noticed, literally when I say I went down a rabbit hole, I wanna run down a rabbit hole for hours with you. Is there something, I noticed that you use, you lead with your left leg when you're coming out of the starting gate. I noticed that you jump off of that same leg. Is that by design or was I just happened to notice those videos?
• 20:30
  Yes. So that's a good question. So I do three events, 100 meter high jump in the long jump and the 100 meter. My first step is the prosthetic step because that would mean my right foot is in the block, the front block so that I'm pushing off of my sound side. And then the first step would be the prosthetic side. It's just harder to push off the prosthetic in that position. And then long jump though.
• 20:57
  Long jump, I jump off the prosthetic. Now, that's because in long jump, it's a little complex, but in long jump, you want to lower your hips into the takeoff to put yourself in the right position to then get the height. But in long jump, if I were to be jumping off of my sound side, I wouldn't be able to lower my hips into the takeoff off of the prosthetic. So I jump off the prosthetic to lower my hips into it so I can be in the right position.
• 21:27
  And then in high jump, I don't jump off the prosthetic. I jump off my sound side. And the reason for that is in high jump, you run a curve. And the blade is not designed to be on the curve at all. So it's actually really hard. And it's basically...
• 21:43
  It's not beneficial to jump off of the prosthetic on the curve, so I jump off the sound side. So all these very interesting small variables and nuances that play a role in really competing at the highest level. I ask that for the listeners because they don't have this disability –
• 22:04
  but they have a limiting belief, something holding them back. And where I was, I said all that to sort of lean into it. Here you are, two of the three events, you use the disability. You lean right into it and say, let's roll. I love the,
• 22:21
  real with you and talking to President Biden. How cool was that to receive a call from the president? That was pretty crazy. So we were this happened right after I won in Paris and we're in the car and I get the phone handed to me and there's a message on the phone that says the president would like to reach out to Ezra on Monday.
• 22:45
  And I look at my father and I go, what? And he was like, the president of the United States is going to call you. And I was like, oh my goodness, that is crazy. I mean, think about...
• 22:58
  the people who get to have a one-on-one phone call with the president of the United States, that's only a handful of people throughout human history that have ever had that opportunity. And the only person on the Olympic side that got that call was Katie Ledecky. And I was the only other person. She got the call on the Olympic side. I got the call on the Paralympic side. And so it was unbelievable. And I'll tell you a funny story. So we're all sitting around at USC where I go to college. There's
• 23:23
  30 cameras. And I'm waiting for this phone call to my personal phone, by the way, call my personal phone. And I'm waiting, we're waiting, we're waiting. Everyone's sort of chatting. And then I get the call and I'm like, everybody be quiet. Everyone be quiet. And everyone settles down. And I answer the phone and I go, hello, Mr. President.
• 23:46
  And I hear on the other line, oh, no, this is just his receptionist. I'm going to connect you. Yeah, I'm going to connect it through. I'll put you through in a second. And I was like, you know, I had this big hello, Mr. And she was like, oh, no, no, it's just I'm just going to put you through to him in a second. I'm put you there. Oval Office. I'm like, OK, OK. But she put me through and then we had an amazing conversation. The video is only a couple of minutes, but we talked for 10 plus minutes and it was surreal. It was surreal that I was on the phone with the president of the free world.
• 24:15
  And sports got me there. That's a crazy thing to think about.
• 24:19
  What's the date of the 2028 Olympics? It is. So the Olympics will be July. I'm sorry, the Paralympics. I'm going to say sorry. Yeah, July. Olympics will be July. Paralympics will be end of August, pretty much. End of August. So that'll it'll be an election year. Also, it'll still be Trump. So expect a call from Trump. Hey, listen, I'm waiting on it. Like have a question ready for him. That's funny because, like, you know, it's going to be the end of his term. And he's going to be like, he'll say what?
• 24:49
  I'm going to listen, let's hope I have a good enough performance so that I can, or let's plan on having a good enough performance to warrant more calls from presidents. Like that's, if that's my, if that's my standard, I got to hit, I'm running for that. Let's go. Well, I believe in you, man. I, the, the, the gentleman I see in front of me is remarkable. I, if I knew what you knew at 20, I would be, I would be the leader of the free world right now, but I let life get, I believed what I.
• 25:17
  My parents, the little bit that they told me, that was all negative. And I believe what society – I grew up – you don't know much about it. I grew up off of 8 Mile, the 8 Mile that Eminem made famous. So I grew up – if you've ever seen that movie, we grew up that way. So most of my friends are dead or in jail. So I'm just happy to be here.
• 25:33
  But I learned everything that you learned late in life. So you had a head start. And what Superman's grandfather said, well, much is given. Or was it Superman, Spider-Man? Much is given, much is expected. But you're doing pretty well, my friend. I appreciate it. What's one lie people believe about disabilities that you're working to dismantle? That's a good question. I think the lie would be that living with a disability is the worst thing ever.
• 26:03
  There's this sort of weird taboo around disability where everyone assumes that it's such a negative thing and that people with disabilities can't be elite athletes or aren't elite athletes, that people with disabilities can't participate in sport. And I think I'm an example that all of that is false. Disability is difficult, yes. Yes.
• 26:26
  But is it the defining quality of 50 million Americans that live with a physical disability? Absolutely not. Is it the, you know, the reason why most people with disabilities can't play a sport? Absolutely not. You know, the Paralympics is a perfect example of the best athletes on the planet who just happen to have a physical disability, right? The disability is just one small part of who they are as people, who they are as athletes. The same way...
• 26:53
  We would never characterize a human being in any other minority group by one part of who they are, whether it be their sexual orientation or their race or X, Y and Z. Yet we characterize people by disability. And so it's because it's seen in such a negative light that I feel like that's what we're working to disprove. That's what we're working to change. That's what we're working to rewire the way society thinks of it. And adaptive, right, the documentary coming out on Peacock is a great example of that.
• 27:23
  watching the Paralympics is a great way for you to think of disability differently. Even my own social media content. I talk about the disability I share, I'm open. I make jokes. Also that the average person who's watching the content can go, Oh yeah, it's not the end of the world. It sucks maybe for certain people who have to battle through hardships, but it's not the end of the world. This guy can still run. This guy can still do X, Y, and Z. He can still have a pretty girlfriend. He can still live a good life. These are all things that the average person doesn't realize that.
• 27:51
  someone can still have with the physical disability. And that's what we're working up against. You learned at an early on age to lean into vulnerability, man. Vulnerability is cool. It's a superpower. I talk all about when I'm scared and when I'm feeling alone, and it just connects people. So keep doing that, my friend. This will air just after the first docuseries. How does this docuseries shift the narrative around disability and performance?
• 28:16
  This docuseries is what's going to build the Paralympic fan base, okay? On the Olympic side, there's a lot of great hype, attention. On the Paralympic side, we're not there yet. We're moving the right direction. We are seeing this exponential growth in Paralympic viewership and understanding and buzz. But this documentary is designed to take the average person...
• 28:41
  Have them watch this, become a Paralympic fan, and change the way they view disability in the process. So that's what it's going to be. People are going to watch this documentary and fall in love with the stories, fall in love with the sports, fall in love with the athletes. I mean, the other characters are amazing. They're so great. You're going to love this because people are going to watch this and be ready to run through a brick wall. That's what they're going to take away. Yeah.
• 29:05
  That's what I would, that's when I, when I first, when I first heard that you were coming on the show, that's what I, I'm like, I just immediately thought like my childhood was easy. I wanna run through a brick wall. I've gotta step up my game. So you're absolutely right. So those of you that are listening to this, we will have the notes or the link to the show in the show notes. So if you haven't seen this docu-series, click below. If you've seen it, then we're gonna show some more amazingness of Ezra as we keep going.
• 29:35
  What moment during filming hit you the hardest emotionally? It's hard, right, to have a camera on you for five plus years because there's a lot of really low moments. And I told myself before...
• 29:50
  We did this project that I said, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do this right. And I'm going to be fully open. I'm going to be fully vulnerable. I'm going to expose every part of myself. I'm not going to hold anything back. And so there's a lot of moments of failure. We talked about Tokyo failing on the world stage. I failed again on the world stage right before Paris. That's all on camera. We have the cameras rolling that whole night.
• 30:13
  And so those are difficult moments to live, but then also to watch also to relive and also to have been captured to shown to the world. But that was the only way to do it. I mean, I, I exposed parts of myself dealing with loss and failure, navigating relationships with my girlfriend. And so like, there's, there is no more authentic depiction of me.
• 30:37
  than this documentary and that can be tough but it's really rewarding and uh and then hopefully people people really appreciate it so listen up hard in life nation if you think you're having a tough day this gentleman just sped through la traffic coming from usc he had class today he has to train still for the olympics he does have a beautiful girlfriend oh by the way this week he was at the at the aspie's
• 30:59
  So he's got a full schedule and he somehow carved out time to come talk to us so we can help spread the word about this amazing human. I think you're just getting started, my friend. I really do. I see a career of massive public speaking, of paying it forward. But you started speaking at four and then I got here that you started Angel City Sports at nine. So tell us about that.
• 31:28
  And part two of that question, because I think I know the answer is, what's more fulfilling you, winning gold or seeing a kid pick up a javelin for the first time at said Angel City? Yeah, we started the nonprofit a little over 10 years ago, because basically, if you live with a physical disability, sports opportunities in Southern California and also around the world, but just where we are in L.A.,
• 31:53
  Not the same. There's barriers to entry. For example, you have a wheelchair. You can't just roll up to the YMCA and jump in a wheelchair basketball game. You need a specific chair. You need a specific game. It's all these complex difficulties for the average person with a disability to just play sports. And so our thought process was,
• 32:11
  let's just break all those barriers down because we know the power of sport. We know what it does for you physically, psychologically, what it does for your soul. If we break all those barriers down, let's just provide year-round sport opportunities for the disabled community, the physically disabled community. And so that's where the idea began and then started with one competition, turned into a bunch of clinics year-round, and then ultimately it just grew and grew and grew. And then of course we now have become one of the bigger adaptive sports organizations in the country. And for me,
• 32:40
  to part two of the question, it's always about impact over medals. A hundred percent. I feel my purpose in life is to normalize disability, be an example of what's possible as an amputee. And I would trade all the medals in the world for the opportunity to accomplish my larger purpose. I just know that winning the medals is a stepping stone to then do all these other amazing things that I can hopefully, you know,
• 33:04
  accomplished throughout my career, which is growing Angel City Sports, which is, you know, making amazing films and documentaries about these stories, growing the social media following so I can touch more people and change the way they view disability. I know that the medals are only a stepping stone to accomplish that larger purpose type stuff, but I would trade all those medals and all the selfish accolades in order to enact real change.
• 33:28
  Ezra, keep going on that and talk about a moment where someone's life was truly changed by Angel City. Yeah, I mean, we just have so many stories like this. I could go on for hours. But the first one that comes to mind is...
• 33:38
  A story about this little boy named Alpha who was riding a bike a couple feet behind his older brother at a stop sign. And one car stopped, next car stopped, and the last one ran him completely over. And he was paralyzed in a hospital, and we got the call.
• 33:59
  We had our nonprofits big event, annual event a few weeks later, I think after he was released from the hospital. So it was only a couple months after his injury and my dad invited them out.
• 34:11
  And when he got to the event, he was very shy. The family was very quiet. Everyone was clearly very traumatized. And so what we did was we basically took him from event to event, from sport to sport, meeting Paralympians, getting in the pool, swimming, doing this, doing that. And eventually he entered in a wheelchair race, the 100 meter race.
• 34:30
  And he was racing against another kid named Willie. And Willie was shot in a drive-by shooting a handful of years prior, but he had been at our events before and he was actually a pretty good wheelchair racer. And so Willie and Alpha race each other. And Willie, of course, wins. And Alpha starts crying, sobbing,
• 34:49
  And my dad is thinking, oh my gosh, we just brought him out and he's crying. Was this a mistake? And the parents came over and said, this is the first time he's cried or shown emotion since the accident.
• 35:04
  And so over the next few days, I watched this boy expand, literally expand, laughing, popping wheelies in the wheelchair. He met a bunch of kids like himself. They were a little gang. They were sort of rolling around the event and making jokes and having a good time. And he's laughing and smiling.
• 35:22
  That was a handful of years ago. Alpha never misses an Angel City event. His life has completely changed. His confidence has completely changed. He's found his sense of belonging and purpose. He's been around other people like himself. And his parents thanked us so much for bringing them out. And that was the first time he had shown emotion or cried or done anything since the accident. So that's just a small window into the work that we do.
• 35:47
  But really, sports has the power to change lives and especially as a power to change lives in a contingent of the population that when they have an accident like that, they think they're never going to be able to play sports again or they're never going to be able to feel like themselves again. And we help change that. Sports and positivity have an ability to change lives. So when is the last time you cried? The last time I cried? Oh, that's a good question. You know, I cried back.
• 36:16
  I cried. I got a little emotional before the ESPYs last week. You looked handsome and your girlfriend looked gorgeous, by the way. Thank you. Thank you. I cried a little bit thinking about what it would mean to win.
• 36:30
  an ESPY, and I didn't win, so it sucks, but I didn't cry afterwards. I cried before. I cried before just... I mean, it was more so signifying this journey that's meant a lot to me, and I put so much of my life into competing at the highest level and getting to where I am, and so sometimes I like to take a moment and really appreciate the journey. There's a quote that I love, which is...
• 36:54
  It's hard to stop and smell the roses when you're riding on horseback. Oftentimes I'm so ambitious. I'm trying to get to the next thing. I'm so worried about what's coming up, what's coming up. I don't appreciate the moment. And so before the SBs, I had a nice moment with my family and girlfriend. I was just appreciating the journey, appreciating, you know, where we are. And I got a little emotional. There's a couple of things that I'm going to pay forward to you that you can just have. So...
• 37:22
  everybody knows what to know it all is, but I call myself a learned it all. I want to learn. I'm a sponge. I want to learn everything. I'm learning about you and you're an incredible human being. And I would also say that yesterday is history. Tomorrow is history. And all we have is today. And it's a gift. So that's why they call it being present.
• 37:41
  So enjoy that and take that with you and pay it forward. And you can be Superman or the chosen one too. I forgot to tell you. So the Heart and Life brand itself is mostly for charity. We take and we divvy up the proceeds and pay it forward. One of the charities that we are very heavily involved in is called Variety. And they provide prosthetic arms and legs for children.
• 38:05
  And I volunteer. I like money's easy to give away, but I like to volunteer my time and my IT company's team's time. So I get the privilege every August to go and do a fashion show where I'm a chaperone. I get to walk with someone with a disability. And it's the honor of my year. And every year I usually get the same experience.
• 38:32
  kid but last year I got put with someone different I say all that to say it is the most rewarding thing in the world watch you take it and go to the level 10 I'm really proud of you I'm really happy for you have a you have a new friend and a big big big fan in me but what does a world look like
• 38:54
  that fully embraces adaptive athletes? Well, first off, that's amazing what you guys do. I didn't even know that, but that's very special. I'm grateful to be able to have this conversation with you and someone who I feel very like-minded and get to, you know, because it's not very often you get to have a conversation with someone who you admire, respect, and see eye to eye. So I value your time as well for being here today.
• 39:23
  A world where people with disabilities are properly included is a world where people with disabilities aren't bullied at higher rates and have equal job opportunities and aren't obese at higher rates and aren't depressed at higher rates and have full access to sports wherever and whenever they want and walk around day to day in public and feel included in society. Yeah.
• 39:48
  I think we're a long ways away, but that's not to say that we're not making any progress. I feel like we're moving in the right direction. I feel like we have this exponential growth in understanding, but I think that we see a lot and we have seen a lot about DE&I and diversity and inclusion and disability has been left out. Disability is the last frontier, right? Disability is the next, in my opinion, the next social movement. And so-
• 40:16
  I look forward to a day where a kid with a disability doesn't have to keep changing schools because they get bullied everywhere they go. And I look forward to a day where if someone loses their leg in a motorcycle accident, they know that they can still play sports and they can get a running blade and they'll be perfectly fine and live a totally active, healthy lifestyle. You know, I look forward to the day where a little kid who has a physical disability can turn on the TV screen and see somebody like themselves. Yeah.
• 40:44
  see representation in the mainstream, hope powerful, or walk down Hollywood Boulevard and see a billboard of someone with a disability. All of this matters. And that's the future that I'm working towards. And I think we're moving the right direction, but we still got some ways to go. If you had five minutes with every sports commissioner in the country, what would you say to them? Well, if I would tell them that I would tell them that there's a way to include disability, disability,
• 41:11
  and still make it profitable for you. And if anything, make it more profitable. It's never been about interest. It's always been about awareness. Now, what I mean by that is, it's not that people aren't interested in Paralympics or disability or Paralympic sport. It's that they're not aware of,
• 41:27
  I would make an argument that if you take 100 people who have never seen the Olympics, never seen the Paralympics, you expose them to both, there's an argument that the Paralympics makes more of an impact in that person's life in two, three weeks later, just because of how insane it seems to the average mind. And so I think that Paralympic sport is massively entertaining if it's marketed properly. And so I would say to all these sport commissioners,
• 41:54
  There's a way to incorporate Paralympic sport that will not only change the game of what elite athletes look like, period, but of what disability means. And to have the opportunity to be on the front end of a movement like that, that's super special. For example, we'll throw out a couple of examples. The NBA.
• 42:14
  There should be a wheelchair basketball team that is associated with every NBA team. The same way there's a G League team, the same way there's the WNBA, there should be the Wheelchair Basketball Association. And the same thing should be the case where they're connected. Now, we do have a National Wheelchair Basketball Association, but it should be connected to the NBA. There should be cross-promotion. They should do whatever demonstrations at halftime and have their own experience.
• 42:41
  And it should be it should be more it should be more connected. You take the NHL. You got guys playing ice hockey at the highest level in the Paralympics. We play sled hockey. So these guys are remarkable, remarkable playing sled hockey. It's so entertaining. It's so interesting. There's the same U.S.-Canada rivalry. How is there not more sled hockey exhibitions or tournaments that are connected to the NHL? Take even another example.
• 43:09
  Soccer. We have blind soccer. We have CP seven aside soccer. We have amputee soccer. Like, how is that or not? How is the average soccer fan not being exposed to blind soccer that we play at the Paralympic Games where every athlete can't even see? And the way they know where the ball is, is because the ball has a bell.
• 43:31
  It's crazy. You would think that that would be massively entertaining for the average American or average international viewer who loves soccer. We got to expose it to them. And so this is what I'm talking about where I say we're moving the right direction, but we need allies to lean in. We need people who are willing to really amplify these sports. And then in turn, you're going to see a massive change. An example of this is in track and field.
• 43:56
  Recently, USA track and field merged with US Paralympic track and field. They took them over. So now for the first time ever, I'm going to be competing at national championships alongside the best able-bodied track athletes in the world. Paralympic, able-bodied combined. It's going to be amazing. There is the opportunity to do that for a lot more sports that I think would provide a lot of value, but of course, hasn't happened yet.
• 44:20
  I love how excited you get about it. That's what changes the world, my friend. We're getting up against it. I got a couple more questions, but I'm going to take your parents off of the table for this question. Who inspires you to keep pushing forward?
• 44:34
  little kids like Alpha, people with disabilities around the world that don't feel like they belong. And I feel like I have the power to change that. And if I don't maximize to the fullest potential, if I don't become who I believe I can become, I feel like I am letting down the 1 billion people with physical disabilities who deserve to feel like they properly belong in society. All right, parents back on...
• 45:02
  Use this time to gush about them because it makes me feel good because I didn't have that. So tell me about your amazing parents. Yeah, my parents are the best. I...
• 45:15
  I'm really grateful to have the support system that I have in general, family wise, but it stems from them. They, they never let me believe that I was any less than, or that I couldn't accomplish anything that I put forth into the universe. They supported my dreams with everything that they had. They instilled so much confidence in me as a young kid. Literally the blueprint for the person I am today, it comes from my parents and comes from the lessons that, that they taught me as a young kid. And,
• 45:44
  And now they manage my career. And so they are my managers. They run everything. And we have daily conversations about all of these things that we're pursuing and, you know, hunting down. And my dad, you know, runs a nonprofit. He's the creator of the documentary Adaptive. And so we just have a lot of blessings right now. But it's crazy to look back and think that, you know, my parents knew nothing about disability when I was born. Nothing. Nothing.
• 46:11
  They reached out to a ton of people. They learned as much as they could. They were a sponge as much as possible. And then they raised me in the best way I could have ever asked for. So I am absolutely nothing without my parents. Talk to me about gratitude because, you know, you can just look at your left hand and look at your left leg and feel sorry for yourself, but you don't. Let the listeners an inside review of what gratitude looks like for you and how it inspires you daily.
• 46:41
  Gratitude is a daily practice. Gratitude is something you have to work on, right? You have to work on seeing things through a different lens, seeing things and being grateful for them. And that's exactly how I feel. I have a daily gratitude practice. I'm constantly reminding myself of gratitude.
• 47:00
  the things that I am grateful for things that I, as the, that I used to dream about that are now my reality. And then grateful for the small things we take little wins. That's how, that's how we stack progresses gratitude for little wins, little wins, little opportunities, blessings that we have. And then over time, we,
• 47:20
  That's where you feel this underlying sense of gratitude, but you have to work on it at first. You don't just wake up one day and you're like, oh, now I'm grateful for everything. No, it's a practice. It's intentional. And eventually you build it into the DNA of who you are. But it's, it's a very important part of any high achiever is gratitude. I think.
• 47:42
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• 48:11
  You're a tremendous human being, my friend. Be grateful that you're 20 and that AI is making such a rapid, because in 20 years, the advances in medicine and research and science, you'll probably have a bionic leg and a light human hand. It's just gonna be insane. Because I do a lot of research because I'm obviously in the business. People that are paralyzed, and I say this for your fans that are listening, people that are paralyzed,
• 48:40
  keep hope because they are making advancements. And if nothing else, like people like me, I'm going to live till well into my hundreds. For sure. It's going to be wild because you're going to be able to read. You're just going to be able to share research at the touch of a button. Absolutely. Keep positivity, keep hope. And trust me, things are going to get, going to get better and get advanced and life is, is going to be good. So be,
• 49:06
  Live, man. Live. Final question, and I'll get you out of here, and this has been a treat. Everybody tune in to the Adaptive on Peacock. Oh, it's going to be – I cannot wait. It's next week. It'll be – the show notes will be in there. I'm going to probably text you after and be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I didn't know about this. And one other thing, before I ask you a final question, tell me about your girlfriend only because you talked about being bullied.
• 49:35
  And you can show your hand and see it looks different and you have a different leg. And I see the way she looks at you. She's a remarkable human being too. How'd you guys meet and how does she inspire you daily? Yeah, that's a good question. So we met in high school.
• 49:52
  And I wasn't really looking for a relationship. I was pretty focused on my career. I made that pretty known. And she changed my mind. You know, I was sort of the universe needed to bring me the right person for my perspective. It was the unstoppable object. You makes the unstoppable force her.
• 50:10
  Yeah, exactly. And so and so we we just hit off. We had this really, really great connection. And she's also an athlete as well. So she rides equestrian at Oklahoma State and was nationally ranked and she's super talented and a real hard worker.
• 50:27
  And I just felt like that was probably if I had to write up an ideal partner, it was going to be someone who would understand the things that I'm going through and be able to offer personal perspective. He really understands me and gets me. And so, you know, we've been together two and a half years at this point. We do long distance, which makes it even tougher. But once again, you know, the right, you know, you know, you really care about someone differently.
• 50:51
  you're willing to sort of walk through hell and back for them. And so if that means we have to do a long distance, which sucks and is difficult, of course, but you really love someone, you make that work. And so we definitely have a lot of love for one another. And it's cool to have, you know, somebody who's in your corner by your side. You can, you know, talk to about certain things that maybe most people wouldn't understand just because they know you on such an intimate level. But no, I definitely really love my girlfriend.
• 51:19
  I can tell. That's why I asked. Again, as you speak, I keep thinking of new things. What is something that you're working on besides getting faster and jumping further? What is something in your mindset that you'd like to improve? My mental routine, I will say, I can always meditate more. I meditate every day, but I could meditate more. How long do you meditate for?
• 51:44
  20 minutes, maybe 15 minutes. I could always meditate more. Okay, here I got one. Breath work. I need to do more breath work. I need to do more breath work. My mental routine is pretty, it's pretty solid. That's why I asked the question, my friend. That's why I asked. I can tell. I'm pretty proud of it.
• 52:00
  I feel mentally I'm able to operate on a different level than a lot of other athletes. But breath work is sort of the next level for me, I think. Would you do us all a favor and write a book? Maybe soon. That's a good word. You know, that would be something. That's definitely on the back of the list. No, you have to. That mental tough – because that's why I asked the question. I knew you didn't have much to say. You'll have life experiences and there will be more. But I –
• 52:26
  Game recognizes game, but I'm 49, brother. And it took 49 years to get this kind of peace that you have at 20. I blew lots of money, hurt a lot of people trying to get to where you are already. And I'm proud of you. So let's end it with, what's your ultimate dream? Not just as an athlete, but as a human being. My ultimate dream is...
• 52:52
  Rewire the way society thinks of disability. Simple as that. I knew you were going to say that. Personal. I want this one to be personal. Personal? Okay. Yes. My ultimate dream is to have an amazing family. That's my dream. I want to have a beautiful family that I can provide for and be with my kids and share life experiences with them. That's probably what I would say.
• 53:20
  Pay it forward. That's beautiful. I didn't expect anything less out of you. One more final thought from me is run for public office. We need...
• 53:31
  Our system needs good people that are looking out for other people. And you're a brilliant young man. You had a bright future. I don't know if it interests you at all. What are you studying at USC? I'm studying business of cinematic arts at USC. Yeah. Go become a politician. Go clean up LA. Come on now. Keep that in mind. Keep that in mind. My friend, everybody tune into Adaptive on July 28th. The link will be in the show notes.
• 53:57
  Ezra, you're a remarkable human being. Your mindset is tougher than anything. When that book comes out, please come on the show again. We'll do it in person. I know I don't have to tell people to share this show. It was remarkable. You are a new friend in me. Thank you, brother. I appreciate it. This was so much fun. And thank you for all the kind words. Until next time, everybody be harder than life. Please rate and share this podcast. I'm active on all social platforms and love to
• 54:25
  Every episode is sponsored by my company, National Technology Management, the easiest and best IT company to do business with, delivering peace of mind with technology every day, even simplifying cybersecurity. Visit TrustNTM.com for more info. Until next week, be harder than life.