Ep. 2 – Austin Puca: Trust, Community Care, and Living with Lupus

In this episode, Charlie talks with health equity advocate and systems strategist Austin Puca about living with lupus, chronic illness, and the everyday negotiations of being in a body you’re constantly learning how to live in. From avoiding the sun and navigating flares, to food, fatigue, trust, and care, this is a generous, funny, and free-flowing conversation between two friends. Austin also shares what it means to show up for one another through diagnosis and uncertainty — including being a steady source of care and knowledge when Charlie was first diagnosed with lupus — as together they explore community care, interdependence, and what futures shaped by sick and disabled wisdom can look, sound, and feel like.

Topics we discuss:

- Living with lupus and chronic illness

- Trust, communication, and being believed

- Community care and interdependence

- Food, cooking, and nourishment during flares

- Bodies, time, and change

- Imagining sick-led futures

Learn more about Austin:

Instagram: @likethecityintexas

Find the full episode transcript on our website: www.sickfuturescollective.org/podcast

Watch the full episode on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/Yk_RtjFWQAA

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.

Topics we discuss:

- Chronic illness and diagnosis stories

- Art as language, survival, and care

- Narrative Medicine

- Grief, identity, and crip time

- Community-building and collective imagination

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 [e-mail]

The future is sick.