In this episode host Jimmy McKay talks with 2016 APTA Next Conference Keynote speaker, Nick Balenger live in Jimmy’s backyard in Arlington VA.  Jimmy enjoys a Sweetwater 420 Extra Pale Ale from the Sweetwater Brewing company out of Atlanta GA, while Nick, who turns 21 next month, had to drink lemonade.

Nick is a college senior at George Mason University, who suffered a spinal cord injury while playing in the surf in Hawaii.  Nick went through several levels of the Physical Therapy system from acute to inpatient to outpatient to eventually working with a current DPT student (and Jimmy’s roommate of 3 years) David Fathalikhani.

Nick tells us how to be a good PT student and PT.  He’s got an interesting take on how to look at spinal cord PT, “Fuck The Book”, and sums up the APTA’s current media strategy, #ChoosePT, in one sentence.