19 hours ago
Dreaming of Things That Never Were — with Kenneth Kunken
At 20 years old, Kenneth Kunken broke his neck during a college football game at Cornell University and was told he likely wouldn’t survive the week. Doctors warned his family that even if he lived, he’d spend the rest of his life in a nursing home with little hope for independence.
They were wrong.
In this episode of A Joyful Rebellion, Ken shares the long road from catastrophic spinal cord injury to earning multiple graduate degrees, becoming an assistant district attorney, raising triplets, and writing his memoir, I Dream of Things That Never Were.
This conversation dives into resilience, identity, disability, expectations, purpose, and the quiet danger of letting other people decide what your future should look like. It’s also a deeply human conversation about grief, adaptation, love, fatherhood, and why hope sometimes starts with simply refusing to quit.
Show Notes & Chapters
00:00 — The prosecutor nobody expected to see in court
02:21 — The football tackle that changed Ken’s life forever
05:48 — Doctors tell his family to “let him go”
07:17 — Reading the pamphlet that predicted a hopeless future
10:32 — Returning to Cornell less than a year after paralysis
13:05 — Rejection, job hunting, and mailing 200 resumes
14:06 — Discovering purpose through helping others with disabilities
18:16 — From introvert to public speaker and advocate
19:54 — Navigating inaccessible campuses before the ADA
24:36 — Why Ken decided to become a lawyer
26:08 — Becoming an assistant district attorney despite enormous barriers
30:10 — The danger of low expectations
33:16 — Why Ken refused sympathy from juries
35:02 — How to talk to people with disabilities without fear
37:10 — Choosing growth instead of despair after trauma
39:02 — “Dream of things that never were”
42:16 — Writing the book that his sons would one day read
44:40 — Marriage, IVF, and becoming the father of triplets
49:00 — Advice for someone newly facing spinal cord injury
53:33 — Retirement, public speaking, and continuing to inspire others
56:05 — The award named in Ken’s honor
Resources Mentioned
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