179 - Why “Fixing Bodies” Is the Wrong Conversation with BE Alink
In this episode of The Inclusive Dad podcast, host AAron DeVries sits down with BE Alink, inventor, author, and founder of the Alinker walking bike, for a bold and thought-provoking conversation about inclusion, identity, and systems that were never built for everyone. BE challenges the idea of “fixing bodies” and instead invites us to rethink mobility, disability, and belonging. Together, they explore why inclusion often feeds exclusionary systems, how language shapes power, and what it looks like to create something so compelling that people want to belong. This episode is an honest call to reclaim creativity, dignity, and community.
Key Takeaways:
Cool Over Clinical - Designing mobility tools people want to use changes how society treats disability.
Systems Exclude - Inclusion exists only because systems were built to leave people out.
Language Matters - Words shape power—language can liberate or reinforce harm.
Identity Stories - We’re more than labels; internalized stories shape worth and behavior.
Build Something Better - Real change comes from creating new, magnetic communities—not fighting broken systems.
BE Alink’s definition of inclusion:
Inclusion is something that is manufactured by a system that inherently excludes certain groups based on their fear.
BE Alink’s Bio:
BE Alink was born and raised in the Netherlands, is a trained woodworker and restoration architect who left NL, for what became 10 years of community reconstruction work in Kenya, The Sudan, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kosovo of which 3.5 years in Afghanistan.
BE is the founder and inventor of the Alinker walking bike, which she refers to as a vehicle of change. BE's reverse design practices / philosophy lead to the Alinker, which is not built for a "body-with-a-problem" but for who we are, active and engaged.
BE is a gender bender, and has often been called crazy, all over the place, scattered. People told her to focus, and to comply, but BE does not fit in, just held true to her vision that the world needs something else, for and by us all, no one excluded. BE focuses on who we are, not what we have.
BE has built her company into a movement of people showing up for each other. Years ago, she said: "I dream of a world where the dismissed people of today are our leaders of tomorrow”. BE employs Alinker users (otherwise unemployed), pays everybody living wage, The Alinker has certified BCorp status, is more than carbon neutral, and practically plastic free.
The Alinker company is built to create access to health, by building access to mobility, community and real food.
BE is also a musician, composer and frequency /neuroscience-based soundscape recording artist creating frequency and sound healing compositions. After years of studying and practicing in my own space, this is the first time I am publicly coming out in this capacity.
Connect with BE Alink:
Website: https://bealink.world/
Music: https://bealink.bandcamp.com/
Email: be@thealinker.com
SPAM© Count:
Host:
Yes
Current Guest:
No
Cumulative Guest Stats:
Yes - 79
No - 98
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Founder and Inventor of The Alinker
BE Alink was born and raised in the Netherlands, is a trained woodworker and restoration architect who left NL, for what became 10 years of community reconstruction work in Kenya, The Sudan, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Kosovo of which 3,5 years in Afghanistan.
BE is the founder and inventor of the Alinker walking bike, which she refers to as a vehicle of change. BE's reverse design practices / philosophy lead to the Alinker, which is not built for a "body-with-a-problem" but for who we are, active and engaged.
BE is a gender bender, and has often been called crazy, all over the place, scattered. People told her to focus, and to comply, but BE does not fit in, just held true to her vision that the world needs something else, for and by us all, no one excluded. BE focuses on who we are, not what we have.
BE has built her company into a movement of people showing up for each other. Years ago, she said: "I dream of a world where the dismissed people of today are our leaders of tomorrow”. BE employs Alinker users (otherwise unemployed), pays everybody living wage, The Alinker has certified BCorp status, is more than carbon neutral, and practically plastic free.
The Alinker company is built to create access to health, by building access to mobility, community and real food.
BE is also a musician, composer and frequency /neuroscience-based soundscape recording artist creating frequency and sound healing compositions. After years of studying and practicing in my own space, this is the first time I am publicly coming out …
