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ST Medical Monday: Training as a Boxer in Order to Fight Parkinson's Disease

Aired on Monday, October 23rd.

On this installment of our show, we chat with Aaron Sloan, who is the owner and head coach of The Engine Room, a gym based in Tulsa (with two different locations) which began as the Owasso Boxing Club in 2009. Aaron tells us about his Ready to Fight program, which he established just last year, as noted at the Engine Room website, "after a recently-diagnosed person with Parkinson's was referred to him by a doctor. This doctor felt boxing-specific workouts would benefit the patient -- and [the doctor] was right! When Aaron saw the improvements this individual reached in a short period of time, he began a Parkinson's-specific class. Eventually, the success of this class motivated Aaron to open another gym called The Engine Room Wellness Center, specifically designed for people with Parkinson's. This fully-equipped boxing gym is adjusted to meet the needs of people with Parkinson's disease, with modified equipment to provide mobility and functionality."

Rich Fisher passed through KWGS about thirty years ago, and just never left. Today, he is the general manager of Public Radio Tulsa, and the host of KWGS’s public affairs program, StudioTulsa, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in August 2012 . As host of StudioTulsa, Rich has conducted roughly four thousand long-form interviews with local, national, and international figures in the arts, humanities, sciences, and government. Very few interviews have gone smoothly. Despite this, he has been honored for his work by several organizations including the Governor's Arts Award for Media by the State Arts Council, a Harwelden Award from the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, and was named one of the “99 Great Things About Oklahoma” in 2000 by Oklahoma Today magazine.
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