Published in 2025
8 hours and 48 minutes
Ardra Shephard is a trailblazing voice in the MS and disability communities, celebrated for her sharp wit and candid storytelling. She is the creator of the award-winning blog and podcast Tripping On Air, which has built an impressive social media following. Yahoo Lifestyle reported that “@ms_trippingonair is the number-one chronic illness account to follow on Instagram”. Named one of The Kit’s 2023 Changemakers, Ardra’s work has been featured in FASHION, InStyle, WebMD, BezzyMS Healthline, and other magazine and online publications. As the host of AMI-tv’s Fashion Dis and a consultant on various TV projects, Ardra is reshaping the narrative around disability. Her highly anticipated memoir, Fallosophy, continues to explore these themes with her trademark blend of insight and humor. Ardra lives in Toronto.
What is this book about?
Twenty-three-year-old Ardra Shephard is sleeping with the wrong guy, living in a crappy apartment, and spending money she doesn’t have on designer shoes, boozy brunches, and weekends in NYC. Making mistakes while you figure stuff out is what your twenties are all about. Then a doctor tells Ardra she has MS, and those two letters split her life into a Before and After.
While over a million people in North America live with Multiple Sclerosis, there is no certainty when it comes to the progression of the disease. By her mid-thirties, Ardra is struggling to walk, and it’s terrifying. When she starts using mobility aids, she faces feelings of otherness and not belonging like never before. As Ardra’s deepest fears keep coming true, she starts to learn the most important lesson: She’s been sold a lie about disability—it isn’t a fate worse than death. Having survived all of her worst-case scenarios, she begins to realize that a difficult life doesn’t have to be a joyless life.
Fallosophy isn’t about fighting an unwinnable battle. This is a story about Plan Bs and pivots. Ardra serves up wisdom like a bartender who has been there: with good humor and a gentle refusal to sugarcoat reality—in this case, what it’s really like to walk unsteadily through life with a progressive, disabling illness in a world that would rather not build a ramp.
