The Power of Cycling: A Journey of Healing and Community

The City Club of Cleveland Podcast

Eric D. Seals grew up eating just about every southern delicacy you could name: pulled pork, liverwurst sandwiches, fried fish, alongside his father, Donnie Seals Sr. Living in Wheaton, a west suburb of Chicago. He also watched his dad drink and smoke for almost 10 years, until 1995 when he almost died. Over the next fifteen years, Donnie would have a total of three quadruple bypass surgeries and be forced into early retirement.\r\n\r\nHowever, the story doesn't end there. Donnie is now 70 years old and bicycles more than 30 miles a day; his heart problems have all but disappeared. Having once been on more than 20 daily medications, he is now down to one and his doctors call his recovery miraculous. Directed by son Eric Seals, Bike Vessel follows father and son as they cycle from St. Louis to Chicago. The film takes a hard look at the health disparities plaguing Black men, and the systemic racism that has elevated them to one of the lowest life expectancies and highest death rates in the nation.\r\n\r\nPart of the Health Equity Series sponsored by the Saint Luke\'s Foundation, join the City Club, Bike Your Neighborhood, and the Greater Cleveland Urban Film Festival for a special film screening of Bike Vessel. Following the film, Donnie Seals will join a panel conversation about the documentary, health equity, and the transformative power of cycling.