Autism Stories

We take a look back at some great moments on the Autism Stories podcast from the last year as we prepare to bring you more stories than ever from autistics in 2023. If you could subscribe to Autism Stories on your favorite listening platform we would really appreciate that. If you are looking for extraordinary support support to live self-sufficient and purpose-driven lives through customized coac...

"There are a lot of autistic women that sign up for my class. So introducing them and creating this neurodiverse community in the classroom where they get to work with actual autistic women and see that we are not what they thought; we are not what society pins us as," says Zhara Astra. Zhara joins this episode to discuss teaching a class"Understanding Neurodivergent Women" as well as female autis...

"Being open about where you come from, your difference, gives an opening for others to say the rabbi is modelling this. The rabbi is showing that people of difference are members of this community and are valued. Modeling is the best thing a leader can do, I believe. Look at yourself as a microcosm of your community, live your own," says Rabbi Tzemah Yoreh. Rabbi Yoreh joins this episode to d...

"he big issue is that colleges are mostly for very functional students that can talk right and can control their body. But for individuals like us, options are very less. For me, I feel lucky. My body has to learn how to control and one has to be in the environment to learn how to control, and more colleges should show this path to all," says Akhil Lad. Akhil joins this episode to discuss ways in...

"Autistic people have the ability to decompose the soundscape, to take the sound of the world around them and to focus in on particular aspects of it and to hear that detail. People don't listen in this way on the whole. This is a distinct difference," says Andrew Hugill. Andrew joins this episode to discuss founding the aural diversity project, digital culture, and the importance of being &n...

"Many of us, if we're just provided the proper accommodations, and if we're provided the opportunities to advocate for ourselves and be taken seriously, we would thrive. We would be able to live lives that we shape ourselves as opposed to having society impose on us what we're supposed to be based on how they assume we are from an outsider view," says T Jamaica Rogue. T Jamaica Rogue joins joins t...

“Anytime you have a default, anyone whose brain learns things, processes, communicates differently is going to feel othered. The idea with universal design is not having any defaults, and to have a menu to all people. In healthcare, you're picking your setting, your picking your furniture, your picking your lighting, your picking your sensory and communication supports. We offer this to all the pa...

“Currently, that is the one place where I am entirely unmasked. I don't guard myself when I'm running; it's true self expression. It's the only place I'm really fully authentic and fully able to be in a way that I don't feel self-conscious about, or I'm not wondering if I look weird, or if people are going to notice me in the wrong way. It's the purest form of joy I have access to,” says Jesse Tim...

“I personally am not an eye contact person. So, when I'm working with my clients it's nice that neither of us have that expectation that we have to make eye contact, we have to shake each others' hand, we have to have small talk. Realistically, we don't have to do that. We're both very comfortable with each other, and that alone has made it easier to work in my career because I know I am understoo...

“There's so much work that needs to be done to gain communication for the estimated 31 million human beings who are locked in a silent cage. I want to make sure we focus on the initiatives that will help the greatest number of non-speakers to learn to type, so they may live full lives,” says Elizabeth Bonker. Elizabeth joins this episode to discuss her non profit that is empowering non-speakers to...

“I'd really like to tell more stories about women growing up not knowing that they are autistic, like finding out later in life, in their 20s 30s 40s. And exploring both sides of it. Not only the good part, but not only the bad part. I like to see both sides of the coin. I'd like to show what are the challenges, but if there is a good part, what is it?” says Izabelle Azevedo. Izabelle joins this e...

“ know that I just love being alone; I love spending time by myself. I think that has been frowned upon, especially for girls, especially in high school. You wanna be social, and you wanna connect, and you wanna be at all the things and make the connections. Looking back, I wish I could've told myself, hey, it's okay to enjoy time by yourself and to be entertained by yourself. I would've let mysel...

“ I think it helps the emotional thing, cause it's not just the logic of knowing about death and stuff. For me, it was more learning a lot more about death denial and how it impacts people, and how important grieving proper is. I think if I didn't have that foundation before I lost someone who meant so much to me, I would be even more lost,” says Marianne Eloise. Marianne joins this episode of Aut...

"There's so many life coaches out there. Just like there's so many doctors, and there's so many psychologists and psychiatrists, and occupational therapists....but there's not a lot of autistic ones. And I thought, how amazing is it that I Can go out there, and I can speak to somebody, and I know what they're going through, and I can help them. There's not a lot out there, but it's such a necessar...

“I am telling the story one last time- my life leading up to my diagnosis, what it looked like before, and a little of what it looked like after- and that's pretty much it. I want to be hired for other things. Not that I won't still talk about my story, but I don't want it to be the focus of why people are hiring me. I want to be a part of the bigger conversations around disability in leadership,”...

"4 of the cast were autistic and 2 were not autistic. That I felt was important as well. I didn't want people to look at the play and be able to say, "oh look, there's the autistic people doing their thing over there." I wanted people to say, "It's okay for all of us to be in this room together, and look how much better it is,” says Jody O’Neil. Jody joins this episode to discuss her play "What I...

“Sex is deemed an inappropriate subject. People either shut down or they start giggling, or maybe they just blurt out everything and say too much. It is deemed inappropriate and something to be ashamed of. There's so much shame in our country in the way that people think about sex. We are oversexualized when it comes to the media, but we're also very shamed when it comes to our personal selves. It...

“One of the main things that I'm in charge of is granting ADA requests. I want an employee to be super comfortable with me, and know that I will go after their manager looking for approval for an ADA accommodation. I just had to do so a couple weeks ago. There was a lot of back and forth with the manager, but I really stick to my guns- I'm here to help employees out,” says Dominique Cyntryn. Domin...

"I also use self disclosure as a therapist. I am very open about being neurodivergent and struggling with that myself, which I think makes a big difference. Because I've learned that neurodivergent people tend to build relationships and share information through storytelling. I tell my stories, they tell their stories, we share special interests to build rapport. Everything is custom to the neurod...

"I am partial to children's books because I feel children have an open mind. To me, autism needs children to understand us because they are in school with autistics everyday. I want autistics to feel understood and accepted. My childhood would've been much better if that had happened for me,” says Gregory Tino. Gregory joins this episode to discuss his new book “The Autistic Boy in the Unruly Body...

“Running my own art therapy private practice has been one of the greatest vehicles for self growth I've ever had, because I have to take ownership of every single decision in my practice. Do I want to maintain my policies? It's been such a process of looking at myself and standing true to my values, and designing my practice in a way that both really meets my clients' needs, but also meets my own...

“The first 15 minutes of class, we are teaching about the brain. We are teaching about the autistic neurotype and the strengths. It's a strengths-based approach, because you gotta play to the strengths. It's not fun to be in a situation where like oh, here's something that you're not good at, let's just keep on doing that, because you're not good at it. That's so deflating,” says Mara McLoughlin....

"I don't understand when someone gives me something that's more than three steps, I can't do it and I just panic, but I can write you a book in three days. It's one of the reasons that I have trouble with functioning labels, and why the autistic community in general, has trouble with functioning labels. Because you can't call someone like me high-functioning because that's not accurate, and you ca...

"I've been preparing to move and I know it's gonna be a big change, so I've been prepping myself, sort of, and trying to prepare what in my routine is gonna stay the same. That's brought me a lot of comfort. I also went to a support group for late-diagnosed autistis last week, and I got some amazing advice from them. They said to have all your comfort items easily accessible,” says Ziale Evans. Zi...

“Design, and art as a larger umbrella, is storytelling. Just like music is storytelling, even without lyrics. I think that we all tell stories. I really feel that every single thing we experience is some sort of story. We tell ourselves stories; everything that comes out of our mouths is a story. It's how we navigate the world,” says Neisha Hirsch. Neisha joins this episode of Autism Stories to di...