Beyond 6 Seconds: Neurodiversity stories from neurodivergent people

Madge Woollard has run her own business teaching piano and keyboard since 1994. Madge was diagnosed autistic in 2016 at the age of 44. She lives in Sheffield UK with her wife who is also late-diagnosed autistic. A graduate of Cambridge University, she teaches children and adults, privately and in schools, and is keen to specialize in working with neurodivergent students. She is also a member of Sp...

Quincy Hansen is a young autistic activist, writer, public speaker and college student from Colorado. He is the author of the new book "Shake It Up! How to be Young, Autistic, and Make an Impact" and writes a blog at SpeakingOfAutism.com . During this episode, you will hear Quincy talk about: Being known as the "bad kid" in school whose struggles were seen as behavior problems -- until he found th...

Mads Johan Øgaard is an award-winning artist, filmmaker and public speaker. He is known for his animated short films about being a neurodivergent child: the multi-award-winning "I AM DYSLEXIC" (based on his own school experiences) and "WITH THE UNIVERSE IN MY SUITCASE" (based on the experiences of people with ADHD who worked on the film with him). During this episode, you will hear Mads talk about...

Brianne Leeson is a writer, artist, and voice actor from Dallas, Texas. She is the creator of the queer supernatural comedy audio drama, "Today's Lucky Winner." Brianne was diagnosed as autistic and with ADHD at age 30, and she has since become a passionate advocate for autism acceptance and representation in media. During this episode, Brianne talks about: How she got her autism and ADHD diagnosi...

Jennifer Opal is a DevOps Engineer with the HelloSign Team at Dropbox, a multi-award winning neurodiversity & inclusion advocate, blogger & keynote speaker. She also has dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD. Jennifer has worked with clients such as Bloomberg, Google and HackAJob, providing insight on being a neurodivergent queer Black woman engineer in tech, in the hopes of educating & inspiring others. D...

On this special solo episode for Autistic Pride Day, I talk about how I got my autism diagnosis as an adult. Please note that this is not meant to be medical or professional advice of any kind. It's just my own personal experience! Your experience may vary.   Resources I mention during this episode: My 12/20/22 episode where I describe what led me to pursue an assessment.   Autism assessment provi...

Haley Moss is a neurodiversity expert, public speaker and author of four books that guide neurodivergent individuals through professional and personal challenges. We talk about Haley's latest book, "The Young Autistic Adult's Independence Handbook," which shares the "unwritten rules" of adulthood and life advice for autistic young adults. Haley also talks about her own experience as an autistic ch...

Britney Wolf is a passionate Tourette Syndrome advocate who is trying to beat the stigmas surrounding the disorder. Through social media, speaking events and more, she takes every opportunity to let the Tourette Syndrome community know that they aren't alone and teach those outside of the community what the disorder is actually like to live with. During this episode, you will hear Britney talk abo...

Content warning: Mentions of racism/racist language, suicidal thoughts and auditory hallucinations Peter Zhao grew up in Nanjing China and then in Bayside Queens, New York. Now he lives in Long Island, New York, works in Healthcare, and is a husband and father of two sons. Peter has Tourette Syndrome, ADHD and OCD, and recently got his bipolar diagnosis. He started to advocate for Tourette's after...

Nadine Drummond is an award-winning journalist and filmmaker from London with roots in Jamaica. A former producer and reporter at CNN and Al Jazeera, she now develops media and content strategy for 14 African countries in her role at the United Nations. Nadine is also dyspraxic. She struggled growing up pre-diagnosis. When her disability was finally diagnosed in college, she denied and hid her dys...

This podcast was recorded live at the Intersectional Infinity Summit on 3/30/2022. Ky Kennedy is a mother, lactation consultant, author and autism advocate. After seeing a need for an autistic founded and ran organization, Ky and their sister founded Autistics Unmasked (AU). Now Ky and the rest of the team at AU are well on their way to providing educational resources to schools, employers and fam...

Noah Seback cannot speak -- however, he has a lot to say. Noah is a nonspeaking autistic young man with apraxia, which has made it impossible for him to communicate reliably for most of his life. Then, at the age of 16, he learned how to use a letterboard to spell out the words he wanted to say -- and his entire world opened up. As Noah described it to me, "it was nirvana!" Since Noah is nonspeaki...

Photographer Joseph Hill is known as the "unofficial mayor" of Southern Pines, North Carolina. He's currently the exclusive photographer for the Southern Pines Welcome Center, where many of his pictures are available for purchase as postcards. His work has been featured in PineStraw Magazine and on the front page of The Pilot newspaper.  Joseph also has autism, and he's on a mission to spread posi...

Kori Tomelden is a late diagnosed autistic ADHDer, life strategist for autistic and ADHD women & a transformational purpose coach. She lives in Albany, NY where she is raising a neurodivergent family. Her older daughter is non-speaking autistic (and also has ADHD and anxiety) and her youngest daughter is HSP (Highly Sensitive Person) and gifted. Kori brings her own life experiences as an empathic,...

Why has public discourse about autism been dominated by non-autistic voices? And, what's been happening recently to change this? My guest Eric Garcia breaks this down in today's episode! Eric is a journalist based in Washington DC and the senior Washington correspondent for The Independent. He is also the author of the book, "We're Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation" which was published...

For World Autism Day, I've recorded a solo episode where I explain how my thinking has evolved about the word "autistic" – how I was once scared of it, how I overcame my outdated views and biases associated with it, and why now I consider "autistic" to be a powerful word that I'm proud to claim as part of my identity. I share why I prefer identity-first language over person-first language when des...

As a child, Ariel Henley's face was compared to a Picasso painting. This horrifying comment didn't come from a schoolyard bully. It was written in a magazine article about Ariel and her experience growing up with Crouzon syndrome, a congenital condition that affects the shape of her face. From that day forward, Ariel was determined to tell her story. She transformed that insult into the title of h...

At his first job as a TV host, Seamus Evans disclosed his Tourette Syndrome. That revelation almost ended his dream career. Fortunately Seamus didn't lose his job. In fact, he spent the next 13 years in his dream career, entertaining his fellow Australians as a TV and radio personality. Now he is an ambassador for Tourette Syndrome Association Australia and a keynote speaker who shares his story t...

For 25 years, Ruth Rathblott hid her limb difference. She doesn't hide it anymore. As she explained in her recent TEDx Talk: when she stopped hiding, she found freedom. Ruth has been a leader in nonprofit organizations for more than 25 years, with 15 years at Big Brothers Big Sisters of New York City, and more than eight years as CEO of the Harlem Educational Activities Fund. She currently serves...

Ayanna Davis, also known as phenomenallyautistic on social media, is an autism advocate who was born & raised in Westchester County, New York. Along with being autistic, she has survived over 300 seizures, is living with chronic illnesses and has 3 autoimmune diseases. She is passionate about spreading her messages of self love, joy, equality, diversity, inclusion, and autism awareness & acceptanc...

Alex Gilbert is a New Yorker, a Mets fan, a yogi, and a brunch enthusiast. She also has dyslexia and ADHD. After spending her career working in leadership development, she started Cape-Able Consulting, a consulting and coaching business that helps adults with learning disabilities and/or ADHD who are struggling in their careers. Her biggest goal in creating Cape-Able Consulting is to change the st...

Rosemary Richings is a writer, author, panel member of Dyspraxia Magazine, and co-founder of Dyspraxic Alliance, a global online support network by and for dyspraxics. When she was four years old, she was diagnosed with dyspraxia (developmental coordination disorder). In 2014, Rosemary started her own freelance writing business to reduce the stress of finding an accessible work environment. Her de...

Before Kelly Coons was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder at the age of thirteen, she had a coming-of-age story that was mostly deemed as neurotypical. However, she always felt isolated and, until her diagnosis, believed that she was to blame. After her diagnosis, Kelly became passionate about disability advocacy and promoting autistic pride. Today she is an autism advocate and a novelist who...

Feeling frustrated and alone, Natalie Brooks started posting on Instagram about her struggles as a dyslexic adult in the workplace. She soon realized that her experiences resonated deeply with dyslexic adults around the world -- and it inspired her to expand her social media following into a global online community! Through her company, Dyslexia in Adults, Natalie has built a supportive and collab...

2021 has been quite a year for me -- and my experiences this year have given me new clarity on what I want to focus on with this podcast. I'm excited to share these new developments with you! Tune into this episode to hear about the new direction I'll be taking with Beyond 6 Seconds starting in 2022, and the personal news that's driving this change.    Subscribe to the FREE Beyond 6 Seconds newsle...