Brain Club®: The Podcast

What happens when healthcare doesn’t just fail you — it actively harms you? In this episode of Brain Club®: The Podcast, neurodivergent community members share what their healthcare was like before finding All Brains Belong. From being disbelieved to being pathologized, these stories reflect patterns that are all too common — and often invisible to the people creating them. This is a conversation...

What does the healthcare system demand from neurodivergent clinicians — and what does that cost everyone? In this episode of Brain Club®: The Podcast, neurodivergent clinicians talk openly about masking in healthcare — not from the patient side, but from inside the system itself. We talk about the pressure to perform professionalism, the internalized ableism that leads clinicians to ignore their o...

What happens when the people closest to you have never seen the parts of you you've spent a lifetime hiding? In this episode of Brain Club®: The Podcast, we explore masking in the context of relationships — romantic, familial, social. Masking is automatic and involuntary, a survival strategy built up over years of environments that signaled it wasn't safe to show up as yourself. It looks different...

What does it feel like to be believed — and why does it matter so much? This is Part 2 of our conversation with Dr. Laura Lewis, Sarah Knutson and Zeph  about their research on the healthcare experiences of autistic adults with multiple chronic conditions. In this episode, we reflect on the harm described in Part 1 and explore the impact of being believed — not just emotionally, but physiologicall...

What do autistic adults with multiple chronic conditions want healthcare providers to know — and what happens when no one listens? In this episode, Dr. Mel Houser talks with Dr. Laura Lewis  from the University of Vermont, a researcher studying the experiences of Autisitc adults, along with members of her research team, Sarah Knutson and Zeph Lodestone, about findings from a study of autistic adul...

What would you do with a new understanding of yourself — one that changed the way your entire life made sense? In this episode, autistic adults from the All Brains Belong community share reflections on being diagnosed for the first time in adulthood, from their 20s to their 60s. They talk about what it was like to live without knowing, how they made sense of the discovery, and what changed once th...

What if systems change didn’t start with policy or permission — but with people? In this episode, Dr. Winnie Looby shares reflections on community-centered design, co-creation, and the power of building change alongside those most impacted. We talk about what it means to shift power structures by sharing power, to model new possibilities without waiting for large institutions to catch up, and to b...

What does it look like to create change by centering the people most impacted? In this episode, organizational leaders reflect on what it means to build community transformation from the ground up. We talk about partnering with those closest to the problem, offering many ways to participate, and recognizing how small, intentional shifts can create meaningful impact. This is a conversation about mo...

What happens when the structure of work itself becomes a barrier to regulation, safety, or thriving? In this episode, Dr. Mel Houser talks with Annie Crowe — neuroaffirming workplace advocate and human rights and disability rights attorney based in Australia — about the deep nervous system impact of neuro-exclusion at work. We explore how neuronormativity, ableism, and intersectional marginalizati...

What happens when the places that are supposed to feel safe — like home — don’t? In this episode, Dr. Mel Houser talks with Hannah Bloom, pediatric occupational therapist and past Chair of All Brains Belong’s Board of Directors, about what it means to feel dysregulated in our home environments. We explore how safety is cued (or not) through space, tone, and interaction — and how expectations roote...

What happens when your nervous system is in distress — and you’re at work, where you're expected to keep going anyway? In this episode, All Brains Belong staff reflect on past and present experiences of dysregulation at work. Many of us have worked in environments where honesty about distress was unsafe — where needing support or rest was punished, pathologized, or ignored. Even in safer workplace...

What does it mean to understand your own nervous system — and your access needs — after a lifetime of masking, burnout, or being misunderstood? In this episode, community panelists reflect on the often painful process of unlearning internalized messages and beginning to name what they need. This conversation also explores the power of connection: how healing can begin when we're seen, heard, and s...

What happens when people’s access needs — the things we need for full and meaningful participation — aren’t met? In this episode, we explore the impact on relationships, the nervous system, and health. You’ll hear from community panelists reflecting on what happens when access feels out of reach, and how loneliness shows up — not just emotionally, but physically, as a nervous system response to th...