Neurodivergent Unplugged; Messy, Magnificent Stories From Unlikely Rebels

What does it look like to build your entire life around a kind of intelligence the world didn't have a word for? Charlyn Huss is a Pilates teacher of 35+ years, inventor of CoreSpring, classically trained actress, and Fulbright Scholar in Shakespeare. She discovered she had a reading disability at 25 - after teaching herself French, training at LAMDA, and building a career on a form of intelli...

He deleted his corporate career, gave himself three years of deliberate spaciousness, and came out the other side making documentaries in the Arctic and portraits of strangers in Paris. What does freedom actually look like for a neurodivergent creative who spent six years as a production engineer at Shell - the "well doctor," flying between Norway and Australia - before walking away from...

A startup founder who used to mask his OCD as IBS now runs a mental health company - and has spent six years learning to slow down without losing himself. This week Ania talks with Charlie Winton, founder and CEO of OK Positive, a Scotland-based startup using technology to support preventative mental health. Charlie built the business out of his own experience with severe OCD and panic attacks - a...

Nobody handed Chuck Borden a career in Hollywood. What he had instead was a brain that never stayed still, a childhood spent tearing through every sport imaginable, and the stubborn refusal to quit when everyone around him thought he should. In this episode, I sit down with Chuck Borden, professional stuntman, stunt coordinator, second unit director, and now producer and director with over 400 fil...

Workplaces love to say “bring your whole self to work.” But when a neurodivergent person actually tries, they are often asked to tone it down. In this episode, I sit down with Marie Chaproniere, founder of Behind the Mask, a community built for people who are done pretending. Marie spent 15 years in talent acquisition, employer branding, and diversity and inclusion, and she could see long before m...

She is intelligent, driven, but she was quietly falling apart. Not because something was wrong with her, but because the world she was living in had no room for who she actually was. In this episode, I sit down with Katja Staeheli, entrepreneur and author, to talk about late-identified neurodivergence, masking, burnout, and what it takes to finally stop hiding a mind the world never quite knew wha...

Some people spend their entire lives trying to fit into systems that reward performance, status, and strength, only to realise too late that what actually matters most is the quality of the people sitting beside you. In this episode, I sit down with entrepreneur and community builder Thomas Power to talk about neurodivergence, pattern recognition, empathy, entrepreneurship, and why modern business...

Being praised for being “gifted” at a young age can feel empowering at first, until you realise how quickly intelligence can become tied to perfectionism, performance, and the fear of falling short. In this episode, I sit down with Martina Niggli, conflict facilitator, educator, and mediator-in-training, to talk about neurodivergence, sensitivity, perfectionism, and the hidden emotional cost of co...

Being told you are intelligent but never quite living up to your “potential” can shape the way you see yourself long before you understand how your brain actually works.  In this episode, I sit down with educator, speaker, and consultant Chris Benson to talk about neurodivergence within the education system, not just for students, but for teachers too. We talk about why so many neurodivergent chil...

Most of us are trying to function inside an invisible “operating box” that no one has clearly defined, yet somehow we are all expected to fit into it. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Anu Patel, a medical doctor and transformational coach who explores the science of resilience, clarity, and performance through the lens of neurodivergence. We talk about what he calls the “operating box,” the un...

Addiction does not usually look like a lack of discipline. More often, it is a strategy that once helped you survive, long after it stops serving you. In this episode, I sit down with Patrick Devosse, who shares his experience of being diagnosed with ADHD at a young age without understanding what it meant, navigating childhood trauma, and developing a 15-year pornography addiction as a way to cope...

Understanding your neurodivergence early in life can shape how you see yourself, how you learn, and what you believe is possible for you. In this episode, I sit down with 19-year-old Solomon Cole, who shares what it has been like to grow up with ADHD while feeling different in traditional school environments. We talk about his early experiences of being misunderstood, getting into trouble for beha...

For many neurodivergent people, the question is never just how to succeed, it is how to exist in systems that were never designed with them in mind. In this episode, I’m joined by Kenneth Pennington, who shares his journey from corporate HR to building his own brand, “It’s Just a Fish.” We explore what it actually means to be neurodivergent in professional environments, from being labelled disrupt...

She was told she was not good with words, yet today’s guest was able to build a life around language and poetry.  In this episode, I sit down with artist, poet, and former healthcare think tank leader Leslie Reed. She shares what it was like growing up unable to read out loud in class, being told she was not smart despite a high IQ, and struggling with spelling across multiple languages. We talk a...

What if we stopped calling it neurodiversity and started calling it what it actually is — human diversity?  In this episode, I sit down with Joyce CoomberSewell, a 71-year-old late-diagnosed neurodivergent powerhouse. We Talk about her mission to shift the conversation from “neurodiversity” to human diversity , and her belief that visibility and representation are what move the needle, just like t...

The traits that made you feel like you didn't fit in when you were young, the ones you tried to hide or shrink, are the same ones that become your superpower as an adult. In this episode, I sit down with Pete Daly-Dickson, an actor, director, producer, and former software entrepreneur who was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 55. Pete shares what it felt like to always be told to sit still and sto...

Sometimes the skills that scare you most, the ones that could make you seem ruthless or cruel, are exactly the ones that need the strongest guardrails and the clearest purpose. In this episode, I sit down with Ravinol Chambers, a monk turned filmmaker who spent seven years in spiritual practice across East Africa, India, Ireland, and England before building Be Inspired Films, a company helping pur...

Sometimes it takes burning out at 43, sitting on a couch for two weeks unable to unpack boxes, to finally realize you're not failing. You're just living in the wrong system. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Ghiselle Panneflek, a GP, hormonal expert, and nature-based therapist who grew up in Curaçao and now works in the Netherlands. We talk about how she had to see everything in 3D images in he...

When you see the world in blueprints and everyone else sees chaos, being different isn't wrong. It's just a different operating system. In this episode, I sit down with Consuela Esseboom, a psychologist, corporate EQ specialist, and founder of The Village. We talk about being diagnosed with autism at three and having a mother who decided she'd "grow out of it," why not having...

In a world obsessed with categorization, refusing to fit neatly into any single box becomes the truest form of resistance. In this episode, I sit down with Bashair Ahmed, a researcher, practitioner, and academic working at the intersection of humanitarianism, policy, diaspora, and migration. Bashair shares why she connects dots across data points from ten years ago, how her brain works like nodes...

The rules of success didn't change. You just finally found a room where your natural way of being was the winning strategy. In this episode, I sit down with Laurie Mabelis, a speaking coach, entrepreneur, and founder of the Public Speaking Academy. We talk about the moment someone told her without invitation that she had ADHD, and why her first reaction was defensiveness rather than relief. La...

What if the confidence you're trying to project isn't about faking it, but about finally learning to listen to what your body has been telling you all along? In this episode, I sit down with Claudia Kratzheller, a former professional dancer, leadership facilitator, and now coach specialising in somatic intelligence and voice work. We talk about how being labelled "the complicated one&...

Sometimes the shift begins not with fixing yourself, but with finally understanding what the patterns have been showing you all along. In this episode, I sit down with Carla Traini, a communication designer turned psychology and neuroscience student, to talk about how burnout became the moment she was finally able to step back and make sense of her own experience. Carla shares how recognising recu...

Sometimes the shift begins not with fixing yourself, but with finally understanding what the patterns have been showing you all along. In this episode, I sit down with Blake Baumann, an Independence Coach who works with neurodivergent teens, young adults, and their families during the often misunderstood transition into adulthood. Blake shares how his ability to notice patterns, in behaviour, comm...

When you stop trying to be normal and start trusting how your brain actually works, everything begins to shift. In this episode, I sit down with David Abel, founder of The Digital Light Bulb, brand strategist, and creative force behind businesses that have generated over a billion dollars in value. David shares what it was like to grow up feeling different, to build a successful career without fol...