Rebelling

In this episode, I sit down for another conversation with Dana Calder , a queer, neurodivergent SVP in the fintech world and owner of EmberMind Consulting . Dana and I start with sourdough starter and baking, which turns out to be a surprisingly good entry point into our conversation about how work works. We talk about hierarchy, trust, AI, workplaces, and what happens when we try to use industria...

In the first episode of year two, I’m looking at how magical thinking shows up in everyday life, not just as an individual coping strategy, but as something shaped by the systems we live inside. I start with a personal story about family, boundaries, and changing long-held patterns, and use that to look at how we make sense of situations that are confusing or unpredictable. When systems are comple...

This is the last episode of Year One of Rebelling .  What started as a conversation about neurodivergence grew into curiosity about humanity, systems, and what it really means to live fully in a world that often doesn’t make sense. This year has been about asking questions, leaning into not knowing, and choosing connection over trying to get it “right.” Year Two will take us deeper into exploring...

In this episode of the Social Security Series, I talk with financial speaker, storyteller, and comedian Colin Ryan . His new book, Epic Tiny Victories , blends humor and humanity to tell the story of how he learned to work with his own mental health. Colin and I talk about money, privilege, and the unspoken rules that shape our financial lives.  We talk about how shame, secrecy, and assumptions ab...

In this episode of the Social Security Series , I sit down again with certified ADHD coach Keltie MacLaren for a candid conversation about relational rebelling : choosing interdependence over independence, curiosity over certainty, and mutual sense-making over upholding norms. We break down the delusions of independence and the way “self-sufficiency” is framed as a path to reward but more often fu...

I've been wondering...what if social security wasn’t just a government program, but something we build together with the people in and around our lives? In this episode of the Social Security series, Jen Andrew, a disability rights advocate, herbalist, and guest from The Myth of Knowing series, joins me to explore another reframe: relationships as a form of social security, and how showing up...

In the first episode of my Social Security series, I explore the difference between individuality and individualism, between being truly ourselves in connection with others, and the cultural pressure to perform independence at all costs. Individualism is a survival story, a disguise precarity and control use to convince us they are actually freedom. And yet, somehow that freedom leaves us separate...

Today marks the start of a new series on Rebelling called Social Security . And I’m not talking about the monthly check you (hopefully) get someday. I mean actual social security- the security we build with other humans and the environments we live in. In this episode, I introduce the series and lay the foundation for what we’ll explore in the coming weeks: how to understand security not as someth...

In this episode of Rebelling , I’m joined by certified ADHD coach Keltie McLaren , who works with values-driven independent creatives to help them stop fighting their brains and start building systems that actually work for them. We talk about what it means to understand ourselves, others, and the spaces between us. We talk about trust, how understanding isn’t a destination, but something we pract...

It’s been a year since my autism diagnosis.  In this solo episode, I reflect on what the year has been like, the relief of understanding myself, the grief of what was missed, and the ways my life has shifted as I’ve learned to work with who I am instead of constantly trying to fix myself. I talk about what changed after being diagnosed with both autism and ADHD. What it’s meant for my relationship...

In this episode of The Myth of Knowing series, I talk with Jen Andrew, who is finishing a two-year program in community herbalism and works in communications at a disability rights nonprofit. She has a background in philanthropy, public libraries, peer support, healthcare, and public school advocacy. Jen’s journey includes herbalism, chronic illness, grief work, sobriety, and neurodivergent living...

In this episode, I have a curiosity-led conversation with Melinda Staehling, a certified nutrition specialist and Menopause Society practitioner, to explore what it really means to “know” our bodies. Melinda, whose late-in-life AuDHD diagnosis inspired her podcast Departure Menopause , brings a neurodivergent-affirming, weight-inclusive perspective to conversations about health, food, and aging. W...

In this episode, the second in the series The Myth of Knowing , I talk with Dana Calder , a queer neurodivergent SVP in the fintech world, about what it means to “know” in the workplace. Work culture often treats knowing as currency—a sign of belonging, authority, and success. But what happens when certainty is a mask, and perfectionism becomes a survival strategy? Dana shares her journey of disco...

This episode is the first in a series called The Myth of Knowing - the story that says we have to be certain, be the same, and always know the answer. But what if we didn’t have to pretend? What if “I don’t know” was an opening, not a problem? In this episode, I’m talking about the pressure so many of us feel to always have the answer—to be sure, to be confident, to know. We’ll look at how that pr...

What if addiction isn’t a disease, but a way we’ve learned to cope? What if sobriety isn’t just about abstinence, but about sensing ourselves, how things make sense, and what makes sense? What if recovery isn’t a rigid path—but a way to reconnect with something alive, relational, and yours to shape? In this episode, I share the story of my own unconventional sobriety outside of AA and traditional...

I’ve been sitting with some big questions about identity for what feels like my whole life—what we call ourselves, what’s been put on us, what we outgrow, and what still feels like home. I read three things this week (linked below),  that cracked me open, especially around the language of neurodivergence, the limits of diagnosis, and how easy it is to forget who we were before the world started na...

Something most of the neurodivergent people I talk to have in common is a sense of not belonging. Connecting is supposed to be natural—but for many of us, it never feels that simple. In this solo episode, I explore some of my early friendships, what it means to want friendships and relationships while not understanding how they work. I tried learning from books and TV, and by trying to decipher ho...

In this solo episode, I’m talking about a phrase that’s been hounding me for decades: why can’t I just? Why can’t I just be easygoing? Be normal? Be fine with things that make no sense? It sounds small, but it’s actually huge—and it’s shaped so much of how I’ve lived. I’m pulling apart the layers of self-management, shame, and survival that come with being neurodivergent in a world that isn't...

In this conversation with 28-year-old writer and interdisciplinary artist Kelly Shannon, we dig into the complex landscape of identity, burnout, and diagnosis. We talk about policing your own intensity, contradicting the narrative of exhaustion, how the toll of performing normal led her to seek answers, and that weird liminal space you're in just before and just after realizing you're ne...

What happens when you finally get the language for something you’ve felt your entire life—but never understood? In this deeply personal episode of Rebelling, host Amy Knott Parrish interviews Kelly Hambly, a 58 year old writer who was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child. Kelly shares what it's like being at the beginning of another neurodivergent diagnosis story.  https://kellyhambly.com/ http...

In this first episode of Rebelling , host Amy Knott Parrish shares her journey from lifelong outsider to late-diagnosed ADHD and autistic adult. Through stories of identity, music, masking, and self-discovery, she explores what it means to rebel against “normal” and build a life that honors neurodivergent needs. This is a podcast for anyone craving belonging without pretending. In this episode, I’...