The Autism Dad

My guest today is Emily Bruce. Mother, as well as, Board Certified and Licensed Behavior Analyst (BCBA, LBA) in the State of Tennessee with an M.S., in Psychology. She’s also the CEO and Founder of Determinism, LLC, and the creator of PeerKnect. Emily has seen firsthand the struggles special needs families face when trying to find playdates and other social activities for our kids. I cannot stress...

Slight format change beginning today because I’m moving to a different server. My good friend Dennis Procopio is here today. Dennis is the founder of Man-UP! Life Coaching (MULC) and has been on the show a few times to talk about various topics. Dennis is also a special needs Dad and he’s here today to share a situation he recently had to deal with in regards to his son being seriously injured whi...

My guest today is Heather Brandt, Ph. D. Heather is the Director, HPV Cancer Prevention Program, Co-associate Director for Outreach, St. Jude Comprehensive Cancer Center, Member, Department of Epidemiology and Cancer Control - St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Vaccines are a hot topic once again because of COVID. There is so much misinformation floating around about vaccines and Heather is the...

My good friend and male life coach, Dennis Procopio is back. Dennis is the man behind MAN-UP! Life Coaching and over the last decade, he's helped hundreds and hundreds of guys get unstuck and become better versions of themselves. He's here today to discuss how men and women communicate, experience emotions, and approach relationships in different ways. This will not only help the guys out there bu...

My guest today is Corrie Duryee. Corrie is an autism mom, an amazing human being, and a filmmaker. Corrie is here to talk about her latest film, Language Arts, as well as women and representation in film. The topic of equality is really important and we're going to talk about some of the many obstacles that women face in the film industry. Corrie is an absolute pleasure to speak with and you can't...

This was a really challenging episode for me to edit for a couple of reasons and I’ll explain in a minute. My guest is Dennis Procopio, founder of Man-Up! Life Coaching, and fellow autism Dad. He’s here as a resource for men and helps them to become the best version of themselves. This episode didn’t go as planned but that’s okay. The whole point was to highlight what Dennis is doing because wheth...

All my information and relevant links are here Support this podcast: venmo.com/theautismdad My guest today is Whitney Casares, MD, MPH, FAAP, pediatrician, special needs Mom, and author of The Working Mom Blueprint: Winning at Parenting without Losing Yourself (American Academy of Pediatrics; May 11, 2021). We’re having a very important discussion about finding a balance between work, kids, relati...

I get so many questions about Mightier and today I’m talking to Angela Gotz, a Mom to 2 autistic kiddos, who’s been using Mightier for a couple of years. I talk about her life and experience as an autism parent and how Mightier has impacted their lives. Then I speak with Jessie Ragnio, the Associate Clinical Director at MIghiter. We talk about the science behind Mightier and why it works so well....

This was a really challenging episode for me to edit for a couple of reasons and I’ll explain in a minute. My guest is Dennis Procopio, founder of Man-Up! Life Coaching, and fellow autism Dad. He’s here as a resource for men and helps them to become the best version of themselves. This episode didn’t go as planned but that’s okay. The whole point was to highlight what Dennis is doing because wheth...

My guest today is Alan Winnikoff. Alan is not only an autism Dad but also the author of the new book called “Not Sleeping”. Learn about Alan’s journey while parenting 2 autistic kids, as well as the inspiration behind his book. “Not Sleeping” is a fictional story about a married couple raising an autistic daughter. About the book: It is said that over 70% of special needs marriages fail. This is t...

In this week’s episode, I speak with Caleb Frankel, COO, and co-founder of the financial technology and gifting platform called EarlyBird. EarlyBird has made saving for your child’s financial future, accessible to everyone. Special needs families are often forgotten when it comes to things like financial planning because we can have unique needs that go unaddressed or the cost of admission is unat...

I’ve been wanting to do this episode FOREVER and it finally happened. My guest today is Dr. Emilee Valler. She’s a pediatric psychologist with the Cleveland Clinic’s Children’s Center for Autism. Dr. Valler is here to talk about what autism is and what it’s not. We talk about what parents should look for when to be concerned, where to go for help, the diagnostic process, what to expect, early inte...

I’ve been wanting to do this episode for a while. Dr. Richard Webby is on the show today to discuss all things COVID and vaccine-related. Dr. Webby is a Member of the Department of Infectious diseases at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center for Studies on the Ecology of Influenza in Animals. This is an incredibly important conversa...

My guest today is Harma Hartouni. Harma just happens to be an absolutely amazing human being with one of the most inspiring stories, I’ve ever heard. He just released his new book called Getting Back Up: A Story of Resilience, Self-Acceptance and Success. He’s here to talk about his amazing life from growing up in Iran during the war, learning to walk again after surviving a devastating car accide...

My guest today is Dr. Jeff Selman. He’s VP of Clinical Services over at First Children Services. He’s here to talk about how COVID is creating additional delays in kids getting evaluated for autism. This is a huge problem because we know that early intervention is absolutely vital for kids with autism and delays interfere with that. We talk about what is happening and the impact it’s having on kid...

My guest today is Eric Rittenhouse. He’s the father of 2 amazing autistic kids and he’s here to talk about his journey as a special needs parent. Eric has a fantastic outlook on life and an inspiring approach to parenting. I hope you find this conversation about the ups, downs, challenges, and victories of being an autism parent meaningful. It’s so important to share our stories because we’re all...

My guest today is Meegan Winters. She has a background in special education and is the founder of Able Eyes. Able Eyes is a state of the art platform that provides virtual tours for children and adults with disabilities for the purposes of accessibility. Meegan is here to talk about Able Eyes and how it’s helping the community. This is so cool and it’s completely free to use. Support this podcast:...

Welcome back!!!! My guest today is Sacha Muller and he’s an autism Dad. Sacha is here to talk to me about his parenting journey and what being a special needs Dad has been like for him thus far. While I didn’t know Sacha prior to this interview, I’ve learned that he’s an awesome Dad and I’m so grateful that he was willing to talk so openly about how he feels. I hope this inspires other Moms and Da...

This was an unplanned bonus episode that I did in one take. That’s always impressive. I wanted to share an end-of-the-year roundup and talk about some of the things my family has been dealing with in 2020. I also open up about my divorce and share how I’m choosing to handle that. I think it’s a really important message and I hope you all can learn something from my experience. All my information a...

In this final episode of season 3, I meet Nikki Saunders. I go into these episodes not knowing anything about these parents. I know that Nikki is an autism Mom and lives in the UK. I encourage you to join me once more on this amazing journey to learn about her life and her family. I’ve included her bio below as by the time you listen to this, I’ve already met her and you may want to reach out and...

I'm super stoked about this 2nd to the last episode of the season because I snagged an autism dad. I talk to tons of autism moms and that's awesome because I learn so much from them. I don't hear from or speak with many autism dads, and that's always bothered me. Dads seem to talk about their experiences less for some reason and I wish I knew why. I'm super excited to have an autism dad on the sho...

In this second to the last episode of the season, I had the pleasure of meeting Bernadette Woldt. Bernadette is a single Mom of twin girls, one being autistic and the other not. She lives in Wisconsin, where at the time of recording, COVID was and still is out of control. We talk about parenting stuff, how her daughter was diagnosed, how school is going, and some interesting things about having tw...

his week I had the pleasure of meeting Tammy Seguin. Tammy’s a single Mom of 2 kids, her oldest being autistic. She’s on the show today to share a bit about her life and journey as an autism Mom. She’s in Canada and we talk about some of the differences between how autism is handled in Canada vs the US. We discuss how school is going and how COVID has impacted their lives. Like Tammy Seguin, we al...

In this week’s episode, my friend Amy Nielsen is back on the show. Amy is an autism Mom and was on a few months back. We were talking about her journey as an autism parent. We discussed how COVID was impacting their lives at the time. We also talked about what she and her husband were going to do for the upcoming school year. Since that episode, her youngest tested positive for COVID. Her husband...

In this week’s Parent to Parent episode, I have the pleasure of meeting Lynn Esparo. Lynn is a single Mom to a little boy with autism. She has an amazing story and she takes us through her journey with the foster care system. Likewise, she takes us through the adoption process as well. Ours is a colorful conversation about all things autism parenting and it’s both hilarious and inspirational. We t...