The AutSide Podcast

Today’s episode critiques Kim’s Interactive Dynamic Literacy Model (2020), arguing that it is presented as settled fact in professional development sessions despite being a proposal built from existing research rather than a new empirical study. The author of the critique, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks—a teacher with expertise in literacy and neurodiversity, contends that Kim's model fails to account for ap...

Today’s episode argues that traditional AP poetry analysis in the US, focused on metrics and deconstruction, fundamentally misunderstands poetry. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks—an autistic gestalt language processor and poet herself, contends that a poem's meaning is inseparable from its complete form, including its sound, rhythm, and imagery. Drawing parallels to Leonard Co...

Today’s episode explores the contrasting philosophies of education, particularly as they relate to neurodivergent minds (AuDHD GLP). The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, critiques traditional professional development (PD) as offering a linear, restrictive “map” that fails to acknowledge diverse learning styles, often misinterpreting non-linear thought processes as deficits. In st...

Today’s episode offers a first-person reflection on a professional development (PD) day for educators, focusing on the author’s experiences and frustrations. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, critiques the standardised “rigor by design” approach to teaching, arguing that it fails to accommodate neurodivergent learners, specifically autistic individuals and gestalt language pro...

Today’s episode critiques the challenges neurodivergent students, specifically autistic gestalt language processors, face when seeking accommodations in higher education. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, a special education teacher, recounts the difficulties securing reasonable adjustments for her daughter at Western Governors University (WGU), despite ample documentation. Dr...

Today’s episode explores the emotional burden placed upon neurodivergent students, particularly those with ADHD and/or autism, within current educational systems. It focuses on the MESI study, which introduces a co-produced self-report measure to quantify these emotional costs, highlighting the frequent and cumulative "Commonly Upsetting Events" (CUEs) experienced in school. The author of the sour...

Today’s episode explores the challenges faced by gestalt language processors (GLPs), particularly autistic individuals, as they navigate language acquisition and literacy within systems designed for analytic language processing (ALPs). It argues that whilst traditional support often ends at Stage 6 of Natural Language Acquisition (NLA), this stage is not an endpoint for GLPs but rather the beginni...

Today’s episode critically examines Noam Chomsky's Language Acquisition Device (LAD) theory, arguing that it fails to accurately describe how many individuals, particularly gestalt language processors (GLPs) and autistic people, acquire language. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, asserts that the LAD, which posits an innate, universal grammar, misrepresents GLP language develo...

Today’s episode explores the concept of spaciousness, or yutori, as a form of resistance against societal pressures and a path towards personal healing and enoughness. The author of the source article, Jaime Hoerricks, PhD, reflects on how healing has led to unmasking and a decrease in traditional ambition, allowing for a focus on presence and connection in their teaching. This shift is presented...

Today’s episode explores how the “scam economy” has become pervasive, shifting from perceived foreign threats to domestic issues, especially impacting the graduating class of 2026. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, argues that societal collapse, marked by a rigged job market, housing crisis, and student loan burdens, forces young Americans into a position where scamming or bei...

Today’s episode critiques a recent Drexel study that purportedly measures “Passing as Non-Autistic” (PAN) in adolescents using neurocognitive markers. The author of the critique, Jaime Hoerricks, PhD, argues that the study misinterprets autistic masking—a survival strategy in unaccommodating environments—as a sign of “efficiency” or “cognitive strength” rather than a trauma-informed adaptation. Dr...

Today’s episode explores the concept of “wyrd” in writing, differentiating it from “weird” and connecting it to ancient notions of unfolding, becoming, and a sacred, unfinalised state. The author of the source article and poem, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, explains how their autistic, gestalt language processing mind naturally operates in this space of pre-articulated meaning and emergent wholeness, contr...

Today’s episode examines the challenges an autistic student faces whilst seeking accommodations at Western Governors University (WGU), despite providing federally mandated documentation like her IEP and Summary of Performance. The author of the source article, her parent and a special education teacher Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, highlights how WGU’s marketing of “flexibility” contrasts sharply with its...

Today’s episode explores the exclusion and epistemic harm experienced by Gestalt Language Processors (GLPs), particularly autistic individuals, within technology and professional spaces that claim to be inclusive. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, recounts a specific incident where their comment, flagging “jump on a call” as an access barrier for GLPs, was dismissed and delete...

Today’s episode is a guide for the Class of 2026, originally written by Dr. Jaime Hoerricks. It offers autistic students a “narrative survival kit” for navigating an increasingly challenging world. It highlights how “gaslighting at scale” pervades various systems, from “ghost jobs” in the modern labor market, where job postings often don’t lead to hires, to the predatory nature of student loans th...

Today’s episode explores the journey of self-discovery and gender identity, particularly the experience as a transfemme individual. It differentiates between identifying as a “trans woman” and “transfemme,” with the latter described as a return to an inherent, ancient feminine force rather than a linear transition into a societal role. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, reflect...

Today’s episode explores the lived experience of autistic intimacy and co-regulation, contrasting it with the often clinical and deficit-focused lens of academic autism research. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, describes the profound comfort and connection she shares with her partner, highlighting how their mutual co-regulation is a foundational aspect of their daily life, a...

Today’s episode discusses the increasing inaccessibility of higher education and essential care professions for autistic individuals, especially those with higher support needs. It argues that a quiet policy shift regarding student loan deferment and the rise of technology-based “solutions” are dismantling the very infrastructure that supports autistic people, effectively pricing out human care in...

Today’s episode argues that public education in the United States is being systematically dismantled, akin to clearing land for development, not due to accidental policy shifts but as a deliberate ideological enclosure. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, highlights the elimination of in-school deferment for federal student loans as a key example, which will now accrue interest...

Today’s episode exposes a significant, underreported change to federal student loan policies in the United States, specifically the elimination of in-school loan deferment for loans disbursed after July 1, 2026. This means students will no longer have an automatic pause on payments or interest accrual while enrolled, even for subsidised loans. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks,...

Today’s episode explores the dynamics of autistic social communication, drawing from a review of a 2025 study by Sutherland and colleagues. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, highlights that autistic individuals communicate effectively with each other, a fact long understood within the autistic community but only recently documented academically. Dr. Hoerricks examines five key...

Today’s episode offers a direct challenge to Allie Beth Stuckey’s views on empathy, sin, and fear, presenting a trans, autistic, Marxist perspective. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, argues that Stuckey’s framing of empathy as dangerous is a tactic to protect established hierarchies and a “gospel of cruelty.” Dr. Hoerricks contends that the “left” Stuckey critiques is a false...

Today’s episode challenges long-held misconceptions about autistic individuals’ emotional intelligence and empathy. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, highlights how recent research, particularly studies by Brewer et al. (2022, 2023), demonstrates that autistic people are capable of accurately recognising emotions and understanding appropriate empathic responses, often with gre...

Today’s episode argues that public education in the United States is under a coordinated attack from the far-right. The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, asserts that this dismantling is achieved through legal maneuvers and legislative actions, specifically citing the Mahmoud v. Taylor court ruling and the federal tax credit system embedded in H.R. 1. Dr. Hoerricks claims that the...

Today’s episode critiques a 2025 study by Zhang et al. comparing healthcare access for autistic youth in rural and urban areas, asserting that its findings, whilst seemingly modest, illuminate a systemic “collapse” of care rather than mere “gaps.” The author of the source article, Dr. Jaime Hoerricks, argues that current policies, particularly budget cuts categorising services like dental and spee...