The Vibe With Ky Podcast

ADHD shame can keep you hiding for decades. Psychologist and ADHDer Joel Schwartz offers another way to see it: part of who you are, neither a gift nor a defect. Joel is a licensed clinical psychologist who runs NeuroPathways, a neurodiversity affirming therapy and assessment practice in California. He calls himself an ADHDer, and he means it as an identity. In his words, “There’s no separating it...

Moving or traveling abroad with ADHD can take more than a visa and a packing list. Tamarind Murrietta shares what to plan for before you go, not after you land. Tamarind is the founder of Live Abroad with ADHD, a community for neurodivergent people who want to live, study and travel internationally in ways that actually work for them. She’s spent nearly two decades living across Europe, Africa and...

Time anxiety is that constant feeling that you’re behind, that time is running out, and that you should be doing something important right now, even when you can’t say what it is. My friend Chris Guillebeau wrote a whole book about this feeling. Chris is a New York Times bestselling author, the host of the daily podcast Side Hustle School, and the founder of NeuroDiversion, an annual gathering of...

Making friends with ADHD can be hard. Keeping them can be harder when it takes everything you have just to get through the day. So what do you do when you can’t find your people? My guest is Trina Haynes, the founder of My Lady ADHD, a community for late-diagnosed women with ADHD, and a community builder with NeuroDiversion. She’s not a clinician, and neither am I. When Trina was diagnosed in her...

Do you need an ADHD diagnosis to understand your own brain? Paul Bowers is 67, has never been formally assessed, and has spent decades learning how his brain works anyway. Paul is a commercial photographer and video director with more than forty years behind the camera. He's not a clinician, and neither am I. He's also a motorcyclist, a mechanic, a landscape designer, a husband and a fathe...

They're not giving you a hard time, they're having one. That single sentence is the heart of autism support for grandparents, parents, teachers, and first responders. Jennifer Kaufman is a school principal with over a decade serving students with autism in northern New Jersey, and the grandmother of a child with autism. She's an educator, not a clinician, and she's honest about the...

ADHD task paralysis is not a wanting problem. Brendan Mahan named the Wall of Awful, and he explains what is actually happening when a small task feels impossible. There is something on your list right now. Not the big thing. The small one. The phone call, the form, the email you have opened four times and closed four times. At some point it stopped being a task and turned into evidence about you....

Rebellious curiosity means asking the question no one wants to ask, and answering it without blame. Dr. Yemi Penn says the one you've been waiting to save you is already you. That is the heart of this conversation. Dr. Yemi Penn is an engineer by first profession who became a researcher, keynote speaker, and filmmaker, and she hosts the Decolonising Trauma podcast. She holds a PhD, and to be c...

Nobody prepares you for the second time. The first climb out of something hard gets support and attention. The second one is quieter, because you already used up the big reaction and you already told everybody you were okay. Tim McDonald is living inside that right now. A few weeks before this conversation, he learned his cancer is back after almost six years. He is a patient advocate, a speaker,...

You don't have to earn rest. The calm you keep chasing is not something you arrive at after enough effort. It is already in you, and something else is in the way. Most of us were taught the opposite. Push harder, optimize more, stay disciplined enough, and eventually you get to relax. Brea Segger has spent over twenty years working with leaders, entrepreneurs, and high achievers, and she says...

There is a version of you that you already decided was worthless. Michael Kopper spent years proving his was, and then went back for the pieces worth keeping. Michael is the Executive Adviser and Coach at Basis Technologies, where he works with executive teams on the conversations they have been avoiding. He is not a therapist or a clinician, and nothing in this conversation is clinical advice. Wh...

There is a version of rest that never arrives. You will relax once the list is done, except the list is never done. Gary Ware has a name for that, and it is not laziness. He calls it living on a proving ground. It is what happens when play drains out of a life. The people around you stop being people you enjoy and start being competition, and work turns into something you have to earn by proving y...

For a lot of us, the support just stops. You finish high school and the programs end, the services end, and nobody hands you a replacement. Your social life quietly becomes your own problem to solve. Jamie Pastrano said something in this conversation I have not stopped thinking about. There is no milestone for loneliness. You get one for a first job, a first apartment, riding the train alone. Ther...

A man came in from three hours of surfing and asked his partner if she was angry at him. She said no. Why would I be angry? You love surfing. He only asked because the woman he dated before her used to yell at him every single time he went. That story stopped Ky cold, and it is the heart of this conversation. A lot of us were trained to read somebody needing space as the beginning of the end. Your...

In this episode of The Vibe With Ky Podcast, executive function coach Sean McCormick explains why ADHD procrastination is a signal that a task needs a different person, not more willpower. This one is for you if you have been called lazy your whole life and always suspected that word never quite fit what was actually happening. Sean McCormick, M.Ed., is a credentialed education specialist who taug...

In this episode of The Vibe With Ky Podcast, psychological flexibility, how to feel a hard emotion without letting it run your life. If you have ever told yourself you will start living once the grief lifts or the anxiety quiets, this one is for you. Dr. Elisabeth Morray is a licensed psychologist and the VP of Clinical at Alma, where she supports more than 24,000 therapists. She joined me on this...

In this episode of The Vibe With Ky Podcast, therapist Calial McCarty explains why masking drains your mental health, and what it takes to stop performing okay. This one is for you if you have spent years being the easygoing, low-maintenance one, and you are quietly exhausted from holding it all together. Calial McCarty is a licensed mental health counselor and board-certified autism specialist wh...

In this episode of The Vibe With Ky Podcast, autistic burnout takes center stage as Patrick Casale shares how his own success nearly broke him. This one is for you if you built a life that looks great on paper but leaves you running on empty every single day. Patrick Casale is an AuDHD therapist, business coach, and podcast host who built a career of international retreats, coaching programs, and...

In this episode of The Vibe With Ky Podcast, sleep expert Derek Hales explains why your mattress might be the quiet reason you keep waking up exhausted. If you have been blaming your brain, your schedule, or your stress levels for why you never feel rested, this conversation was made for you. Derek Hales is the founder and editor-in-chief of NapLab.com, where he and his team have tested over 565 m...

In this episode of The Vibe With Ky Podcast, Naseema McElroy breaks down money trauma, financial anxiety, and how to build real wealth without shame. If you make decent money and still feel broke, behind, or ashamed every time you open your banking app, this conversation was made for you. Naseema McElroy is a labor and delivery nurse, single mom of three, and the founder of Financially Intentional...

In this episode of The Vibe With Ky Podcast, we get into the two five minute windows that quietly control your entire day, with Special Forces veteran Tim Thomas. If you feel exhausted all the time and have started calling it normal, this conversation was made for you. Tim Thomas spent over a decade as a Special Forces Commando, then over a decade more working with veterans stuck in fight or fligh...

In this episode of The Vibe With Ky Podcast, trauma-informed therapist Kirsten Davidson breaks down why your ambition might actually be a trauma response. If you have ever hit every goal on paper and still felt completely empty inside, this conversation was made for you. Kirsten Davidson is a Registered Psychotherapist and the founder of Mind The Gaps Psychotherapy, where she works with adults, co...

In this episode of The Vibe With Ky Podcast, Ky talks with Rabbi Daniel Cohen about why negative thoughts are not your identity and how to finally let go of them. If you have ever felt like your negative thoughts were just facts about who you are, this conversation was made for you. Rabbi Daniel Cohen is the senior rabbi at Congregation Agudath Shalom in Stamford, Connecticut, the largest modern o...

In this episode of The Vibe With Ky Podcast, we get into why ADHD in women so often goes missed, with Shelpful founder Sharon Pope. If you have ever judged yourself for forgetting to drink water, take a walk, or finish a single task for yourself while keeping everyone else's life running, this conversation was made for you. Sharon Pope is the founder of Shelpful, an AI powered accountability a...

In this episode of The Vibe With Ky Podcast, UK coach Matt Young explains why you don't have emotions, you use them, and how that single shift changes everything. If you have ever felt like your anxiety, your anger, or your overwhelm is just who you are and there is nothing you can do about it, this conversation was made for you. Matt Young is a UK-based emotional freedom coach who spent eight...