Autism Stories

"I think that's one of the things that's helped me [...], writing about it, right. Writing about these characters that are not afraid to advocate for themselves. [...] And think about how can I be more like my main character?", says DeAndra Davis. DeAndra joins this episode to talk about her new book All the Noise at once.  In this compelling, moving story about brotherhood, iden...

"It was actually fascinating because going into [The Traitors], I thought the missions would be the thing that I would like the least. [...] But the missions for me in my season were actually great and really exciting because there was always an element of strategy involved in the sense that you could make choices to further your own game in our mission", says Dan Bird. Dan joins this ep...

"That diagnosis when I got it, just really floored me, because I've always been verbal, very verbal, and I'm very outgoing, [...] I just have always been what I am, and things just didn't work out right, and I just kept trying", says Marilyn Roy. Marilyn joins this episode to discuss being diagnosed with autism in her sixties. If you could subscribe on your favorite listening...

""The services [Autistic Black Coders] are going to be providing is that it's going to be a business service that is providing people in the black community that are going to be [...] getting into tech and learning the software engineering side to become a full stack developer eventually", says Oluwaseye Ogunfidodo. Oluwaseye joins this episode to discuss founding Autistic Black...

"One of the rules is that you don't discuss certain topics in public. And those topics include things like sex and body parts. So it can be hard to overcome that taboo and realize that a sexual or reproductive health appointment is exactly the appropriate place to discuss these topics", says Stephanie. Stephanie joins this episode of Autism Stories to discuss supporting patients with...

"In the film [Sensory Overload],  it's based on the premise that 20% of the population has significantly higher sensory processing than everyone else, it's a large proportion of people", says Burnett Grant. Bernard and Burnett return to Autism Stories to discuss their involvement in the documentary Sensory Overload coming to Hulu this week. To learn more about Sensory Overload vi...

"We're still paying [airline] customers, [...] I feel like wheelchair users or people that use mobility aids should still be treated like human beings and seen as valuable as just any other person that is using a service", says Jay Manuel. Jay joins this episode to discuss traveling with mobility aids and his tv show that will be coming to the tv channel  TLC. To learn more about Jay...

"A place where we spend a lot of time is in front of our laptops, computers and phones, and in many cases those spaces aren't very calming because the colors and other things on websites can be very overwhelming. So [the]  calmspaces.org  website looks to address this", says Marion Hersh. Marion joins this episode to discuss the creation of the calm spaces website and important resea...

"Many leaders are fearful of coming out, so to speak, with being neurodistinct. That's unfortunate. There is a popular statistic that 20, 25% of Fortune 500 CEOs identify as neurodivergent or specifically dyslexic, but they only talk about that in private circles", says Grant Harris. Grant joins this episode to discuss his work as a certified diversity executive  and the way in which...

"Autism is my divinity, so I am grateful to my mind for being different. I am grateful to my parents for being my support system. Gratitude is my attitude. Always be grateful for this life because this life was lived once", says Navneet Kulkarni. Navneet and Padma Jyothi join this episode to discuss Indian non-speaking autistics and the power of gratitude. To learn more and purchase Talk...

""I was the drawing kid, I was the art kid always. And it was part of my regulation is just to draw, and I would get in trouble all the time in school for drawing when actually I could think and hear and understand and learn better if I was actually drawing" says Kaz Windness. Kaz joins this episode to discuss heir children's book that includes multiple autistic characters. To l...

""Basically, preventing dysregulation is the biggest lever that we can push to improve the medical and behavioral health. So anything we can do to [...] give [people] a little bit more capacity, a little bit more room to act, take any kind of that cognitive or sensory load off can be really helpful", says Dr. Shannan Palma. Shannan returns to Autism Stories to discuss an app that he...

"What is your responsibility to your community? [...] One thing I often say is you have the right to ask for help and the duty to assist when possible. I think that really creates what this whole program is for", says Percy De La Luna. Percy joins this episode to discuss a volunteer program he created for adolescents and  teens as well as  the intersection of being indigenous and autistic. To lear...

"I think the first thing people need to remember is that their experiences aren't one size fits all. The autistic community is incredibly diverse. So just because someone's experience is different than yours doesn't make it good, bad or less than", says Charlotte Bachelor. Charlotte joins this episode to discuss the impact of storytelling  and how comic con has been a healing experience. to learn...

"I co-wrote the opera with my partner Zane, who wrote the words. And it was very important to both of us that we both capture my experience as an autistic adult [...], but also to create an opera that embraces this idea that no matter who we are [...], exactly who we are, is enough," says Amy Scurria . Amy joins this episode to discuss being an opera singer and how music has helped her to communic...

"Within the drag community I just see [people] struggling to be themselves and they're too worried about what everyone else thinks of them, which is why I create spaces so people can know that they are loved and can just let go and be themselves on stage and perform", says Rachel Caton. Rachel joins this episode to discuss  being a drag show performer and organizer. We also discuss Rachels experie...

"Tone tags have taught me the importance of advocating for my needs, while also accepting that not everyone will understand or accommodate them. When people do respect that request though, it makes communication so much easier and less anxiety inducing for me," says Mykie Mubarak. Mykie joins this episode to discuss how being Arab impacts their autistic experience,  competitive gaming, and  tone t...

"Maybe I could say I'm autistic out loud at a meeting at work. So I'm finding that as I stand up and talk about autism a lot of people at work are reaching out to me discreetly saying, hey I don't want anybody to know this, but you know what should I do here, so just being visible as simple as that sounds can be big," says David Gunter. David joins this episode to discuss disclosing his autism in...

 "I used to encounter burnout a lot when I was undiagnosed because I was a bit of a perfectionist. Everything had to be perfect all the time. And I had to, you know, you hear that people tell you, give 100%. Well, for me, 100% was 150%," says Bridgette Hamstead. Bridgette joins this episode to discuss supporting and empowering autistic women and how she supports organizations to develop neuro-incl...

"There's a lot of neurodivergent scientists that are [...] becoming more confident in calling ourselves neurodivergent scientists. We are, you know, leaving academia. We are operating outside of the system that doesn't want to support us," says Dr. Miyabe Shields. Miyabe joins this episode to discuss her research of Cannabis use for neurodivergent people and the impact of the endoendocannabinoid s...

"I'm going to make the claim. We want to be creative. We want to have agency over our lives. [...] But if you're in a workplace or a home life or whatever kind of environment where those options aren't open to you because of punishment or whatever, then that's going to make you miserable. And so that is what [this] book's about," says Katie Rose Guest Pryal. Katie joins this episode to discuss cre...

""You know, I think [NASCAR is] doing a pretty good job right now when it comes to sensory needs, because you go to the tracks and you'll see earbuds for children. I've seen some tracks that have full sensory sets," says Michael Klein. Michael joins this episode to discuss being a race car driver and voice actor. To learn more about Michael visit https://www.facebook.com/michaelkleinracing/ . If y...

"One of the biggest parts of how I move through my life is when I deal with stress or overwhelm, is to have some sort of practice to channel that energy forward instead of letting it spin into anxiety. And I think tarot is one of those things [for me]", says Neisha Hirsch. Neisha returns to Autism Stories to discuss being a coach at Autism Personal Coach and how her experience as a tarot reader ma...

"With online learning, I can concentrate better on what truly matters, which is my academics. In fact, for junior and senior year of college, I'm doing fully online, not necessarily to save money, but so I can concentrate on academics," says Kadin McElwain. Kadin joins us to discuss what has been helpful to him as a college student and the importance of writing in his life. To learn more about Kad...

"One of the skills that I realized that I had early on is I could read text written by one person. And if I had enough of it, I could mimic their style. I could mimic their vocabulary, their cadence, and basically duplicate their writing style, " says J.D. Barker. J.D.  joins us to discuss being a New York Times Bestseller, how his autism impacts his creativity, and how collaboration helps his wri...