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The healthcare system consistently fails neurodivergent people. What happens when they decide to build something better? I explore that question with Dr. Mel Houser, a board-certified family physician, founder and executive director of All Brains Belong VT, and author of A Failure of Imagination: How the Healthcare System Fails Neurodivergent People, and What We're Doing Instead. At 37, Mel learned they are autistic, and also ADHD, dyslexic, dyscalculic, and dyspraxic. That experience, alongside what patients and community members shared, shaped an organization built on a simple premise: access comes first, and the people closest to the problem should shape the solutions. We talk about what it looks like when care is designed around the people who need it most, and why so many of us spend years being handed the wrong explanation for what's happening in our bodies. If you have ever left an appointment feeling unheard, or worked hard to be understood by a system that wasn't built with you in mind, I think this conversation will land. I ask Mel about the symptoms many of us bring to our doctors, including chronic fatigue, chronic pain, dizziness, migraines, gut problems, sensory sensitivities, and allergic-like reactions. She explains why these tend to cluster, and why treating them one at a time can make the others worse. Mel's book comes out in early November 2026 from Beaver's Pond Press and is available for preorder now. Links to the book, All Brains Belong VT, and the Get Connected page are below: A Failure of Imagination All Brains Belong VT All Brains Belong — Get Connected EVERYONE who signs up to our giveaway wins a FREE spicy toy or gift card for toys! https://bbvibes.com/theotherautism #bbpartner INFORMEDISH: A fresh perspective on real life.Parenting, culture, and everyday life. Honest takes with Jason Marks. Come think with us.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet. Send in your questions to [email protected] Buy me a coffee! The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.

I sat down with clinical psychologist and energy healing coach Nicole Parkes to talk about how her own autism and ADHD diagnoses changed the way she works with clients. We get into what it feels like when pathological demand avoidance (PDA) takes over, why talk therapy alone wasn't enough to help her heal from trauma, and the particular exhaustion of chronic illness layered on top of neurodivergence.  Nicole also opens up about a more recent chapter of self-discovery that surprised her, and shares something her own coach once told her that changed how she sees her whole life.  This episode goes to some unexpected places, and I think you may come away from it thinking differently about what it means to be wired the way you are.  Find Nicole at nicoleparkescoaching.com or on Instagram @nicoleparkescoaching. INFORMEDISH: A fresh perspective on real life.Parenting, culture, and everyday life. Honest takes with Jason Marks. Come think with us.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet. Send in your questions to [email protected] Buy me a coffee! The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.

Most autism research still isn't about autistic adults. It's about children, and causes, and where autism comes from. But every so often, research surfaces that's actually about us — our health as we age, our burnout, our bodies in midlife, and even the question of why autism has been part of the human story all along. This is the first of my roundup episodes, where I bring you several of the most interesting recent findings in autism research, all in one place. In this episode, I cover five recent findings: a Swedish study linking autism to a higher risk of early-onset Parkinson's disease; a hard look at where NIH autism research money goes, and how little of it reaches adults; a new qualitative study on what autistic burnout feels like, and why being late-diagnosed makes it worse; the emerging science of menopause and autism, and what happens when a lifetime of coping strategies stops working; and the compelling question of whether the same genetic changes that shaped the human brain also made us more neurodiverse. If you'd like to read the research yourself, here are the sources: The autism and Parkinson's study, "Risk of Parkinson Disease in Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder," by Weiyao Yin et al. in JAMA Neurology (2025) and the Karolinska Institutet summary The NIH autism research funding analysis from Autism Speaks (2026) The autistic burnout study, "How Does 'Autistic Burnout' Feel? A Qualitative Study Exploring Experiences of Earlier and Later-Diagnosed Autistic Adults," by Dorota Ali, Will Mandy, and Francesca Happé in Autism (2026) The autism and menopause study, "Common and Unique Menopause Experiences Among Autistic and Non-Autistic People: A Qualitative Study," by Martha A. Piper and Rebecca A. Charlton in the Journal of Health Psychology (2025) On autism and evolution, "A General Principle of Neuronal Evolution Reveals a Human-Accelerated Neuron Type Potentially Underlying the High Prevalence of Autism in Humans," by Alexander L. Starr and Hunter B. Fraser in Molecular Biology and Evolution (2025), and the earlier "Widespread Signatures of Positive Selection in Common Risk Alleles Associated to Autism Spectrum Disorder," by Renato Polimanti and Joel Gelernter in PLOS Genetics (2017) INFORMEDISH: A fresh perspective on real life.Parenting, culture, and everyday life. Honest takes with Jason Marks. Come think with us.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet. Send in your questions to [email protected] Buy me a coffee! The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.

Julie M. Green's son was diagnosed autistic at three. She wasn't diagnosed until 44 — almost a decade of advocating fiercely for her child's needs while missing her own. In this episode, we talk about why that gap is so common, and what finally closed it for her. For Julie, recognition didn't arrive in a single lightning-bolt moment. It came slowly, over years of small things adding up — until meeting another late-diagnosed autistic woman gave her a model she'd never had for what autism could actually look like. We talk about masking and why it's not a conscious choice, the survival strategy of becoming the "quiet girl" who stays small to avoid getting anything wrong, and the way that same people-pleasing can quietly open a person up to harm. We also cover the things that often go unspoken: alexithymia, the difficulty of naming your own emotions even when you feel them intensely; face blindness and the social minefield it creates; and the particular weight of maternal guilt when you don't yet know why parenting feels so much harder for you than it seems to for everyone else. Julie shares how she's reframed burnout, why she now believes modelling rest matters more than martyring herself for her son, and what radical acceptance really looks like, including on the days it still feels out of reach. If you'd like to know more about Julie M. Green's work, check out: Her memoir, Motherness: A Memoir of Generational Autism, Parenthood, and Radical Acceptance Her weekly Substack newsletter, The Autistic Mom Her article in The Globe and Mail, "Receiving an Autism Diagnosis as an Adult Is Not 'Trendy'" Julie M. Green on Instagram Julie M. Green's website INFORMEDISH: A fresh perspective on real life.Parenting, culture, and everyday life. Honest takes with Jason Marks. Come think with us.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet. Send in your questions to [email protected] Buy me a coffee! The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.

And the evidence is catching up! For most of autism's diagnostic history, clinicians have repeated some version of the same number: autism is about four times more common in boys than in girls. That number has shaped which children get screened, which symptoms get recognized, and which ones get explained away as anxiety or shyness or a hormonal thing. Generations of autistic women and girls have been missed because the people doing the looking were taught to look for boys. In this episode, I walk through a 2026 study published in the BMJ that followed 2.7 million Swedish birth records over 35 years. The findings suggest the four-to-one ratio is collapsing — and in adolescent and adult diagnosis, it has either evened out or flipped. Autistic women were never rare. We were just being missed. Topics covered include: Why the four-to-one male-to-female ratio has dominated autism research and clinical practiceWhat "masking" or "camouflaging" means, and why it has cost so muchThe biological vs. diagnostic explanations for the apparent gender gap — and what this study tells us about bothWhy this looks like a catch-up effect rather than a sudden surge in autistic girlsWhat this means for autistic adults who got missed for decadesIf you'd like to know more about topics discussed in this episode, check out: "Time Trends in the Male to Female Ratio for Autism Incidence: Population Based, Prospectively Collected, Birth Cohort Study" by Caroline Fyfe et al. "What Is the Male-to-Female Ratio in Autism Spectrum Disorder? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis" by Rachel Loomes et al. "'Putting on My Best Normal:' Social Camouflaging in Adults With Autism Spectrum Conditions" by Laura Hull et al. "Clinical Characteristics and Problems Diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder in Girls" by Hannah Young et al. INFORMEDISH: A fresh perspective on real life.Parenting, culture, and everyday life. Honest takes with Jason Marks. Come think with us.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet. Send in your questions to [email protected] Buy me a coffee! The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.

A short, audio-only episode. No research breakdown this time — just a few honest things I wanted to say before getting back into the swing of things. Some of you noticed the gaps in the feed over the last couple of years. This is a brief check-in about why, what I'm bringing back with me, and what's coming up next. It's also for the autistic listeners who have been through hard things at the hands of people who were supposed to love you. You're a big part of the reason this show exists. The next regular research episode will be along soon. Thank you for sticking around. If anything in this episode resonates and you want to reach out, you can write to me or send an audio or video recording to [email protected]. All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet. Send in your questions to [email protected] Buy me a coffee! The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.

Every few months, a headline lands that makes autistic people brace for impact. A young man does something terrible. Somewhere in the story, the word "autistic" appears. And the public conversation drifts, again, toward the idea that there's something inherently dangerous about how our brains work. In this episode, I walk through a 2026 study from Autism in Adulthood that pushes back on that drift. Researchers interviewed family members, friends, and clinicians who watched autistic people slide into extreme ideologies up close. What they found is more complicated, more compassionate, and more useful than the headlines suggest.  Topics covered include:  Why autism alone does not explain extremism What "negative autistic identity" means and why it matters Hyperfixation as both superpower and liability How algorithms exploit the gaps left by under-resourced autistic people What real prevention looks like — and why it isn't surveillance Watch this episode on YouTube. If you'd like to know more about topics discussed in this episode, check out:  "Family and Clinician Perspectives About How Autism and Extremism Intersect" by Sachindri Wijekoon et al. "Neurodivergence and the Rabbit Hole of Extremism: Uncovering Lived Experience" by Sachindri Wijekoon et al. "Autism in England: Assessing Underdiagnosis in a Population-Based Cohort Study of Prospectively Collected Primary Care Data" by Elizabeth O'Nions et al. "Understanding the Use of the Term 'Weaponized Autism' in an Alt-Right Social Media Platform" by Christie Welch et al. "Social and Individual Grievances and Attraction to Extremist Ideologies in Individuals With Autism: Insights From a Clinical Sample" by Cécile Rousseau et al.  INFORMEDISH: A fresh perspective on real life.Parenting, culture, and everyday life. Honest takes with Jason Marks. Come think with us.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet. Send in your questions to [email protected] Buy me a coffee! The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.

Janet Walsh-Adams is a neurodivergent PhD candidate at Deakin University, researching a pattern that many autistic people have noticed for years: autistic adults may be more likely to pursue consensual non-monogamy (CNM). We talk about what CNM is (and what it isn't) and how stigma — not the relationship style itself — often creates the biggest risks. Janet shares personal context alongside early findings from her work, including how autism, ADHD, gender diversity, and LGBTQIA+ identity can overlap with relationship structures like CNM, polyamory, kink/BDSM, and relationship anarchy. We also dig into what clinicians still need to learn (and unlearn) about autistic intimacy, and what Janet hopes her research will change — especially when it comes to safety and autonomy. Topics explored include: What consensual non-monogamy actually means (polyamory, monogamish, swinging, and more)Why autistic people are so often miscast as uninterested in intimacy and where myths like these come fromAutism + ADHD overlap, AuDHD, sensation seeking, and moreGender diversity and LGBTQIA+ culture as key factors in relationship stylesWhich group reports higher infidelity — autistics or neurotypicals?Why breakups in non-monogamous relationships aren't "proof they don't work"Watch this episode on YouTube. Follow Janet on LinkedIn. If you'd like to know more about topics discussed in this episode, check out: "Sexuality, Gender, and Autism" by K. Cooke et al. (chapter in The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Disability edited by Gabriel Bennett and Emma Goodall) INFORMEDISH: A fresh perspective on real life.Parenting, culture, and everyday life. Honest takes with Jason Marks. Come think with us.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet. Send in your questions to [email protected] Buy me a coffee! The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.

I've had so many jobs over the years — from babysitter to office administrator — and I didn't know until much later that my struggles in certain environments were connected to being autistic. In this episode, I talk about what it means to navigate workplaces that aren't built for neurodivergent minds, and how universal design could change everything. This is about moving from just "accommodating" us to truly including us. Watch this episode on YouTube. If you'd like to know more about topics discussed in this episode, check out: "Workplace Accommodations and Neurodiversity" by Susanne Bruyère and Adrienne Colella (chapter in Neurodiversity and Work: Employment, Identity, and Support Networks for Neurominorities edited by Eric Patton and Alecia Santuzzi) "Accommodations vs Universal Design" by CultureAlly "Autistic Adults' Views and Experiences of Requesting and Receiving Workplace Adjustments in the UK" by Jade Davies et al. Universal Design: Creating Inclusive Environments by Edward Steinfeld and Jordana Maisel "How Can the Work Environment Be Redesigned to Enhance the Well-Being of Individuals With Autism?" by Michał Tomczak "Autism and the Right to a Hypersensitivity-Friendly Workspace" by Bouke de Vries "'It's Like a Ramp for a Person in a Wheelchair': Workplace Accessibility for Employees With Autism" by Michal Waisman-Nitzan et al.  INFORMEDISH: A fresh perspective on real life.Parenting, culture, and everyday life. Honest takes with Jason Marks. Come think with us.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet. Send in your questions to [email protected] Buy me a coffee! The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.

Rebecca is a mental health counsellor in Australia. Diagnosed at 47 — with level-two autism and ADHD combined type — she shares her story of self-recognition, complex emotions around diagnosis, and the challenges of navigating neurodivergence in both personal and professional life. Rebecca reflects on masking, internalized ableism, and how people-pleasing tendencies developed as survival strategies. The conversation also explores her work as a counsellor and how parenting neurodivergent children has shaped her own self-understanding. Topics explored include: The slow unmasking processHow late autism diagnosis reframes childhood memories and identityParenting with empathyAvoiding the pitfalls of compliance cultureThe nuanced relationship between sensitivity, empathy, and strengthDisbelief from healthcare professionals and the impact of diagnostic invalidationWatch this episode on YouTube. Rebecca recommends these resources: Camouflaging Autistic Traits Questionnaire (CAT-Q) Embrace Autism website Is This Autism? — A Guide for Clinicians and Everyone Else by Donna Henderson and Sarah Wayland, with Jamell White The Neurodivergent Woman podcast INFORMEDISH: A fresh perspective on real life.Parenting, culture, and everyday life. Honest takes with Jason Marks. Come think with us.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet. Send in your questions to [email protected] Buy me a coffee! The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.

Dr. Brett Ranon Nachman is an autistic higher education researcher and co-lead of the PEACES study. We talk about what success means for autistic post-secondary students, the impact of internalized ableism and masking, and how campuses can better support marginalized autistic students, including LGBTQIA+ and late-identified individuals. Brett shares insights from both personal experience and research, and we reflect on the importance of autistic-led scholarship and inclusive academic spaces. This conversation left me feeling hopeful — and I think it will do the same for you. Watch this episode on YouTube. Dr. Brett Ranon Nachman's Instagram, BlueSky, and email Learn more about topics discussed in this episode: College Autism Network PEACES Project INFORMEDISH: A fresh perspective on real life.Parenting, culture, and everyday life. Honest takes with Jason Marks. Come think with us.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet. Send in your questions to [email protected] Buy me a coffee! The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.

millie joins me to talk about autistic culture, creativity, surviving in a neurotypical world, and finding true community. We get into late-diagnosed autism and ADHD, harm reduction, AAC (augmentative and alternative communication), and why autistic spaces can feel like a breath of fresh air. millie also shares how surviving — and thriving — as a disabled, trans, autistic person reshaped their ideas about belonging, burnout, and joy. What if the world isn't made for us — but we could build something better? A rich, raw, and hopeful conversation you won't want to miss. Watch this episode on YouTube. Check out millie's website. INFORMEDISH: A fresh perspective on real life.Parenting, culture, and everyday life. Honest takes with Jason Marks. Come think with us.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet. Send in your questions to [email protected] Buy me a coffee! The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.

Odosa Obasuyi is the founder and CEO of Autinerary, a positive, all-purpose hub for all things autism-related. Odosa is the brother of an autistic sibling, a student at the University of Toronto, and suspects he may be neurodivergent himself. He joins me for a quick chat about the ways Autinerary can help you on your autism journey — whether you're an autistic person or a sibling, parent, friend, or partner of an autistic person! Watch this episode on YouTube. If you'd like to know more about topics discussed in this episode, check out: Autinerary "Autism Is" merch Autinerary's TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube  INFORMEDISH: A fresh perspective on real life.Parenting, culture, and everyday life. Honest takes with Jason Marks. Come think with us.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet. Send in your questions to [email protected] Buy me a coffee! The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Michael Lenz, a physician specializing in pediatrics, internal medicine, lifestyle medicine, and lipidology. Dr. Lenz is the author of Conquering Your Fibromyalgia and host of the podcast by the same name. His passion for lifelong learning and holistic patient care has led him to specialize in chronic pain syndromes — conditions that are often misunderstood, misdiagnosed, and dismissed by the medical community. Together, we explore: The different types of pain — nociceptive, neuropathic, and nociplastic — and why understanding these distinctions is crucialHow chronic pain conditions like fibromyalgia, POTS, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and migraines often intersect with neurodivergenceWhy so many autistic and ADHD individuals experience chronic pain and how sensory processing differences can complicate diagnosis and treatmentThe emotional and psychological impact of being dismissed by medical professionalsWhy outdated medical education and systemic gaps continue to leave neurodivergent patients struggling for validation and reliefDr. Lenz also shares insights from his clinical experience, including real patient stories that highlight the need for greater awareness, compassion, and interdisciplinary care. If you've ever felt unheard or gaslighted by the medical system — or if you want to understand the complex relationship between neurodivergence and chronic pain — this conversation is for you. Watch this episode on YouTube. Check out Dr. Michael Lenz's website: Conquering Your Fibromyalgia  INFORMEDISH: A fresh perspective on real life.Parenting, culture, and everyday life. Honest takes with Jason Marks. Come think with us.Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet. Send in your questions to [email protected] Buy me a coffee! The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.

Welcome to this guided meditation, created with autistic and neurodivergent brains in mind. Meditation is often depicted a certain way — sitting still, cross-legged, eyes closed. But here, we do things differently. Here, you are invited to make meditation your own. Maybe that means sitting in a way that feels natural to you. Maybe that means allowing gentle movement, like rocking or fidgeting. Maybe it means simply listening and letting the words wash over you while you garden or play with an animal friend. This meditation is a space for acceptance. A space for softening. A space for replenishing what you need in this moment, whatever that may be. Together, we'll breathe deeply, reconnect with our bodies, and visualize the flowing river of a new year — steady, constant, full of possibility. You are exactly as you need to be. You are whole, just as you are. Take a deep breath, settle in however feels right, and let's begin! This meditation is brought to you by The Other Autism podcast's patrons. Thank you, dear patrons, for your ongoing support, and for workshopping this episode with me, trialing it before publication, and offering suggestions and feedback for further meditation episodes.  All episodes written and produced by Kristen Hovet. Send in your questions to [email protected] Buy me a coffee! The views, opinions, and experiences shared by guests on this podcast are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or production team. The content is intended for informational purposes only and should not be taken as medical or professional advice. Please consult with a qualified healthcare provider before making any decisions related to your health, fitness, or wellness.