Sheldon Gay shares about giftedness, in particular the intersections of being late-identified as a Black man. He hosts the I Must Be BUG'N podcast (Black, Underrepresented/Unidentified, Gifted and otherwise Neurodivergent).

I absolutely love his term of having a sparkly mind! We weave through many topics, including education and melanated & marginalized kids not having their needs met.

This is the first of 5-6 upcoming episodes on gifted neurodivergent experiences.

p.s. that "or, but anyway" that I didn't finish was that people experience my intensity as seeming like mental illness.

Mentioned in episode & connect with Sheldon:

1. Sheldon's website
2. I Must Be BUG'N podcast
3. Our Wild Minds (community for Black gifted adults)
4. Dr. Joy Lawson Davis is a friend & mentor whom Sheldon would like to mention & point toward her website for her work with Black/BIPOC gifted advocacy: https://drjoylawsondavis.com/

Resources:

1. Transcript Doc
2. Email Newsletter
3. Like Your Brain community space (Patreon)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

24:23 to skip specific American politics

In this episode:

• Mutual aid
• Local connections
• Surveillance & privacy considerations for devices
• Resistance is working
• General strike & Mar 15 shutdown (#Shutdown315)
• Emotional survival: monotropic reset, alpha brain waves
• Being careful whom you listen to (accompanying Emily Science Journalism ep 82)

Links mentioned:

1. Surveillance guide for devices
2. How to change Meta settings to limit tracking (note there is no way to make Messenger app safe)
3. Ad-blocking guide (note that I haven't vetted all their recommendations, though I do use one of them already)
4. General Strike USA
5. March 15 2025 general shutdown in US #Shutdown315
6. The Open-Focus Brain by Les Fehmi is the book I don't automatically recommend bc of offensive disability language, plus I personally didn't find the exercises as helpful as when another ND person led me. That said, the book may still be helpful to you. There are hundreds of open focus exercises on YouTube, and I may try to find one that I like and link it here at some point.
7. Article, "My problems with the Constructed Theory of Emotions," (the critique of How Emotions Are Made) 
8. Andrew Huberman is a liar article

Not in episode, but I adore this takedown of Matthew Walker's book Why We Sleep

De-Googling

Other links shared on the Discord recently:

• Article: sabotaging DOGE
• Simple Sabotage Field Manual from above article
• Helping trans people leave the US
• MI, MN, NY, VE, WA EDL (drivers license for land & sea entry)
• Actions for protecting disability rights
• Small actions to take now

Resources:

1. Transcript Doc
2. Email Newsletter
3. Like Your Brain community space (Patreon)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mini episode on my experience with intrusive thoughts and how/when they stopped being distressing.

Monotropic brains tend toward thought loops and thus can make intrusive thoughts pretty easily.

In my case, I think my brain was in part trying to generate interest when my needs were not being met. Dopamine is also a learning chemical that tells the brain to pay attention right now.

This is just my experience... Please seek professional help if you're having distressing intrusive thoughts!

Crisis Resources:

• USA-based anonymous crisis chat
• International crisis lines
• Various types of crisis resources in about 10 countries

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week I was interviewed on WHYY, Philly's PBS/NPR radio station, about the rising diagnosis rates of Autism & ADHD. Here are a few additional thoughts and my favorite moments, and you can find the full interview below

Mentioned in episode:

1. YouTube PBS interview
2. WHYY.org page with the audio only version
3. Public Patreon post w YouTube link if you'd prefer to comment there (link coming soon)
4. Readwise/Reader tool (affiliate link gives you 60 days free)

Resources:

1. Transcript Doc
2. Email Newsletter
3. Like Your Brain community space (Patreon)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dr Matt Zakreski is 2e (ADHD & gifted) and also a clinical psychologist supporting neurodivergent folks.

His recent book, The Neurodivergent Playbook, aims to meet that social gap in which we often feel we missed the "instruction manual" for how to approach people.

Connect with Dr Matt: 

1. The Neurodiversity Collective for therapy & assessments
2. Dr Matt's website for speaking engagements
3. Facebook
4. Instagram @drmattzakreski

Resources:

1. Like Your Brain community space
2. Transcript Doc
3. Email Newsletter

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As I describe at the beginning, this goes along with episode 83 about AI & tech tools.

The latter 15m of this episode was an AI "podcast conversation" based on AuDHD Flourishing principles and my overall work and approach.

I was impressed by how it was pulled together, as well as pronouncing my name & getting pronouns right!

Note: if you have misophonia, you may find the AI vocal artifacts irritating... heads up!

If you're curious:

The web pages used by Notebook LM:

• AuDHD Flourishing home page
• How it Works
• About/bio
• FAQs
• Products & Services (note that I'm going to be updating this soon, so if you're looking at this after Jan 2025 it will be different than what was pulled into the episode)
• Testimonials
• Love Your Brain (course)

Resources:

1. Transcript Doc
2. Email Newsletter
3. Like Your Brain community space

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's okay to have strong feelings about AI! Yes, we touch on ethics in this episode.

It's also okay to use accommodations and tools that work for you, especially in the short term to feel better first.

This episode covers a number of AI and tech tools suggested by other AuDHDers.

When there's a blog post to go through all of them (plus any others added in the meantime) I'll add that link below as well.

AI & Tech mentioned in episode:

1. Notebook LM
2. Autektik AI
3. LLMs ChatGPT and Claude
4. Poised Shortcut
5. List of AI Tools for Designers & Marketers
6. Free course: Using Fandoms + AI to Developing Coping Skills for Neurodivergent Kids
7. Readwise/Reader (affiliate link gives you 60 days free)
8. Goblin Tools & my blog post about it
9. Perplexity Pro (link is to free version)
10. The convo on Patreon, free with login

Resources:

1. Transcript Doc
2. Email Newsletter
3. Like Your Brain community space (Patreon)

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Emily is a science writer, AuDHDer, and ND-affirming coach.

They share online about neurodivergence topics and accuracy in science journalism as The Neurodivergent Well.

In this episode, we talk about best practices as a consumer of science info online, especially via social media. If you don't have time or capacity to read journal articles, what CAN you do?

Emily shares multiple approaches to being a better online citizen when we take in and share information.

There's also a lovely bit about the complexity of identity, and whether the labels we use are accurate and useful.

p.s. Emily has a doctorate in the Philosophy of Science, and over 10 years professional experience in writing and editing

Find Emily online:

1. The Neurodivergent Well website
2. Medium writing
3. Instagram @the.neurodivergent.well
4. TikTok @the.neurodivergent.well (posting this Jan 18th so we'll see...)

Mentioned in the episode:

1. The small Case Western study that found a 42% increase in resting info rate in autistic brains (with 19 children)
2. An article about the DSM disorders disappearing in statistical clustering of psych symptoms
3. Experimenting Your Way to an Extraordinary Life (course)

Resources:

1. Transcript Doc
2. Email Newsletter
3. Like Your Brain community space

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week I pushed my body way too far, even though I was having trouble parsing that in the moment. The story is also a great analogy for how other ND internal needs feel (including PDA).

Even with all the info, self-kindness, and support, I still struggle to find that exact line of capacity. It's okay that it's hard to figure out!

This is the perfect and slightly ironic follow-up from last week's episode about giving up on NT/ableist expectations ;)

Mentioned in episode:

• wish list
• Experimenting Your Way to an Extraordinary Life
• Comparative Grammar of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and French (affiliate link)
• Mackareth's Neurocomplexity model (& affiliate link if you want to sign up)

Resources:

1. Transcript Doc
2. Email Newsletter
3. Like Your Brain community space

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Is this the year to give up on neurotypical and ableist nonsense that is causing you harm??

I hope so, for all of us.

There are so many layers to unraveling internalized ableism.

Here's your permission to do that a little more :)

p.s. of course you know I never mean to give up on life ;) If you're in crisis, there are crisis links below <3

Links mentioned in episode:

• Psychology Today article on Relational Trauma: Beyond Adverse Caregiver Experiences
• NeuroLaunch article on Relational Therapy: A Comprehensive Approach to Healing Through Connection
• 7 Signs of Internalized Capitalism by Lindsey Mackereth at Method Creative
• Referral link to Lindsey Mackareth's Neurocomplexity Substack

Crisis Resources:

• USA-based anonymous crisis chat
• International crisis lines
• Various types of crisis resources in about 10 countries
• My Medium article, "Please Stay, We Need You"

Resources:

1. Transcript Doc
2. Email Newsletter
3. Like Your Brain community space

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.