October 1, 2024

Hello Autistica!

Angela here with some exciting news. A few months back we featured Becca Lory Hector on the show talking about her book, Always Bring Your Sunglasses, and you all loved this episode. One of our listeners wrote and said “I’m listening to Sunglasses are Autistic on repeat to calm me down before my AuDHD assessment.” When I got that message I reached out to Becca and said, our listeners need more than this episode so I licensed 10 copies of her course Self-Defined Living to give as a thank you gift to our Autistica Guardians.

What are Autistica Guardians, you ask?

For Season Three, Matt and I are launching a new paid tier which we are calling Autistica Guardians. Guardians will act as informal board members for the podcast. Your name (if you so choose) will be listed on our website as a Guardian. You can use your new title on your LinkedIn page or resume and revel in the pure Autistic Joy of answering the question. “Wait, so what is an Autistica Guardian?”As a Guardian, you will have the opportunity to write for our newsletter and share your personal journey with the citizens of Autistica. Our team will check in with you about the plans we have for the podcast and our community in general and you will get extra access to ask Matt and I questions on our live calls. And perhaps, best of all, you will get a copy of Becca Lory Hector’s Self-Defined Living course for Autistic people, absolutely free, as long as you are one of the first 10 to sign up as a Guardian of Autistica. Guardian membership is $240 for the year, which we know is a lot, but we think it’s worth it. You will get Becca’s class which retails for $399 — that alone is well worth the price of participation. But, we’ll do you one better…You know that moment in Guardians of the Galaxy where Peter Quill declares the team as the official Guardians after they defeat Ronan? Well, think of us Autistics as the Xandarians, with Matt as Peter and me as Gamora. If you become a Guardian of Autistica, Matt and I will recreate that epic moment where we unite and officially welcome you as Guardians of Autistica, protectors of our joy and celebration in a live ceremony and we will broadcast it in the “Things we love about being Autistic” segment of one of our episodes. Just like in the movie, this is our way of standing together for something bigger—true freedom and acceptance for all Autistic people.Please don’t stop reading if $240 is out of your budget because I’ve cooked up another gift from Becca at absolutely no cost. Becca is going to make her book, Always Bring Your Sunglasses, free to all our listeners.

“I'm Becca Lory Hector, and I wrote Always Bring Your Sunglasses to change the game for parents and Autistic kids. As someone who's lived it, I know the inside story - the challenges, the joys, and the misunderstood nuances of autism. Even as a parent who wants to do their best for their kid, it's hard to navigate when you don't understand what's happening in your kid's head. That's why I wanted to share my experience.”

This isn't just another book—it's your guide to truly understanding and empowering your autistic child, using Becca’s honest insights. And here's the best part: she’s giving away the digital copy for FREE, but only for a limited time!

Since her late-in-life diagnosis of Autism at the age of 36, Becca has discovered the profound impact that understanding and empathy can have on the lives of those touched by autism.

In her programs and workshops, Becca Lory Hector, from Truly Inclusive Leadership, includes everything that she has learned from her challenges as a kid growing up in New York City, to receiving her diagnosis at 36 years old, and teaches other Autistics how to navigate their own diagnosis or self-identification journey.

You'll learn:

* How special interests (SPINs) like animals, cats, space, and true crime can be crucial for an Autistic child's quality of life.

* The impact of hyperlexia on a child's relationship with books and learning, and the challenges of a "spikey profile."

* How “safe foods” and dietary routines provide stability and comfort to our hyper-connected brains.

* Tips on being an effective advocate and champion for your autistic child (or yourself!) during times of overload. 

For a LIMITED TIME, get your free copy of Always Bring Your Sunglasses: And Other Stories from a Life of Sensory and Social Invalidation at www.AlwaysBringYourSunglasses.com

Ode to the McNugget: “The perfection of McDonald's chicken nuggets is something to be marveled at a savory symphony of taste and texture accompanied by instant comfort and joy. Each golden crispy nugget is a bite of bliss. A delightful treasure, perfectly seasoned and cooked to tender, juicy excellence that pairs perfectly with the salty, savory goodness of their fries. The fries with their ideal crunch on the outside and soft, fluffy insides are the perfect companion to the magic of nuggets. Dipping them both into a favorite sauce creates a harmony of flavors to delight your senses. For me, McDonald's chicken nuggets aren't just a meal, but a joyful escape that consistently brings meaningful pleasure and comfort to my life. And no matter how many times I go, eating nuggets and fries remains a cherished ritual that brings me guaranteed satisfaction with every bite. Whether it's a reward after a doctor's appointment or a quick treat to lift my spirits, McDonald's chicken nuggets remind me that simple pleasures can bring the greatest joy.”

* Check out Becca’s course: Self-Defined Living - A path to a quality autistic life

* Becca’s website, Facebook, and Instagram

* Please consider becoming a Guardian of Autistica!

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*This episode is a BONUS fan favorite episode, so it doesn’t have a coordinating merch design. If you want to learn how to play the game, check out our Fan Favorite Game Rules

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We were so excited when we recorded this episode, but when we heard it played back we realized we needed to release this one on video. So here it is, our first YouTube exclusive episode. We really hope you enjoy it.

Are you an MTG superfan? Tell us about it in the comments!

Show notes and resources:

Wikipedia: Feynman diagram

Wikipedia: History of the periodic table

Poster: MTG card variations

Article that discusses how fan communities can become excellent at organizing information from a bottom up perspective.

Links from Fred:

* Fred’s personal website

* Fred’s professional website

* The healthcare taxonomy system used in the United States

* Aspergers

* The Scientific American article is a good summary.

* NPR interview with Edith Sheffer, who did the research that showed Aspergers collaboration with the Nazi regime.  

* A more recent article from The Guardian detailing how the patient communities still hold to the community building nature of the Aspergers diagnosis. 

* Coral Sword is the famous Game Store in Houston, TX that I frequent. 

* Tallia Vess (talented player, great to learn from!!) https://www.twitch.tv/taaliavess 

* Hunter Pence (yes.. The baseball player) https://twitch.tv/hunterpence

* Bioportal is by far my favorite clinical ontology browser.

* Here is the link for the results of searching Bioportal for “Autism” 

* Here is my MTG Card Information poster

* This is something I use when teaching my MTG database class

* Scryfall is the authoritative source of MTG information online. 

* Using scryfall, you can see all of the prints of a card, like “Diabolic Tutor”, which according to wizards of the coast, is just one card.. 

* Which lets you see how they are resurfacing classic card designs, with new characters.

* It also lets you fully enjoy “alternative art” on cards. MTG uses a “planes” model, where planes correspond to different real cultures and their magical mythologies. The set “Kaldheim”, for instance, is full of viking mythology.  One card in that set, “Fynn, the Fangbearer” has:

* The basic card. Which is always done in a modern fantasy high-art style.  

* An alternative art style, which references the mythology of the plane. For vikings, lots of celtics knots and carvings. 

* A reprint that might continue the alternative art style. 

* Sometimes, there is a “universes beyond” print of the card, where the card has two names, and references totally different pop culture entertainment franchises. 

* They have an API

* And they support very complex searches.

* They have an art tagger project, which allows the community to label MTG art. This helps to allow people to find connections in the art at several semantic levels.. For instance: 

* You can find cards that have hidden monsters in the art. 

* You can find cards that use a specific palette, like red-orange or green blue

* Some amazing MTG Data analysis: 

* The first appearance of different creature power/toughness combinations, by set icon.

* Race/Class/Color combinations on cards

* The “evil color pie” which shows how evil is expressed by characters of different colors. This goes back to the idea that despite the fact that white and black are two of the five colors, they do not map to “good/evil’ at all.

* Economic analysis of MTG. There are dozens of different resources in the game, which have a kind of “exchange rate” between them.

Other episodes to check out if you liked this one:

Episodes 16: Pokémon is Autistic

Episode 35: Sex is Autistic (Alfred Kinsey episode)

Episode 39: Dungeons and Dragons is Autistic

Ready for a paradigm shift that empowers Autistics? Help spread the news!

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Matt’s social media: Autistic Connections Facebook Group

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TACP’s Autism-affirming TeePublic merch shop

This episode originally aired on May 9, 2023, under the title “Questlove is Autistic.”

“He has won An Academy Award, a Grammy Award—oh, six Grammy Awards—a BAFTA. Yeah, dude has had a career. The man needs some more shelf space for awards.”

“OK, so we've got a stim—which is spinning things—and we've got a special interest—which is Soul Train. That leads to Black music history (and) music history in general. Put those two together and what do you have? A career as a DJ! Fantastic.”

“For each of the 200,000 records that he has, name any song and he can tell you the beats per minute of that song.” “Wow. Oh, that is super Autistic.”

“He's a filmmaker, he's a musician, he's a collector, he's a historian, he's now a publisher, he's had 11 albums with The Roots, he's produced about 36 to 40 albums including Common, Erykah Badu, Solange, he's got a podcast: Questlove Supreme, he's got this huge career as a DJ…He co-founded a whole bunch of websites like OkayPlayer, OkayAfrica. He's got, I think, six books now. One of them is on Soul Train, which is his special interest…(and) he has directed several documentaries, including a really key one called The Summer of Soul.”

“He has become a one-man Blacksonian museum.” “That is magnificent. That is that is the ultimate dream of becoming a living museum.”

Are you a living museum? What fabulous collection(s) do you have? Share it in the comments!

Fan Favorite Game, design #13 (get yours here)

Play the game! Fan Favorites Game rules

Freddie Mercury is Autistic (Episode 73)

Episode 64: Taylor Swift is Autistic

Episode 05: Washington, D.C. is Autistic

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Matt Lowry, LPP

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This episode originally aired on May 16, 2023, under the title “Doctor Who is Autistic.”

“‘But I hope that in 15 years time, in 1988, you will publish another special to celebrate 25 years of wandering in time with The Doctor, (signed) Peter Capaldi, age 15.’” “Oh, my God!”

“In 1974, at the age of three, David John McDonald tells his parents that he wants to be an actor so that he can be Doctor Who…He later became a member of the Actors Union. Unfortunately, there was already a David McDonald in there. So, because he was a fan of the Pet Shop Boys, he took Neil Tennant's name and became David Tennant.”

“One of the common things for the autistic people—we don't do hierarchy. If you're an Autistic kid, you treat the teachers, you treat the principal, you treat a president the same as you treat anybody else, because we're very egalitarian in that regard.”

“Matt Smith, a very fascinating guy, very naturally somewhat clumsy, tended to break a lot of props, ruin a lot of costumes—very much considered the ADHD Doctor.”

“What Peter Capaldi and the Doctor Who franchise in general bring is, I think, an Autistic culture definition of kindness, which is a deep, abiding, justice-fueled kindness—not about friendliness or cheeriness.”

“We do love a little arcane trivia. I think that's part of what makes the Doctor Who world partly part of our autistic culture is there is more arcane trivia than you can shake a stick at.”

“When they made this particular hero, they didn't give him a gun, they gave him a screwdriver to fix things. They didn't give him a tank or a warship or a X-Wing Fighter, they gave him a phone box from which you can call for help. And they didn't give him a superpower, or pointy ears, or Heat Ray, they gave him an extra heart. They gave him two hearts and that is an extraordinary thing. There will never come a time when we don't need a hero like the Doctor.”

Who’s your favorite Doctor and why? Share it in the comments!

Fan Favorite Game, design #12 (get yours here)

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* https://www.reddit.com/r/doctorwho/comments/tbadag/is_it_ethical_that_the_10th_doctor_took_away/

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQ0fmUr5cfU

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This interview episode with Autistic writer/actress/comedian, Ashely Storrie, originally aired on May 7, 2024, under the title “Dinosaur is Autistic.”

“I'm Ashley Storrie. I'm in Glasgow currently in my bedroom surrounded by pictures of space and my Lego.”

“Everything that Nina feels and thinks autistically, are things I've felt and feel autistically. I didn't want to take any things out of other people's autism experience to put into Nina that I didn't have full understanding of.”

“Having somebody else neurodiverse in my life has always been a really good thing.”

“I tried to pretend I wasn't autistic, and it wasn't fun.”

“I worked as a various catering and factory work, and I would have a different personality for every job. And that was how I got through the day was by pretending to be a completely different person because that was easier than being me.”

“I didn't want autism to be the thing that held her back, or the thing that was her foil, or the thing she had to overcome. That's just a thing that exists in this world, and she's never having to, like, “overcome” autism. She's overcoming people and maybe their relationship to autism, and she's overcoming other people's things, but never autism itself.”

“You're going to love it. Your brain's going to just stim on that all day. I’ve got to do a little audio stimming. That's how I roll.”

Do you relate to Nina? What’s your favorite part about Ashely’s show, Dinosaur?

Fan Favorite Game, design #11 (get your curator of museums design here or the mobility aids are cool design here)

Play the game! Fan Favorites Game rules

Episode 43: Only Murders in the Building is Autistic

Episode 57: Community is Autistic

Episode 58: The Good Place is Autistic

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This episode originally aired on November 7, 2023 under the title “McEnroe is Autistic.”

“He's so intense. He's different. John is hyper antsy—born with that DNA that's got the extra.”

“An epic player, definitely one of the best in the world and certainly the best in the world, particularly in 1984.”

“He says, ‘I turn the game of tennis into a math equation, and I was already good at math.’”

“And it looks like he's psychic. People are like, ‘how does he know where the ball is gonna come?' He's always there before the person has even hit the ball.’ And none of the commentators can figure out, like…Because he knows physics.”

“All Autistic people, we have that expectation sensitivity because we live in a world full of chaos and we need things to be predictable. Hence, the patterns.”

“He has a meltdown, and the crowd flips out, and they switch on him. They switch sides. And he doesn't know what happened because he was right.”

“Autistic people, due to our hyper-connected neurology, tend to have hyper-empathy as well.”

Can you relate to McEnroe’s big emotions? When have you been treated unfairly, and asked to sit down and shut-up, when you KNEW you were right?

Fan Favorite Game, design #10 (get yours here)

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Episode 31: Chess is Autistic

Episode 19: Eminem is Autistic

Episode 11: Sherlock is Autistic

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Matt Lowry, LPP

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This episode originally aired on November 15, 2022 under the title “Industrial Light & Magic is Autistic”

“If you're able to find a job where your monotropic state is not just valued but rewarded, you will be an incredibly successful Autistic person.”

“Monotropic focus is the outcome of having a hyper-connected Autistic brain. When we love something, we love it to such a degree that we get into this zone. Csikszentmihalyi talked about the state of Flow.”

“In order to create something that has never been created, he needed to have people who had skills that have never been used before, who had never been appreciated, who were not limited by this neurotypical view.”

“Due to our monotropism we are data seekers. We are not happy unless we are gathering every single scrap of data we can, and learning everything we can about it.”

“I think that they speak the same language, that they knew that they were of the same culture and that made them not just form a bond, but the bond that they formed was incredible and has lasted over 50 years.”

Have you been a part of an accidentally-Autistic group where you flourished? Tell us about it in the comments!

Fan Favorite Game, design #9 (get yours here)

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George Lucas is Autistic (Episode 74)

Episode 30: Doctor Who is Autistic

Episode 10: Star Trek is Autistic

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Check us out on Instagram

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Learn more about Matt at Matt Lowry, LPP

Matt’s social media: Autistic Connections Facebook Group

Learn more about Angela at AngelaLauria.com and Difference Press

Angela’s social media: Twitter and TikTok

TACP’s Autism-affirming TeePublic merch shop

This episode originally aired on January 31, 2023 under the title “Greta is Autistic.”

“We can no longer let the people in power decide what is politically possible. We can no longer let the people in power decide what hope is. Hope is not passive. Hope is not blah, blah, blah. Hope is telling the truth. Hope is taking action. And hope always comes from the people.” – Great Thunberg

We’re with you, Greta!

“She's putting herself out there to do the hard work that other people may not be able or willing to do.”

“As a sensitive people—and even just our sensory sensitivities—make us even more attuned to the climate crisis and how it affects us, like, right now! Like, already.”

“I think autistic people have a spidey sense and are able to find each other in the room.”

“It's very tough to be Autistic in an Allistic world, especially if you don't know that you're Autistic.”

“And it led Time Magazine to name her their 2019 “Person of the Year.” And, everyone was nice to her and she was accepted and beloved by all. Oh, wait—nope!

“She fights the good fight. And I have massive respect for that.”

Are you an environmental activist? Share your favorite fact, resource, or practice in the comments!

Fan Favorite Game, design #8 (get yours here)

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Episode 03: Poetry is Autistic (The Emily Dickinson episode)

Episode 09: Fairy Tales are Autistic 

Episode 24: The Trouble with Temple

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This episode originally aired on Feb 20, 2024 under the title “Community is Autistic.”

“(Abed) is possibly the greatest character in the history of television.”

“He's more than a medical condition—that's his identity. This is part of his culture. And this is why he is a champion of Autistic culture.”

“None of us want to be alone. We want to be understood. We want people around us who get us, people who support us. We want a true family, not just a bunch of relatives who judge us. And when you find people where you fit, where they like you, where they appreciate you—if you don't have that, there's nothing in the world to tell you how great it is. And if you've been rejected your entire life, you may stop looking for it, which is a form of trauma.”

“Abed is never seen as anything other than, you know, a person with certain strengths and certain weaknesses it's it's not it's not pathologizing it's not inspiration porn it's just the way he works.”

“It's uniquely Autistic centered, celebrating Autistic culture, celebrating Autistic heritage, celebrating the Autistic mindset.”

Do you relate to Abed? How does a character like Abed, or a show like Community, make you feel seen?

Fan Favorite Game, design #7 (get yours here)

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Learn more about Trail House

Episode 70: Rick & Morty is Autistic

Episode 60: Mythic Quest is Autistic

Episode 12: Parks & Rec is Autistic

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This episode originally aired on April 9, 2024 under the title “Taylor Swift is Autistic.”

“That's what they do to autistic people: They hate us and have opinions about us loudly.”

“We are pointing out autistic culture as it is seen in the wild, just like we might point out cannolis, whether they were made by Italians or not.” “It's almost as if that's the point of the Autistic Culture Podcast.”

“She represents Autistic culture, and as the PR department, if we are not like waving the flag— ‘The biggest star in the world is from Autistica!’ Yeah, like, we have to celebrate this. There is so much to celebrate.”

Do you relate to Taylor Swift and/or her lyrics? Share your favorite lyrics in the comments!

Fan Favorite Game, design #6 (get yours here)

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Episode 46: Cats are Autistic

Freddie Mercury is Autistic (Episode 73)

Episode 50: Top 10 Pillars of Autistic Culture

Ready for a paradigm shift that empowers Autistics? Help spread the news!

Check us out on Instagram

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Learn more about Matt at Matt Lowry, LPP

Matt’s social media: Autistic Connections Facebook Group

Learn more about Angela at AngelaLauria.com and Difference Press

Angela’s social media: Twitter and TikTok

TACP’s Autism-affirming TeePublic merch shop