In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Claire Samuels, a proud Autistic speech-language pathologist whose journey to self-recognition unfolded inside the very system she would later question.

Claire began her career as a Registered Behaviour Technician (RBT) in the ABA industry, believing what she was told: that ABA was the gold standard for Autistic children. She loved the kids she worked with and believed she was making a positive impact. But as she read autistic voices, learned about interoception, and began recognising her own sensory and regulatory differences, cracks in the framework began to show.

Together, Angela and Claire explore ABA, nuance, Autistic self-recognition, masking, sensory processing, burnout, and what it means to move from compliance-based therapy to connection-based communication.

This episode is about shifting lenses, from behaviour to nervous systems, from control to connection, and from moral judgment to regulation.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Claire Samuels — Autistic speech-language pathologist

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair
• Member introduction: Theatre kid, masking, and early sensory differences
• Discussion: Entering ABA and believing the gold standard
• Interoception, meltdown empathy, and late self-recognition
• Leaving ABA and shifting from behaviour to environment
• Becoming an SLP: AAC, connection, and child-led therapy
• Key learnings
• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Claire as a clinician whose story offers a rare inside perspective on ABA. Someone who entered the field with good intentions and left with a deeper understanding of Autistic nervous systems and lived experience.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Claire’s Story

Claire describes herself as a “chameleon” in school, a theatre kid who learned to play the role of “normal” while privately embracing her oddities. She studied psychology to understand how people “people,” navigated burnout in college, and found improv as a regulatory outlet.

After serving in the Peace Corps in The Gambia, she returned to the USA, unsure of her path, but drawn to working with neurodivergent children. A friend introduced her to ABA, promising meaningful work, strong income potential, and the opportunity to work in the “gold standard” of Autism treatment.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• ABA immersion: 40-hour weeks for toddlers and gold-standard messaging
• RBT reality: Minimal training, low pay, no autism coursework required
• Demand maintenance: Repeating instructions during meltdowns until compliance
• Interoception moment: Supervisor unfamiliar with the concept
• Masking realisation: Social media and autistic adult narratives
• Pendulum swing: From “gold standard” to “ABA is abuse” to nuance
• SLP path: Language, connection, AAC, and feature matching
• Child-led therapy: Slower but healthier device relationships
• Self-accommodation: Headphones, fidgets, and nervous system resets
• Autistic joy: Sesame Street, stimming, and public authenticity

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Behaviour is not the whole story
• Good people can work inside broken systems
• Language and connection are cyclical
• Autistic regulation is not a moral failure
• Self-accommodation changes relationships
• Labels serve us — not the other way around

📌 Notice Board

• Loud Hands: Autistic People, Speaking
• Autistic Self-Advocacy Network
• Autism Society of Washington
• Thurston County Inclusion
• Therapeutic Beginnings 

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

🎙️ Executive Producers: Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers: AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

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

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Julie Farrell, a late-diagnosed Autistic and ADHD writer, activist, and co-founder of The Inklusion Guide, a resource dedicated to making literature events accessible to disabled people.

Julie shares her slow, layered journey toward understanding her neurodivergence — from burnout, migraines, and chronic illness labels, to finding herself mirrored in Autistic writers like Katherine May, to sobbing through the documentary Seeing the Unseen and finally knowing in her bones.

Together, Angela and Julie explore masking, shutdowns mislabelled as anxiety, CPTSD, creative identity, freelance work as nervous system regulation, and the relief of receiving a diagnosis in a supportive, affirming environment. They also talk about ADHD medication, menstrual cycle titration, EMDR therapy, and what it feels like to “precipitate out of the hot goo” and become solid for the first time.

This episode is also about Autistic joy — about stars, navigation, grief, and how Julie’s late father taught her to look up at the night sky and find her way.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Julie Farrell — Writer, activist, and late-diagnosed Autistic & ADHD woman

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair
• Member introduction: Burnout, writing communities, and slow recognition
• Discussion: Masking, shutdowns, and anxiety misdiagnosis
• Chronic illness labels, brain fog, and nervous system overwhelm
• Self-identification, late ADHD discovery and medication
• Creativity, rejection sensitivity, and publishing Someone Like Me
• Key learnings
• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Julie as a writer whose work reclaims Autistic narrative and centres accessibility, creativity, and late discovery. The conversation begins with the power of anthologies — reading other Autistic women’s work and realising, “Oh. That wasn’t just me.”

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Julie’s Story

Julie traces her recognition back to 2018, when she ran a co-writing group in Edinburgh and befriended an openly Autistic man who spoke about burnout cycles. At the time, she didn’t see herself in autism — she was high masking and had internalized generalized anxiety and fibromyalgia diagnoses.

Reading Wintering by Catherine May and later reviewing the documentary Seeing the Unseen became turning points. She describes sobbing at the end of the film and knowing, finally, that she was Autistic.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Masking & shutdowns: Nonverbal shutdowns misinterpreted as panic attacks
• Misdiagnosis: Anxiety and fibromyalgia concealing Autistic burnout
• Burnout at 30: Months unable to leave the sofa; repeated medical dismissal
• Self-ID vs formal diagnosis: The emotional weight of both
• Being believed: “Are you telling me I’m not stupid?”
• ADHD discovery: Hyperactivity, career misalignment, and paid assessment
• Medication: Titration and menstrual cycle adjustments
• Publishing: Invited to contribute to Someone Like Me
• Grief & stars: Writing about her father, navigation, and expansive belonging

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Burnout cycles can be mistaken for anxiety
• Masking can delay self-recognition for years
• Diagnosis can dissolve lifelong shame
• Medication can reshape creative capacity
• Freelance work can be nervous system care
• Autistic joy often lives in special interests

📌 Notice Board

• Inkulsion Guide
• Someone Like Me Anthology
• Julie’s Website
• Wintering by Katherine May

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

🎙️ Executive Producers: Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers: AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

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

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Helen Shaddock, a multidisciplinary artist, writer, and PhD researcher whose work explores autism, eating distress, OCD, and healing through creativity.

Helen was diagnosed with anorexia at 13 and spent the next 25 years moving through eating-disorder pathways that never fully explained her experience. It wasn’t until her late 30s — after years of treatment, physical injury, and burnout — that an occupational therapist recognised what others had missed: Helen was Autistic.

Helen and Angela explore the long overlap between eating distress, OCD, and autism, how Autistic regulation was repeatedly misread as pathology, and how late diagnosis reframed decades of self-blame. Helen shares her experiences around interoception, stimming, routine, sensory regulation, and the difference between Autistic eating and eating disorder treatment.

This episode is also about creative becoming — how art, writing, and storytelling can be tools for survival, meaning-making, and identity reconstruction. 

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Helen Shaddock — Autistic multidisciplinary artist, writer, and PhD researcher

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair
• Member introduction: Autism missed across treatment pathways
• CBT, clinical harm, and misinterpretation of Autistic regulation
• Autistic eating vs eating disorder frameworks
• Burnout, grief, and late autism recognition
• Creative becoming through art and storytelling
• Key learnings
• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela welcomes Helen as a long-standing member of the LDC community and frames the conversation around storytelling, creativity, and late recognition. This meeting emphasises intimacy and pacing — meeting one another “one at a time,” in a way that feels distinctly Autistic.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Helen’s Story

Helen was diagnosed with anorexia at 13 and spent her adolescence and adulthood navigating eating-disorder treatment, CBT, and medical surveillance.

Many Autistic traits, including routine, stimming, sensory sensitivity, and the need for predictability, were interpreted as pathology rather than regulation.

She experienced chronic fatigue in early adolescence, missed significant periods of school, and was bullied. Later injuries, stress fractures, and physical complications were consistently attributed to anorexia, obscuring the role of autism and interoceptive differences.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• 25 years missed: Autism identified at 38 after decades of eating-disorder treatment
• Misinterpretation: Autistic stimming and regulation framed as calorie-burning or compulsion
• Interoception: Pain, hunger, and bladder signals go unnoticed until extreme
• Routine & safety: The difference between Autistic eating and eating distress
• Grief: Mourning the support that could have existed earlier
• Language shift: Choosing “eating distress” over “eating disorder”
• Creative becoming: Identity as fluid, evolving, and reconstructed through art
• ArtEd: Digital storytelling, visual diaries, and community zines

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Eating distress can mask autism — and vice versa
• Late diagnosis can dissolve decades of self-blame
• Autistic regulation is often misunderstood as a disorder
• Creativity is not a luxury — it is a survival tool
• Community reduces isolation and restores dignity

📌 Notice Board

• ArtED Website
• Helen’s Website

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

🎙️ Executive Producers: Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers: AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

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

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Tara for one of the most difficult and important conversations the Club has held.

⚠️ Content notice: This episode includes discussion of violence, sexual abuse, child harm, and coercive control. Listener discretion is strongly advised. Please pause or skip as needed and take care of yourself.

Tara is a late-diagnosed Autistic woman, a mother, and a survivor of severe childhood abuse, abduction, and exploitation. She shares her story not for shock, but to illuminate how Autistic girls and women are uniquely vulnerable — especially when they grow up without protection, language, or recognition of their neurodivergence.

Together, Angela and Tara explore survival as an Autistic trait, truth-telling as both a strength and a liability, vulnerability to cults and exploitative systems, and the long road to healing through prolonged exposure therapy. Tara’s story is harrowing — but it is also a testament to resilience, instinct, and the life-saving power of being believed.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Tara — late-diagnosed Autistic woman, mother, and survivor

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair
• Member introduction: Abuse, abduction, and survival
• Discussion: Autistic vulnerability and coercive control, misdiagnosis, and being labelled a liar
• Cults, self-help movements, and exploitation
• Prolonged exposure therapy and Late autism self-recognition
• Key learnings
• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela opens the meeting with a clear trigger warning and an explanation of the safeguards taken to ensure this conversation was shared safely and consensually. This episode is framed as difficult — but necessary — for Autistic people, particularly women and girls, whose experiences of abuse are often misunderstood or erased.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Tara’s Story

Tara describes knowing she was different from early childhood — hyperlexic, highly intelligent, sensory-sensitive, and deeply compliant. As a CODA, she was placed in adult responsibilities far too young, acting as her mother’s ears while navigating an unsafe home environment.

Family members responded to her Autistic traits with punishment and violence rather than protection. Tara was repeatedly locked away, beaten, and labelled with slurs — experiences that primed her for later exploitation.

At 14, Tara was abducted by adults known to her family. She was held, tortured, and left for dead. No search party was launched. No justice followed. Tara survived through instinct, dissociation, and an extraordinary will to live.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Autistic vulnerability: How isolation, compliance, and literal trust increase risk
• Survival instincts: Autism as a tool for endurance and escape
• Misdiagnosis: Repeatedly labelled with personality disorders
• Cults and self-help: Seeking safety and meaning in exploitative systems
• Prolonged exposure therapy: Ten years of structured trauma processing
• Late autism recognition: Finding language after decades of harm
• Motherhood: Love, rupture, and intergenerational neurodivergence
• Justice: Living without it — and learning how to go on

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Autistic girls are especially vulnerable when their differences go unprotected
• Being articulate does not prevent exploitation
• Truth-telling can be punished in unsafe systems
• Misdiagnosis can cause as much harm as no diagnosis
• Self-diagnosis can be life-saving

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

🎙️ Executive Producers: Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers: AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

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

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Abbey Thompson — a librarian, classically trained vocalist, prize-winning baker, gamer, social justice bard, and self-described random fact machine.

Abbey is a fat, queer, neurodivergent woman living in Los Angeles with two orange cats and a deep commitment to creativity without perfection.

Diagnosed with ADHD in her 40s and later recognising she was also Autistic, Abbey describes how finally naming her neurodivergence didn’t just bring understanding — it brought permission. Permission to be loud, to be big, to be joyful, to be mediocre, and to exist without apology.

Together, Angela and Abbey explore late identification, fatness and bullying, perfectionism, burnout, AuDHD, creativity as regulation, and the radical act of letting go of shame. This episode is an invitation to stop fixing yourself — and start living.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Abbey Thompson — AuDHD librarian, vocalist, baker, and creator of the Mediocre Arts and Crafts Club

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair
• Member introduction: Masking, bullying, and being “too much”
• Discussion: Late diagnosis, burnout, friendship, fatness, queerness, and shame
• Sensory processing, burnout, animals, justice sensitivity, and belonging
• Key learnings
• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Abbey as someone whose life defies neat categories — librarian, opera singer, baker, gamer, and cat enthusiast — all in one person. From the outset, this conversation sets aside productivity and leans into permission: to be multifaceted, messy, and fully yourself.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Abbey’s Story

Abbey describes growing up as a high-achieving, compliant student who internalised bullying and othering — largely attributing friendship difficulties to being fat in a culture that relentlessly punished difference.

Early signs of neurodivergence, including hyperfocus, rigidity, gullibility, sensory sensitivity, and being “too loud,” were reframed for decades as personal flaws. Only later did Abbey come to understand these traits through an Autistic and ADHD lens — one that offered compassion instead of criticism.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Late diagnosis: ADHD and autism identified in Abbey’s 40s
• Burnout: Years of overachievement, graduate school, and unrecognised exhaustion
• Masking: Being capable on the outside while struggling internally
• Fatness & bullying: How body stigma obscured neurodivergence
• Creativity as regulation: Singing, baking, crafting, and making for joy
• Mediocre Arts and Crafts Club: Creating without perfection or monetisation
• Shame: Letting go of self-policing and internalised judgment
• Community: Belonging as protection and healing

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Competence can hide profound struggle
• Shame is not a motivator — it’s a barrier
• Creativity doesn’t need to be perfect to be meaningful
• Late diagnosis can offer forgiveness, not just answers
• Community helps return shame to where it belongs
• You don’t need permission to exist — but it helps when you finally give it to yourself

📌 Notice Board

• Abbey’s Instagram
• Mediocre Arts & Crafts Club

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

🎙️ Executive Producers: Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers: AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

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

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Sarma Melngailis, a late-identified Autistic woman whose life unfolded in public long before she had language for her neurodivergence.

Sarma was once a celebrated New York restaurateur and entrepreneur. Years later, she became the subject of global scrutiny following a highly publicised documentary that framed her story through scandal rather than context. She was not diagnosed as Autistic until age 51, after everything had already happened.

In this conversation, Sarma speaks candidly about sensory overwhelm, being misread as cold or suspicious, vulnerability to coercive control, and how not knowing she was Autistic shaped her relationships, business decisions, and sense of self. This episode is not about scandal — it’s about what happens when a life is interpreted through the wrong lens, and what becomes possible when the right one finally arrives.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Sarma Melngailis — late-identified Autistic author and entrepreneur

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair
• Member introduction: Public success without private understanding
• Discussion: Late diagnosis, vulnerability, and coercive control
• Being misread: affect, communication, and media narratives
• Sensory processing, burnout, leadership, animals, justice sensitivity, and belonging
• Key learnings
• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Sarma as a member whose story was widely told before it was widely understood. While the public narrative focused on spectacle and suspicion, Sarma’s lived experience was shaped by sensory overwhelm, misinterpretation, and deep vulnerability — all without the context of an autism diagnosis.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Sarma’s Story

Sarma describes growing up feeling different without knowing why, gravitating toward misfits and animals, and navigating adulthood with intense sensory sensitivity and a strong drive toward justice and care.

Her autism was first suggested not by clinicians, but by viewers of a documentary who recognised themselves in her, many of them late-diagnosed Autistic adults.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Late diagnosis at 51: Recognition after public life and collapse
• Misinterpretation: Flat affect, pauses, and Autistic communication framed as guilt or deception
• Coercive control: How Autistic trust and literal thinking increase vulnerability
• Being “seen”: Why manipulative attention can feel like understanding
• Public narratives: Harm caused by edited stories and missing context
• Sensory overload: Sound, scent, and cumulative exhaustion in high-pressure environments
• Animals and connection: Deep attachment as regulation and grounding
• Safeguards: Learning to listen to trusted outsiders and name red flags

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Not knowing you’re Autistic can increase vulnerability to exploitation
• Being articulate and successful does not protect against harm
• Autistic affect is often misread through a moral lens
• Clarity does not erase the past — but it can soften self-blame
• Community and outside perspective are protective factors
• Having language for your nervous system changes what you tolerate

📌 Notice Board

People Magazine — Sarma Melngailis on Autism Diagnosis

Sarma Melngailis on Instagram

The Girl with the Duck Tattoo — Book Website

Sarma Raw — Personal Website

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

🎙️ Executive Producers: Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers: AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

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

The Autistic Culture Podcast Network is officially open for new podcast pitches, and we’re calling on Autistic creators to help shape the future of an Autistic-led audio network. This short promo invites storytellers, culture-builders, deep divers, and passionate voices to bring their ideas to life, whether they’re rooted in special interests, history, art, games, science, sound, or navigating work and school systems.

You don’t need fancy gear or a perfect plan, just your perspective, your curiosity, and the topics your brain could talk about forever. If you’ve been dreaming of starting a podcast that reflects lived experience, culture, and joy, this is your sign.

Pitch deadline: January 31, 2026

Apply here or Email: [email protected]

We can’t wait to hear what you’re dreaming up!

🎙️ Executive Producers: Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers: AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

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

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes George Watts, a neurodivergent researcher, parent, and PhD candidate whose path into autism research began before realising they were autistic themselves.

George first studied autism from the outside, absorbing dominant behavioural frameworks and evidence-based models that promised to “help” Autistic people. It wasn’t until they encountered Autistic voices, community, and their own reflection in the literature that their understanding — and their life — fundamentally shifted.

Together, Angela and George explore late identification, burnout, childbirth, internalised deficit models, the harm of behaviourism, and what becomes possible when Autistic people stop being studied in isolation and start building community together. This episode centres Autistic quality of life — not as an abstract metric, but as a lived, relational experience grounded in belonging, autonomy, and joy.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: George Watts — Autistic researcher, PhD candidate, and parent

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair
• Member introduction: Childhood signs without diagnosis
• Discussion: Burnout, childbirth, late identification, unlearning behaviourism and deficit-based models
• Autistic parenting and education research shaped by lived experience
• Key learnings
• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces George as a researcher whose academic path into autism began long before they understood their own neurodivergence. Early training framed autism as a problem to be fixed — with behavioural intervention positioned as the solution. This episode traces what happens when that framework begins to crack.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: George’s Story

George returned to university as a mature student, studying autism after years of precarious work, burnout, and unrecognised neurodivergence. As they immersed themselves in autism literature, moments of resonance accumulated — until self-recognition became unavoidable.

Childbirth, sensory overload, and years of misattributed mental health struggles came into focus through a new lens. What had once been framed as personal failure or psychological fragility was re-understood as the cost of navigating a world not built for Autistic nervous systems.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Late identification: Studying autism before recognising it in yourself
• Burnout and childbirth: Sensory overwhelm and unmet support needs
• Community as intervention: Autistic people supporting each other
• Quality of life: Shifting research focus from causes and cures to belonging
• Autistic parenting: Reducing unnecessary demands and honouring regulation
• Research from the inside: Autistic-led questions shaping the field

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Understanding autism can reframe decades of self-blame
• Behavioural compliance is not the same as well-being
• Quality of life looks different for Autistic people — and should be defined by them
• Community and belonging are not extras; they are foundational
• Autistic-led research changes what we ask — and what matters

📌 Notice Board

George Watts — YouTube talk

Autism Studies (FutureLearn course)

Research paper: A Certain Magic

Grove Neurodivergent Mentoring and Educating

Autistic Quality of Life Measure (ASQoL)

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

🎙️ Executive Producers: Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers: AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

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

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Julie M. Green, a writer, Autistic mother, and late-identified Autistic woman whose self-recognition unfolded through parenting. Julie’s story begins not with her own diagnosis, but with her son’s. As she learned how to support an Autistic child, she slowly began to recognise familiar patterns in herself — sensory sensitivity, rigidity, perfectionism, chronic illness, and lifelong shyness that had always been framed as personality flaws rather than neurodivergence.

Together, Angela and Julie explore maternal guilt, masking across decades, self- and formal diagnosis, and what changes — and what doesn’t — when you finally have language for your nervous system.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Julie M. Green — Autistic writer, Author, and mother

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair
• Member introduction: Childhood signs without diagnosis
• Discussion: Parenting an autistic child while recognising autism in yourself
• Masking, perfectionism, and decades of mislabeling
• Self-diagnosis, formal diagnosis, and imposter syndrome
• Key learnings
• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Julie as a member whose story begins in a paediatrician’s office — not for herself, but for her son. What started as advocacy and research quickly became a mirror, reflecting traits Julie had carried since childhood but never had language for.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Julie’s Story

Julie grew up in the 1970s and 80s as a highly anxious, perfectionistic, and extremely shy child. Changes in routine triggered meltdowns, collections were rigidly organised, and sensory sensitivities shaped daily life — all framed at the time as personality flaws or the result of being an only child.

In school, Julie was quiet, compliant, and high-achieving. Anxiety and perfectionism were invisible to teachers, while internal distress went unnamed.

Years later, as a first-time mother, Julie struggled with sensory overload, shutdowns, and intense guilt. When her son was diagnosed with autism at age three, Julie immersed herself in research — first to support him, and eventually to understand herself.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Masking and mislabeling: Shyness, rigidity, and perfectionism framed as flaws
• Maternal guilt: Internalising blame for sensory overwhelm and burnout
• Self-recognition: Seeing autistic traits through parenting without immediately claiming identity
• Diagnosis decisions: Self-diagnosis, formal assessment, and imposter syndrome
• Disclosure: Navigating silence, validation, and scepticism from others
• Autistic parenting: Modelling boundaries, regulation, and self-advocacy

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Autism can become visible through caregiving before self-recognition
• Compliance and quiet achievement often hide distress
• Formal diagnosis may change nothing — and everything
• Self-diagnosis is valid; seeking assessment is a personal choice
• Modelling boundaries is a powerful form of parenting
• Understanding yourself can reduce shame across generations

📌 Notice Board

Link for Julie’s book: Motherness: A Memoir of Generational Autism, Parenthood, and Radical Acceptance

Julie’s Substack: https://theautisticmom.substack.com/

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

🎙️ Executive Producers: Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers: AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

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

In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Becca Engle, an Autistic educator, author, and advocate whose early disability was recognised, but whose autism was not fully named until adulthood.

Becca was identified as disabled at age three and was once non-speaking. She was repeatedly told she would never be independent, never succeed academically, and never become a teacher. Instead, she grew up navigating education systems that focused on compliance over understanding — systems that demanded silence, masking, and endurance rather than support.

Together, Angela and Becca explore early childhood diagnosis without clarity, the harm of behaviour-based interventions, masking in higher education, autistic anger as a catalyst for advocacy, and what it means to design learning environments that support regulation rather than control.

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate

Guest: Becca Engle — Autistic educator, author, and disability advocate

You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair
• Member introduction: Early childhood diagnosis and being “almost autistic”
• Discussion: Masking, compliance, and exclusion in education systems
• Regulation, classroom design, and alternatives to seclusion
• Key learnings
• Club announcements🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Becca as someone whose autism was visible early but never fully acknowledged. Despite being labelled with multiple developmental diagnoses, Becca’s needs were misunderstood, and expectations for her future were set painfully low.

What followed was not support, but pressure to conform.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Becca’s Story

Becca was diagnosed at age three with conditions that stopped short of autism and was repeatedly told she would never speak, learn independently, or attend school. Early intervention included speech therapy, occupational therapy, and exposure to behaviour-based systems that relied on control and seclusion.

Years later, in college, Becca was told she was “too autistic” to teach. She graduated anyway — and later pursued further credentials outside traditional pathways.

Becca formally received an autism diagnosis in adulthood, bringing clarity, legitimacy, and permission to name what had always been true.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Early diagnosis without clarity: Being labelled disabled but not autistic shaped expectations and access to support
• Compliance over care: Behaviour systems prioritised obedience rather than regulation or understanding
• Masking in higher education: Silence was rewarded; authenticity was punished
• Anger as fuel: Advocacy emerged not from inspiration, but from injustice
• Regulation-focused classrooms: Becca describes her three-zone regulation model as an alternative to calm corners, seclusion, and PBIS
• Stimming and creativity: Writing, knitting, and movement as regulation — not distraction

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Early identification without understanding can still cause harm
• Compliance systems teach masking, not self-regulation
• Silencing autistic communication is often framed as professionalism
• Anger can be an appropriate and productive response to injustice
• When environments change, people don’t have to disappear to succeed

📌 Notice Board

Becca’s Social Media:

• Instagram: @StitchesStanzas

• Facebook: Becca Engle / Stitches & Stanzas

Becca’s Books:

• Step Into My Shoes: https://a.co/d/hJRVXSG

• Through Our Lens series: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G3XQZ8KV

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.

💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.

📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions

💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcast.com

📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast

🎙️ Executive Producers: Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers: AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

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