Melissa Rapoza is a friend for the ages. We met on our college indoor track team and no matter where life takes us, we know we can count on one another for anything. Melissa is a daughter, sister, mother, wife, friend, teacher, runner, baker, cancer survivor, and an example of strength and joy. This episode is full of giggles, insights, and love. We hope you love listening as much as we loved making it!

Mentions:

Rhode Island College (RIC) Track

Ragnar Relay Races

Colon Cancer Resource

Supporting local businesses is important to us. Melissa has chosen to promote M Aesthetics for this episode! The spa is located in Dartmouth, MA and provides eyebrow and body waxing, facials, and eyelash lifting and tinting services.

M Aesthetics

Show Notes:

This episode was recorded a month ago and although we are excited to share our conversation with you, we do acknowledge the suffering, loss, and trauma that is being experienced in the world right now. Our thoughts are with all who are hurting. The goal of this podcast has always been to spread understanding, compassion, and light and we hope this episode is able to provide just that to listeners and beyond.

Today's guest is Marisela Van Sickle. Marisela is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with specialized training in Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT), Adoption and Foster Family Therapy, and Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders (PMADs). She wrote the foreword and afterword to my book and has so much great information on a variety of topics, but today we focused much of our conversation on neurodiversity.

*Disclosure: This episode is not a substitute for therapeutic advice or treatment.

Resources:

ADDitude

OCD

Dyslexia

Live to 100, Secrets of the Blue Zones

Connection and Community

Marisela Van Sickle

Troublemakers and Superpowers

In her first episode Keely Grand talks to Joe Grand about his own struggles, how he turned his superpower into a career, and how we parent our neurodiverse children together. This is not a typcal tech interview that Joe is accustomed to, instead, we talk about his experiences as a young hacker trying to find his place in the world and the many turning points that have gotten him to where he is today.

Joe is a self-taught hardware hacker who began his journey with electronics at age 7. He was a smart kid but describes himself as being a juvenile delinquent in his youth - he caused trouble, disrupted society at every opportunity, and hacked things just to see how far he could take it.

In high school he got arrested, which was the impetus to his life shift. He found running as a positive outlet and became the youngest member of the legendary hacker group L0pht Heavy Industries. Joe graduated from Boston University with a bachelor's of science degree in electrical engineering and in 2002 Joe founded Grand Idea Studio.

He has spent his adult life hacking, learning, inventing, and teaching around the world. He has an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Advancing Technologies. And was a co-host of Discovery Channel's Prototype This! A show that brought engineering to the masses!

He is considered the "father" of electronic conference badges, and has a YouTube channel documenting the process of various projects, including hacking crypto wallets to help people recover their cryptocurrency. Although Joe is a technical person, this podcast is more about being human - the struggles we face and how we can keep going. How the two of us raise our neurodiverse children with compassion. And the ways we help ourselves grow and become with our values intact.

I may be biased, but Joe is a wonderful husband, an incredible dad of two incredible humans and one sweet doggy, and truly a rare human being. I hope you enjoy this episode!

Podcast Editor: Andy Valdini

Music: Ely Grand

Joe Grand:

Grand Idea Studio

YouTube

Twitter

MENTIONS:

John "Porcell" Porcelly aka Paramananda Das

L0pht Heavy Industries

Troublemakers & Superpowers