According to the Centers for Disease Control, 1 in 44 children in the U.S. has been identified with an autism spectrum disorder. And almost 5-and-a-half million adults in the U.S. have autism.  And the average age of an autism diagnosis comes at about 4 years and 4 months.

But that's not the case for everyone.

We speak with Lauren Ober, radio producer and host of The Big Listen from WAMU and NPR, who discovered that she is autistic at the age of 42, and chronicles it in her new podcast, The Loudest Girl in the World.