The Different Minds podcast series

Broadcaster, John Offord chats to Dr Dinah Murray, an independent researcher with a background in linguistics, anthropology and philosophy and her son Fergus Murray, a science teacher, writer and 'autist' about Monotropism, a cognitive strategy posited to be the central underlying feature of autism. A monotropic mind is one that focuses its attention on a small number of interests at any time, tending to miss things outside of this attention tunnel. The theory of Monotropism was developed by Dr Dinah Murray, Wenn Lawson and Mike Lesser.

You can read more from Fergus Murray here:

https://oolong.medium.com/starting-points-for-understanding-autism-3573817402f2

And more from Dinah Murray here:

https://monotropism.org/dinah

Broadcaster, John Offord chats to American scientist, activist, author and speaker, Temple Grandin who is well known to many for her trailblazing work as a spokesperson for people with autism and her lifelong work with animal behaviour. Temple was named in the 2010 Time 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world in the "Heroes" category. Grandin has written six previous books on autism and was also the subject of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning semi-biographical film Temple Grandin, staring Clare Danes.

Today, we are seeing a new generation of autistic activists, who can take awareness as a given (because of Grandin) and focus instead on the social, political and economic barriers to our full integration and acceptance by society," said Ari Ne'eman, president and co-founder of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, which represents autistic adults. For more details, please see www.templegrandin.com

Broadcaster, John Offord chats to autistic comedian and writer, Joe Wells. Joe Wells' writing career began when his first book 'Touch and Go Joe' about his experiences of OCD was published, since then he has made a name for himself as a stand up comic, writer and speaker. Joe now focuses mainly on his unique brand of comedy. For more details, please see: https://www.joewells.org.uk/

Broadcaster John Offord chats to Adam Feinstein, an acclaimed author, poet, translator, journalist, film critic, Hispanist and autism researcher to talk about neurodiversity. Adam’s book A History of Autism: conversations with the pioneers received widespread praise. 

Broadcaster John Offord chats to Shain Neumeier. Shain is an American autistic and nonbinary transgender attorney from Los Angeles, California. Shain is best known for advocacy against coercive and forced treatment, including advocacy to close the Judge Rotenberg Center, an institution for people with developmental disabilities that has been condemned by the United Nations for torture due to its use of electric shocks on people with disabilities.

Broadcaster John Offord chats to Lydia X. Z. Brown, an American autistic disability rights activist, writer, attorney, and public speaker who was honoured by the White House in 2013. Lydia talks about disability justice, ableism, Neurodiversity, models of disability, intersectionality and connections between trans, queer and disability experiences. 

Broadcaster John Offord chats to English actor and recipient of an Emmy Award and nominations for two BAFTA Awards and star of The A-Word, Christopher Eccleston. For those who haven’t watched it, The A Word is a family drama TV series with an autistic twist. The plot focuses primarily on Paul and Alison Hughes, whose son Joe is on the spectrum. Since 2016, Eccleston has played Maurice, the grandfather of Joe. Maurice has an extremely abrasive and blunt personality; he also provides us with plenty of comedy moments. For those in the UK, you can currently watch the A-Word here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/b09flzps/the-a-word