The Write Brain

In this episode of The Write Brain Podcast, we dive into one of the most controversial and misunderstood topics in autism:

What if non-speaking autistic individuals understand everything?

Dr. Robert Melillo shares 35 years of neuroscience research and clinical experience working with children and adults on the autism spectrum — including those who have never spoken a word.

We discuss:

• What is actually preventing some autistic individuals from speaking
• The role of the right brain and interoception
• Why many non-speaking individuals may be exceptionally gifted
• The controversy around spelling and letter boards
• What research says about motor control vs. language ability
• Why we must “assume competence”
• Powerful real stories from families

Many of the individuals discussed in this episode have demonstrated advanced reading levels, deep emotional intelligence, and profound insight — despite being previously labeled “low functioning.”

Could it be that we’ve misunderstood the autistic brain?

This episode is about awareness, compassion, neuroscience, and giving a voice to those who have one inside — but struggle to express it outwardly.

If you know someone with autism, especially a non-speaking individual, please share this episode.

April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day.
For more information about Dr. Melillo’s upcoming lecture in New York City, visit his Instagram: @DrRobertMelillo or drmillo.com

Assume competence.
Presume intelligence.
Lead with respect.

This episode starts with a birthday month conversation… and somehow ends with chromosome 7, universal consciousness, autism, astral projection, and mushroom chocolate.

We’re diving into something that sounds “woo” — but may actually have scientific grounding.

In this episode, we explore:

• Published research on a potential “psychic gene”
 • The role of chromosome 7 in intuitive abilities
 • Whether psychic ability could function like a biological sense
 • Right brain vs left brain differences in intuition
 • Autism, hyperconnectivity, and telepathic claims
 • The theory of universal consciousness (and what physics says about it)
 • Dreams, premonitions, and altered states

Is psychic ability genetic?
 Are intuitive people neurologically different?
 Is consciousness produced by the brain — or accessed through it?

We’re not telling you what to believe.
 We’re inviting you to think bigger.

Open your mind.
 Question everything.
 And maybe don’t eat the chocolate in someone else’s cabinet.

🎙 Welcome back to The Write Brain podcast.

Abby Anderson joins The Write Brain podcast for a raw, honest conversation about creativity, anxiety, control, and what it really means to be gifted.

In this episode, Abby opens up about:

Growing up feeling “too sensitive”

Why creative people struggle with anxiety and self-doubt

The neuroscience behind right-brain dominance

How control and perfectionism can turn into coping behaviors

Her experience navigating the music industry at 19

Why artists often crash emotionally after shows

Turning pain into purpose through songwriting

Learning that nothing was “wrong” with her — her brain just works differently

This episode blends real-life vulnerability with brain science, offering language and understanding for creatives who’ve always felt deeply but never knew why.

If you’re an artist, songwriter, or someone who’s ever thought “why am I like this?” — this conversation will make you feel seen.

Memory isn’t what most people think it is.

In this episode of The Write Brain podcast, Ellis and her dad dive into how memory actually works — and why so many creative, right-brained people feel like they “don’t remember anything.”

We talk about:

The difference between right brain and left brain memory

Why some people remember feelings but not details

How trauma and stress affect memory

Why forgetting can actually be a strength

The connection between creativity, anxiety, and memory loss

Why most people who think they’re “losing their memory” actually aren’t

How memory relates to identity, learning disabilities, and ADHD

Practical ways to improve memory and protect your brain long-term

If you’ve ever felt embarrassed because you can’t remember names, dates, or events — but you can remember emotions, songs, or moments — this episode is for you.

In this episode of The Write Brain podcast, we sit down with Stephen Astephen, founder of The Familie, a sports and music management agency, to talk about right brain entrepreneurship, dyslexia, insecurity, and vision.

Steve shares his story — struggling in school, growing up with instability, never graduating high school, and being labeled “bad at academics” — and how those same traits became the foundation for building multiple groundbreaking businesses.

This conversation explores:

• Why so many entrepreneurs are right-brain dominant
• Dyslexia, attention issues, and struggling in traditional school systems
• How insecurity and anxiety can become fuel instead of failure
• Seeing a vision before it exists — and building it anyway
• Manifestation as identity, not wishful thinking
• Leadership, empathy, and managing creatives, athletes, and artists
• Mental health, depression, and the emotional weight of responsibility

Steve opens up about building the first snowboard shop of its kind, becoming the first agent in action sports, helping build one of the largest sports agencies in the world, and why he ultimately chose to relaunch The Family on his own terms.

This is a raw, honest conversation about work ethic, vision, failure, mental health, and what it really means to be right-brain wired in a world built for left-brain systems.

If you’ve ever felt like you didn’t fit in school, didn’t think the traditional path was for you, or knew you were meant to build something different — this episode is for you.

In this first episode of the year, we’re talking about manifestation, identity, and the right brain way of creating a life.

We dive into why so many creatives, entrepreneurs, and big-picture thinkers struggled in traditional school systems — and how those same traits often become their greatest strengths later on. From dyslexia and daydreaming to questioning authority and creating something out of nothing, this conversation reframes what “success” actually looks like.

We talk about:

Why entrepreneurs are often deeply right-brain dominant

The difference between hoping for the future and seeing it already happened

Identity, backward visualization, and the law of assumption

How fear, anxiety, and overthinking block creativity — and how certainty changes everything

Why kids (and adults) who feel “different” are often wired for something bigger

This episode is part science, part lived experience, and part real-life conversation — including stories about music, performance anxiety, creativity, parenting, and what it means to trust the way your brain works.

If you’ve ever felt like you didn’t fit the mold, struggled in school, or knew you were meant to create something that didn’t exist yet — this one’s for you.

This week on The Write Brain, we sit down with for a real, unfiltered conversation about creativity, childhood, and what it means to be honest in your work.

We talk about growing up, school, family dynamics, and the early signs of feeling different — long before there was language for it. The conversation naturally moves into creativity as a place of refuge, songwriting as truth-telling, and the complicated relationship between vulnerability, shame, and connection.

we open up about the creative process, the emotional cost of honesty, and how writing songs has changed over time — especially in environments where collaboration, expectations, and success can blur the original reason you started.

This isn’t a how-to or a highlight reel. It’s a conversation about being human, staying present with discomfort, and letting the work say what you can’t always explain.

Toward the end, we ask a question we always come back to on The Write Brain: what would you say to your younger self — or to a younger creative who’s struggling in the same ways you once did?

Thanks for being here.

In this episode of The Write Brain podcast, we sit down with Dallas Alexander — world-record-holding sniper, country music artist, and devoted father.

Dallas opens up about his military career, losing his brother to cancer, and the unexpected healing he experienced through music and psilocybin. We explore PTSD, grief, right-brain healing, parenting in a digital age, and how creativity can help us process life’s hardest moments.

This is a raw, honest conversation about masculinity, emotional intelligence, and finding peace after trauma.

🎧 Topics include:
    •    Life in special operations
    •    Losing a sibling and processing grief
    •    Psilocybin and right-brain healing
    •    Music as therapy
    •    Fatherhood, freedom, and raising resilient kids
    •    Creativity, boredom, and imagination

This might be one of the most vulnerable episodes we’ve ever done.

Today on The Write Brain podcast, we sit down with actor Johnathon Schaech to talk about dyslexia, shame, Hollywood, sexual abuse, addiction, and what real healing has looked like for him.

Johnathon opens up about growing up as a creative, right-brained kid in Baltimore, excelling in art, dance, and sports while secretly struggling in school. He shares how he went from drawing and “breaking” to booking a Franco Zeffirelli film in his early 20s… and then reveals what really happened behind the scenes during that movie — including the night Zeffirelli came into his room.

For years, Johnathon didn’t have language for what happened to him. It wasn’t until the Me Too movement — and reading Rose McGowan’s story — that he realized he was a survivor of the same thing. He talks about how that one minute of his life shaped decades of shame, self-destruction, substance abuse, and sabotaged opportunities… and how EMDR, brain-based work, and 12-step recovery helped him finally get free.

⚠️ Content note: This episode includes discussion of sexual abuse, trauma, addiction, and self-destructive behavior. Please take care of yourself while listening.

In this episode, we talk about:

Johnathon’s childhood as a creative right-brain kid

Dyslexia, remedial classes & the shame of “feeling stupid”

Creating games, drawing, dancing, and discovering acting

The wild path from Baltimore to Wilhelmina Models to LA

Landing a Franco Zeffirelli film — and the casting story behind it

The night Zeffirelli came into his room and how it changed everything

Dissociation, the freeze response, and how trauma lives in the brain

How shame drove addiction, bar fights, and self-sabotage in Hollywood

Losing a huge role opposite Meryl Streep because of drinking

Getting sober, finding AA, and learning he’s not “broken,” he’s an addict

EMDR, brain-spotting & making the unconscious conscious

How healing trauma changed his acting, relationships, and self-worth

Finally working shame-free on his TV series Blue Ridge

Advice to survivors: it wasn’t your fault, and you’re not alone

We finally did it — after 50 episodes, we’re revealing The Right Brain Box.
This is the kit we’ve spent years talking about, experimenting with, and using in real life… and now we’re putting it into one place so anyone can start balancing their brain at home.

In this episode, Ellis and Dr. Robert Melillo walk through everything inside the new Right Brain Box (and the upcoming Left Brain Box): vibration tools, TENS units, visual stimulation glasses, essential oils, brain-specific vitamins, primitive reflex tools, smell integration, and even The Brain Driver.

Whether you struggle with anxiety, shame, dyslexia, ADHD, gut issues, overthinking, sensory overwhelm, or mood swings—this episode explains why these tools work and how they fit into right- vs. left-brain dominance.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why we built the Right Brain Box after 50 episodes
 • What each tool does — vibration, TENS, smell, vision, vitamins & more
 • How right-brain dominance shows up (anxiety, dyslexia, shame, sensitivity)
 • How left-brain deficits affect mood, memory & development
 • Using sensory tools to activate one hemisphere and calm the other
 • Why couples should know their brain dominance before having kids (!?)
 • How gut issues, chronic stress & neurodevelopment are all connected
 • Early signs of imbalance—and what you can do at home

The Right Brain Box Includes:

• TouchPoint vibration tools
 • TENS unit for hemisphere-specific activation
 • Essential oils for smell-based stimulation
 • Left/Right brain vitamins & digestive support
 • Eyelights (visual stimulation)
 • Dry brush for primitive reflex work
 • The Brain Driver (top-down stimulation device)

Why this matters:

Most people struggle with symptoms—anxiety, mood swings, gut issues, focus problems—without ever realizing the root cause is an imbalance between the hemispheres. These tools are designed to help you balance your brain, support your nervous system, and improve emotional regulation at home.