Tourette's Podcast

Season 8, Episode 2 follows last week's guest-host format with our friend Kass taking the reins in conversation with Lilly. They find quick connections in their respective Tourette experiences. Great discussions here about self evaluation and self care, imposter syndrome and dealing with later-onset tics.

https://twitter.com/TicsnTatts

https://www.instagram.com/ticsntatts/

https://www.tiktok.com/@ticsntatts

Season 8 is here. Following our usual Episode 0, we're here with Episode 1, in which Ben steps back and Britney and Aiya take the reins. Britney (author Britney Wolf, that is) leads the conversation with Aiya, who was diagnosed last year at age 16. She knows she's always experienced Tourette, but her tics really picked up (she calls it a "tic boom") as the years progressed. This episode is great, especially for people Aiya's age, going through school and dealing with judgments. Discussion also covers co-occuring conditions like OCD and anxiety.

Britney's book, Ticcing My Way Through Life

Season 8 is here! Via our traditional Episode 0, we kick it off with updated thoughts on popular listener questions.

The Tourette community lost a hero Dec. 15, someone I named on the very first episode (Season 1, Episode 0) of Tourette's Podcast. Steve Bachner was my first frame of reference for TS. Seeing him on an episode of 20/20 in the late 1980s was my first time seeing someone else with the disorder, and there he was, Steve, being followed by John Stossel and cameras, in a shopping mall, Steve ticcing to the fullest. I remember being a little kid guffawing at people's reactions to Steve, with a least one citizen observer telling the show he assumed he was probably high on drugs. The observer wouldn't have guessed Steve was living with a disorder that throws involuntary sounds and movements. I knew all about it.

I met Steve not long after at a national Tourette Association of America (then called the Tourette Syndrome Association) conference and confirmed his heroism to me. Steve was kind, funny, witty, and willing to be talk to me like a human being. I never forgot it.

We reconnected after I started Tourette's Podcast in 2018 and always talked about doing an interview. Sadly, Steve's health was declining; scheduling would be hit or miss, with very wide latitude granted to all the rest and recuperation time he needed. But we eventually, in May 2020, found the chance to record. It wasn't our dream interview; it would have been but the phone line was noisy and made listening a challenge. But, after some audio cleanup, and now in Steve's memory, it's here and it covers a lot of amazing ground.

This is old-school Tourette Syndrome, with critical cracks at sensational coverage from Stossel, Geraldo, Springer and others who orbited Steve's disorder. They got to know his Tourette (or maybe a thin dimension of it) but did they ever get to know him as a person? (His friend Robin Williams did; Steve describes him here as a "soulmate.")

I'm so lucky to have counted him a hero and saddened at his absence now. So this one is dedicated to the loving memory of Steve Bachner.

The Season 7 finale episode. Our guest is Tourette scientist Dr. Flint Espil, who talks with us about the latest Tourette treatments and questions before saying something we weren't expecting. In a great way.

Thanks so much to Gogo, Maddie, Johnelle, Tamara, Davide, Dan, Amelie, Winter, Jack, Mark, Sophia, Shamus, Saddiq, Christine, Harper, Flint, the other Sophia, the Tourette Association of America, Geeks Rising and so many other people who've been on or closely involved with the podcast. My mind is pried wider every day with your help.

This has been the most rewarding and humbling season for me.

Thank you, everyone, for listening.

-Ben

Dr. Flint Espil on Twitter

Tourette's Podcast is made possible by the Tourette Association of America, tourette.org. Support!

Tourette Gala is Oct. 28

You can give Tourette's Podcast individual support at https://www.patreon.com/tourettespodcast

Tourette's Podcast Discussion Group on Facebook

Taking risks is ... risky. Might fail, right? You don't just suddenly decide to move from, say, the midwest to Los Angeles to try and turn your talents into a rewarding career. And, lord have mercy, having something like Tourette Syndrome and comorbids like anxiety doesn't help, does it? For pop singer Harper Starling, it did. This is, in fact, her story. She uprooted, made a long trek to L.A., where she knew no one, and, as we speak, is now preparing for a three week tour of England. Harper directly credits Tourette Syndrome for where she is right now in her singing career, which include a single out now called "Not Another What If" and another soon to debut. She's really forthcoming and direct in her music and that carries through this conversation.

Hat-tip to Harper's manager, the very cool Cindy Valentine, for helping to coordinate this one.

https://www.harperstarling.com/#

Tourette's Podcast is made possible by the Tourette Association of America, tourette.org. Support!

Tourette Gala is Oct. 28

You can give Tourette's Podcast individual support at https://www.patreon.com/tourettespodcast

Tourette's Podcast Discussion Group on Facebook

Keeping last week's episode - our analysis with tourette scientist Dr. Christine Conelea on some of the recent talk about young women and their symptoms -- in focus, this week is a referral to a response video from Tics n Tatts on YouTube. Kass, who runs the channel, adds great points. Tons left to explore with this question: has the Tourette science and treatment world gotten it wrong when it comes to Tourette and other neurological observations in women?

Tourettes in Females Part 1: Recap of the Tourettes Podcast - YouTube

S7 - Episode 14 - Science Episode: Revisiting the TikTok Thing, Sex Differences — Tourette's Podcast (tourettespodcast.com)

S7 - Episode 4 - Is TikTok Giving People Tourette Syndrome? (Science Episode!) — Tourette's Podcast (tourettespodcast.com)

Tourette's Podcast is made possible by the Tourette Association of America, tourette.org. Support!

You can give Tourette's Podcast individual support at https://www.patreon.com/tourettespodcast

Tourette's Podcast Discussion Group on Facebook

Recall our episode a while back with the authors of scientific report examining why doctors were seeing reported swells of young women over the course of the pandemic with Tourette-looking symptoms, and how social media like TikTok -- by way of the tic-heavy videos posted by influential Tourette personalities -- might be a player. We're revisiting that on this episode, but from a different angle. What else might be going on? Are we getting it wrong when it comes to what Tourette looks like in females?

What we examine:

Are there real differences in how Tourette expresses in boys versus girls, men versus women?

What's up with that observed boost in young women presenting tics? TikTok?

What do we know about Tourette Syndrome nowadays from a science standpoint?

How involved are Tourette patients in the conversations and work in science and medicine?

Our guest is Tourette scientist (and longtime friend of the show) Dr. Christine Conelea, who has been doing amazing work busting Tourette myths and bringing clarity to the public.

@cconelea on Twitter (and her 56-second summary of Tourette neuroscience)

Dr. Conelea giving us highlights from the recent paper "The Female Tourette Patient: Sex Differences in Tourette Disorder"

That paper in full

EXTRA: @ticsntatts discussing the "functional tics" thing

Support the show https://www.patreon.com/tourettespodcast

Tourette's Podcast is made possible by the Tourette Association of America, tourette.org. Support!

You can give Tourette's Podcast individual support at https://www.patreon.com/tourettespodcast

Tourette's Podcast Discussion Group on Facebook

Saddiq is a radiography student and fitness Instagrammer/TikTok-er whose energy-spending workouts serve a role for his Tourette, discussed here in addition to late diagnosis, coprolalia, creativity and the stress of travel.

https://www.instagram.com/saddiqhead/

Support the show https://www.patreon.com/tourettespodcast

Tourette's Podcast is made possible by the Tourette Association of America, tourette.org. Support!

You can give Tourette's Podcast individual support at https://www.patreon.com/tourettespodcast

Tourette's Podcast Discussion Group on Facebook

A different kind of episode this week -- all listener questions, including some day-of zingers. Should we make this an occasional thing? An all-listener-questions episode? Contact.

TAA's YouTube page

Ask the Expert: Tourette and COVID-19 Vaccine

Support the show https://www.patreon.com/tourettespodcast

Tourette's Podcast is made possible by the Tourette Association of America, tourette.org. Support!

You can give Tourette's Podcast individual support at https://www.patreon.com/tourettespodcast

Tourette's Podcast Discussion Group on Facebook