Did you know that Substack has over 5 million paid subscriptions and is currently valued at over a billion dollars? Or that the fastest growing substacks right now belong not to journalists or celebrities but to niche creators with deeply loyal communities? You are already one of those. Tomorrow at 8am PT, 11am ET, 4pm UK, and 5pm Europe we will be getting together on Zoom to talk about how to build a Substack that grows your audience, brings in recurring revenue, and feeds whatever your bigger work is in the world, and we would love to see you there.

In tomorrow’s session, I will share my own Substack journey from scratch, including how I went from zero followers to over 11,000 readers and a 9.6% paid conversion rate by starting with nothing more than a weekly podcast and a personal journal entry about my unmasking. I will walk you through the Substack Profit Layer method I teach in my consulting work: a clear model for turning your writing, your voice, and your expertise into a trust asset that generates both revenue and high-quality leads without needing a complicated tech stack, a massive team, or a following you do not yet have.

Whether you are brand new to Substack and wondering where to start, or you already have a publication and want to understand how to add a paid layer, this session is for you. You will walk away with a clear picture of where Substack fits in your business or creative life, a simple model for how free subscribers become paid subscribers become high-ticket clients or readers, and a practical first step you can take this week.

Everyone who attends will receive the Substack Foundations Checklist, a complete prep and launch guide for getting your Substack set up properly from day one.

No prior Substack experience required. Come curious, come with questions, and come ready to think about your writing as something worth building on.

Looking forward to seeing you there! This meeting is for PAID members of the Autistic Culture Substack, but no one will be turned away.

UPGRADE TO PAID: AutisticCulture.substack.com/subscribe

REQUEST A FREE TRIAL: Email admin@autisticculture.co.uk

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In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Sha’mya Jones, a graphic designer and entrepreneur who was diagnosed as Autistic in early childhood — but didn’t learn about it until she was a teenager.

Sha’mya shares what it was like to grow up knowing she was different but not understanding why, navigating school, relationships, and identity without the language to describe her experience. From early academic success to social challenges and bullying, her story reflects the complexity of being both supported and left in the dark.

Together, Angela and Sha’mya explore masking, college burnout, creative identity, and what it means to build a life and business that reflects who you truly are.

🎧 Listen to this episode:

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate
Guest: Sha’mya Jones — graphic designer, entrepreneur, and Autistic self-advocate
You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair

• Member introduction: Early diagnosis, late awareness

• Discussion: Childhood differences and school experiences

• IEP meeting and discovering her diagnosis

• Masking, bullying, and social challenges

• College life, burnout, and independence

• Art, identity, and creative expression

• Entrepreneurship and neurodivergent design

• Representation and visibility

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Sha’mya Jones, a graphic designer and entrepreneur whose work centres on neurodivergent and underrepresented communities, particularly entrepreneurs of colour.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Sha’mya’s Story

Shamaya was diagnosed as Autistic as a toddler, but her diagnosis was not shared with her until she was in high school during an IEP meeting.

Growing up, she sensed she was different, often finishing work early, helping classmates, and connecting more easily with teachers than peers. Despite having accommodations, she navigated childhood without the language to understand her experiences.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Early diagnosis, hidden identity: Diagnosed in early childhood but not told until high school

• Feeling different: Awareness of being out of step with peers from a young age

• Teacher connection: Easier relationships with adults than classmates

• IEP moment: Learning about her diagnosis during a school meeting

• Masking and bullying: Navigating teasing, social confusion, and self-protection

• Curiosity misunderstood: Being perceived as rude for asking direct questions

• College burnout: Over-involvement, pandemic disruption, and exhaustion

• Creative identity: Art as expression and pathway to career

• Entrepreneurship: Building a business centred on neurodivergent clients

• Representation: Highlighting Autistic women and people of colour

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Being diagnosed early does not guarantee understanding or support.

• Without language, differences can lead to confusion and self-doubt.

• Masking and social challenges often emerge more strongly over time.

• Creative expression can provide clarity and identity.

• Representation matters — especially for marginalised Autistic voices.

• Self-understanding is an ongoing process, not a single moment.

📌 Notice Board

• Sha’mya’s LinkedIn

• Prisma kind Design Newsletter

• Prisma Kind Design Website

• Ko-Fi (for tipping)

• Brand Check-In Survey

• Free Brand Clarity Checklist 

• Brand Calm-Down Kit (paid audit and reset)

• Signature 2-tiered Brand Package (currently looking to book 3-4 beta clients to test and improve her offer) 

The Neurocreative Pioneer

My little creative Substack corner to discuss and/or write about anything related to brand and graphic design, neurodiversity, business, crafts/hobbies, random infodumps, and more.

By Sha’mya Jones

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.
💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.
📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions
💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

💌 Want To Be Our Next Guest?

If you’ve been nodding along and thinking, “That could be my story,” we want to hear from you.

We’re always looking for late-diagnosed or self-identified neurodivergent adults who are ready to share their story on The Late Diagnosis Club.
Tell us a little about yourself and your diagnosis journey here:

💜 Whether you’ve just realised you’re Autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, or you’re still figuring it out — your story belongs here. We’ve saved you a seat.

Be Our Guest

💫 Why Your Support Matters

When you join Autistic Culture Plus or pitch a show to the Autistic Culture Podcast Network, you’re doing more than subscribing to a podcast —
You’re investing in Autistic-led media.

Included with Autistic Culture Plus

• Ad-free listening (sensory-friendly)
• Early access to every episode
• Exclusive archive of ~100 classic episodes

Every pound, dollar, or share helps:

🎙️ Fund neurodivergent creators — paying Autistic hosts, editors, and producers for their work
🌍 Amplify Autistic voices and stories that mainstream media too often overlooks
💡 Build an ecosystem of culture, not pathology — where being Autistic is celebrated, not “treated”
🤝 Support accessible, sensory-friendly storytelling made with our community in mind

For less than the price of a coffee, you help sustain a growing network that’s 100% by and for neurodivergent people — ensuring that Autistic stories, creativity, and brilliance reach the audiences they deserve.

Joining isn’t just a subscription.
It’s solidarity. Visibility. Community in action.

Join Autistic Culture +

💜 With Gratitude

A huge thank-you to our founding supporters of Autistic Culture Plus, who believed in this network before it even launched.

Our Executive Producers and Producers make this work possible — funding neurodivergent creators, amplifying Autistic voices, and helping build a media ecosystem rooted in pride, creativity, and community.

These members form the foundation of the Autistic Culture Podcast Network, and you’ll see their names credited at the end of our shows and on our website.

🎙️ Executive Producers
Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers

AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

The Late Diagnosis Club held an info dump session which is a Late Diagnosis Club support group meeting where participants share personal updates.

This included Grace discussing noise sensit…

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All month, we have been writing into difficulty — the containers that didn’t fit, the forms that couldn’t hold us, the documents that got us wrong. That kind of writing takes courage. It asks us to stay inside uncomfortable experiences long enough to find the truth in them, and to trust that the page can hold what other people couldn’t.

Therapeutic writing research consistently shows that this kind of expressive work is most powerful when it moves toward finding our own internal peace — not a forced resolution so often imposed on us for being good, but a genuine, authentic resting place. This week, we arrive at one. We are not wrapping things by turning toward what is gentle, what is kind, and what has always been ours.

Here’s Libby’s fourth and final prompt:

The writing prompt is below. Paid members will see it. If you don’t see it, either you are not a paid member, or you are logged in to the wrong account. If you are not a member, you will need to subscribe to have full access and to see the prompt below. If you would like a free subscription for April, just reply to this email, and we will get you a free trial month.

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My mom and oldest sister arrive early Friday morning for their first visit to see me in the UK. Our last visit was in the before times — 2019. Here’s a picture from that visit. So when a member suggested we talk about challenges we have had with close family and share ideas for how to approach them, I knew the timing was right for me to have that conversation ASAP.

Most of the months between this photo and the ones we will take this weekend have been spent in silence. It’s perhaps a longer story than I should be telling in a meeting reminder, but ours is a once-close family divided by an algorithm that showed us each very different things about COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, January 6th, and so much more that you don’t need me to remind you of.

If anyone was going to change their minds, it would have happened by now, and for a while, I thought that meant we would never spend time together again. For years, my burnout was so intense and my capacity so low that there was a simple choice between my own survival and the survival of these relationships. I chose to survive. But then something shifted in me. Well, a few things, really.

1. I read the book Careless People, and I realized many of the divisions in my family were orchestrated by governments, brands, and billionaires who benefit financially from hate. The attention economy thrives on propaganda, and as much as I think the propaganda I like is ethically correct, people on the other side of these divides feel exactly the same way because they are seeing completely different things. Trillions of dollars are made by all of us believing what we see is true and right.

2. The script got flipped on me when I was on the wrong side of the algorithm from someone as close to me as I was to my mom before COVID. I engaged, read, studied their side, and tried to do anything to get back into this person’s life, and have mostly failed to this point. But it made me realize that I didn’t want the algorithms to have this much say in my life. For people who have decided I am not a fit for their nervous system, it makes me sad, but I try to give them grace because I know what that was like for me.

3. Right now, my energy levels are better than they were in 2020. Not being in the US and knowing I have health care and live in a place with close to zero gun violence has been a massive boost to my ability to stay regulated. There are many things I could do with those extra “spoons” — because while I have more energy now, it’s not as much as it was when I was masking pre-burnout — what I want to invest that extra capacity in is relationships with family (even challenging ones). I am NOT saying this is right for everyone… Just what works for me right now.

For many people, they are at a point where there just isn’t any energy to invest in these relationships. For others, there are no alternatives but to figure out these relationships. The fact is, we are all in different places, and where we are shifts and changes. In this session, we will explore where we are at, what’s working now, and what has worked in the past. Tomorrow at 8am PT, 11am ET, 4pm UK, and 5pm Europe we will be getting together on Zoom to talk about all of this. This isn’t a prescriptive session, and no one will tell you what to do, but my hope is that by hearing where others are at, we all might walk away with new ideas for what might work for you.

Looking forward to seeing you there! Paid members will be able to see the link to join the call below. If you aren’t a paying supporter, you can UPGRADE TO PAID HERE: AutisticCulture.substack.com/subscribe

This meeting is for PAID members of the Autistic Culture Substack, HOWEVER if this is support you need right now, please know no one will be turned away and no explanation is needed.

REQUEST A FREE PASS: Email admin@autisticculture.co.uk

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In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Daria Brown, creator of Affect Autism and host of the We Chose Play podcast.

Daria shares her journey from parent advocate to late-identified Autistic adult, reflecting on the decade between her son’s diagnosis and her own. What began as a search for how to support her son eventually led to a deeper understanding of herself, reframing lifelong traits, parenting experiences, and ways of relating to the world.

They discuss DIR Floortime, rejecting compliance-based approaches, and the role of connection, regulation, and play in both parenting and personal growth.

This is a conversation about unlearning, identity, and what happens when the lens finally shifts.

🎧 Listen to this episode:

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate
Guest: Daria Brown — Parent advocate, podcaster, and late-identified Autistic adult
You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair

• Member introduction: Parenting, advocacy, and late self-recognition

• Discussion: Son’s diagnosis, seizures, and early understanding of autism

• Medical model, ableism, and the “fixing” mindset

• Discovering Autistic voices during the pandemic

• Questioning identity and the late diagnosis journey

• DIR Floortime, connection, and rejecting compliance-based therapy

• Key learnings

• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Daria Brown, a long-time parent advocate and creator of Affect Autism, whose work focuses on supporting families through DIR Floortime and neurodiversity-affirming approaches.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Daria’s Story

Daria’s journey into the autism world began with her son’s diagnosis following a serious medical event involving seizures and brain inflammation. At the time, her understanding of autism was shaped by ableist narratives and a belief that her role was to “fix” her child.

Over the years, as she supported her son and connected with other families, Daria became deeply involved in advocacy and alternative approaches like DIR Floortime.

A decade after her son’s diagnosis, Daria received her own autism diagnosis, reframing her identity and life experiences.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Early assumptions: Autism initially understood through an ableist, deficit-based lens

• Medical trauma: Son’s seizures, hospitalisation, and lasting impact on parenting

• DIR Floortime: Choosing connection and co-regulation over compliance

• ABA tension: Navigating systems that prioritise behaviour over individual needs

• Late recognition: Seeing lifelong traits through an Autistic lens

• Imposter syndrome: Questioning identity despite strong resonance

• Reframing traits: From “bossy” or “controlling” to regulation and coping strategies

• Special interests: Intense projects, creativity, and lifelong patterns

• Community: Finding belonging through shared neurodivergent experiences

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Understanding autism often begins with outdated or ableist assumptions that require unlearning.

• Parenting a neurodivergent child can reshape identity and self-understanding.

• Connection and co-regulation are foundational to both parenting and personal growth.

• Traits once labelled negatively may be reframed as adaptive or regulating.

• Community plays a crucial role in reducing isolation and building self-acceptance.

📌 Notice Board

Affect Autism Website
Kieran Rose, The Autistic Advocate
Kathleen Platzman, PhD

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.
💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.
📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions
💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

💌 Want To Be Our Next Guest?

If you’ve been nodding along and thinking, “That could be my story,” we want to hear from you.

We’re always looking for late-diagnosed or self-identified neurodivergent adults who are ready to share their story on The Late Diagnosis Club.
Tell us a little about yourself and your diagnosis journey here:

💜 Whether you’ve just realised you’re Autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, or you’re still figuring it out — your story belongs here. We’ve saved you a seat.

Be Our Guest

💫 Why Your Support Matters

When you join Autistic Culture Plus or pitch a show to the Autistic Culture Podcast Network, you’re doing more than subscribing to a podcast —
You’re investing in Autistic-led media.

Included with Autistic Culture Plus

• Ad-free listening (sensory-friendly)
• Early access to every episode
• Exclusive archive of ~100 classic episodes

Every pound, dollar, or share helps:

🎙️ Fund neurodivergent creators — paying Autistic hosts, editors, and producers for their work
🌍 Amplify Autistic voices and stories that mainstream media too often overlooks
💡 Build an ecosystem of culture, not pathology — where being Autistic is celebrated, not “treated”
🤝 Support accessible, sensory-friendly storytelling made with our community in mind

For less than the price of a coffee, you help sustain a growing network that’s 100% by and for neurodivergent people — ensuring that Autistic stories, creativity, and brilliance reach the audiences they deserve.

Joining isn’t just a subscription.
It’s solidarity. Visibility. Community in action.

Join Autistic Culture +

💜 With Gratitude

A huge thank-you to our founding supporters of Autistic Culture Plus, who believed in this network before it even launched.

Our Executive Producers and Producers make this work possible — funding neurodivergent creators, amplifying Autistic voices, and helping build a media ecosystem rooted in pride, creativity, and community.

These members form the foundation of the Autistic Culture Podcast Network, and you’ll see their names credited at the end of our shows and on our website.

🎙️ Executive Producers
Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers

AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

The Late Diagnosis Club meeting focused on discussing relationships with family members following autism diagnoses. Dr. Angela provided updates about the Autistic Culture Podcast Network, …

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One of the quieter injuries of neurodivergent life is being documented by people who didn’t fully understand what they were seeing. A teacher who wrote “does not pay attention” when you were actually overwhelmed. A clinician who noted “resistant to treatment” when you were terrified. A report card that reduced years of invisible effort to a single dismissive phrase. Those documents follow us, sometimes literally, sometimes just in the way we learned to see ourselves through someone else’s incomplete record.

Therapeutic writing can be a way of writing back. When we return to those official accounts and reimagine them — not to erase what happened, but to tell the fuller truth — we are practicing something important. We are insisting that our interior experience was always real, always valid, even when no one thought to write it down correctly.

Below is Libby’s third prompt:

The writing prompt is below. Paid members will see it. If you don’t see it, either you are not a paid member, or you are logged in to the wrong account. If you are not a member, you will need to subscribe to have full access and to see the prompt below. If you would like a free subscription for April, just reply to this email, and we will get you a free trial month.

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Tomorrow’s meeting will be a Late Diagnosis Club Member Infodump session instead of our planned guest speaker session. If you have been to a member infodump session before, you know there is something uniquely connective about hearing neurodivergent people speak in depth about what is currently holding their attention.

Think of this session as an adult show-and-tell structured for thoughtful listening and focused sharing. Each member who wishes to present can prepare approximately three to five minutes to walk the group through what they are working on and why it matters to them. You are welcome to use slides, share your screen, bring an object to demonstrate, read from notes, or simply speak through your thinking process.

Your topic might be a long-standing special interest or something that has recently captured your curiosity. You might be deep into a hobby, a creative project, a game, a television series, a historical period, a fandom theory, a productivity system, a craft technique, a scientific deep dive, a language study, a tool you are refining, or a spreadsheet you built simply because it brought you satisfaction. If it currently has your attention, it belongs in this space.

These sessions strengthen our collective understanding of Autistic culture because they center depth, detail, and genuine interest. If you would like to share, begin preparing your topic now and bring your notes to the session. If you prefer to attend and listen, you are equally welcome.

We’re saving you a seat.

The link to join the Zoom Meeting is below. Paid members will see it. If you aren’t don’t see it, either you are not a paid member, or you are logged in to the wrong account. If you are not a member, you will need to subscribe to have full access and to see the link below. If you would like a free subscription for April, just reply to this email, and we will get you a free trial month.

Upgrade now for full access and to join us for our live weekly community connection calls.

Upgrade to Paid

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In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Shyloe Fayad, a late-diagnosed Autistic school counsellor and somatic experiencing practitioner based on the stolen land of the Syilx people of the Okanagan in Canada.

Shyloe works both within schools and in private practice, supporting neurodivergent people, mixed race communities, and teens and adults navigating depression and anxiety.

Together, Angela and Shyloe explore sensitivity, boundaries, and the quiet but radical act of honouring your own needs in a culture that often teaches you not to.

🎧 Listen to this episode:

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate
Guest: Shyloe Fayad — Late-diagnosed Autistic School counsellor and somatic experiencing practitioner
You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair

• Member introduction: Learning to trust your own needs

• Discussion: Sensitivity, boundaries, and self-trust

• Late diagnosis and identity integration

• Cultural conditioning and productivity expectations

• Emotional processing and internal timing

• Accountability vs compassion

• Key learnings

• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela welcomes Shyloe Fayad to the club, introducing a conversation centred on emotional sensitivity, self-trust, and rebuilding your relationship with yourself after a late diagnosis.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Shyloe’s Story

Shyloe was raised in environments that prioritised productivity, deadlines, and external expectations over internal needs. Over time, this led to a disconnection from her own timing and instincts, something she began to recognise and unlearn following her late Autism diagnosis.

Her work as a counsellor and somatic practitioner informs this perspective, grounding the conversation in the body, nervous system, and the lived experience of navigating a world that often teaches people not to trust themselves.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Sensitivity: Experiencing the world deeply and needing space to process

• Self-trust: Relearning how to listen to internal signals

• Cultural conditioning: Being taught your needs are “less important”

• Productivity pressure: Deadlines overriding well-being

• Women and masking: Social expectations shaping behaviour

• Accountability vs compassion: The tension between rules and humanity

• Black-and-white thinking: Wanting clear rules in complex social situations

• Community: Drawing strength from like-minded people

• Emotional care: Protecting your “sensitive heart”

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• You have been taught not to trust your needs — and that can be unlearned.

• Sensitivity is not a weakness, but something to be protected.

• There is no perfect rulebook for being human — only ongoing adjustment.

• Accountability and compassion must coexist.

• Late diagnosis is the beginning of rebuilding self-trust.

• Community can help you navigate a world that feels misaligned.

• Honouring your needs is a practice, not a one-time decision.

• You can start again — as many times as you need.

📌 Notice Board

• Contact Shyloe: radicalwondering@gmail.com

• Shyloe’s Instagram

• Radical Wondering Instagram

• Facebook: Shyloe Fayad

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.
💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.
📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions
💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

💌 Want To Be Our Next Guest?

If you’ve been nodding along and thinking, “That could be my story,” we want to hear from you.

We’re always looking for late-diagnosed or self-identified neurodivergent adults who are ready to share their story on The Late Diagnosis Club.
Tell us a little about yourself and your diagnosis journey here:

💜 Whether you’ve just realised you’re Autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, or you’re still figuring it out — your story belongs here. We’ve saved you a seat.

Be Our Guest

💫 Why Your Support Matters

When you join Autistic Culture Plus or pitch a show to the Autistic Culture Podcast Network, you’re doing more than subscribing to a podcast —
You’re investing in Autistic-led media.

Included with Autistic Culture Plus

• Ad-free listening (sensory-friendly)
• Early access to every episode
• Exclusive archive of ~100 classic episodes

Every pound, dollar, or share helps:

🎙️ Fund neurodivergent creators — paying Autistic hosts, editors, and producers for their work
🌍 Amplify Autistic voices and stories that mainstream media too often overlooks
💡 Build an ecosystem of culture, not pathology — where being Autistic is celebrated, not “treated”
🤝 Support accessible, sensory-friendly storytelling made with our community in mind

For less than the price of a coffee, you help sustain a growing network that’s 100% by and for neurodivergent people — ensuring that Autistic stories, creativity, and brilliance reach the audiences they deserve.

Joining isn’t just a subscription.
It’s solidarity. Visibility. Community in action.

Join Autistic Culture +

💜 With Gratitude

A huge thank-you to our founding supporters of Autistic Culture Plus, who believed in this network before it even launched.

Our Executive Producers and Producers make this work possible — funding neurodivergent creators, amplifying Autistic voices, and helping build a media ecosystem rooted in pride, creativity, and community.

These members form the foundation of the Autistic Culture Podcast Network, and you’ll see their names credited at the end of our shows and on our website.

🎙️ Executive Producers
Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers

AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

The Late Diagnosis Club held its second meeting of April, focusing on a book club discussion of “Trust Exercise” by Susan Choi. The group explored the novel’s structure featuring three int…

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Writing therapeutically is not about producing beautiful sentences. It is about using language to get close to something true — and sometimes the most direct route is an unexpected one. When we write inside a form that wasn’t designed for our experience, we give ourselves a kind of cover. The structure holds us at just enough distance that we can approach material we might otherwise avoid.

This technique, sometimes called the hermit crab essay, is particularly well suited to neurodivergent writers. Many of us have spent years navigating forms, systems, and structures that didn’t account for who we actually are. Writing back into those forms — on our own terms, with our own story as a small act of reclamation.
This week, Libby invites us to do exactly that.

Here’s Libby’s second prompt:

The writing prompt is below. Paid members will see it. If you don’t see it, either you are not a paid member, or you are logged in to the wrong account. If you are not a member, you will need to subscribe to have full access and to see the prompt below. If you would like a free subscription for April, just reply to this email, and we will get you a free trial month.

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This month, we are doing something a little different. Our book club pick for April is a work of fiction and I think you are going to love it.

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi is a novel that will make you question everything you thought you knew about memory, storytelling, and whose version of events counts as the truth. It is also, without ever using the word, one of the most neurodivergent novels I have encountered. It is a book about what it costs to be the person whose complexity doesn’t fit the account someone else wrote of you, and what it takes to insist on your own version anyway.

It won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2019. It was a finalist for the Pulitzer. Critics called it “sickeningly intense,” “a masterwork of narrative destabilization,” and “the kind of novel that makes you sit up straighter.”

Why this book, why this month

Our theme with April Neurodivergent Narratives editor Libby Banks is exploring complexity and internal contradictions: the parts of ourselves that don’t add up neatly, the experiences that resist simple telling, and what happens when we stop trying to make them make sense.

This is exactly where Trust Exercise exists. It does not just describe complexity, it enacts it. I have never read a book quite like this. I’ll walk you through it on our call and how it personally helped me rectify some experiences I had in theatre school.

The novel is structured so that the reader experiences firsthand what it feels like to have their understanding rewritten by someone who was there all along and was never given the microphone. You will finish it feeling like you have been through something. It’s very cathartic, honestly. Especially if you had any school trauma which I most definitely did.

The book connects directly to Libby’s four prompts this month. Week one asks you to write from inside a container that never fit. Week two asks you to borrow a form and let your real story press through it. Week three asks you to write back against the documents that got you wrong. Week four asks you to describe the space you finally built for yourself. Trust Exercise does all four of those things simultaneously in the novel's architecture itself. It’s WILD! Reading it alongside the prompts creates a conversation between the creative work and the fiction that I think will open something up for you.

A note on how this pick came together

This book found me in a slightly roundabout way. While watching Vladimir, the new Netflix limited series starring Rachel Weisz and Leo Woodall that arrived on March 5th, the unnamed protagonist teaches a course in Women’s Fiction. Her syllabus includes books like Beloved, The House of Mirth, The Awakening: canonical texts of female interiority and constraint. And then, listed alongside those classics, I noticed Trust Exercise by Susan Choi. I hadn’t heard of it. Listen I spend a lot of time reading and if there is a book being taught in a women in fiction intro course that I don’t know, it’s gonna catch my attention. While watching Vladimir, I grabbed the book on Libby and was diving in before episode 1 wrapped. (Yes, I read and watch TV at the same time. Hello, hyperlexia.) The book was finished before the series was. Actually, maybe it was at the same time. Anyway, the book is a mirror of the miniseries.

Which brings me to your alternative.

If reading isn’t your thing this month, or even if it is

Vladimir is a completely valid companion to this session, and I genuinely recommend it whether or not you read the novel. Both centre on a woman navigating an institution where power, desire, and creative identity are hopelessly entangled. Both ask whose version of events we trust, and why. Both are deeply interested in what women do with complexity they are not supposed to have, and both refuse to resolve that complexity into something tidier or more comfortable than it actually is.

That refusal to resolve is worth sitting with. One of the things we practice in therapeutic writing is staying inside an experience long enough to let it tell us something true, rather than rushing to the conclusion that makes it easier to carry. Both Trust Exercise and Vladimir model that practice in their storytelling. They ask you to hold contradiction, tolerate ambiguity, and trust that meaning will arrive if you don’t force it. Kind of like being a Late-Identifying Autistic person in a Neuronormative world.

Watch Vladimir, read Trust Exercise, do both, or do neither. You will still get enormous value from our session. I will give enough context that you will be fully in the conversation, and I suspect more than a few of you will finish the session and go straight to one or the other.

Practical details

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi is comes in at just under 260 pages and reads quickly — especially for my theatre kids. It’s set in a performing arts high school for gifted and talented (aka neurodivergent kids). If you are starting today you could still have time to read it. Vladimir is streaming now on Netflix. Eight episodes. There will be some spoilers on our book club session, so if that bugs you, you might want to catch this one on recording, but we’ll do a 20-30 minute catch-up at the beginning before we jump into the book, so don’t stress too much. Come, and you can leave early or turn off the sound when spoilers come up. I’ll be sure to give a warning.

I cannot wait to discuss both with you.

You can get the book on libby or buy it almost anywhere:
US Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Trust-Exercise-Novel-Susan-Choi/dp/1250231264
UK Amazon - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trust-Exercise-Susan-Choi/dp/1250309883

The link to join the Zoom Meeting is below. Paid members will see it. If you don’t see it, either you are not a paid member, or you are logged in to the wrong account. If you are not a member, you will need to subscribe to have full access and to see the link below. If you would like a free subscription for April, just reply to this email, and we will get you a free trial month.

Upgrade now for full access and to join us for our live book club meeting.

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In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Carolyn Kiel, host of the award-winning podcast Beyond 6 Seconds, who discovered she was Autistic not before, but through her podcasting journey.

Together, Angela and Carolyn explore late-discovery through connection, the limits of traditional narratives about autism, workplace misunderstandings, and how language and self-understanding can transform everyday life.

🎧 Listen to this episode:

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate
Guest: Carolyn Kiel — Host of the Beyond 6 Seconds Podcast
You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair

• Member introduction: Discovering autism through podcasting

• Discussion: Representation, stereotypes, and lived experience

• Late diagnosis and identity integration

• Self-identification vs formal diagnosis

• Post-diagnosis adjustments and accommodations

• Autistic joy and special interests

• Key learnings

• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Carolyn Kiel, host of Beyond 6 Seconds, a long-running podcast exploring human experiences and neurodiversity. Carolyn shares how her podcasting journey began as a creative outlet, and unexpectedly became the pathway to discovering her own Autistic identity.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Carolyn’s Story

Carolyn began podcasting in 2018 to build creative expression and practise one-on-one conversations. As an introverted and self-described shy person, interviewing others about their passions offered a structured way to connect.

Through her podcast, she encountered members of the disability and neurodivergent community, including Autistic creators. Hearing their experiences, particularly how autism felt rather than how it was externally described, led to a growing sense of recognition.

After further research, particularly around how autism presents in women, Carolyn began to question whether she might be Autistic. She later pursued a formal diagnosis in her mid-40s, which confirmed her understanding and led her to pivot her podcast toward neurodivergent voices and intersectional experiences.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Discovery through others: Recognising yourself in the lived experiences of others

• Beyond stereotypes: Moving past narrow 80s/90s definitions of autism

• Self-identification vs diagnosis: Barriers, access, and validity of both paths

• Social confusion: Difficulty navigating conversations, timing, and group dynamics

• Communication shifts: Learning to verbalise internal processing needs

• Accommodations: Fidgets, earplugs, sunglasses, and sensory awareness

• Podcasting as control: Creative ownership, structure, and autonomy

• Intersectionality: Exploring neurodivergence across race, gender, and identity

• Corporate navigation: Developing “scripts” to survive workplace culture

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Late diagnosis can emerge through connection and shared stories, not just clinical pathways.

• Understanding internal experience is often more powerful than external definitions.

• Self-identification is valid, particularly where diagnostic barriers exist.

• Giftedness and competence can mask significant support needs.

• Small accommodations can meaningfully improve daily life.

• Workplace challenges are often rooted in misunderstanding, not inability.

• Identity integration is an ongoing process, not a single moment of clarity.

📌 Notice Board

• Recommended Episode: Interview with Tiffany Hammond (A Day With No Words)
  

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.
💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.
📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions
💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

💌 Want To Be Our Next Guest?

If you’ve been nodding along and thinking, “That could be my story,” we want to hear from you.

We’re always looking for late-diagnosed or self-identified neurodivergent adults who are ready to share their story on The Late Diagnosis Club.
Tell us a little about yourself and your diagnosis journey here:

💜 Whether you’ve just realised you’re Autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, or you’re still figuring it out — your story belongs here. We’ve saved you a seat.

Be Our Guest

💫 Why Your Support Matters

When you join Autistic Culture Plus or pitch a show to the Autistic Culture Podcast Network, you’re doing more than subscribing to a podcast —
You’re investing in Autistic-led media.

Included with Autistic Culture Plus

• Ad-free listening (sensory-friendly)
• Early access to every episode
• Exclusive archive of ~100 classic episodes

Every pound, dollar, or share helps:

🎙️ Fund neurodivergent creators — paying Autistic hosts, editors, and producers for their work
🌍 Amplify Autistic voices and stories that mainstream media too often overlooks
💡 Build an ecosystem of culture, not pathology — where being Autistic is celebrated, not “treated”
🤝 Support accessible, sensory-friendly storytelling made with our community in mind

For less than the price of a coffee, you help sustain a growing network that’s 100% by and for neurodivergent people — ensuring that Autistic stories, creativity, and brilliance reach the audiences they deserve.

Joining isn’t just a subscription.
It’s solidarity. Visibility. Community in action.

Join Autistic Culture +

💜 With Gratitude

A huge thank-you to our founding supporters of Autistic Culture Plus, who believed in this network before it even launched.

Our Executive Producers and Producers make this work possible — funding neurodivergent creators, amplifying Autistic voices, and helping build a media ecosystem rooted in pride, creativity, and community.

These members form the foundation of the Autistic Culture Podcast Network, and you’ll see their names credited at the end of our shows and on our website.

🎙️ Executive Producers
Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers

AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

The Late Diagnosis Club meeting on April 1st focused on updates and community sharing. Dr. Angela welcomed members back after returning from Australia and shared upcoming April activities,…

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Meet our editor for April, Libby Banks (she/they). Libby is an autistic, chronically ill therapist, practitioner-researcher, and writer whose work explores the full complexity of neurodivergent experience. As the developer of Contextual Systems Therapy and author of the forthcoming Navigating a Hostile Mental Health Care System: The Contextual Systems Therapy Field Guide — which offers twelve original interventions for neurodivergent practitioners and clients navigating a mental health system that pathologizes survival — she brings both clinical depth and hard-won personal honesty to everything she writes.

Libby reads with the same curiosity she brings to the therapy room, drawn to work that is honest, layered, and unafraid of its own strangeness. She values writing that holds contradiction without resolving it too quickly, whether that is grief laced with dark humor, tenderness wrapped in clinical precision, or the ordinary rendered suddenly absurd. She is less interested in polish than in truth, and welcomes pieces that take up exactly as much space as they need.

As April Editor of Neurodivergent Narratives, Libby invites contributors to explore the theme of complexity and internal contradictions — the parts of ourselves that don’t add up neatly, the experiences that resist simple telling, and what happens when we stop trying to make them make sense. She looks forward to reading work that sits with that tension rather than rushing past it.

One of the gifts of therapeutic writing is that it asks us to stay inside an experience long enough to really feel it — not to explain it away or arrive at a tidy conclusion, but to let the writing itself become a form of understanding. This month, that is exactly what we are practicing.

Here’s Libby’s first prompt:

The writing prompt is below. Paid members will see it. If you don’t see it, either you are not a paid member, or you are logged in to the wrong account. If you are not a member, you will need to subscribe to have full access and to see the prompt below. If you would like a free subscription for April, just reply to this email, and we will get you a free trial month.

Upgrade to paid membership for full access to our therapeutic writing prompts and to be a published author in our Annual Literary Anthology:

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The Complexity We Were Told to Hide

There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes not from doing too much but from explaining yourself too many times to people who were never going to understand anyway. Most neurodivergent adults who discover their identity later in life know this exhaustion intimately. It lived in the gap between who they actually were and the version of themselves they had learned to present. It accumulated in every diagnostic report that missed the point, every performance review that rewarded the mask, every relationship where love was conditional on staying legible.

What late diagnosis tends to surface, among many things, is the realization that the complexity was never the problem. The problem was the pressure to resolve it.

Neurotypical culture has a strong preference for coherence. It wants people to be one thing at a time, consistent across contexts, readable at a glance. It rewards simplicity of presentation even when the inner life is anything but simple. For neurodivergent people, whose experience is often characterized by intense and sometimes contradictory inner states, this creates a particular kind of double bind. The more honestly you present yourself, the more difficult you become to categorize. The more you simplify yourself for legibility, the further you drift from anything that feels true.

This is not a personal failing. It is a structural mismatch between a culture organized around surfaces and a neurotype organized around depth.

Research into autistic experience consistently points to the richness and intensity of inner life as a core feature rather than a peripheral one. Autistic people tend to process experience from the bottom up, accumulating detail, sensation, and meaning before arriving at a conclusion, which is the opposite of the top-down shortcutting that neurotypical social environments tend to reward. This means that the autistic interior is, by design, more complex and slower to resolve than the world generally has patience for. The result, for many people, is a lifetime of being told in various ways that their inner experience is too much, too specific, too contradictory, or simply unverifiable.

What is less often discussed is what happens when that pressure is removed.

When neurodivergent people find communities, frameworks, and creative practices that make room for the full complexity of their experience, something significant tends to happen. Not resolution. Not simplification. Something closer to integration. The contradictions do not disappear. The grief and the humor coexist. The anger and the tenderness coexist. The exhaustion and the capacity for deep joy coexist. What changes is the relationship to the complexity itself. It stops being evidence of dysfunction and starts being evidence of depth.

Therapeutic writing is one of the most reliable routes to that shift. There is substantial research supporting expressive writing as a tool for processing difficult experience, reducing psychological distress, and building coherent self-narrative. But for neurodivergent writers in particular, the value goes beyond processing. Writing that does not demand resolution, writing that allows contradiction to remain on the page without forcing it into a lesson, offers something that most official systems never provided: a form that is large enough to hold the actual experience.

This is what the hermit crab essay does, and what spoken word poetry does, and what the best autistic memoir does. It borrows or builds a container that is honest enough to hold a life that did not fit the available categories. It says: the complexity was always real. It was always worth documenting. It just needed a form that was not afraid of it.

That is what we are practicing this month. Not tidying up our contradictions. Not resolving our complexity into something more palatable. Writing from inside it, with honesty and without apology, and seeing what we find when we stop trying to make ourselves smaller than we actually are.

This is what we’ll explore together in the Late Diagnosis Club in April. We meet live 5 times on Zoom, with cameras always optional, for a member infodump session, a workshop, a book club discussion of Trust Exercise, a surprise guest speaker, and it all starts with a therapeutic writing session with Neurodivergent Narratives editor Libby Banks.

If you are not already a supporting member, just click "upgrade" in the top right-hand corner on the AutisticCulture.substack.com page. No one is ever turned away who wants to join and can’t afford it. Paid members also get to participate in our Virtual Writing Circle, Book Club, monthly workshops, and our Member Infodump. We’d love to have you check it out. Come for a week and stay for the fun and friendships.

Get a 7 Day Free Trial

If you are already a member, keep reading for the members’ only schedule for the month.

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NOTE: THE TIME HAS CHANGED IN ENGLAND, SO THE TIME DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NEW YORK AND LONDON IS BACK TO 5 HOURS!

Apologies for the change in my flight messing up our meeting last week. I was traveling through San Francisco, and as you can imagine, that was an adventure. I missed you, and I can’t wait to share with you my experience of going back to Australia to celebrate my 53rd birthday, revisiting my exchange student days. I’ll share some photos from my trip.

In tomorrow’s session, we’ll also meet Libby Banks, our editor for Neurodivergent Narratives this month.

Libby is an autistic, chronically ill therapist, practitioner-researcher, and writer whose work explores the full complexity of neurodivergent experience. As the developer of Contextual Systems Therapy and a soon-to-be published author, she brings both clinical depth and personal honesty to her prompts. This month's theme is exploring our complexity and internal contradictions — and Libby's four prompts take us on a journey from the containers that never fit, through the forms and documents that misrepresent us, to the spaces we finally get to build for ourselves.

We will review all of this month’s prompts and talk about what you can expect in April’s Late Diagnosis Club.

The link to join the Zoom Meeting is below. Paid members will see it. If you don’t see it, either you are not a paid member, or you are logged in to the wrong account. If you are not a member, you will need to subscribe to have full access and to see the link below. If you would like a free subscription for April, just reply to this email, and we will get you a free trial month.

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In this meeting of The Late Diagnosis Club, Dr Angela Kingdon welcomes Michael Kelly, a late-diagnosed Autistic artist and recent PhD graduate in design whose work explores how art can help us think about thinking.

Michael’s path to diagnosis began unexpectedly during his wife Susie’s autism assessment. After sitting in on several sessions as her carer, the clinician suggested that Michael pursue an assessment as well, leading to his own diagnosis a year later.

Together, Angela and Michael explore childhood solitude and special interests, creative practice as a way of understanding the mind, and how art can disrupt the systems that shape our thinking.

🎧 Listen to this episode:

🪑 Attendees

Chair: Dr Angela Kingdon — Author, community-builder, and Autistic advocate
Guest: Michael Kelly — Autistic artist, designer, and researcher
You: The Listener!

🗒️ Meeting Agenda

• Opening remarks from the Chair

• Member introduction: Growing up as the “weird kid” and finding refuge in books and ideas

• Discussion: Philosophy, art practice, and early adult burnout

• Psychosis, misdiagnosis, and years labelled as anxiety

• Autistic masking, sensory overwhelm, and family patterns

• Art as inquiry: performance, sculpture, and metacognition

• Artificial intelligence, normativity, and the role of artists

• Key learnings

• Club announcements

🧾 Minutes from the Meeting

1️⃣ Opening Remarks

Angela introduces Michael Kelly, a late-diagnosed Autistic artist and newly minted PhD graduate whose research explores how art can help us understand thinking itself, particularly in the context of emerging technologies and artificial intelligence.

2️⃣ Member Introduction: Michael’s Story

Michael describes growing up as “the weird kid,” finding comfort in solitary interests like books, dinosaurs, comics, and drawing. As an only child, he often retreated into imagination and reflection. Experiences that, in hindsight, align with Autistic ways of engaging with the world.

After studying philosophy at Durham University in the UK, Michael pursued creative work and eventually a career in advertising before experiencing severe burnout and psychosis in his mid-20s. For years afterwards, he lived under an anxiety diagnosis without understanding the deeper neurodivergent context behind his experiences.

3️⃣ Discussion Highlights

• Only-child solitude: Safe space for imagination, reading, and deep thinking

• Early interests: Dinosaurs, comics, drawing, theology, and philosophy

• Advertising burnout: Workplace pressure and sensory overload leading to psychosis

• Misdiagnosis: Years labelled with anxiety before autism was considered

• Partner recognition: Sitting in on Susie’s autism assessment sparked Michael’s own

• Masking and sensory overwhelm: Eye contact, social performance, and inherited patterns

• Art as inquiry: Performance art, sculpture, and artistic experiments exploring the mind

• Metacognition: Using art to examine how humans think about thinking

• AI and normativity: Concerns about artificial intelligence reinforcing “average” thinking

4️⃣ Key Learnings

• Late discovery often begins with recognition by someone close to us.

• Years of anxiety or other diagnoses can obscure underlying neurodivergence.

• Creative practice can become a powerful tool for understanding internal experience.

• Masking and sensory overwhelm often shape lifelong coping strategies.

• Artists may play an important role in questioning the systems and technologies shaping our future.

📌 Notice Board

• Michael’s Website

📣 Club Announcements

🎧 The Late Diagnosis Club is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms.
💬 Join our online meetups and community at latediagnosis.club.
📌 Check the LDC Notice Board for Member Contributions
💜 There is a small charge — but no one is turned away for lack of funds.

💌 Want To Be Our Next Guest?

If you’ve been nodding along and thinking, “That could be my story,” we want to hear from you.

We’re always looking for late-diagnosed or self-identified neurodivergent adults who are ready to share their story on The Late Diagnosis Club.
Tell us a little about yourself and your diagnosis journey here:

💜 Whether you’ve just realised you’re Autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, or you’re still figuring it out — your story belongs here. We’ve saved you a seat.

Be Our Guest

💫 Why Your Support Matters

When you join Autistic Culture Plus or pitch a show to the Autistic Culture Podcast Network, you’re doing more than subscribing to a podcast —
You’re investing in Autistic-led media.

Included with Autistic Culture Plus

• Ad-free listening (sensory-friendly)
• Early access to every episode
• Exclusive archive of ~100 classic episodes

Every pound, dollar, or share helps:

🎙️ Fund neurodivergent creators — paying Autistic hosts, editors, and producers for their work
🌍 Amplify Autistic voices and stories that mainstream media too often overlooks
💡 Build an ecosystem of culture, not pathology — where being Autistic is celebrated, not “treated”
🤝 Support accessible, sensory-friendly storytelling made with our community in mind

For less than the price of a coffee, you help sustain a growing network that’s 100% by and for neurodivergent people — ensuring that Autistic stories, creativity, and brilliance reach the audiences they deserve.

Joining isn’t just a subscription.
It’s solidarity. Visibility. Community in action.

Join Autistic Culture +

💜 With Gratitude

A huge thank-you to our founding supporters of Autistic Culture Plus, who believed in this network before it even launched.

Our Executive Producers and Producers make this work possible — funding neurodivergent creators, amplifying Autistic voices, and helping build a media ecosystem rooted in pride, creativity, and community.

These members form the foundation of the Autistic Culture Podcast Network, and you’ll see their names credited at the end of our shows and on our website.

🎙️ Executive Producers
Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.

🎧 Producers

AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris.

Read more