For Every Autistic Person Who’s Too Burned Out to Work
A few years ago, I couldn’t get out of bed. Then I made an award-winning podcast. I didn’t set out to win anything. I set out to survive. This is what happens when survival turns into service.
A few years ago, I couldn’t get out of bed.
I don’t mean that metaphorically. I mean I was done. For some people COVID was a good thing — a reset. For me, it was a disaster. I built a life filled with accommodations and work arounds for my nervous system and in a minute they all fell apart and so did I.
I had to rebuild my life from scratch and the project just felt too enormous. I couldn’t figure out how to go on. My sister encouraged me to just focus on anything that gave me joy. At the time, the only thing I could do was listen to podcasts. In some ways listening to podcasts saved my life, so as I came out of podcast, the first thing I felt ready to do was make one to help others. I wasn’t thinking about winning awards. I was just trying to make it through the day.
That’s why being named the Runner-Up in the Purpose-Led Podcast of the Year by Digital Women means something different to me than it might to someone else.
Digital Women is a UK-based network dedicated to empowering women in digital and business careers, championing inclusion, innovation, and visibility across industries. The awards celebrate the creators, entrepreneurs, and change-makers who are building the future—and being recognized among them for The Autistic Culture Podcast meant everything. It validated that our stories matter, our culture matters, and that centering autistic perspectives is not only meaningful—it’s purpose-led.
In a funny twist of fate, my sister’s friend Christine happened to be at the awards banquet and got this video of them announcing me as a winner.
Last month I also won a Gold Stevie Award in the Arts & Culture Podcast category of the 2025 International Business Awards. These aren’t just shiny trophies. They are proof that this time—my time, our time—matters. That what we create, what we say, what we feel… has value.
The Autistic Culture Podcast started as a radical act of storytelling. We wanted to create something by Autistic people, for Autistic people—something joyful, funny, nerdy, beautiful, and true. I wasn’t sure anyone would listen. But a MILLION downloads later, it turns out many of us were craving a space that centered our experience not as a medical issue, but as a culture.
The truth is, I still live with personal challenges that would sideline a lot of people. Some days it still feels like the ground shifts under me. But for today I have the ability and the energy to work and I don’t take that for granted. Tomorrow could easily be different. And I know not every Autistic person can work. So I’m doing it for all of us. Because when one Autistic voice is heard, it clears the way for others.
These awards aren’t a finish line. They are a call to keep going.
To everyone in burnout right now, in grief, in the middle of identity shock, I see you. This work is for you.
Let’s keep building the world we needed back then—and still need now.
