The Importance of Studying and Sharing Autistic Culture

A personal update from Autistic Culture Podcast producer and co-host Dr. Angela

After 14 years, 2000 books, and over 5 MILLION WORDS read and written, I am leaving my job at Difference Press to focus on The Autistic Culture Podcast and the movement behind it. I will still be helping Autistic people write and publish books when I have availability, but I’m turning my efforts to writing and publishing my own papers, books, blogs, and podcasts as much as I can on this topic, and I wanted to share a little more about why and how it happened.

There are lots of resources out there for Autistic people. Great resources - like tools for managing sensory overload, for creating a lifestyle that is in line with your neurological capacity and needs, and skills for improving your emotional regulation. And terrible resources like behavioral therapy like CBT or ABA that teaches autistic people to mask their true self and needs to please people around them, unproven supplements and fringe therapies, that prey on vulnerable communities, and fake it ‘til you make it spiritual gobbledygook that pretty quickly turns into “Have you tried just suffering?” While some find some of these things helpful, many Autistic people feel it emphasizes masking behaviors rather than supporting authentic self-expression. I have preferences and wishes that the resources I find great outrank the ones I personally find terrible, mostly that rock feels bigger (and heavier) than anything I can shoulder.

What I do feel called to, however, is the project of qualifying and quantifying Autistic Culture as a condition of humanity.

From early technological advancements to groundbreaking scientific theories, Autistic individuals have left an indelible mark on the world, shaping it in ways that continue to resonate today. This project requires time and focus to document and I wanted to free up my calendar and build a support system so I could undertake it. My goal is to catalog and celebrate the impact Autistic people and thinking have shaped humanity over the past 100,000 years to help autistic people understand the heritage they have and the birthright they are born into.

Autistic forces have shaped history long, long before diagnosis even existed. Around 100,000 years ago, during the Upper Paleolithic period, we see the first signs of traits often associated with Autistic cognition with the introduction of multi-component harpoons and microlithic stone tools. These inventions reflect a unique way of processing information and understanding complex systems that could only come from the bottom-up processing of hyper-connected brains.

Artifacts like the 38,000-year-old lunar calendar engraved on bone found in a Paleolithic cave showcase early Autistic-like mono tropic focus, attention to detail and fascination with patterns, mirroring the way some Autistic people today are drawn to organizing and understanding the world through numbers, dates, and systems.

38,000 year old calendar - image courtesy of Penprase, B.E. (2011). Stars That Bind: Civilization, Calendars, and the Sky. In: The Power of Stars. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6803-6_5

Fast Forward to the Renaissance and find Copernicus, whose revolutionary heliocentric model of the solar system challenged existing norms and shifted humanity’s understanding of the cosmos. His meticulous observations and willingness to defy convention mirror the pattern recognition and independent thinking characteristic of Autistic minds today — not to mention All Things Space ranks highly on our list of commonly pursued special interests.

And speaking of all things space, do you like calculus? No? Okay let me try again, do you like rocket ships or bridges or roller coasters? Because without calculus you can’t have any of those. And without Autistic Culture, you don’t get calculus. Sir Isaac Newton’s invented it in the 17th Century and with it, most of the world’s technologies, scientific advancements, and modern conveniences we rely on would not exist or would be far less efficient. (Which, btw, is part of why he was so hated in his day, not because calculus is a pain in the ass.) Newton’s ability to work in solitude, obsess over problems, and develop groundbreaking theories laid the groundwork for the way we understand motion, gravity, and time.

Newton looking very… shall we say… bendy in this print by William Blake, an English poet, painter and printmaker who utterly detested Newton and all of the enlightenment. Blake famously said “Science is the Tree of Death.” Still, I love that even as he mocks us, he captures our bendy joints and deep monotropic flow. Newton is in a cave at the bottom of the ocean in this image working into the night with the precision and exactitude of our people. I can hear Newton now saying “Don’t talk to me. I’m working on my theory of optics!” - Image courtesy of The William Blake Archive, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=198284

Autistics have always been integral to human progress. And yet, the world seems to want to take and exploit our work, without bearing any responsibility for understanding our culture. They lock us up, shut us down, and mock our style. The bullies can spot us faster than most therapists and doctors. And many of us go with it because our heritage is one of marginalization and shame instead of achievement and pride.

A community’s past informs its present unless that past has been distorted and hidden. My mission is to clean up those distortions and to pull our past out of the trash and into the light.

Autistic Joy on stage at the Democratic National Convention with son Gus and father Governor Tim Walz celebrating Walz accepting the VP nod. Gus, who is Autistic, was then mocked publicly either for having emotions or expressing them. Public figures like Gus Walz often face scrutiny for simply being themselves. It highlights the double standard Autistic people face—where natural expressions of emotion are criticized in ways that don't apply to non-Autistic people.

The seed for one of my massive undertakings was planted on Episode 23 when I did a deep dive on the ways international cultural competency is taught through Geert Hofstede’s Dimensions of Culture work. I’ll be recreating that research with a statistically significant sample of Autistic people to have an official multi-national read on our cultural signifiers in values and norms.

I want to do this research academically and for it to be peer-reviewed and available for other researchers to build upon. Even though I have a PhD already, I put myself back in school to study psychology so that my findings would be more accessible and acceptable to the people whose minds I’m looking to change. (I’m looking at you American Psychological Association.)

Plus, I really want people to call me “Dr. Doctor.”

I’m currently at the University of Kent but I’m on a path to get a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology (DClinPsy). This degree will allow me to do Autism-affirming diagnosis and will put me in a good position to speak to and hopefully train those who are doing diagnosis work from the perspective of a peer as well as an Actually Autistic advocate. I’m not usually big on change from the inside, but in this case, I think the credentials will impact my ability to make the change we need.

In addition to the podcast, my academic research, and some ghostwriting and book coaching private clients, I’ve got a fun book of my own in the works too. One that catalogs 100,000 years of Autistic contributions - kind of a pop culture encyclopedia which I’m hoping to turn into a museum exhibit.

Matt Lowry, LPP

and I also have dreams of someday launching an Autistic Culture Hall of Fame that someday could take a seat beside the Rock & Rock Hall of Fame in terms of museum magic. That’s going to be a long and expensive journey but with your support I know that’s a vision we could make a reality.

Miles to go before I sleep, but I’ll be sharing my journey will you here and on the podcast. Happy to have you along for the ride. If the Autistic Culture movement resonates with you or if you believe in its importance, I’d deeply appreciate your support—whether that’s by sharing this page or subscribing to help spread the word.

Season 3 of the podcast launches Oct. 29th, but we are airing some never before heard episodes in the run up to the season launch and we are hosting a live, virtual Halloween party on Oct. 31st at 4pm ET so be sure to listen and subscribe for all the details.

One last thing, if you love the show, you might be interested in joining the team! We are currently looking for a Social Media Administrator. This job is currently a volunteer role but could turn into a small, part-time, paid role.

• Responsibilities:

  • Manage the propagation of social media assets across different channels after content creation.

  • Create posts for Facebook, Twitter/X, TikTok, LinkedIn, and schedule Instagram/Threads posts.

  • Coordinate posts with episode releases.

  • Respond to or forward along comments that should be responded to.

If it sounds like you, drop us a note of interest at info@AutisticCulturePodcast.com.

Author Bio

Dr. Angela Kingdon is an autistic advocate, bestselling author, and host of the award-winning Autistic Culture Podcast. She is also on the editorial board of Neurodiversity Journal. Her work promotes neurodiversity-affirming practices through research, writing, and public speaking. To learn more, visit AngelaKingdon.com.