Welcome to This Week in Autistic Culture
Welcome to another edition of This Week in Autistic Culture, our Sunday magazine podcast that brings together the stories, conversations and ideas shaping Autistic culture each week.
This week, Angela and Simon explore what it means to find your people, after a story from Boomtown Festival about an Autistic festivalgoer who arrived alone and left with a whole new group of friends. Simon reflects on his own experiences of finding community through music festivals, and how a muddy field in Leeds became one of the first places he experienced neurodivergence without deficit.
They also dive into new research using lab-grown brain models to study differences in synaptic pruning, and the uncomfortable questions raised when understanding Autistic brains becomes intertwined with attempts to change them. If science could one day offer a pill that altered the neurological differences associated with autism, would we want it? And where would improving someone’s quality of life end and changing who they are begin?
As always, we’ll also take you through everything coming up across the Autistic Culture Podcast Network this week, including the return of The Neuro Complex Creative for its second season, new episodes exploring the Kākāpō, The Princess Diaries, Autistic menopause, burnout, Neurodivergent tales on Reddit and Andy Warhol.
Plus, we head to the Community Notice Board for books, events and opportunities from across the wider Autistic community.
🎧 Start Here: Autistic Culture Radio
Looking for a different way to experience ACPN? Autistic Culture Radio is our curated Spotify listening experience, blending music with every programme released across the Autistic Culture Podcast Network.
Updated daily, each episode is paired with carefully chosen songs inspired by its themes, creating a continuous soundtrack to Autistic culture. Save the playlist to your Spotify library and dip in whenever you want to discover new conversations, music and voices from across the network.
📻 On Air This Week:
Sunday 6th September
Info Dump – Episode 6: The Kākāpō
Krista joins Hannah Brockway to share her passion for the kākāpō, New Zealand’s critically endangered flightless parrot, and the remarkable conservation efforts helping to bring the species back from the brink of extinction.
Together they explore what makes the kākāpō so unique, from its unusual behaviours and breeding habits to the challenges of protecting such a vulnerable species. Krista also shares how this extraordinary bird has inspired her own creative projects and why celebrating wildlife can be just as rewarding as helping to protect it.
Monday 7th September
Mindful Mondays with Ashley Dupuy
Ashley returns with another mindful reflection and guided meditation to help neurodivergent listeners begin the week with intention and regulation.
The Still Growing Up Film Club - Episode 2: How to Be Royalty with The Princess Diaries
In this episode of The Still Growing Up Film Club, Cece Fanning revisits the beloved coming-of-age classic The Princess Diaries and Mia Thermopolis’s unexpected journey from invisible teenager to Princess of Genovia.
Through princess lessons, makeovers, friendship fallouts, embarrassing mistakes and one very important royal decision, Cece explores what Mia’s story can teach us about identity, confidence, courage and finding our own voice
Tuesday 8th September
Autistic Menopause - Episode 4: Surviving Autistic Menopause
In this episode, Sam Galloway (she/her) explores the reality of changing support needs during autistic menopause. Drawing on her own experiences of severe perimenopause, cognitive regression, chronic pain, medical gaslighting, suicidal ideation, and surgical menopause, she examines what happens when lifelong coping strategies stop working.
Wednesday 9th September
The Neurocomplex Creative - Season 2 Premiere - Episode 1: Going Off Script
In the Season Two premiere of The Neurocomplex Creative, Vicki Peterson reflects on what it actually takes to create while recovering from autistic burnout and living with chronic illness.
From working in "low battery mode" to creating from a recliner, she explores what happens when conventional expectations around productivity no longer fit your brain or body.
Thursday 10th September
The Neurodivergent Experience - Episode 127
Jordan James and Simon Scott return for a conversation about the Neurodivergent Experience!
📚 From the Archive - Friday 11th September
Autistic Culture Podcast Rewind – Andy Warhol is Autistic
Rewind with an Autistic Culture Podcast classic: Andy Warhol is Autistic. Dive into the life and legacy of Andy Warhol, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, exploring his story through the lens of Autistic culture.
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📌 Community Noticeboard
The Community Noticeboard is your space to share what’s happening across autistic culture. Whether you’re launching a book, hosting an event, releasing a podcast, starting a creative project, celebrating a milestone, or simply have something you’d like the community to know about, we’d love to hear from you.
Send your announcements, links and updates to autisticculturepodcast@gmail.com, and we’ll feature as many as we can in a future edition of This Week in Autistic Culture.
This Week’s Topics:
Books and Research:
Focus: The ADHD guide to productivity - by ADHD experts and co-hosts of the popular ADHD Adults podcast, Professor James Brown and Sam Brown
Focus Pocus: A Parent’s Guide to Fostering Concentration, Resilience, and Academic Achievement in a Distracted World - by Nancy Howes, MEd
Events:
Angela’s guest appearance on the ‘Every Day's a Train Wreck’ podcast
Divergent Doodler’s Symposium
Recovery College Collective Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Wednesday, September 9 • 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM
Building Our Resilience Course with Joe Lenton - NeuroHub Community Ltd - Starts Sunday, September 6th - 6 to 7 pm - Pay what you can
Transitions, Change & Uncertainty - Choose Your Way ND BrainSpace - Tuesday, September 8th - 12 to 1 pm - Free
Beyond RSD: Building Confidence as a Neurodivergent Business Owner with Suzi Payton - Inclusion Support Hub - Wednesday, September 9th - 2 to 3 pm - Free
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Have a Show Idea?
The Autistic Culture Podcast Network is always looking for new voices and new perspectives.
If you have an idea for a podcast grounded in Autistic lived experience, culture, identity, advocacy, creativity, or special interests, we’d love to hear from you.