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 dive into the unexpected new Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything, created by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. From Fielder’s famously awkward interviewing style and fascination with aviation to Holmes’ carefully constructed public persona, routines and intense eye contact, they explore the Autistic traits they recognise in both figures — and what happens when we look at familiar cultural stories through an Autistic lens.
That conversation also raises a bigger question about so-called “armchair diagnosis”. Is there a difference between diagnosing somebody and recognising Autistic traits in another person? And why can simply suggesting that somebody might be Autistic provoke such a strong reaction? Angela and Simon consider whether some of that discomfort reveals more about the stigma still attached to autism than the act of recognising those traits itself.
As always, we’ll also take you through everything coming up across the Autistic Culture Podcast Network this week, including the launch of Isha Snow’s Autistic Standpoint Theory, alongside new episodes exploring Zombieland, friendship and creativity, nervous-system regulation, Neurodivergent tales from Reddit, Alfred Kinsey and a joyful deep dive into the world of Pokémon.
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:
Monday 14th 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 3: How to Survive the Zombie Apocalypse – or Any Day – with Zombieland
In this episode of The Still Growing Up Film Club, Cece Fanning takes an unconventional coming-of-age trip into Zombieland, following Columbus, Tallahassee, Wichita and Little Rock through a world where staying alive requires rules, resilience, courage — and occasionally a desperate search for a Twinkie.
Using Columbus’s famous survival rules as a starting point, Cece explores our need for structure and predictability, the comfort of self-imposed rules, and what happens when staying safe starts to get in the way of actually living. Through a neurodivergent lens, she reflects on anxiety, hypervigilance, vulnerability, finding safe people and the complicated process of learning when to trust ourselves enough to take a risk.
Tuesday 15th September
NEW SHOW - Autistic Standpoint Theory - Episode 1: We Have Existed. We Will Exist
In the first episode of Autistic Standpoint Theory, Isha Snow is joined by Dani Stephens to explore what changes when neurodivergent people begin to understand themselves — and are finally given the support they need to succeed.
Dani shares their journey through ADHD and autism identification, navigating university as a neurodivergent student, and the difference that access to accommodations has made to their education. Together, they discuss burnout, disability support, inaccessible systems and what happens when struggles previously understood as personal failings are viewed through a neurodivergent lens.
Wednesday 16th September
The Neurocomplex Creative - Season 2 Episode 2: Open Eyes, Open Heart
In this episode of The Neurocomplex Creative, Vicki Peterson reconnects with her first-ever roommate, visual artist Summer Love, whom she met at Maharishi International University when they were just seventeen.
Together, they revisit coming of age in an unconventional world of golden domes, mandatory meditation, yogic flying and rules that shaped their everyday lives. They reflect on finding friendship and belonging within that environment, being seen for who they were rather than who they were connected to, and developing a bond built on understanding, shared experience and a lot of laughter.
Thursday 17th September
The Neurodivergent Experience - Episode 128
Jordan James and Simon Scott return for a conversation about the Neurodivergent Experience!
📚 From the Archive - Friday 18th September
Autistic Culture Podcast Rewind –
Rewind with an Autistic Culture Podcast classic: Kinsey is Autistic.
This episode takes listeners on a virtual culture trip into the intersections of autism, sex, gender, and sexuality. This episode spotlights the life and work of Alfred Kinsey, the groundbreaking scientist who transformed how society understands human sexuality.
Sunday 20th September
Info Dump – Episode 8: Pokémon
QC joins Hannah Brockway for an enthusiastic deep dive into the world of Pokémon, exploring the global franchise that has remained a lifelong special interest.
Together they discuss collecting, fan communities, childhood creativity, themed transport, and some of the more surprising corners of the Pokémon world. Along the way, QC reflects on how Pokémon shaped her friendships, encouraged her imagination, and continues to provide opportunities for connection, curiosity and joy.
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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 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:
New Nathan Fielding/Lance Oppenheim releasing Elizabeth Holmes surprise movie
If you don’t know Nathan Fielding, watch this:
Elizabeth Holmes podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dropout/id1449500734
Matt Lucas has publicly shared for the first time that he is autistic, disclosing while speaking to Romesh Ranganathan on BBC Radio 2.
Books and Research:
Events:
Annual Audio Arts Festival in St Leonards-on-Sea. 25th-27th September 2026
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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.
Hooray for STOP GROWING IT ALONE!
And Sadie's interesting words about Nathan Fielder.
Just found out that another of my favourite comedians is Autistic - his name is Luke McGregor. (I had had a suspicion since he did his first documentary series on sex and awkwardness back in 2014).
Good to know more about Autistic Standpoint Theory - I am an occasional follower of Isha (or at least I look at her writings). There is a lot of intellectual meat and teeth and linguistic truth in them.