Discover what’s possible when people connected to autism inspire change and build community
Episodes
Thursday May 25, 2023
Thursday May 25, 2023
Discover what’s possible when cultural humility prompts curiosity and understanding.
This week's guests are Brandy Collins and Crystal Thompson.
Brandy is the founder and owner of Guiding Light Concepts, an autism center in Killeen, Texas. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, or BCBA, and a Certified Brain Injury Specialist with over 12 years of counseling experience. Brandy has dedicated her life to advocating for children and young adults in her community.
Crystal is the founder and owner of Believe Autism in Jacksonville, Florida. Also a BCBA, Crystal combines her passion to help children with autism and their families with her love for dance, as well as provides various opportunities through art classes, tutoring, and support groups.
Brandy and Crystal are members of our SkillCorps® Alumni community, having traveled with the Global Autism Project on SkillCorps volunteer trips to several of our partner sites, including SOREM in India and Rumah Tiara in Indonesia — which you may remember from episodes 6 and 16.
SkillCorps® is an opportunity for self-advocates, professionals, and family members to travel to our partner sites around the world and work directly with local communities on initiatives around outreach, awareness, and employment for autistic adults.
You’ll hear us mention Leadership Academy, which is a workshop our organization provides to prepare future SkillCorps trip leaders. Another term I use in the interview is RBT, which stands for Registered Behavior Technician. This is the direct-care level position that usually works 1:1 with clients.
In today's episode, Brandy and Crystal candidly share their experiences as Black women in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis, In this conversation, we discuss:
- How Brandy and Crystal have grown both personally and professionally from participating in our SkillCorps volunteer trips
- Their takeaways on supervision, teamwork, and cultural humility
- Brandy and Crystal’s experiences as Black women in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis
- Their views on how the stigma around disabilities makes it harder for families in under-resourced areas to access services
- Some of their ideas to make the field more diverse
This conversation with Brandy Collins and Crystal Thompson was originally released on July 9, 2020.
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Thursday May 18, 2023
Thursday May 18, 2023
Discover what’s possible when kindness starts with one.
Our guests today are mother and son, Sandy and Ben Hartranft. An Autistic Self-Advocate and public speaker, Ben visits schools, businesses, and organizations with the message of spreading kindness and inclusion. Sandy's book Swinging From The Chandelier: Finding Joy In The Journey Through Autism was published in 2022.
In today’s conversation, we discuss:
- Ben learning about his autism
- How the right speech therapist opened up doors for communication
- Ben’s special interests
- His experience being a guest on The Ellen Show and participating in The Price is Right
- Challenges autistic people face when looking for a job
- What employers can do to accommodate autistic employees
- Ben’s company Benergy and his takeaway messages for students
- What Ben wishes people understood about him
- His dating experiences
- Why Sandy’s blog is titled “Ben’s Kite String”
- What Sandy wishes she’d learnt sooner about motherhood
To learn more about Ben and Sandy Hartranft, please visit benergy1.com.
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Thursday May 11, 2023
Thursday May 11, 2023
Discover what’s possible when action is the path to acceptance.
This week’s episode is a recording of one of our Global Autism Community exclusive events!
After a few months of working behind the scenes on various projects, we’re happy to announce that our community events are back up and running. The topic of this roundtable discussion was Shifting From Awareness to Acceptance.
Participating in this event were Autistic Self-Advocates Stephanie De Kremer, Michelle Vinokurov, and Sara Bradford, as well as community members Danielle Terrell, Cheryl Albright, Laura Leonard, and Brenda Canas.
You’ll also hear from our new cohort of moderators, Andrew Bennett, Cassidy Hooper, Stephane Guidon, and Korey Taylor.
In today’s conversation, we discuss:
- What acceptance means, including self-acceptance
- How to educate the public about autism
- The importance of community outings
- Inclusion in society
Roundtable discussions like the one you’ll hear today are open exclusively for members of our online Global Autism Community. We select a different theme each month, and our moderators monitor posts daily to ensure that our online space remains safe and respectful. If you’d like to attend and participate in any of our future events, you can sign up today at community.globalautismproject.org.
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Thursday May 04, 2023
Thursday May 04, 2023
Discover what’s possible when diversity strengthens the workplace.
Our guests today are Stephanie De Kremer and Russell Botting. Stephanie and Russell are employees at Auticon, which is an IT consulting business that employs over 200 adults on the autism spectrum as IT consultants. Stephanie is one of them, and Russell is her job coach. They work together at Auticon’s office in London, England.
With branches across the UK, US, Canada, Germany, France, Switzerland, and Australia, Auticon is an international social enterprise whose mission is to improve the employment prospects of autistic people. They aim to provide high-quality careers for skilled autistic adults, shift perceptions in the workplace by placing consultants into client teams, and act as a catalyst for clients to bring more neurodiversity to their wider workforce.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- Stephanie and Russell's experiences working at Auticon
- Ideas about how other companies could increase neurodiversity in the workplace
- What services are available to families in the UK from diagnosis to adulthood
- What it was like for Stephanie to find out about her autism later in life
- What Stephanie wishes neurotypicals would consider when communicating with her
- Stephanie's special interests and strengths related to autism
For more information about our guests and the work that they do, please visit Auticon UK. To learn more about Stephanie's wrestling career, you can follow her on Instagram @kiara_wrestler.
This conversation with Stephanie De Kremer and Russell Botting was originally released on December 3, 2020.
Stephanie currently works as a Data Analyst at Cognizant. She continues her professional wrestling career as "Kiara" and holds the following belts: Squared Circle British Champion and CPW Galaxy Champion.
Stephanie is also an active member of our online Global Autism Community and has served on the Committee of Contributors to our Responsive Skills Training.
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Thursday Apr 27, 2023
Thursday Apr 27, 2023
Discover what’s possible when you remember your why.
This week we are celebrating the 3-year anniversary of this podcast, as well as the 2-year anniversary of our online Global Autism Community!
It’s been an eye-opening journey that continues to surprise, inspire, and move us. We’ve learned so much from self-advocates sharing their experiences, family members talking about acceptance, and professionals discussing best practices in the field of autism services.
We’ve covered a wide range of topics, such as ableism, bullying, masking, the neurodiversity movement, intersectionality, disability rights, dating, communication, personal growth, cultural humility, and international collaboration, as well as controversial topics like person-first vs. identity-first language, the puzzle piece symbol, and ABA therapy.
I recently went back and listened to episode 1. Honestly, I hadn’t listened to it since it was first released back in 2020. What a trip down memory lane! I was brought back to all of the preparation leading up to our launch: the nervousness I felt during my first interviews, the late nights spent editing, the fears of what people would think of the show…
Yet, listening back, I could also hear the optimism in my voice. I was reminded why I decided to start Autism Knows No Borders in the first place, and that why remains the same today. Through shared stories of struggles and breakthroughs, we hope to expand the reach of human connection and remind people that they are not alone.
Three years after launching Autism Knows No Borders, we are more energized than ever to keep going. There are many meaningful stories we still want to share with you. We will continue to elevate autistic voices and do our best to help them be heard. We want their stories to travel across the world, so that more people can join the cause for autism awareness, acceptance, and hope.
A huge thank you to all of our guests for openly sharing and educating us with their perspectives, as well as to our team members who keep making this podcast happen: our visual creator and social media manager, Anh Ngoc; and our sound designer and editor, Marc Aliana.
And, of course, many thanks to you, our dedicated listeners, for tuning in each week, sharing your takeaways, and ultimately giving meaning to what we’re doing. By the way, we’re honored to celebrate 100,000 downloads this month! So again, thank you for that — and cheers to the next 100,000!
If you’re a new listener, we’d like to welcome you as well!
Our online Global Autism Community has been growing over the past couple of years. This is a space where members have the possibility to share insights, listen to different perspectives, and create real change in their own communities — whether they’re autistic individuals, family members, or service providers. A huge thank you to our community moderators, who monitor posts daily to ensure that our online space remains safe and respectful.
Today you’ll hear from our new cohort of community moderators: Andrew Bennett, Cassidy Hooper, Stephane Guidon, and Korey Taylor.
Join us today at community.globalautismproject.org! Let’s work together to transform how the world relates to autism.
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Thursday Apr 20, 2023
Thursday Apr 20, 2023
Discover what’s possible when you work kinder, not harder.
Today we’re bringing back the CEO and Founder of the Global Autism Project, Molly Ola Pinney, along with the organization’s Head of University and Training Programs, Ann Beirne.
For the past several months, Ann and I have been working together on a very special project. We’ve developed Responsive Skills Training, a curriculum for entry-level autism service providers that teaches the required skills for the RBT, IBT, and ABAT credentials.
This course was co-created with the Autistic community to transform the way in which services are provided across the world. Our committee of contributors included prominent self-advocates, such as Temple Grandin and Stephen Shore, different family members, like parents and siblings, and a wide range of professionals, including speech therapists, occupational therapists, and transition specialists.
Our purpose with Responsive Skills Training, or RST for short, is to give entry-level service providers a more well-rounded understanding of autism by hearing directly from those with lived experiences.
In today’s conversation, we discuss:
- Why we decided to create RST
- The needs of the international community
- The importance of listening to autistic voices
- Reforming Applied Behavior Analysis to include neurodiversity-affirming practices
- The process of co-creating RST with a committee of contributors
After the conversation with Molly and Ann, you’ll also hear testimonies from several RST contributors about why they decided to join this project. These were recorded in the field during our last SkillCorps volunteer trip to Kenya in March.
Featured RST contributors:
Andrew Bennett, Autistic Self-Advocate, BCaBA (US)
Mafer Chang, Director/Founder of Centro Enigma (Ecuador)
Alexis Sevieri, Sibling Advocate, RBT (US)
Laura Leonard, BCBA (US)
Sangeeta Jain, Vice Principal of SOREM (India)
To learn more about the Global Autism Project’s Responsive Skills Training, please visit globalautismproject.org/rst.
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Thursday Apr 13, 2023
Thursday Apr 13, 2023
Discover what’s possible when education is informed by science.
Michael John Carley is an autism self-advocate, author, and consultant. This pioneer in the world of autism advocacy was one of two people on the spectrum to address the US Congress in their first-ever hearings on autism. The truth is I could spend the rest of this episode listing Michael’s accolades, but I really want you to listen to our conversation, so here’s my best effort to sum up his career highlights.
Michael was the Founder of GRASP — the largest organization in the world comprised of adults on the autism spectrum — and the Founding Executive Director of ASTEP, now called Integrate, whose mission is to help organizations identify, recruit, and retain professionals on the autism spectrum. He has presented at almost 150 conferences, hospitals, universities, health care organizations, school districts, and Fortune 1000 companies.
Michael has appeared in a wide variety of media outlets such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, BBC News, and NPR, to name a few. He has participated in a TED Talk and was featured in the documentaries On the Spectrum and Off the Rails. His articles and columns have been published in magazines such as Autism Spectrum News, the Huffington Post, and Sinkhole. He has also published two books and is currently waiting to publish a third. His first book is titled Asperger’s from the Inside Out, and the second, Unemployed on the Autism Spectrum: How to Cope Productively with the Effects of Unemployment and Jobhunt with Confidence.
Before his career in autism advocacy, Michael was a playwright in New York, as well as the United Nations Representative of Veterans for Peace, having spent time in Cuba, Bosnia, and Iraq.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- Michael’s journey of discovering his diagnosis, which came shortly after his son’s
- How autism impacts his daily life
- What Michael thinks is the only detriment for people on the spectrum
- The importance of support groups being led by autistic people
- How to process unemployment in a healthy way
- The need for a comprehensive sexual education curriculum for young people with autism
For more information about Michael John Carley and his work, please visit michaeljohncarley.com.
This conversation with Michael John Carley was originally released on August 6, 2020.
Michael's latest publication, The Book Of Happy, Positive, And Confident Sex For Adults On The Autism Spectrum And Beyond! was released in 2021 and has since been globally celebrated. This is a book that gives autistic people permission to seek pleasure without shame.
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Thursday Apr 06, 2023
Thursday Apr 06, 2023
Discover what’s possible when progress starts at home.
Lenora Edwards is a Certified Speech Language Pathologist with over 10 years of experience treating children and adults. She is the Chief Knowledge Officer at Better Speech, a US-based, online service provider with 150 speech therapists working with individuals of all ages.
In today’s conversation, we discuss:
- Benefits and considerations of delivering services online
- What a typical online session looks like
- The various populations Lenora works with
- The difference between a speech delay and a speech disorder
- Common speech difficulties among autistic people
- What Lenora enjoys about working with autistic people
- Common misconceptions about speech therapy
- How to encourage families to use Alternative Augmentative Communication with their autistic loved ones
- Advice for parents who want to improve their children’s language skills at home
To learn more about Lenora Edwards and her work, please visit: betterspeech.com
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Thursday Mar 30, 2023
Thursday Mar 30, 2023
Discover what’s possible when authenticity gets the part.
Dr. Kerry Magro is an autism self-advocate, international motivational speaker, best-selling author, entertainment consultant, and non-profit founder.
Kerry is the author of the Amazon Best-Seller Defining Autism From The Heart, Autism and Falling in Love, and I Will Light It Up Blue. He also contributed to College for Students with Disabilities: We Do Belong (featuring other prominent advocates such as Temple Grandin and Stephen M. Shore), presented a TEDx talk titled “What happens to children with autism when they become adults?”, and currently blogs for several organizations, including Autism Speaks and The Mighty.
As an entertainment consultant, Kerry has worked on the films Jane Wants a Boyfriend and Joyful Noise, starring Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton, as well as on the HBO series Mrs. Fletcher.
His non-profit organization, KFM Making a Difference, aims to break down barriers for people with special needs by granting college scholarships to adults with autism.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- How autism has impacted Kerry’s life
- How to prepare for transitioning to adulthood
- Autism representation in the media
- Common challenges people on the spectrum face when looking for a partner
For more information about Kerry and his work, please visit:
Kerry's website: kerrymagro.com
Kerry's FB page: Kerry’s Autism Journey
This conversation with Dr. Kerry Magro was originally released on March 18, 2021.
Kerry's latest book, Autistics on Autism: Stories You Need to Hear About What Helped Them While Growing Up and Pursuing Their Dreams was released last year and has reached the Amazon Best-Seller List for Special Needs Parenting.
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Thursday Mar 23, 2023
Thursday Mar 23, 2023
Discover what’s possible when travel is made accessible.
Dawn Barclay has dedicated over 30 years to working in different areas of the travel industry. Her recent book, Traveling Different: Vacation Strategies for Parents of the Anxious, the Inflexible, and the Neurodivese, offers helpful tips to soothe children’s travel anxieties. Dawn also writes fiction as D. M. Barr and holds leadership roles in several writer organizations.
In today’s conversation, we discuss:
- Why Dawn thinks everyone should travel
- Common struggles families face when traveling
- Practical tips to create a sense of routine, minimize sensory overload, and make a trip enjoyable for the whole family
- Advice for traveling by plane, cruise ship, or car
- Uncommon vacation ideas that might be suitable for families with autistic loved ones
- The importance of building itineraries that include special interests
- Lessons Dawn learned from traveling with her own children
- The difference between a ‘Certified Autism Center’ and an ‘Autism Friendly’ establishment
- How to introduce the idea of traveling and prepare children for a trip ahead of time
To learn more about Dawn Barclay, please visit dawnbarclayink.com.
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