Autistic Small Talk

Vince and Vanessa fly through part 1 of excitedly describing Nick Walker’s doctoral dissertation. As you can imagine, Vanessa is completely delighted. Episode 10 airs on CFUZ 92.9 FM broadcasting out of Penticton, B.C. and is streamable at cfuz.ca on Sunday, November 9 at 3pm PST. Autistic Small Talk is a monthly show that airs the second Sunday of each month at 3pm, and appears in the archive the following Wednesday at 6am PST. Citations and Resources Nick Walker’s doctoral dissertation Walker, Nick (2019) Transformative Somatic Practices and Autistic Potentials: An Autoethnographic Exploration. [Doctoral Dissertaion, California Institute of Integral Studies]. ABA causing harm Citations from Nick Walker’s dissertation about lifelong post-traumatic stress symptoms: Asasumasu, K. (2013b, November 7). The tyranny of indistinguishability: performance [Web log post].  Retrieved from  http://timetolisten.blogspot.com/2013/11/the-tyranny-of-indistinguishability.html Bascom, J. (201...

Episode 9 airs on CFUZ 92.9 FM broadcasting out of Penticton, B.C. and is streamable at cfuz.ca on Sunday, October 12 at 3pm PST. Autistic Small Talk is a monthly show that airs the second Sunday of each month at 3pm, and appears in  the archive  the following Wednesday at 6am PST. In episode 9, Vince and Vanessa have a brisk chat about Dyslexic Strengths and Complimentary Cognition. Citations and Resources Professor Chesko: “You Can’t Blame Everything on Your Autism”  A Response to a Critique I Never Asked For By the excellent Professor Chesko Dyslexic Strengths and Complementary Cognition: Taylor H and Vestergaard MD (2022) Developmental Dyslexia: Disorder or Specialization in Exploration? . Front. Psychol. 13:889245. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.889245 Taylor H, Fernandes B, Wraight S. The Evolution of Complementary Cognition: Humans Cooperatively Adapt and Evolve through a System of Collective Cognitive Search . Cambridge Archaeological Journal. 2022;32(1):61-77. doi:10.10...

Episode 8 airs on CFUZ 92.9 FM broadcasting out of Penticton, B.C. and is streamable at cfuz.ca  on Sunday, September 14 at 3pm PST. Autistic Small Talk is a monthly show that airs the second Sunday of each month at 3pm, and appears in the archive the following Wednesday at 6am PST. In episode 8, Vince and Vanessa cruise through Elliot Wassell's paper Experiences of Autistic Joy , glimmers, and 2 field recordings containing stories of Autistic Joy. Citations and Resources Wassell, E. (2025). Experiences of autistic joy. Disability & Society, 1–26. Autistic Girls Network Autistic Realms on Glimmers Life writings of Autistic people mentioned in Wassell’s paper: McAnulty, D. 2020. Diary of a Young Naturalist. London: Ebury. Kedar, I. 2012. Ido in Autismland: Climbing out of Autism’s Silent Prison. Sharon Kedar. Tammet, D. 2006. Born on a Blue Day: A Memoir of Asperger’s and an Extraordinary Mind. London: Hodder and Stoughton. Williams, D. 1992. Nobody Nowhere. London, Doubleday. M...

Autistic Small Talk is now a stand-alone show. We have an archive page of all our past episodes that should be much easier to navigate than before. In episode 7, Vince and Vanessa talk fleetingly about contradictory research on autistic neural connectomes and swiftly cover 2 papers on strengths-based approaches to identifying and working with Autistic people. Resources and Citations Autistic Connectomes Summary at Embrace Autism Human Connectome Project Nick Walker forever  The essay in which the greatly admired Nick Walker says: 
“Ultimately, to describe autism as a disorder represents a value judgment rather than a scientific fact.” Strengths-based Autistic Identification Matt Lowry’s Reframing of the DSM Criteria Autistic Culture Podcast Woods SEO, Estes A. Toward a more comprehensive autism assessment: the survey of autistic strengths, skills, and interests. Front Psychiatry. 2023 Oct 6;14:1264516. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1264516. PMID: 37867767; PMCID: PMC10587489. YAFA...

In episode 6 of Autistic Small Talk, Vince and Vanessa zoom through a chat about stimming followed by a speedy discussion of the Farahar & Foster Three Dimensional Autistic Space Framework. There may be a passing mention of the connection between mushrooms and ancient calendar systems. It should air on CFUZ 92.9fm on Saturday, July 12th, 2025 at 9am PDT, and can also be streamed live from the website. You can find it in the Local Matters archive a few days after it airs.  Resources & Citations Farahar & Foster three dimensions Autistic space framework Video by Chloe Farahar and Annette Foster explaining their framework Farahar, C., & Foster, A. (2019, June 4th). Autistic observable and unobservable experiences, and the erroneous use of biological sex as a method to differentiate Autistics: Introducing the Internal and External Autistic Space. Presentation at The Participatory Autism Research Collective Third Critical Autism Studies Conferen...

In Episode 5 of Autistic Small Talk, Vince and Vanessa rapidly review 2 papers about autistic identity and connect them to the concept of neuroqueer, then sprint through Vince’s project of inviting people to consider their neurotype. It should air on CFUZ 92.9fm on Saturday, June 9th, 2025 at 9am PDT, and can also be streamed live from the website. You can find it in the Local Matters archive a few days after it airs. Citations Warrier, V., Greenberg, D.M., Weir, E. et al. Elevated rates of autism, other neurodevelopmental and psychiatric diagnoses, and autistic traits in transgender and gender-diverse individuals. Nat Commun 11, 3959 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17794-1 Moore, I., Morgan, G., Welham, A., & Russell, G. (2022). The intersection of autism and gender in the negotiation of identity: A systematic review and metasynthesis. Feminism & Psychology, 32(4), 421-442. https://doi.org/10.1177/09593535221074806 (Original work published 2022) Resources The wond...