- Speaker #0
People with autism have actually listened and they've nodded their head. So it's like, yes. Oh my goodness. Yes. He finally gets, or someone finally gets why I'm doing this.
- Speaker #1
Welcome to NeuroDivergent Spot. I'm your host, Sam Arian. My pronouns are he, him, and I am a mostly neurodivergent therapist, speaker, and creator. My work focuses on all things neurodiversity with particular interest in autism, ADHD, learning differences, and learning disabilities. Today's guest is Sam Mitchell. Sam, will you please introduce yourself to the listeners?
- Speaker #0
Yes. Hello, everyone. My name is Sam Mitchell, and I run a podcast called Autism Rocks and Rolls. It's a podcast about autism and how we cope with daily struggles that you may or may not understand. Through the podcast, it's grown so much I've helped sponsors, a board of six members, most of the event planner in any address where I'm from, absolute motivational speaking services. I've spoken in Oklahoma, Orlando three times, Canada twice, Stewart, Florida, and Washington, D.C. I just got done a couple months ago doing a keynote speech in Daniels, West Virginia.
- Speaker #1
Before we continue, I've got a quick disclaimer. This podcast is for information purposes only and should not be seen as a replacement for therapy, healthcare, or legal advice. Awesome. Sam, I'm so excited to have you.
- Speaker #0
During the podcast, I forgot to mention through the podcast, what I'm trying to do is, in my view, because I think you can relate to being a neurodivergent therapist, change a population that gets ignored way too much.
- Speaker #1
Um, say more, if you don't mind, let's just start there for a second. Uh, what are you talking about? A population that gets ignored way too much. Share more about what you mean.
- Speaker #0
Okay. So when I say a population gets ignored too much, I think those on the spectrum get pushed out to the side because of our social skills, not being the best where no matter where you are on the spectrum. And I think that's a load of BS because I think our uniqueness and our quirks and the fact that we can still do something should make up for our lack of social skills.
- Speaker #1
Gosh, I'm going to dive in here on that. You're getting me excited just at the start here. When somebody says, hey, it's not a lack of social skills, it's different social skills. What's your take on that?
- Speaker #0
Well, it is different social skills. I don't think it's different. I think it's lack from my experience because my social skills were out of interviews. One-on-one conversations without a format stink bad. They really do. But it is what it is. But again, I can still do something. Example, I'm going to my job tomorrow at Blazor Vision, where I can still work broadcasting jobs with the basketball game. So I'll be paying the camera, maybe doing some graphic work, audio work. And if that's not enough to make it for social skills, I don't know what is.
- Speaker #1
Yeah. And you know, you,
- Speaker #0
and I think it's an unfair reason. It's an unfair reason to push me off to the side.
- Speaker #1
Yeah.
- Speaker #0
I haven't done anything wrong. I haven't done anything wrong. I didn't rob a bank.
- Speaker #1
Uh, I, I completely agree. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's, um, it also sort of points towards when I support families, because I do in my work, I have autistic clients as a therapist. age range from about six, it's usually about as young as I'll go, up to in their 60s, and everywhere in between. A little heavier towards adolescents and kids, but I work a lot with families. And with families, you know, parents will ask me about helping their kid, their adolescent or child connect socially. I always point them towards figuring out what this child is interested in and help this kid be in spaces amongst their interests. And then let them connect with people amongst the shared interests and not focus on trying to teach them how to have a certain kind of conversation. Instead, let them just do what they like to do and connect along the way. You know, an example I frequently have given is a young person struggling. The parents realized that the school had a Lego club. And getting this kid to stay after school for a Lego club changed everything because he could just sit here and build Lego. and then sort of adjacent connect with people.
- Speaker #0
That's the same thing with me with media club because I hated staying after school because after school, I just didn't like people and not to do stuff. I was involved with other stuff. So for a year, I did baseball, Boy Scouts, and then Taekwondo, which was the most obvious out of all of them. You had to get rid of the first two, though, eventually down the road because I sucked at baseball and Boy Scouts was just too much for me. So I chose to give it up for Taekwondo, and that was... Plenty more. It was a smaller classes and I think I enjoyed being social more because they didn't care. They will treat you with respect regardless.
- Speaker #1
I've seen multiple sort of martial arts spaces that have been very accepting, neurodivergent, friendly. So that makes sense. And because it tends to be pretty structured, people, a lot of autistic folks I've seen have done well because of the structure of the classes.
- Speaker #0
Right, I agree with that.
- Speaker #1
I want to jump in. I got interview questions here. Quick reminder. I got excited by the conversation. But reminder for listeners. I'm going to read you four questions. You're going to get 60 seconds for each question. And then at the end, we'll deep dive a little bit more. But question number one, same sort of for all my guests. What has your journey with neurodivergence looked like?
- Speaker #0
So my neurodivergence journey has looked like being diagnosed at four years old, ADHD at two. But the autism was at four. I showed very classic textbook symptoms. My biggest one was I hated fireworks. I just hated them with a passion. Now I love loud stuff. Thanks to rock and roll music. That's what really shifted it. Now I'm a pyromaniac. But I can launch them off. But that was one symptom. I'm going to look at you if you send my name, for example. And I was very structured at that same point when I was younger. If you told me we're going to Walmart and you didn't tell me after school, I would have a meltdown. And I was very organizational. So a great example is my grandma brought me. bought me food and I would line them up in certain categories. And if you flipped it upside down or you mess with it, I would literally either have a meltdown or run over and switch it back.
- Speaker #1
Got it. So a quick follow-up. How many of those traits or experiences have stayed pretty consistent throughout your life?
- Speaker #0
The structure has gone down a little bit. I still like it, but it's like an ant whatever. But the, not only sensory issues, actually the more I think of it, I hated getting wet. That has stuck with me to this day. Like today, earlier, I had a blow on my nose, and there was a little snot that just hit the shirt. And I was like, okay, nope, we're changing shirts.
- Speaker #1
I get that. Your Walmart example. When I meet with new families, one of my sort of basic questions that I ask is like, how does the child respond if you say we're going to the grocery store, but then you pull into the gas station on the way to the grocery store? And does that spike anxiety kind of thing? Sort of this like, this isn't exactly what you said we were doing. And the child kind of being thrown off by that. That's interesting you give a similar example.
- Speaker #0
When I was six, yes. But when I'm. 22 today? No. It's more of like, you really didn't tell me. You've got to be kidding me.
- Speaker #1
And I think somewhere in there, people start to understand. A lot of people grasp that it just means that I realized that I needed gas once I got in the car. It doesn't mean when I go to the grocery store. And in some cases, it'll be the gas station and the grocery parking lot still spikes. A little bit of a panic of like, wait a second, this isn't what you said. And so, yeah, it's really interesting conversation to have with families. Because I also say this, that a lot of families think that they're the only family that experiences that. And I'm like, no, no, this is pretty common. So let's keep them going here. Question number two, because you've referenced your podcast. How did you get your start in podcasting?
- Speaker #0
I started in podcasting through my high school's media club. And I fell in love with it so much that I decided to start my own podcast. Because I didn't want to wait until college to expand the skills. I kind of wanted a head start. I've always believed in starting early. That's why I was in my CEO class of senior year. Why I didn't get up at 5 a.m. in the morning was I kind of chose to. I didn't want to. Well, I did not scratch that. I chose to. I didn't have to. I wanted to. But that was when starting early was my belief. But anyway, going back to the podcast, that's how I started. I was through high school's media club. But as I said, I didn't want to wait until college. So I started my own podcast to learn the basic editing skills, which I had in media club. I want to expand on it more, and I've learned how to crossfade tracks through Audacity. I've learned a little more editing skills. Like one of the things I hate during interviews, and this is the thing I'm guilty of, you could tell maybe, is repetitive statements. People need to work on that, including myself.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, me too. Me too, absolutely. I repeated myself in saying me too. Um, and okay, that's, that's really interesting.
- Speaker #0
But there's a lot of other people have different, um, I would say. bad ass was speaking one of those are verbal crunchers and i just did one a minute ago like um you know and for a personal standpoint i because i'm a motivational speaker i hate verbal crunchers it drives me nuts it's a pet peeve of mine so that's why i like to repeat myself more to deal with the verbal crunchers because it's like um you know and this sounds really awful but when you do that you sound very unintelligent unintelligent
- Speaker #1
You know, I also,
- Speaker #0
that's just my opinion.
- Speaker #1
Yeah. That sort of from the editing side. Um, I wonder if you've run into this, um, with as much as you've done people who don't pause between their words. And I'm guilty of that. Uh, and people talk fast. And so you're trying to edit out part of it. Right. And it all just on the audio little graph there, there's never a break to, to cut it.
- Speaker #0
That's my problem. I talk way too fast, but I think part of it is the ADHD I have. And in my view, certain people can't help the way they talk, even though there's people who do the, um, you know, even though you sound unintelligent, I get it. It's the way you talk. It's literally like telling someone who has Tourette's syndrome, don't do your Tourette's.
- Speaker #1
Yeah. You know, because I interview a lot of neurodivergent people that includes. ADHD and it is it's some of my ADHD friends out there who are some of the worst it just there's never a pause um and I've some of them I generally I call them friends and I've said hey um I I can't edit what you've just given me here we got to redo that um but let I want to keep going uh how do you balance advocacy work podcasting and college the way I do that is through google calendar
- Speaker #0
I use my calendar a lot. I have all the things I need to do on there. Not everything. I don't put brush teeth and deodorant, go to the bathroom. I know to do that. But any extracurricular activities is something I do today. It looks like my interview was at 9 a.m., so that would be on the today's schedule. And then I have a speed network in at 5 p.m., so that's on there. And then I don't know who. It's either my mom or myself has an ENT appointment. I'll probably get rid of that, though, because I'm in Vincennes and I can't go to the ENT appointment and my mom's teaching, not realistic. So we'll have to talk to her about that later. But I also believe what else, too, is I literally also have a document where it contemplates my whole life, like academic, social, podcast and nonprofit work, I think, or. social something else and i really put the things in there to divide what is in there so maybe academics is class at 11 a.m while this podcast interview was for tuesday today at 9 a.m got
- Speaker #1
it um so so the biggest thing i'm hearing is just very intentional work in organization and scheduling um as soon i hit
- Speaker #0
on the keynote speech. I just wish I would have hit on it more often.
- Speaker #1
Makes sense. Who do you think benefits most from your message?
- Speaker #0
I think those with autism definitely benefit the most. I've had incidences where people with autism have actually listened and they nodded their head. So it's like, yes. Oh my goodness. Yes. He finally gets, or someone finally gets why I'm doing this. My parents can't understand why I'm doing this because I think there's stuff with autism. You just literally can't understand unless you have it. And I'm not trying to say you're doing wonders work, but I just think despite you being a therapist, despite my mother raising me, she just can't understand some of the autism stuff I go through. And it's hard to express some days. I'm not going to lie to you.
- Speaker #1
Have you ever had the experience? Because I've had this. several times when I've been speaking like at a conference on even if it's just neurodiversity in general if I'm talking about it kind of from a neurodiversity affirming perspective but specifically autism that I'll have audience members and this is like at a professional conference that I'll speak and so it may be another you know autistic clinician that they'll start off the back of the room and partway through my talk maybe it's an hour hour and a half and they'll move halfway up and then by the end of the the presentation, they're in like the second row and they've like moved closer as they felt more seen, I think, by the presentation. Have you ever had that happen?
- Speaker #0
No, that's actually a first for me. But what I do really, and this is what classrooms in general, I sit in the front row as much as I can, not because of protection because I'm close to the teacher, but so I can get the information.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, it has been fascinating for me to see people sort of as they engage with it. And so, okay. Of the. few topics we've touched on a lot is there an area where you think it'd be beneficial for us to kind of to go back and go a little bit deeper well it's hard to go into a lot of those i kind of explained it a lot but there's a lot of issues i still have one
- Speaker #0
of the issues i have with autism that comes with me and this is one that everyone has i think in my radio on the autism spectrum is prioritizing uh share more about that because i think i know what you're saying It's basically you have a load of tasks, and the problem is, with me, I think every one is important. So going to my father's funeral is the same as doing my math homework. They're equally important. Now, with you, you probably have figured, oh, my dad just died. I need to go to the funeral over this math homework can wait. Now. Not me. I think I would rather do the math homework while at my dad's funeral.
- Speaker #1
I didn't do a lot of my math homework.
- Speaker #0
But you get what I'm saying. That's an example.
- Speaker #1
Yeah, yeah. No, it's, I see that sort of the hierarchy thing play out in a lot of ways where people don't view the teacher as more important than the student, as a lot of teachers want things to be seen. Or receiving gifts, the obviously much more expensive gift. That should be nicer is not more appreciated than this other little thing. Um, because they liked them equally or things like that. A lot of,
- Speaker #0
here's a great example. Owning a yacht and a toy dinosaur is the same to us.
- Speaker #1
Yeah. So, um, your podcast autism rocks and rolls. Do you have any, anything upcoming, any projects coming up soon with that?
- Speaker #0
Well, what I can think of off the top of my head is in February, if this is a possible, highly likely, though, I will be going to Ohio and Columbus to speak to employers on why I should hire those with autism. And then in April, we always have our gala. Maybe we might be having a 5K, but a couple of small, small things that I know are coming down the pipe. I'm going to be a vendor for two events. First is the Square Circle Expo. I've done it before. And it's basically a professional wrestling convention. And the other one is new. It's a Hall of Heroes Comic Con, where it's a Comic Con with superhero actors, actresses who played characters like Superman, Wonder Woman. And I think this would be a good fit because I think those with autism are superheroes. That's what I want to show. And yes, if you're wondering, we are going to dress up as superheroes. I'm probably going to do Superman. And knowing my mom, she's going to do Black Panther, but I'm going to try to convince her to do Wonder Woman.
- Speaker #1
Got it. That's exciting. And certainly I'll link these things in the show notes. Where, if people want to track, you know, they want to hear more of your message, they want to learn from you, the podcast, you know, where can they find you online?
- Speaker #0
Autismrocksmells.com. We're not a hard guy to find. If you Google me in your search engine optimization, something will pop up.
- Speaker #1
Got it. Um, Sam, any social media handles?
- Speaker #0
I got Facebook, but that's the only one. Okay. And I'm out there. I mean, like I said, it's, it's going to pop up when you search me. I've done the research and I'm not our guy to find.
- Speaker #1
Got it. Okay. Um, well, Sam, I, I really appreciate you, you joining me today and just hearing your message. Um, I hope the folks will, will check you out and learn, learn more. Uh, I think you're doing, doing great work. Uh, and, and it's really exciting here. All the different places at, at a young age, you've been able to find your, your, your, your ability to advocate there. I think that's wonderful. So, so thank you for being here. Um, and, and for everybody, thanks for listening to Nerd Avergent Spot. Again, I'm Sam Marion. Uh, I hope you will like share, subscribe, and you can find me on Instagram at Nerd Avergent Spot. And then from there, you can find all my other places online.
