The Different Minds podcast series

Broadcaster, John Offord chats to Jeff Gawthorpe about ADHD. "The human cost of undiagnosed ADHD is incalculable - the broken families, suicides, careers lost, unhappy lives and unmet potentials. This alone should be sufficient for society and our government to start treating ADHD with the priority it deserves". For more details on Jeff's story, please see: https://www.adhdaction.org/ADHD-Stories/Jeffs-Story

Broadcaster, John Offord chats to content creator for YouTube, Instagram and TikTok, Purple Ella, to talk about life with autism and ADHD. For more details about Purple Ella, please see: https://www.purpleella.com

When Suzanne Alderson’s 14 year old daughter became suicidal in 2015, following a period of sustained bullying, Suzanne found herself in a desperate place, facing an uncertain future with little support and even less understanding. While her daughter was immediately wrapped in professional care, Suzanne found that there was no support available to help her or her husband make sense of the situation and give their child the best kind of care.  One night on suicide watch, she decided if she ever got through this time, she would ensure no other family had to go through this alone. In 2016, as her daughter improved, she set up a Facebook group to try and help other families facing their child’s mental illness. The community, called Parenting Mental Health, is now a registered charity with a mission to end generational mental illness and help 1m parents by 2025. It currently supports over 25,000 parents from around the world who have a child with poor mental health. The charity offers a range of interventions such as Listening Circles and In Person Meet ups, training, Q&As with experts, social events and peer mentorship and community support and aims to support parents through their experience so they can support their child through theirs. Broadcaster John Offord chats to Suzanne Alderson, Founder at Parenting Mental Health, Community Leader, Public Speaker, Author of "Never Let Go: How to Parent Your Child Through Mental Illness" about mental health. Please go to www.suzannealderson.com for more details.

Broadcaster John Offord chats to Adam Frost, presenter on the BBC's Gardeners' World on Dyslexia & celebrating difference. Adam believes there’s inspiration all around us – in nature, architecture, art, people and food – we just have to take the time to stop and look around.

Broadcaster, John Offord chats to Susanne Antonetta, author of A Mind Apart: Travels in a Neurodiverse World; and Body Toxic: An Environmental Memoir to name but a few. Antonetta is one of America’s leading memoirists, advocates for the value of neurodiversity, and translator of the work of the sciences into new ways of understanding human life. A wide-ranging author, she writes about her experiences as a bipolar woman and psychiatric survivor, her early drug dependency, as well as the environment and her life as an adoptive mother. Awards for Antonetta’s writing include a Pushcart prize, a New York Times Notable Book, an American Book Award, a Library Journal Best Science book of the year, an Oprah Bookshelf listing, and others. Please see https://www.susantonetta.com for more. 

Broadcaster John Offord chats to Geek Girl author, Holly Smale who was recently diagnosed with autism – at 39. Holly Smale, the writer of the bestselling Geek Girl series, has sold more than three million books but she’s never felt like she fits in. She gives talks on stage to thousands, but has never had a serious relationship and now she thinks she knows why. 

Broadcaster, John Offord chats to autistic YouTuber, Dan Jones about life on the spectrum. Dan has Asperger’s syndrome, ADHD, OCD and Dyslexia. Dan (known as The Aspie World by his followers) creates and shares content for his 100,000 plus YouTube subscribers and his videos cover a range of tips and tricks for living with an autism diagnosis.

Broadcaster, John Offord chats to American Behaviour Analyst, Inclusion Specialist, and Autism Advocate, Joy F. Johnson for a candid conversation on intersectionality and specifically on the experience of Black individuals on the autism spectrum. Joy also talked about life in Germany and how that differs from the USA, her relationship with her neurotypical husband, Neurodiversity and medical models of disability. Please see https://joyfjohnson.com/

Broadcaster John Offord chats to Helen Dent, a clinical and forensic Psychologist, Attachment style expert and author of “Why Don't I Feel Good Enough?: Using Attachment Theory to Find a Solution” to talk about attachment theory and explains it’s not our fault how we feel – understanding where the emotions come from – come from our relationships with our first ever care giver. The theme of this podcast episode is the profound effect that early attachment styles (i.e. how you were brought up) have on a person's behaviour and emotions in later life. Understanding how this works and the effect it can have is the first step towards understanding how any emotional problems you suffer from have been caused. No one has perfect parents (leading to a totally secure attachment style) so even people with a basically secure attachment style will also have an admixture of avoidant or anxious attachment styles. Those unlucky enough to have been brought up in a totally chaotic way will have a disorganised attachment style. Helen Dent, who currently works in the field of autism sets out what the three main attachment styles are (anxious, avoidant, secure) and how we can develop a ‘secure base’ in our relationships (and not just in our romantic relationships but also in our friendships and even with our pets!). Helen explains the difference between healthy dependency and codependency in relationships, how we can manage relationship challenges when we have opposing attachment styles to our partner, how autism relates to attachment theory, why we are more likely to come across avoidant attachers when we are dating, how we develop a blueprint for a relationship, how the relationships that we have throughout our lives can influence our attachment style and how we can consciously work towards becoming more secure in our relationships.

Broadcaster, John Offord chats to Dr Dinah Murray, an independent researcher with a background in linguistics, anthropology and philosophy and her son Fergus Murray, a science teacher, writer and 'autist' about Monotropism, a cognitive strategy posited to be the central underlying feature of autism. A monotropic mind is one that focuses its attention on a small number of interests at any time, tending to miss things outside of this attention tunnel. The theory of Monotropism was developed by Dr Dinah Murray, Wenn Lawson and Mike Lesser. You can read more from Fergus Murray here: https://oolong.medium.com/starting-points-for-understanding-autism-3573817402f2 And more from Dinah Murray here: https://monotropism.org/dinah

Broadcaster, John Offord chats to American scientist, activist, author and speaker, Temple Grandin who is well known to many for her trailblazing work as a spokesperson for people with autism and her lifelong work with animal behaviour. Temple was named in the 2010 Time 100, an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world in the "Heroes" category. Grandin has written six previous books on autism and was also the subject of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning semi-biographical film Temple Grandin, staring Clare Danes. Today, we are seeing a new generation of autistic activists, who can take awareness as a given (because of Grandin) and focus instead on the social, political and economic barriers to our full integration and acceptance by society," said Ari Ne'eman, president and co-founder of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, which represents autistic adults. For more details, please see www.templegrandin.com

Broadcaster John Offord chats to Adam Feinstein, an acclaimed author, poet, translator, journalist, film critic, Hispanist and autism researcher to talk about neurodiversity. Adam’s book A History of Autism: conversations with the pioneers received widespread praise. 

Broadcaster John Offord chats to Lydia X. Z. Brown, an American autistic disability rights activist, writer, attorney, and public speaker who was honoured by the White House in 2013. Lydia talks about disability justice, ableism, Neurodiversity, models of disability, intersectionality and connections between trans, queer and disability experiences.