This Week in Autistic Culture #12 | Finding Your People, Synaptic Pruning and Neurocomplex Creativity

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 explore what it means to find your people, after a story from Boomtown Festival about an Autistic festivalgoer who arrived alone and left with a whole new group of friends. Simon reflects on his own experiences of finding community through music festivals, and how a muddy field in Leeds became one of the first places he experienced neurodivergence without deficit.They also dive into new research using lab-grown brain models to study differences in synaptic pruning, and the uncomfortable questions raised when understanding Autistic brains becomes intertwined with attempts to change them. If science could one day offer a pill that altered the neurological differences associated with autism, would we want it? And where would improving someone’s quality of life end and changing who they are begin?As always, we’ll also take you through everything coming up across the Autistic Culture Podcast Network this week, including the return of The Neuro Complex Creative for its second season, new episodes exploring the Kākāpō, The Princess Diaries, Autistic menopause, burnout, Neurodivergent tales on Reddit and Andy Warhol.Plus, we head to the Community Notice Board for books, events and opportunities from across the wider Autistic community.📌 Community NoticeboardThe 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 simply have something you’d like the community to know about, we’d love to hear from you.Send your announcements, links and updates to [email protected], and we’ll feature as many as we can in a future edition of This Week in Autistic Culture.This Week’s Topics: Strangers at festival help autistic man realise dreamLargest ever ‘map’ of autism may hold clues for new targeted therapiesBooks and Research:Focus: The ADHD guide to productivity - by ADHD experts and co-hosts of the popular ADHD Adults podcast, Professor James Brown and Sam BrownFocus Pocus: A Parent’s Guide to Fostering Concentration, Resilience, and Academic Achievement in a Distracted World - by Nancy Howes, MEdEvents:Angela’s guest appearance on the ‘Every Day's a Train Wreck’ podcastDivergent Doodler’s Symposium - Recovery College Collective Newcastle upon Tyne, England - Wednesday, September 9 • 5:30 PM - 7:30 PMBuilding Our Resilience Course with Joe Lenton - NeuroHub Community Ltd - Starts Sunday, September 6th - 6 to 7 pm - Pay what you canTransitions, Change & Uncertainty - Choose Your Way ND BrainSpace - Tuesday, September 8th - 12 to 1 pm - FreeBeyond RSD: Building Confidence as a Neurodivergent Business Owner with Suzi Payton - Inclusion Support Hub - Wednesday, September 9th - 2 to 3 pm - Free📻 Listen to Autistic Culture Radio🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com🌐 Visit www.autisticculturepodcastnetwork.com📲 Follow us on Instagram: @autisticculturepodcast🎙️ Executive Producers: Amy Burns, Anamaria B Call, Andrew Banner, Anna Goodson, Ashley Apelzin, Audrea Volker, Ben Coulson, Brian Churcek, Cappy Hamper, Carley Biblin, Charlene Deva, Chloe Cross, Clay Duhigg, Clayton Oliver, Danny Dunn, Daria Brown, David Garrido, Emily Burgess, Eric Crane, Erik Stenerud, Fiona Baker, Grace Norman, Helen Shaddock, Jaimie Collins, Jason Killian, Jen Unruh, Jennifer Carpenter, Julia Tretter, Kathie Watson-Gray, Kenneth Knowles, Kira Cotter, Kristine Lang, Kyle Raney, Llew P Williams, Laura Alvarado, Laura De Vito, Laura Provonsha, Lily George, Nelly Darmi, Nigel Rogers, Rachel Miller, Tim Scott, Tyler Kunz, Victoria Steed, Yanina Wood.🎧 Producers: AJ Knight, Bobby Simon, Da Kovac, Eleanor Collins, Emily Griffiths, Hannah Hughes, Jennifer Kemp, Jonas Fløde, Kate F, Katie N Benitez, Kendra Murphy, Lisa Dennys, Logan Wall, Louise Lomas, Melissa Nance, Nicola Owen, Rebecka Johansson, Sam Morris, Sarah Hannah Morris. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.