Becky (she / her) is a study skills tutor, with a background in secondary teaching of science and PSHE. She was diagnosed autistic as an adult. 
In this episode we talk about patterns of behaviour, detail,  anatomy, science, history, recipes and knitting, whilst also going off on a lot of other interesting tangents! More information, including a transcript of our conversation, is available here: https://rulingpassions.wordpress.com/2023/09/26/podcast-episode-6/

Dr. Nick Walker is a queer, transgender, flamingly autistic writer and educator known for her foundational work on the neurodiversity paradigm and Neuroqueer Theory, and her contributions to the emergent genre of neuroqueer speculative fiction. She is co-author of the urban fantasy webcomic Weird Luck, and author of a handful of short stories and the essay collection Neuroqueer Heresies. As Managing Editor of the worker-owned indie publishing house Autonomous Press, she has co-edited and contributed to multiple volumes of the annual Spoon Knife neuroqueer lit anthology. Dr. Walker is senior aikido instructor at the Aiki Arts Center in Berkeley, California, and a professor of psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies.

In this episode we talked about akido, world building, story and character creation, collaboration, comics, autism, trans experience, the comics of Matt Howarth and Nick's literary works, including the Weird Luck web comic (available here: https://weirdluck.net/comic/1-1-0-the-swiftcorp-incursion/)

Special thanks to Robert Chapman who let me record this episode in their spare room!

There is an (unedited!) video version of this episode available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=8&v=c2w9Z7WMC0w&feature=youtu.be

Links to some of the things discussed by Nick are available here: https://shu.padlet.org/dscb18/i3zo84abx2yn13wo

More info here: https://ruling-passions.com/2022/12/06/podcast-episode-5/

In this Episode I talk to Billie Jo Gibson (he / they) who is a National Equity, Diversity and Inclusion officer for the Northern Idependence Party and works in a hospitality job. Billie was diagnosed autistic when they were four years old.

In this episode we talk about early diagnosis, friendships, masking, growing up, Speech and Language therapy, forced social interaction and growing up as an autistic child, self-acceptance, gender identity / being trans, hyperfocus, childhood special interests, politics, class, the cost of living crisis, issues with the Labour Party, Northern Independent Party, Democratic Socialism, Disability and PIP assessment, trauma and mental health assessment, Grand Theft Auto and Liverpool / Scouse Culture.

[Content warning] this episode includes mention of trauma, challenging early autistic experiences, mental health, food / eating and dysphoria. There is some background noise in this episode as Billie was in a cafe. There is also some swearing.

https://shu.padlet.org/dscb18/9m9zy9dwh0cfozn5