S6 E9: Writing the Neurodivergent YOU – The Guidebook, Part 2

Usually Aimee comes with the rage, but today it was me. There was an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that tried to limply argue that disabled students (specifically students with ADHD) are getting too many accommodations and it is a disservice to them! We ranted for about an hour of the hour and twenty minutes that this episode ended up being. I will not link to the CHE piece, but here is Aimee’s piece on AI and Writing, as well as her infamous piece on accommodations. Also, Aimee did something very hard this week and I am very proud of her, and I am also very proud of all of you who did hard things that everyone else thinks should be easy, but we know better. Also, Apollo: Transcript!

We’re back! It’s season seven because these things are arbitrary like all this related to time, like what month we start school in the fall or what day of the week is the first day! This was recorded on the penultimate day of August, just before the long Labo(u)r Day weekend here in North America, and right around when those of us in the Northern Hemisphere start school again (and summer comes to an end for the rest of us not beholden to academic calendars). Which can make August feel like, well, Sunday (and September one long Monday). This is about how to make the most of Sunday and get ready for Monday in the kindest way possible knowing that TRANSITIONS ARE HARD. Transcripts are back, BABY! (At least until Otter decides to throw up random error messages at me again. Sigh.)

I’ve been thinking a lot about professionalism and how it is used to hide other, less…socially acceptable -isms, including ableism. How many of us who are neurodivergent have been told, explicitly or implicitly, that we aren’t professional enough? Otter.ai is being a pain again, so as soon as they figure out how SSL works or how to make it work consistently on their site, I’ll have a transcript. Sorry.

It’s that time of the year for us academics: THE END OF THE ACADEMIC YEAR. What does that mean? It means that there is a rush of events and experiences and expectations that can be both enjoyable AND taxing to us neurodivergent folks. So Aimée and I forget to introduce ourselves, go on three different side-quests, and then talk about what we have been up to, and how we have not cured the neurodivergent hangover, but at least have mitigated the effects. I don’t have a transcript this week because Otter.ai is no longer a secure website (!?!?!?) and thus none of my browsers will allow me to visit the site in order to get said transcript. I will update this space as soon as I can access the service THAT I PAY FOR OUT  OF MY OWN POCKET. (And I just tried to use their support email but it no longer works, and instead your have to log into their site with isn’t accessible right now and this has nothing to do with this week’s episode, but I have a text box open and need to vent.) Update: Here is the transcript. The internet is weird these days, and not in the early days of all of us just hand-coding websites cool weird way, but the enshittification way.

Aimée was name-dropped in a new Taylor Swift song, but that isn’t actually what the episode is about. What it is about is thinking (quickly! This is our shortest episode that isn’t just me addressing you and wishing you a sappy new year!) about the difference between reading a book, taking hand-written notes, and what we can learn about materiality and embodiment even though we don’t actually say those two words. Shortest episode, longest sentence? Maybe! Transcript!

I swear, it’s only been a few days, and I completely forgot what we talked about for this episode. Finally, Otter.ai Insights proved useful to remind me what happened. We’ve talked about Spring Fever before, almost exactly two years ago. What’s changed? Well, we’re actually a little but better-adjusted and more attuned to how the changing of the seasons impacts us, but also what our potholes towards the road to…not driving ourselves insane are. Following? This is also where we recommend that good enough is often good enough. Even better than good enough. Perfectly fine. Just like these podcasts. Transcript!

Second verse, same as the first, a little bit louder and a little bit worse! Look, it’s Friday afternoon, GarageBand was being weird, I’ve done nothing but tedious tasks today, and it’s been a stressful week for me, personally. (Everyone is fine, it’s all fine, we’re all fine.) And I have a bad case of the Jebruaries. Anyway, I have clearly gone on four new side-quests, but this is the second part of our conversation, and I even tease a new topic that I am dying to talk about at the end. Transcript!

The title is a mouthful. The podcast actually has some structure, with a build in cut point for part two that doesn’t involve me going incoherent. We have talked a great length about how advice meant for neurotypical people just doesn’t work for us, but how do you go about figuring out what DOES work for you and then making note of it so that you can have your own, personal self-help guide to share with yourself and even others? Oh, and here is the article that inspired Aimée in all this. Transcript, where I swear we never, EVER mean crypto, but that Otter.ai.

This was supposed to be what the last episode was about, but we took WAY too long to get here (and I am desperately trying to find where Aimée finally says it in the episode, but then gave up and just said it in the intro I recorded). Crip knowledge. Learn from it! Transcript (where it is called crib knowledge!).

Well, this episode went so far off the rails that it had to be two episodes. Aimée tells the MOST AIMÉE STORY EVER, and we think about how all the things that we were told that were wrong with us maybe weren’t so wrong after all? And, again, sorry if we ignored you on Instagram. Transcript, which AI has yet to be able to figure out really what we’re saying.