Discover what’s possible when we build bridges together.

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This week’s episode is part 2 of our 2024 Highlights. Today we’ll continue to review some of our favorite moments from this year’s episodes, specifically from 177 to 192. Related episodes:

1. Highlights of 2023: Part Two, with the Global Autism Community
2. Highlights of 2023: Part One, with the Global Autism Community
3. Highlights of 2022: Part One, with the Global Autism Community
4. Highlights of 2022: Part Two, with the Global Autism Community
5. Highlights of 2021: Part One, with the Global Autism Community
6. Highlights of 2021: Part Two, with the Global Autism Community
7. Highlights of 2020, with the Global Autism Community

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We appreciate your time. If you enjoy this podcast and you’d like to support our mission, please take just a few seconds to share it with one person who you think will find value in it too.

Follow us on Instagram: @autismpodcast

Join our community on Mighty Networks: Global Autism Community

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: Global Autism Project

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Discover what’s possible when we build bridges together.

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We’ve reached the end of 2024! To celebrate, we’ll be reviewing some of our favorite moments from this year. Part 1 will highlight episodes 161 through 176, and Part 2 highlights episodes 177 through 192. Since we started working on this podcast almost five years ago, we’ve brought on a wide range of guests, including prominent self-advocates, such as Dr. Temple Grandin, Dr. Stephen Shore, Dr. Kerry Magro, Rachel Barcellona, and Anthony Ianni; parents like Tiffany Hammond and Bobby Rubio; some of our Global Autism Project partners, such as Mafer Chang from Ecuador and Pooja Panesar from Kenya; and other professionals in the field, such as Michelle Garcia Winner from Social Thinking and Harald Neerland from Autism Europe. If you’ve been listening to our podcast for a while, this 2024 recap will bring you back to the heartfelt stories we’ve been hearing from our guests. And if you’re joining us for the first time, welcome! This episode will give you a good idea of what Autism Knows No Borders is all about. Special thanks to our SkillCorps Alumni for helping to put this episode together: Adriana Garcia, Kelly Cotter, Marianne Spiotta, Colleen Dorsey, Danielle Terrell, and Yina Perez. ----more----

We appreciate your time. If you enjoy this podcast and you’d like to support our mission, please take just a few seconds to share it with one person who you think will find value in it too.

Follow us on Instagram: @autismpodcast

Join our community on Mighty Networks: Global Autism Community

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*THROWBACK EPISODE*

This episode with Alfie Bowen was originally released on August 5, 2021. ----more---- Discover what’s possible when you focus your lens beyond the surface.

Alfie Bowen is an autism self-advocate, wildlife photographer, author, and activist based in Suffolk, England. He uses his art to highlight animal emotion and connect people with the natural world.

At just 23 years old, Alfie was recently signed by the UK’s biggest art gallery network, Castle Fine Art. His debut collection Call of the Wild was launched earlier this year, and his first book will be released in September. The documentary An Eye for Detail tells the story of how Alfie’s passion for animals and photography helped him cope with childhood bullying.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Alfie growing up feeling like an alien on Earth
• His attempts at suicide
• Social skills he’s had to teach himself
• Feeling misunderstood
• His inspiration for becoming a photographer
• How nature has positively impacted his mental health
• Autistic strengths related to photography
• Advice for other autistic photographers

For more information about Alfie and his work, please visit alfiebowen.com.

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We appreciate your time. If you enjoy this podcast and you’d like to support our mission, please take just a few seconds to share it with one person who you think will find value in it too.

Follow us on Instagram: @autismpodcast

Join our community on Mighty Networks: Global Autism Community

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: Global Autism Project

We would love to hear your feedback about the show. Please fill out this short survey to let us know your thoughts: Listener Survey.

Discover what’s possible when you give to transform lives.

This episode is being released a day early in observance of Thanksgiving in the US.

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Each year our team reflects on what we’re grateful for. First of all, we’re grateful for you, our listeners, and your continued support. We’re also grateful for our podcast guests and their willingness to share their story with us. And of course, we’re grateful for our growing Global Autism Community, whose members keep showing up in our online space with commitment to our mission to transform how the world relates to autism.

We’re also grateful for our larger community of generous donors who help make our work at the Global Autism Project possible. If you’d like to directly support our programs and initiatives, and help us to improve the quality of life of autistic individuals and their families around the world, stay with us for this episode, where our CEO Molly Ola Pinney explains how you can get involved as a monthly-giving Compass member.

You’ll also hear a few excerpts from members of our Global Autism Community sharing their personal gratitudes.

In other news, we also wanted to let you all know that our host Rachel will be going on maternity leave for a few months, starting in December. We’ll still be releasing episodes featuring our Global Autism Community roundtable discussions, as well as throwbacks with relevant insights which we think are worth bringing back from the early days of the podcast. And of course, as tradition follows, we’ll soon review and celebrate the year with our 2024 highlights episode.

For now, we hope that this Thanksgiving special will inspire you to reflect on what you’re grateful for during this holiday season. From all of us at the Global Autism Project, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and hope you can spend some time with your loved ones this weekend.

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Become a Compass member today and create sustainable change around the world! Every contribution leaves a meaningful impact and expands our reach to underserved communities worldwide.

Click here to join Compass!

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We appreciate your time. If you enjoy this podcast and you’d like to support our mission, please take just a few seconds to share it with one person who you think will find value in it too.

Follow us on Instagram: @autismpodcast

Join our community on Mighty Networks: Global Autism Community

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: Global Autism Project

We would love to hear your feedback about the show. Please fill out this short survey to let us know your thoughts: Listener Survey

*THROWBACK EPISODE*

This episode with Cassie Harden Scott and Russell Hornig-Rohan was originally released on August 20, 2020. ----more----

Discover what’s possible when community outreach begins with empowerment.

Our guests today are two members of our Global Autism Project family: Cassie Harden Scott and Russel Hornig-Rohan, or Rusty for short.

Cassie and Rusty have been involved with the Global Autism Project for over 6 years. Both of them began as volunteers on SkillCorps trips to several of our partner sites – including Centro ACAP in the Dominican Republic, which you may remember from Episode 20. SkillCorps is an opportunity for self-advocates and professionals to visit autism centers around the world, working directly with their local teachers and therapists while providing sustainable training. If you’d like to know more about our SkillCorps volunteer program, please listen to episodes 4 and 17, featuring round table discussions with a few other members of our community.

Over time, Cassie and Rusty each stepped into roles related to outreach and advocacy. Cassie is currently our Director of Outreach and works closely with our partners to help spread autism awareness and acceptance in their communities. Rusty is an autism self-advocate, as well as a polyglot whose impressive abilities have helped his teams cross language barriers while abroad.

In today’s conversation, Cassie and Rusty share how they got involved with the organization and why they’re passionate about its mission. They also reminisce about trip highlights and recount fun stories from when they were working together at our office in Brooklyn, New York.

We discuss some of the different outreach initiatives that can be carried out, from supporting parents and professionals to giving presentations at universities. Stay tuned until the end of the episode to hear about ways to engage in advocacy work from your own home.

For more information about our work, please visit globalautismproject.org.

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We appreciate your time. If you enjoy this podcast and you’d like to support our mission, please take just a few seconds to share it with one person who you think will find value in it too.

Follow us on Instagram: @autismpodcast

Join our community on Mighty Networks: Global Autism Community

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: Global Autism Project

We would love to hear your feedback about the show. Please fill out this short survey to let us know your thoughts: Listener Survey

*THROWBACK EPISODE*

This episode with Pamela Fisher was originally released on August 13, 2020.

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Discover what’s possible when music unlocks hidden strengths.

Pamela Fisher is a Registered Music Therapist from Sydney, Australia. She is skilled in voice, guitar, piano, improvisation, and clinical supervision. With over 15 years of experience specializing in groups and individuals with autism, Pam provides music therapy services both in-person and online.

In today’s conversation, Pam gives us a brief history of autism awareness in Australia and explains which services are covered by government funding. She defines what music therapy is and shares how she got involved in the field. We talk about different populations who can benefit from services and discuss some common misconceptions.

Through simulating various musical interventions, Pam demonstrates different goals she may work on in a session. We also point out the benefits of collaborating with behavior analysts and speech therapists when writing programs.

Pam has created a musical kit to target different sensory needs a child may have. You can purchase a kit and inquire about her online music therapy services here: The Musical Nest.

For more information about Pamela Fisher and her work, please visit her website: musicalmonkeys.com.au.

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We appreciate your time. If you enjoy this podcast and you’d like to support our mission, please take just a few seconds to share it with one person who you think will find value in it too.

Follow us on Instagram: @autismpodcast

Join our community on Mighty Networks: Global Autism Community

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: Global Autism Project

We would love to hear your feedback about the show. Please fill out this short survey to let us know your thoughts: Listener Survey

Discover what’s possible when you embrace your true identity.

Are you a late-diagnosed autistic person, or do you know someone who is? If this resonates with you, you’ll want to listen to today’s conversation, where we touch on how acceptance of one’s autism can change over time.

The following Global Autism Community roundtable was facilitated by community moderator Hattie-Angelys Fox, and it features Autistic Self-Advocates Brian MIddleton, Corben Havener, Mary Johnston, Bob Schmus, Amira Collantes, and Adrian Sanchez, as well as community moderator Danielle Terrell.

Among other things, we discuss:

• Finding out about an autism diagnosis at different stages in life
• How autism presents differently in males and females
• Whether language matters when identifying as autistic
• Common challenges that autistics experience in childhood –like socialization, anxiety, and depression– and how to deal with them
• Whether masking is ever good
• Disclosing your autism with friends and family
• The Pathology Paradigm

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Are you a self-advocate willing to share your story and educate others? Or a professional seeking to hear directly from autistic voices and improve your practice? Or maybe you’re a family member hoping to support and empower your loved one?

Whatever your connection to autism is, we’d love to hear your takeaways from this episode in our online Global Autism Community, where hundreds of people from all over the world come together to support each other and know that they’re not alone.

Join us today at community.globalautismproject.org. Let’s work together to transform how the world relates to autism.

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We appreciate your time. If you enjoy this podcast and you’d like to support our mission, please take just a few seconds to share it with one person who you think will find value in it too.

Follow us on Instagram: @autismpodcast

Join our community on Mighty Networks: Global Autism Community

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: Global Autism Project

We would love to hear your feedback about the show. Please fill out this short survey to let us know your thoughts: Listener Survey

Discover what’s possible when you engage your inner leader.

Do you want to learn how to communicate and collaborate effectively, identify the root causes of roadblocks in your life, and embrace your role as a leader?

Everyone has the potential to be a leader in their own lives. If you’re interested in personal and professional growth, stick around for this episode with the CEO and Founder of the Global Autism Project, Molly Ola Pinney where she talks about all things leadership.

The Global Autism Project accredits autism centers worldwide and provides sustainable clinical, administrative, and leadership training to service providers seeking guidance. Our SkillCorps® volunteer program is an opportunity for self-advocates, family members, and professionals to travel to Global Autism Project’s international partner sites and collaborate with local stakeholders on outreach initiatives in their communities.

This conversation with Molly was originally released on November 25th, 2020. We are re-releasing it today as a shout out to our SkillCorps® trip leaders who have just returned from a volunteer trip to Peru. A huge thank you to Adriana Garcia and Kelly Cotter for stepping up in an incredible way to guide our volunteers’ collaboration with our partners at MADI and the autistic community in Lima.

In today’s conversation, among other things, we discuss:

• Why leadership training has always been at the foreground of support provided by the Global Autism Project
• What values are important to Molly as a leader and how her leadership skills have evolved over the years
• Molly’s fears in the early days of the organization and how she’s learned to overcome them
• What 2020 taught her
• Why decisive action is only one aspect of strong leadership

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We’d like to give a shout out to our SkillCorps® 2024 Title Sponsor, Action Behavior Centers. We’re excited to be partnering with businesses to create opportunities for employee development and growth through our SkillCorps® program. SkillCorps® Business Partners endorse employee participation in our SkillCorps® volunteer program and provide support to selected employees through granting time-off, providing funds to help team members fundraise, and more!

Thank you, Action Behavior Centers, for being a model organization in the industry.

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We appreciate your time. If you enjoy this podcast and you’d like to support our mission, please take just a few seconds to share it with one person who you think will find value in it too.

Follow us on Instagram: @autismpodcast

Join our community on Mighty Networks: Global Autism Community

Subscribe to our YouTube channel: Global Autism Project

We would love to hear your feedback about the show. Please fill out this short survey to let us know your thoughts: Listener Survey