It’s spooky season, and we’re diving into vampires! From heightened senses to “masking” and their outsider status, Angela and Matt sink their teeth into why vampires are totally autistic!
Yay an episode about my special interest!! Angela, did you get a new audio setup? It's so CRISP!! Excited for this new season, thank you for all that you do. :D
Thanks for noticing! It was really hard to get good audio during my move. I’m finally stable in a room with lots of soft things so the sound doesn’t bounce.
Regarding the witch trials mentioned near the beginning.... has anyone watched the show A Kind of Spark? It's an AMAZING show and it's got multiple autistic characters played by autistic/neurodivergent actors, and a neurotypical character played by an autistic actress as well. In the first season the main character develops a special interest in the witch trials that happened in her town and they draw excellent parallels between autistic traits and the traits the women in her town were persecuted for. It's a wonderful comfort show and made me feel so seen. I especially love season 2. Can't wait for the third season!
I haven’t seen that, but may have to check it out. I visited Massachussets in October 2023 and went into a witch trial dive briefly. I visited Danvers which is the original Salem Village and sites of the church. Strangely there weren’t too many tourists, but when I drove through Salem it was like Witch Disneyland. Way too many people! Anyhow, I remember visiting Marblehead and Redds pond. Wilmot Redd was the only person from Marblehead tried. I remember reading how people didn’t really like her because she was irritable and curt. Ha. Probably wasn’t into people’s BS small talk either. Sounded like she kept to herself and her husband was off being a fisherman. I think she made butter. Others like Sarah Good people didn’t like either, especially because she was poor and didn’t go to church. So I bet many of the “witches” were autistic. They weren’t buying the whole mass hysteria incident and were probably pretty confused.
Holy cow--the younger / older thing is BLOWING. MY. MIND. (And I have always hated how people insist I look so young, and the way others assume this must be *so great* for me.)
This is a specific comment about the part of the episode around 40-43 minutes in where you're talking about autistics always wanting facts rather than feelings. . . I'm autistic (AuDHD, specifiacally.) I have an autistic mother, an autistic daughter, and LOTS of autistic family members. Several of us also have various auditory and language processing issues. Over the years, I have learned that I process a lot of things at a non-verbal level, and it takes a great deal of effort to pull them up to a level of my brain where I can put them into words that actually make sense to other people. To them, my decisions and actions often seem like they're "intuitive" (or "thoughtless", if they disagree with me!)
I have had to train myself to be aware of my "feelings" about things and to follow them, even when my conscious mind can't put them into words. That doesn't mean I don't have solid reasons, but it DOES mean that if I'm in a discussion with someone who demands reasons from me to justify something I say, I'm at a real disadvantage. The stress will render me mute until I can process what I'm being asked. However, since I'm highly verbal under most situations, many people (including many autistic people) don't acknowledge that I actually have sound reasons for most of my decisions and actions.
PLEASE show some consideration for this when talking about our autistic desire for facts and decisions. It's easy to assume that other people don't have reasons for their actions or positions - but just because I can't easily and quickly explain WHY I think or say something doesn't mean that I didn't have a logical reason for it, even if it takes me a while to pull it up to a level where I can put it into words.
I can really relate to the experiences you're sharing. I've tried to explain it to people by saying....my brain is trying to formulate an entire Ted Talk length answer (which i could give if I wasn't feeling put on the spot) but it all comes flooding into my brain too fast and I try to talk and it's like nothing will come out in the moment, except the feelings.
Hey I won trivia! I remember reading that about salt and silver as well though I've also seen the purity and the need to count the grains of salt as reasons they were effective. I love a good multipurpose supernatural repellent!
The looking young thing also just went on my list of supporting evidence. I have to have the conversation at least once every couple of weeks that yes, I am really this old. Yes, I don't look it. But growing up, I would run the library and help teach classes and was way closer to adults than other kids.
Bergamot is a citrus used in tea and perfume and soap making. It is what gives Earl Grey tea its signature flavor (which I think tastes like soap. Not a fan. And I wanted to like it so badly. Sorry Picard). I made myself listen to the whole episode before commenting but I was so antsy to answer with I KNOW WHAT THAT IS AND I MUST SHARE!
This is the BEST episode yet! This is the most validating episode I've heard and I have a newfound like for vampires. I used to be "meh" about them, but now I have turned. The stories and parallels helped explain some of the experiences I have been having and I regained confidence in myself and feel powerful! Now I'm wondering if two energy vampires converse, do they feel drained or energized afterwards?
Yay an episode about my special interest!! Angela, did you get a new audio setup? It's so CRISP!! Excited for this new season, thank you for all that you do. :D
Thanks for noticing! It was really hard to get good audio during my move. I’m finally stable in a room with lots of soft things so the sound doesn’t bounce.
Regarding the witch trials mentioned near the beginning.... has anyone watched the show A Kind of Spark? It's an AMAZING show and it's got multiple autistic characters played by autistic/neurodivergent actors, and a neurotypical character played by an autistic actress as well. In the first season the main character develops a special interest in the witch trials that happened in her town and they draw excellent parallels between autistic traits and the traits the women in her town were persecuted for. It's a wonderful comfort show and made me feel so seen. I especially love season 2. Can't wait for the third season!
I haven’t seen that, but may have to check it out. I visited Massachussets in October 2023 and went into a witch trial dive briefly. I visited Danvers which is the original Salem Village and sites of the church. Strangely there weren’t too many tourists, but when I drove through Salem it was like Witch Disneyland. Way too many people! Anyhow, I remember visiting Marblehead and Redds pond. Wilmot Redd was the only person from Marblehead tried. I remember reading how people didn’t really like her because she was irritable and curt. Ha. Probably wasn’t into people’s BS small talk either. Sounded like she kept to herself and her husband was off being a fisherman. I think she made butter. Others like Sarah Good people didn’t like either, especially because she was poor and didn’t go to church. So I bet many of the “witches” were autistic. They weren’t buying the whole mass hysteria incident and were probably pretty confused.
Oh yeah, it really makes a lot of sense! Thanks for sharing about your trip!
Holy cow--the younger / older thing is BLOWING. MY. MIND. (And I have always hated how people insist I look so young, and the way others assume this must be *so great* for me.)
Right????
This is a specific comment about the part of the episode around 40-43 minutes in where you're talking about autistics always wanting facts rather than feelings. . . I'm autistic (AuDHD, specifiacally.) I have an autistic mother, an autistic daughter, and LOTS of autistic family members. Several of us also have various auditory and language processing issues. Over the years, I have learned that I process a lot of things at a non-verbal level, and it takes a great deal of effort to pull them up to a level of my brain where I can put them into words that actually make sense to other people. To them, my decisions and actions often seem like they're "intuitive" (or "thoughtless", if they disagree with me!)
I have had to train myself to be aware of my "feelings" about things and to follow them, even when my conscious mind can't put them into words. That doesn't mean I don't have solid reasons, but it DOES mean that if I'm in a discussion with someone who demands reasons from me to justify something I say, I'm at a real disadvantage. The stress will render me mute until I can process what I'm being asked. However, since I'm highly verbal under most situations, many people (including many autistic people) don't acknowledge that I actually have sound reasons for most of my decisions and actions.
PLEASE show some consideration for this when talking about our autistic desire for facts and decisions. It's easy to assume that other people don't have reasons for their actions or positions - but just because I can't easily and quickly explain WHY I think or say something doesn't mean that I didn't have a logical reason for it, even if it takes me a while to pull it up to a level where I can put it into words.
I can really relate to the experiences you're sharing. I've tried to explain it to people by saying....my brain is trying to formulate an entire Ted Talk length answer (which i could give if I wasn't feeling put on the spot) but it all comes flooding into my brain too fast and I try to talk and it's like nothing will come out in the moment, except the feelings.
Hey I won trivia! I remember reading that about salt and silver as well though I've also seen the purity and the need to count the grains of salt as reasons they were effective. I love a good multipurpose supernatural repellent!
The looking young thing also just went on my list of supporting evidence. I have to have the conversation at least once every couple of weeks that yes, I am really this old. Yes, I don't look it. But growing up, I would run the library and help teach classes and was way closer to adults than other kids.
Bergamot is a citrus used in tea and perfume and soap making. It is what gives Earl Grey tea its signature flavor (which I think tastes like soap. Not a fan. And I wanted to like it so badly. Sorry Picard). I made myself listen to the whole episode before commenting but I was so antsy to answer with I KNOW WHAT THAT IS AND I MUST SHARE!
This is the BEST episode yet! This is the most validating episode I've heard and I have a newfound like for vampires. I used to be "meh" about them, but now I have turned. The stories and parallels helped explain some of the experiences I have been having and I regained confidence in myself and feel powerful! Now I'm wondering if two energy vampires converse, do they feel drained or energized afterwards?