In this episode of Autistic Culture 101, Dr. Angela Kingdon kicks off a brand-new chapter by reintroducing the 10 Pillars of Autistic Culture—the foundation for how we understand and celebrate the richness of autistic identity. This remastered episode revisits the original conversation that first defined the 10 pillars back in January 2024, now with updated insights and refined language to match how this framework has evolved.

Whether you’re just discovering the show or have been with us since the beginning, this is your starting point for the cultural model that grounds everything we do.

💡 The 10 Pillars of Autistic Culture (Updated for 2024)

1. Bottom-Up Processing (formerly “Logic & Strategy”) - Detail-first cognition. Pattern before conclusion. Think: Sherlock Holmes, chess masters, system builders.
2. Rhythmic Communicating (formerly “Linguistics & Accents”) - Scripting, echolalia, tangents, infodumping. Communication as rhythm, poetry, and flow.
3. Norm Challenging (formerly “Deep Thinking & Insight”) - Authenticity over politeness. Insight over illusion. Questioning over compliance.
4. World Building - Narrative universes built from imagination and logic. Think: Pokémon, Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars.
5. Pattern Matching (formerly “Data Gathering & Analysis”) - SPINs, trivia, research, and structured inquiry. We find meaning in what others miss.
6. Game Changing (formerly “Innovative Ideas”) - System redesigners. Trendsetters. Rethinkers. From Eadweard Muybridge to Questlove.
7. Boldly Creating (formerly “Artistic Expression”) - Art as regulation. Performance as communication. Stim as aesthetic.
8. Predictably Comforting (formerly “Consistency & Reliability”) - Rituals, repetition, routines. These aren’t constraints—they’re comfort, safety, and power.
9. Justice Seeking (formerly “Justice & Honesty”) - Fairness as instinct. Truth as obligation. Emotional intensity as ethical compass.
10. Passionate Superfanning (formerly “Fictional Friends”) - Lore, fandoms, and parasocial joy. Star Trek. Doctor Who. My Little Pony. Fandom is family.

🧭 The Framework Going Forward

These 10 Pillars will guide the next phase of The Autistic Culture Podcast—each episode will highlight one of them, offering deep dives into their cultural meaning, emotional resonance, and pop culture representation.

The pillars span across three domains:

• 🎭 Arts & Entertainment
• 🪴 Lifestyle & Leisure
• 🏛️ Society, Values & Knowledge

And at the centre of them all: Autistic joy, identity, and truth.

So whether you’re autistic, exploring the possibility, or someone who loves and respects autistic people—you are welcome here. You are part of Autistica.

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In this episode of The Autistic Culture 101, Dr. Angela Kingdon explores Pillar 1 of Autistic Culture: Bottom-Up Processing.

We begin our deep dive into the 10 Pillars of Autistic Culture with the cognitive foundation that shapes how many autistic people interpret, analyse, and interact with the world—from sensory input to social understanding.

This remastered episode reintroduces the core principles of bottom-up thinking through the lens of one of fiction’s most iconic detail-driven characters: Sherlock Holmes.

🎧 What You’ll Learn

• Why autistic cognition favours detail-first processing over top-down assumptions
• How bottom-up processing supports pattern recognition, innovation, and autonomy
• The role of sensory integration and special interests in cognitive and emotional navigation
• How society pathologizes bottom-up thinkers as insubordinate, difficult, or even “broken”
• How internalized ableism can lead autistic people to distrust their own cognitive strengths
• Why reclaiming and celebrating bottom-up processing can improve mental health and self-trust

Related Episodes:

Chess is Autistic

Broadway is Autistic

Washington DC is Autistic

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In this episode of Autistic Culture 101, Dr. Angela Kingdon explores Pillar 2 of Autistic Culture: Rhythmic Communicating — a core expression of how autistic people connect with the world and each other. This isn’t “just how we talk.” It’s how we create culture.

This special remastered episode dives into echolalia, scripting, infodumping, and the poetic, patterned flow that defines autistic communication. Through the lens of pop icon Taylor Swift, we uncover how rhythm, repetition, and lyrical structure mirror autistic expression.

Resources:

Deaf President Now documentary: The story of the great civil rights movement most people have never heard about. During eight tumultuous days in 1988 at the world's only Deaf university, four students must find a way to lead a revolution and change the course of history.

Related Episodes:

Shakespeare

Fern Brady

Animation & Voice Acting

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🎧 Find us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

🛍️Our Autism-affirming merch shop

🌐 Learn more at www.autisticculturepodcast.com

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

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In this episode of Autistic Culture 101, Dr. Angela Kingdon continues our journey through the 10 Pillars of Autistic Culture as we move onto Pillar 3 — Norm Challenging.

This episode explores truth-telling, gender defiance, sensory preferences, and Emily Dickinson’s poetic rebellion that made her a quintessential norm challenger—and an early voice of neurodivergent power.

🎧 What You’ll Learn

• Why Emily Dickinson’s life was an act of radical autistic norm defiance.
• How literal thinking, moral clarity, and pattern recognition challenged the social structures around her.
• The connection between rejection sensitivity and creative brilliance.
• How “masking” created safety—but didn’t stop her from telling the truth.
• What we can reclaim from being called “too intense” or “too much.”

Related Episodes:

Emily Dickinson

Courtney Love (Referenced)

Being an Expat

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🎧 Find us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

🛍️Our Autism-affirming merch shop

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🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

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In this episode of Autistic Culture 101, Dr. Angela Kingdon welcomes Dr. Scott Frasard, autistic author and advocate, as they dive into Pillar 4 of Autistic Culture: World-Building—the powerful autistic drive to construct immersive systems, structures, and stories, both real and imagined.

In his essay “The World We Built: A Future Where Autistic People Are Respected, Not Repaired”, Dr. Frasard envisions a future (set in 2075) where diagnosis has given way to identity co-creation, and neurodivergence is celebrated—not pathologized. This episode explores how autistic people don’t just survive systems—we reimagine them.

👉 Read the full essay here → here.

🎧 What You’ll Learn

• Why world-building is more than fantasy—it’s how autistic minds make meaning
• How mental mapping, systems thinking, and SPINs shape autistic culture
• Why tools like timelines, frameworks, and rituals are forms of self-preservation, not inflexibility
• How world-building starts in childhood and evolves into leadership, creativity, and advocacy
• What it looks like to lean in to your vision instead of hiding it to blend in

👤 Featured Guest: Scott Frasard

Dr. Scott Frasard is an outspoken critic of behaviourist interventions in autism treatment and a fierce advocate for strengths-based, identity-first approaches. He’s a published author and long-time learning strategist.

• 🔗 Connect on LinkedIn
• 📖 The World We Built – Buy the book on Amazon

Related Episodes:

George Lucas

Ren Fests

Disney

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🎧 Find us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

🛍️Our Autism-affirming merch shop

🌐 Learn more at www.autisticculturepodcast.com

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

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In this episode of Autistic Culture 101, Dr. Angela Kingdon explores Pillar 6: Game-Changing Innovation—the autistic drive to question assumptions, reimagine systems, and create from sensory truth and moral clarity.

Autistic innovation isn’t about chasing trends or applause. It’s about paradigm shifts. From Isaac Newton’s invention of calculus to Richard Branson’s rebellious business model to Angela’s father building his own Hot Rod kit cars—this episode shows how autistic game changers build entirely new systems when old ones fail.

🎧 What You’ll Learn

• Why autistic thinkers often notice problems no one else sees
• How emotional intensity, deep focus, and sensory perception drive innovation
• The difference between trend-following disruption and authentic paradigm-building
• How masking stifles game-changing potential—and how to lean into your vision
• Stories of iconic game changers like Isaac Newton, Steve Jobs, Hannah Gadsby, and Martha Stewart

📚 Resources Mentioned

• 🎤 Angela’s TEDx Talk at TEDx Tamworth — on Newton as an autistic game changer
• 📘 Make ‘Em Beg to Work for You – Angela’s Hiring Book
• 📖 Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
• 📺 Lessons in Chemistry (TV series featuring autistic-coded innovation)

Related Episodes:

Industrial Light & Magic

Lessons in Chemistry is Autistic

Freddie Mercury

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🎧 Find us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

🛍️Our Autism-affirming merch shop

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🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

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In this episode of Autistic Culture 101, Dr. Angela Kingdon explores Pillar 7: Boldly Creating with special guest Nina Danon—composer, sound artist, and doctoral researcher whose work focuses on the rich intersections between autism, music, sensory experience, and creativity.

This episode is about making art that’s true, not palatable. It’s for every autistic person who has ever created from a place of emotional intensity, sensory immersion, or special interest—and wondered if it “counts.”

Together, Nina and Angela discuss how stimming, repetition, texture, and rhythm form the basis of autistic artistic practice, and how creative expression becomes a radical act of self-regulation, connection, and authenticity.

🎧 What You’ll Learn

• Why autistic creativity often rejects genre, structure, and perfectionism
• How bottom-up processing fuels invention and form-breaking in autistic art
• How stimming, fandom, and fiber arts like knitting function as bold creative acts
• Nina’s upcoming publication on Musical Neuroqueering and her Stimming Wheel toolkit
• How autistics create to regulate, connect, and process the world through sensory-emotional fusion
• The power of embracing creative process—not just polished outcomes

Featured Guest: Nina Danon

Nina’s work centers autistic creativity as embodied, non-linear, and radically expressive. Her Musical Neuroqueering research will be published in Neuroqueer Theory and Practice (2026, edited by Dr. Nick Walker).

• 📧 Contact Nina: ncdanon@gmail.com
• 🩵 Nina on BlueSky: @ninadanon.bsky.social
• 🎵 “Volcano” – A Neurodivergent Sonic Experience (with Francesco Cassino)
• 🎤 “Composing Neurodivergence” – King’s College Talk (Feb 2025)

Further Reading Recommendations from Nina:

📘 Designing an Autistic Space for Research – Bertilsdotter Rosqvist et al., Neurodiversity Studies (Routledge, 2020)

🎭 Look, I Made a Hat – Stephen Sondheim (Knopf, 2011)

Related Episodes:

Eminem - Bold lyrical precision & emotional vulnerability

Questlove - Rhythmic innovation through sensory hyperfocus

🌟 Connect With Us

📱 Follow us on Instagram

🎧 Find us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify

🛍️Our Autism-affirming merch shop

🌐 Learn more at www.autisticculturepodcast.com

🌈 Celebrate autistic voices with early access, ad-free listening, and our full archive at AutisticCulturePlus.com

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