Photo collage featuring a portrait of Tempest McDonald.
Illustration by Mark Harris / Source: Tempest McDonald
Podcasts / When autistic kids grow up
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When autistic kids grow up, Chapter 4: How did things unfold?

Tempest McDonald sues Vanderbilt University Medical Center through the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Her published NIH paper finds allies.

By Brady Huggett
25 June 2026 | 1 min read
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https://doi.org/10.53053/URWW2053 https://doi.org/10.53053/URWW2053 - opens a new tab Cite this article

In Chapter 4 of “When autistic kids grow up,” Tempest McDonald’s time at Vanderbilt comes to its end, and an investigation into the autism research funding landscape shows her paper was pointing toward something true.

Read the transcript. Listen to Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 5.

Tempest McDonald and Audrey Scudder stand next to a poster at a conference.
Two-author paper: Tempest McDonald and Audrey Scudder (right) standing in front of their “NIH funding gap” poster during a Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Science Day in 2023.
All images courtesy of Tempest McDonald
Tempest McDonald stands outside.
Home city: McDonald visits a friend’s house in East Nashville, Tennessee, in 2022.

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