When autistic kids grow up

Tempest McDonald is not your typical academic researcher. She was born in Alaska into a neurodivergent family, for one thing, and then spent her at-times chaotic youth in Atlanta. She herself is autistic. She survived a period of homelessness as a teenager and then became a semi-professional pool player, spending hours in Atlanta’s bars. She was a single mom—to an autistic son—before she was 25, and her first attempt at higher education didn’t come until she enrolled in community college at age 28.

Hers was a life that teetered on the edge. Yet still she managed to kick her way into academia’s ivory tower, where she earned a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and then a postdoctoral position at Vanderbilt University.

But when she published a paper saying that the National Institutes of Health’s funding policies were discriminating against autistic adults, the claim was so outrageous it began to unravel her life. She lost her position, and then her sense of self. However, an investigation of the autism research landscape shows her paper pointed toward something true. “When autistic kids grow up” is a five-part podcast that explores how Tempest McDonald’s lived experience fueled her research, and explains how she stumbled onto a problem that has been hiding in plain sight. Launching 4 June, wherever you get your podcasts.

Read the transcript.