Julia discusses disability, comedy, creativity, and treating people like people with Steven Verdile, the founder of the disability satire publication The Squeaky Wheel.

Victoria interviews Julia about her master’s thesis in Anthropology on Autistic social groups, disabled futures, and how to make Autistic friends by exchanging fun facts.

Julia and Victoria talk about the marriage of message and form in the “memoir situation” by one of their favorite human beings: 10 Steps to Nanette by Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby.

Julia reads her essay “What Your Autistic Body Feels Is Real: How I Found Out I Was Gaslighting Myself For Years and What I’m Doing Now.”

Naoki Higashida brought the tea with his most recent book in translation Fall Down 7 Times Get Up 8 about his experience as a non-verbal autistic young adult, and an extremely successful writer and speaker. Julia and Victoria share some of their favorite insights from his work on everything from ableism in education to the importance of allowing disabled people to express their full humanity in a world that prefers to pretend they do not exist.

Julia and Victoria are back to discuss The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion about an undiagnosed autistic man trying to navigate all the weird social rules of dating and relationships with a bunch of people who won’t explain anything. So for Julia, it was a comical reminder of her own journey not knowing how to make friends in college, and for Victoria, the book was a super fun love story and a good reminder on the importance of open and clear communication.