1KHO 861: Hope in the Chaos | Paul Voss, Autism Sucks

The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast

Ginny Yurich

Kids & Family, Parenting

4.8 • 2.3K Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

Every parent reaches a moment when someone else has an opinion about what's best for their child, but there comes a point when you realize the responsibility ultimately rests with you. In this conversation, Paul Voss shares the deeply personal story behind his daughter May's autism diagnosis, the fear and uncertainty that followed, and the unexpected hope his family found along the way. We talk about navigating conflicting advice, making difficult health decisions, raising eight children through extraordinary challenges, and discovering that love often grows strongest in the places we never would have chosen. Whether you're parenting a child with special needs or simply trying to make thoughtful decisions for your family, this episode is a moving reminder that no one will ever know your child the way you do. Grab your copy of Autism Sucks here. Find out more about Paul and all the resources he offers here A huge thank you to our sponsors! Check them out below: BetterHelp: Visit www.BetterHelp.com/1000HOURS today to get 10% off your first month. Quince - Visit www.quince.com/outside and get free shipping and 365 day returns IXL Learning - Head to www.ixl.com/1000hours to get an exclusive 20% savings on your membership Whisker - Take care of your cats while taking an additional $50 off bundles with code 1000HOURS when you shop www.whisker.com/1000HOURS woom Bikes - Go to woom.com and use code 1000HOURS at checkout for 10% off your new bike purchase, excluding the woom WOW. Muzzle Sleep Tape - Go to MuzzleSleep.com and use code 1000HOURS for 10% off. Ethos Life Insurance - Get your free quote at ethos.com/1000hours Active Skin Repair - Don’t forget to put this in your first aid kit! Visit ActiveSkinRepair.com and use the code 1000HOURS to save 20% on all Active Skin Repair products. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast. My name is Ginny Urge and the founder of 1000
0:04.2	Hours Outside. I'm so excited to introduce our guest today. He's written a book about his life
0:08.9	as a father of eight children and the youngest daughter has autism. And so this has been a journey
0:15.3	for you and for your family. Paul Voss, welcome. Thank you. Excited to be here. Okay, eight kids and that's incredible.
0:24.3	What a cool thing. Everybody's names start with M. So you had just quite the journey talking about
0:29.1	even just moving and career and all of that. But I was up if you would kick it off with this
0:34.4	sort of turning point with your daughter where you start to realize, okay, there may be
0:38.7	some developmental things different here and she's the youngest of eight, so you're not expecting it
0:43.4	and how this really starts to change your life. But you've written a book about it called Autism
0:47.9	Sucks, Finding Hope and the Chaos about searching for answers and also how along the way this
0:53.5	has made you a better parent.
0:55.2	But take us back to those initial, you know, 18 monthsish or around that time where you're
1:00.7	starting to notice that there might be something different going on here.
1:05.5	Thank you.
1:06.3	Definitely will.
1:07.2	And you really nailed it with seven other kids.
1:10.1	By the seventh, I found myself being a lot more
1:12.4	patient right when your first kid anything that's a delay you're all over it well why are they walking
1:17.2	yet why are they talking but by the time we got to eight you kind of know that kids sometimes
1:22.6	sometimes just figure it out on their own over time but it really really started in January 2022. We had COVID hit our
1:30.0	house and it was fascinating just thinking about it because I got hit really hard. My wife got
1:37.3	hit really hard. I had long COVID so it was awful. Seven of my kids got sick for like a day and we're fine. With my youngest
	...

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