Audio long read: Autism is on the rise — what’s really behind the increase?

Nature Podcast

[email protected]

Science, News, Technology

4.4 • 859 Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2025

⏱️ 28 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In April, Robert F. Kennedy Jr held a press conference about rising diagnoses of autism, and said he would soon be announcing a study to find the responsible agent. Although Kennedy said that environmental factors are the main cause of autism, research has shown that genetics plays a bigger part. Also, the rise in prevalence, many researchers say, is

predominantly caused by an increase in diagnoses rather than a true rise in the underlying symptoms and traits.

Although the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a US$50 million to fund studies on the causes of autism, many researchers were dismayed that these developments seemed to ignore decades of work on the well-documented rise in diagnoses and on causes of the developmental condition.

This is an audio version of our Feature: Autism is on the rise — what’s really behind the increase?

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcript

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1:03.1	Quick note before we get started. The feature article that makes up this month's Long Read podcast
1:08.0	was written before US President Donald Trump,
1:11.4	claim that use of acetaminophen or paracetamol during pregnancy is linked to autism.
1:19.9	This is an audio long read from nature.
1:22.9	In this episode, autism is on the rise.
1:26.7	What's really behind the increase? Written by Helen Pearson
1:30.2	and read by me, Benjamin Thompson. On the 16th of April, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. held a press
	...

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