Bonus episode: The Autism Curve
More or Less: Behind the Stats
BBC
4.6 • 3.5K Ratings
🗓️ 5 May 2025
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
An interruption to your regular podcast feed: the first episode of a new BBC Radio 4 series investigating the steep rise in autism diagnoses.
The Autism Curve looks into the data that has prompted arguments - and conspiracy theories - about what’s behind the rapid rise. It goes on to explore changes in what autism is, who gets to define it, and whose experience counts.
In this first episode, Ginny Russell discusses her 20-year study that showed an astonishing eightfold rise in new autism diagnoses in the UK on an exponential curve. And Professor Joshua Stott explains how a surprising discovery at a dementia clinic led him to calculate that that enormous rise in diagnoses may still undercount the country’s autistic population by as much as 1.2 million.
Listen to the rest of The Autism Curve here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002bszl
Archive: BBC; CSPAN; Fox News; CNN.
Presenter: Michael Blastland Series Producer: Simon Maybin Editor: Clare Fordham Sound mix: Neil Churchill Production Co-ordinator: Gemma Ashman
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Before you listen to this BBC podcast, I'd like to introduce myself. |
| 0:03.7 | My name's Stevie Middleton and I'm a BBC Commissioner for a load of sport podcasts. |
| 0:08.4 | I'm lucky to do that at the BBC because I get to work with leading journalists, experienced |
| 0:12.2 | pundits and the biggest sports stars. |
| 0:14.3 | Together we bring you untold stories and fascinating insights straight from the player's mouths. |
| 0:19.1 | But the best thing about doing this at the BBC is our unique access to the sporting world. |
| 0:24.8 | What that means is that we can bring you podcasts that create a real connection to dedicated sports fans across the UK. |
| 0:31.3 | So if you like this podcast, head over to BBC Sounds where you'll find plenty more. |
| 0:37.0 | BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. |
| 0:40.9 | Hello, Charlotte McDonald here. |
| 0:42.9 | We're interrupting your regular, more or less, podcast feed |
| 0:45.5 | with an episode from another podcast that we thought you might like. |
| 0:49.4 | It's all about a number that seems to keep on going up and up. |
| 0:56.0 | And because of that, it's been getting a lot of attention, with arguments and conspiracy theories about what might be behind it. |
| 1:01.8 | The figure in question, the number of diagnoses for autism. Ray J4 has a new five-part |
| 1:08.3 | series out today that digs into the data to find out what's really going on. |
| 1:12.9 | This series is called The Autism Curve, and we're bringing you the first episode. |
| 1:18.7 | It's presented by Michael Blasteland, who, more or less super fans will know, |
| 1:23.5 | was the founding producer of more or less some 23 years ago. |
| 1:28.8 | Here's Michael. |
| 1:31.8 | Whatever you think of it, however you explain it, |
| 1:35.8 | something curious is happening. |
... |
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