DEEP DIVE: Kate Swenson of "Finding Cooper's Voice" on Parenting Autism

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood | Parenting Tips From Funny Moms

What Fresh Hell: Laughing in the Face of Motherhood

Kids & Family, Comedy, Parenting

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2026

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This Deep Dive series revisits some of our past episodes about the joys and the challenges that come with raising kids with differences and disabilities. Kate Swenson writes and creates videos about her life as a mother of four and and an autism advocate for ⁠"Finding Cooper's Voice⁠," a living, thriving community of people who not only advocate for autism, but also make the world a better place for individuals with disabilities and their families. We discuss Kate's book ⁠Forever Boy: A Mother's Memoir of Autism and Finding Joy⁠ and her nonprofit ⁠The More Than Project, ⁠which supports the needs of special needs families that go beyond the needs of their special needs child. Kate tells us about: Kate's journey to finding the correct diagnosis for her child what led her to put her story out into the world the sometimes-loneliness of special needs parenting, and how the Finding Cooper's Voice community offers insight, support, and fellowship Get FOREVER BOY in our Bookshop store: https://bookshop.org/a/12099/9780778311997 and follow @findingcoopersvoice on Facebook and Instagram. What Fresh Hell is co-hosted by Amy Wilson and Margaret Ables. We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on our website: ⁠⁠⁠https://www.whatfreshhellpodcast.com/p/promo-codes/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Fresh Take from What Fresh Hell laughing in the face of motherhood.
0:06.6	This is Margaret.
0:07.6	And this is Amy.
0:08.7	And today we're talking to Kate Swenson.
0:10.6	She is a mom to four kids, a wife, and a proud Minnesotan.
0:14.3	She regularly writes and creates videos about her life as a mother and an autism advocate for her website, Finding Cooper's Voice on Instagram and on Facebook, where her videos have had millions of views.
0:25.5	Her book, Forever Boy, a mother's memoir of autism and finding joy, is out now.
0:31.0	Kate is also the founder of the nonprofit The More Than project, which supports the needs of special needs families that go beyond the needs of
0:38.1	their special needs child. Welcome, Kate. Hi, thanks for having me. I was telling Kate before we
0:42.6	started, I'm such a fan of Finding Cooper's Voice. Tell us before we start your four kids, how old?
0:47.1	So Cooper's 11, Sawyer is nine, Harbors 3, and Winnie just turned one yesterday. Finding Cooper's
0:53.3	voice, it's about your entire family, but it started as a way to chronicle
0:57.4	the journey of your son, Cooper.
0:59.7	So tell us a little bit about him.
1:01.2	Yeah, so Cooper, he's 11 now.
1:02.9	I started the blog, Finding Cooper's Voice on WordPress.
1:06.4	It feels like a million years ago now, but I started before he was diagnosed because I was
1:10.6	seeing things
1:11.5	and feeling things and had no one to talk to about doctors weren't taking me seriously about
1:15.8	his developmental delays. My husband wasn't quite where I needed him to be. My mom was like,
1:20.6	it's okay. So I started writing, and it was one of the best things I ever did because I was able to
1:26.2	put all my feelings out into the universe,
	...

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