Devon Price on self-acceptance and expression for people with autism

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Arts, Books

4.2 • 671 Ratings

🗓️ 9 August 2022

⏱️ 14 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

For people with autism, navigating a neurotypical world can be exhausting. Many deploy strategies to fit in with others, a tactic often referred to as masking. Social psychologist Devon Price spoke to Eric Garcia, author of Unmasking Autism, on Life Kit about the freedom that comes from unmasking. Price says neurodivergent people can find greater self-acceptance by getting in touch with the person they were before they started trying to fit in. Price and Garcia, who both have autism, talk about how unmasking means progress for disability justice. This is an encore episode from May 2022.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, Naino Rau here, producer of NPR's Book of the Day. It's August, and we're taking a little time off.
0:07.3	While we do, we're sharing some of our favorite episodes from this past year.
0:11.8	Today's episode was first released in early May. We're back with new episodes next week.
0:18.9	Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Andrew Limbaugh. April was Autism Acceptance Month.
0:25.6	And yeah, I know it's May now, but I feel like the whole point of these months is for you to
0:31.2	think about these issues they're trying to call attention to, you know, the rest of the year.
0:36.0	So I want to play for you an excerpt of this piece
0:38.9	the folks over at LifeKit produced. It's from reporter Eric Garcia, and he talked to
0:44.0	psychologist Devin Price, who wrote this book called Unmasking Autism. And that term, unmasking is
0:51.0	very specific. Apparently, and I just learned this after listening to this interview,
0:56.7	masking is the term used for when neurodivergent people hide or suppress certain behaviors
1:02.4	to fit in better. And besides being just exhausting, it leads to a whole other string of effects
1:09.3	like eating disorders.
1:11.4	It's a conversation that offers a lot to think on, but you can almost feel the relief of it
1:15.9	when they get to talking about how it feels to unmask.
1:20.5	And if you're into it, you can find the full episode over at NPR's LiveKit Feed.
1:24.9	All right, give it a listen.
1:26.6	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
1:31.2	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
1:35.7	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:37.8	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people,
1:41.5	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.