We are changing things up a bit today and I am sharing a preview of a new podcast that is

kind of right up the alley of the stuff that we talk about on on the podcast here, especially autism,

which we don't really talk about as much on the podcast as I would like to. So let me tell you

about this podcast called The Loudest Girl in the World for years, journalist and podcaster Lauren

Ober, uh, was it did not feel good about herself? She was getting in trouble, she had a lot of sensory

issues and a ton of anxiety and then in her forties, uh, right in the middle of the pandemic, she found

out why she's autistic and she'd always been a big talker and super social so she didn't really fit

the stereotype of autism and that's really the whole point is to try to get you to change your

ideas about autism. The Loudest Girl in the world is the story of Lauren's path to understanding what

it means to be on the autism spectrum and how to live life as somebody who's been newly diagnosed

with it. Um, you know, it's about finding yourself broken in a place that you never expect it and

then come out on the other side, mostly glued back. Uh, like we do here on the middle illness happy

hour, uh, The Loudest Girl in the world speaks really openly and honestly about mental health

and all of the stuff that comes with it. And in this preview, Lauren shares a pretty formative

moment in her childhood that impacted how she thought about herself for a long time and it

involves Lauren's sixth grade teacher and an actual cardboard box. She would put Lauren in to get

her to the stop talking in class. All right, here's the preview. I hope you guys dig it and you can

hear the full episode and more from the Loudest Girl and the world wherever you get podcasts.

For years, maybe even decades, life just seemed harder than it should have been for me.

And then in the middle of a global pandemic when the entire world was on fire and we were all

reevaluating our lives, I went searching for answers and I found them in a diagnosis I never

could have anticipated. So I want to tell you about a formative event that led me to this place

...