Welcome to Why Not Me, the World Podcast, hosted by Tony Maitour.

Broadcasting from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee.

Join us as our guests tell us their stories.

Some will make you laugh, some will make you cry.

Real life people who will inspire and show that you are not alone in this world.

Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance, and a better understanding for autism

around the world.

Hi, I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me the World. We're honored to have J.D. Barker,

renowned New York Times and international bestselling author joining us today. He will share his

personal journey of discovering his autism diagnosis and how he leverages his platform to challenge societal stereotypes and foster

greater understanding of autism through public engagement and interviews. Welcome and thank you for

coming on. That's all. Thanks for having me. Oh, it's my pleasure. So if you would, give us a little

background on your writing, how it's developed over the years

to ultimately get you where you are today.

So I've been reading since I was really young.

I started reading around three years old and by the time I got into kindergarten, I'd

read all the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drews.

And I was kind of really taken by the fact that you could basically create a world, create

people, anything that you

wanted within the pages of a book. And like, that completely fascinated me. I was even writing back

now, I would write these crazy little short stories and I would have a library in my, my bedroom,

my sister would check them out, charge your late fees, the whole deal. And my parents encouraged

...