Today is Saturday, May 17th. The rate of autism diagnoses has been rising for years,

and recently U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. re-ignited a national conversation

by promising to find a cause by September. So what do we actually know about the increase in

autism diagnoses already? And how do people with autism feel about all of this? We have two perspectives for you

today. Later in the show, we're breaking down the data with economist and parent data founder,

Emily Oster, to understand how diagnoses have risen over time and what the research so far says

does and does not explain that rise. But first, a powerful personal perspective from Paul Loudon, an autism advocate and

public speaker who lives with autism. He opens up about what autism really feels like,

why he says political debates missed the point, and what he wants people to better understand

overall.

Welcome, welcome to the Newsworthy special Edition Saturday when we sit down with a different

expert or celebrity every Saturday to talk about something in the news.

Don't forget to tune in every Monday through Friday for our regular episodes where we provide

all the day's news in 10 minutes.

I'm Erica Mandy.

It's now time for today's special edition Saturday.

Paul Loudon, thank you so much for joining us here on The Newsworthy.

Thank you for having me.

First, just tell us about your own experience being diagnosed with autism and what difference

that did or did not make for you.

So I was diagnosed about 19 years ago now, and at the time I was already an adult, I was 23.

It was an issue where I was already having the issues in life that I was having.

...