Autism Talk TV - Ep. 6 - Steve Silberman - Pt 1

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For the sixth episode of Autism Talk TV, Alex and Jack snag an exclusive interview with Steve Silberman, known primarily for his work as a writer for Wired Magazine. Ten years ago, Steve published his article "The Geek Syndrome," one of the most famous magazine pieces on the topic of autism, addressing the apparent rise of autism in Silicon Valley. In this episode Steve shares his story about what got him so gosh darn interested in autism in the first place, and about his ever expanding research into "the ways that autism itself is a window into the larger question of neurodiversity." Plus, Autism Talk TV gets an exclusive sneak peak into Steve's up-and-coming book on the topic.

But wait- there's more!
This is only part one of a two-part interview. Check back for episode seven of Autism Talk TV to learn more from Steve Silberman, including discussion of many amazing contributions to society and technology made by spectrumites.

Endless thanks to Steve Silberman for lending us some time from his (very busy!) schedule. Steve is a great guy, and the crew of Autism Talk TV had an awesome time hanging out with him- he even treated us to lunch! And when his book is finished, you can bet we'll be first in line for our copies.


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1gEwIciKDk[/youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1gEwIciKDk

Last edited by alex on 28 Sep 2010, 6:31 am, edited 2 times in total.

You have the most unflattering thumbnails.

hope i don't get banned this time for leaving a comment

but i'm not really a fan of Autism talk TV if you know who are guess. so other comments about it i keep it to myself

I had been so happy to meet you at the ASA conference. I thought that you, Sandy and Jason did a wonderful job. I even came back home and was outraged that people said you had sold out to Autism Speaks.

Now watching these two videos, I realize they were right. And it saddens me. I thought it was mere coincidence that you ran Autism Speaks people for your first episodes. And I thought little of you hanging around JE Robison. And while I must admit, I enjoyed meeting Jack, it now makes more sense.

But now I feel betrayed. So I feel I must ask.... Is Autism Speaks now sponsoring or paying for Wrong Planet as well, or did you just sell out Wrong Planet's Autism Talk TV?

we didn't sell out anything. accepting underwriting support does not mean that the underwriters have any editorial influence on the content.

You give credence to their cause by allowing the WrongPlanet name to be attached to their organization.

Autism Speaks can't be "all bad" if they support WrongPlanet. Who cares that they're still funding genetic research to "prevent" Autism. Who cares that none of their money goes to helping families or Autistic people? Who cares that their board of directors doesn't include anyone with Autism? And sorry, them paying you to attach their name does not count to me as helping Autistic people.

so they waz liek 'hay derez alot of autistic people in silicone valley' and i waz liek 'ZOMG NO WAI'

You don't have all the information. First of all, their board of directors does include an autistic person now. Second of all, their direction is obviously changing to try to support people with autism living today. They are using some of their money to support people with autism now. Please call me on the telephone. I will explain more of this.

Now that we've made our position clear, the logical course of action is to attempt to change them by guiding their actions. Continuing to refuse to talk to them and to protest them will not change the fact that they are the largest fundraising organization out there and will continue to spend the money. . . with our input or without it. . . wouldn't you rather have a say on where that money goes? or is writing angry blog posts without any result all you care about?

arent you going to sticky this?

Thanks for doing this interview Alex and posting it here. It was an honor, having admired WrongPlanet for years. Great work Alex (and Jack).

Oh and Leekduck, my late cat couldn't have said it better herself.

Thankyou

great video. thanks for posting.

it is always nice to know of people not on the spectrum themselves who have a great liking for, interest in, and positive attitude towards those on the spectrum.

agree about Autism Speaks btw. better to try to shape them with positive input than simply be at war.

thanks!

I'm trying to look up the board members on autism speaks now b/c I'd rather see for myself that they now have an autistic member on their board of directors. Also, even if this is true I cannot give my support to them b/c back in about January-February of this year I found a link through autism speaks to something they labeled as their Biobank and eventually found the Autism Tissue Program which collects the brains/brain tissue of dead autistic individuals. I understand you can donate tissues legally but I have a major issue with the parents of a (he was about 11-13 years old I can't remember off the top of my head) young child or severely disabled person donating their tissue for research b/c the dead person could not give consent and probably would not have understood what they were doing. I honestly still can't get the photograph of the boy I found via the autism speaks site that had his brain donated by his parents out of my head...

I can try to link some of the stuff but the BioBank and Autism Speaks links haven't worked in months on my home computer:

http://www.biobankcentral.org/privacy/spotlight (I can't fix it)
http://www.autismtissueprogram.org/site ... 6/Home.htm
http://www.autismspeaks/org/inthenews/index.php/

A minor's consent is irrelevant until he is no longer a minor. Parents have the ability to give consent for their child's body to be donated to science. Whether or not the kid is alive to give consent is not applicable because he couldn't give consent even if he were alive.