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We all have “Different Brains” and Annette’s guest this time knows that very well. Different Brains founder Harold “Hackie” Reitman, M.D. takes time out of his very busy schedule to have a wide-ranging discussion with Annette about some of the incredible work the organization does.
Different Brains is an organization that has dedicated its resources to advocating and educating about the topic of neurodiversity. Different Brains produces a whole host of content including videos, blogs, and podcasts as well as a regular series called This Week In Neurodiversity. As Hackie explains, they use different medium to reach people with the information that they are seeking.
Hackie talks with Annette about his fascinating background as a surgeon, a professional boxer and a filmmaker and how he decided to create Different Brains. When Hackie was a professional boxer, his daughter was battling 23 brain tumors, and Hackie came up with the idea to donate all his earnings to children’s charities. Through this he was able to get lots of publicity for his cause.
After his daughter successfully battled her tumors, she attended and graduated college. But when she received a diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome, Hackie decided to launch Different Brains because he felt there was a disconnect between the various communities that worked and advocated for those under the category of Neurodiversity. He and others felt that there could be tremendous benefit to working together and sharing what has been learned to benefit all. He calls this “knocking down the silos”.
Hackie also talks on the podcast about many other topics in his interview with Annette including how he got the film The Square Root of 2 made, a movie about a young girl challenged with undiagnosed Asperger’s Syndrome and his other attempts at the movie business. He also chats about how he published his book Aspertools: The Practical Guide for Understanding and Embracing Asperger’s, Autism Spectrum Disorders, and Neurodiversity.
Hackie brings up the parent’s group Denise’s List which provides tremendous resources for parents of those on the autism spectrum.
You can find out more below about that list.
https://www.differentbrains.org/denises-list-empowering-parents-children-autism-denise-karp-edb-90/
Learn more about Different Brains and enjoy the endless list of educational content they have created here: https://www.differentbrains.org/