WEBVTT 00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:03.919 Hello, welcome to another episode of unpacking 00:00:03.919 --> 00:00:07.759 neuro queerness So I know it's been a very long 00:00:07.759 --> 00:00:11.800 time Since I've done an episode, but I just wanted 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:18.339 to Give everyone an update on What has been going 00:00:18.339 --> 00:00:26.859 on with me? in terms of life Goals or such and 00:00:26.859 --> 00:00:38.670 also in terms of the advocacy that I do and where 00:00:38.670 --> 00:00:43.070 I'm planning to go with that and why I've been 00:00:43.070 --> 00:00:49.149 absent from the podcast for a while and also 00:00:49.149 --> 00:00:53.909 I want to tell a little story which relates to 00:00:53.909 --> 00:00:55.990 hyper empathy which I've talked about before 00:00:55.990 --> 00:01:03.850 on this podcast So I want to start out with The 00:01:03.850 --> 00:01:11.469 life Update So I have always had a very strong 00:01:11.469 --> 00:01:15.849 passion for weather and meteorology It's definitely 00:01:15.849 --> 00:01:20.670 been one of my special interests since I was 00:01:20.670 --> 00:01:25.090 quite young since I Remember it being a special 00:01:25.090 --> 00:01:32.890 interest as early as eight years old, but it 00:01:32.890 --> 00:01:36.269 could have easily been before that. A big reason 00:01:36.269 --> 00:01:39.250 is the microclimates of the San Francisco Bay 00:01:39.250 --> 00:01:41.909 Area growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area 00:01:41.909 --> 00:01:45.730 and in San Francisco itself at the time where 00:01:45.730 --> 00:01:51.670 you could have 60 degrees and low clouds and 00:01:51.670 --> 00:01:56.629 fog and cold wind on one end of the city and 00:01:58.860 --> 00:02:06.340 have Without joking sunny skies and 70 sometimes 00:02:06.340 --> 00:02:09.620 even 80 degrees depending on the day I've seen 00:02:09.620 --> 00:02:13.960 as much of a 20 degree difference or more actually 00:02:13.960 --> 00:02:18.500 I've There was one time that I saw a temperature 00:02:18.500 --> 00:02:24.789 reading of 57 degrees, I believe in the Ocean 00:02:24.789 --> 00:02:29.449 Beach, Stonestown area, and a reading of 80 degrees 00:02:29.449 --> 00:02:32.490 just a few miles away, what would be a 20 minute 00:02:32.490 --> 00:02:36.870 drive in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco, 00:02:37.289 --> 00:02:42.710 on the other side of the hills over there, the 00:02:42.710 --> 00:02:47.229 Twin Peaks and adjacent hills. So I was always 00:02:47.229 --> 00:02:51.729 very fascinated by how there could be, I mean, 00:02:51.800 --> 00:02:57.000 I'll just like 60 degrees Fahrenheit, 57 degrees 00:02:57.000 --> 00:03:00.719 Fahrenheit, which is about 14, 15 degrees Celsius. 00:03:01.719 --> 00:03:04.639 And then go to the other side of town and you 00:03:04.639 --> 00:03:08.219 have up to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 27 00:03:08.219 --> 00:03:14.479 degrees Celsius. That's just a really significant 00:03:14.479 --> 00:03:22.900 change in a short distance. That always fascinated 00:03:22.900 --> 00:03:25.300 me and then understanding the sea breeze and 00:03:25.300 --> 00:03:29.539 the marine layer and the the fog and all the 00:03:29.539 --> 00:03:34.819 advection fog in this case and all the Mechanisms 00:03:34.819 --> 00:03:40.740 that that make that happen and why I That that 00:03:40.740 --> 00:03:43.560 started to fascinate me from an early age and 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:47.280 then I moved to São Paulo Brazil where I am where 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:53.090 I was born originally Although moved to the US 00:03:53.090 --> 00:03:56.009 very young and then moved back to Brazil, my 00:03:56.009 --> 00:04:00.710 mom's family is entirely from Brazil. My dad 00:04:00.710 --> 00:04:06.250 is from the US anyways. I moved to São Paulo, 00:04:06.250 --> 00:04:08.750 Brazil and there was very interesting weather 00:04:08.750 --> 00:04:11.710 as well. We didn't have microclimates like we 00:04:11.710 --> 00:04:17.370 have here, but we had very sharp changes in temperature. 00:04:18.009 --> 00:04:20.470 from one day to the next, because you would have 00:04:20.470 --> 00:04:24.689 the influence of tropical air masses from the 00:04:24.689 --> 00:04:28.310 Amazon and from the north part of Brazil that 00:04:28.310 --> 00:04:34.389 could make it really hot. It could be 90 to 95 00:04:34.389 --> 00:04:38.629 degrees. And then you would have Fahrenheit, 00:04:38.649 --> 00:04:43.689 which would be 30 to 35 Celsius roughly. And 00:04:43.689 --> 00:04:50.089 you would have the influence of Polar air masses 00:04:50.089 --> 00:04:56.269 from the Patagonia region In southern Chile and 00:04:56.269 --> 00:04:58.410 Argentina that would make their way all the way 00:04:58.410 --> 00:05:03.509 up to Sao Paulo, which is in the Upper southern 00:05:03.509 --> 00:05:11.430 half of Brazil essentially And It's not technically 00:05:11.430 --> 00:05:14.449 in the south, but it's it's what we call the 00:05:14.449 --> 00:05:18.529 southeast which is or the center south, the Saint 00:05:18.529 --> 00:05:21.750 -Toussou, it's on the top part of that. It's 00:05:21.750 --> 00:05:26.230 like not quite halfway up the country, but it's 00:05:26.230 --> 00:05:29.250 close, but it's still like in that southern half. 00:05:30.629 --> 00:05:35.269 Anyways, because of that location, it was prone 00:05:35.269 --> 00:05:38.790 to getting really hot air from really warm air 00:05:38.790 --> 00:05:42.579 masses from the tropics, but also pretty chilly 00:05:42.579 --> 00:05:46.980 air masses from the polar regions not cold enough 00:05:46.980 --> 00:05:52.600 to snow but the temperature would be very close 00:05:52.600 --> 00:05:56.860 to freezing because there's a slight elevation 00:05:56.860 --> 00:06:01.620 and you're a little bit to the south of some 00:06:01.620 --> 00:06:05.300 equatorial regions so considering you're in a 00:06:05.300 --> 00:06:08.980 tropical country because of the topography and 00:06:15.809 --> 00:06:20.529 the The topography and the slightly higher latitude 00:06:20.529 --> 00:06:28.089 of Sao Paulo you do get Some You do you can get 00:06:28.089 --> 00:06:31.910 pretty chilly like there will be days in The 00:06:31.910 --> 00:06:36.910 winter where you might not get above 55 Fahrenheit 00:06:36.910 --> 00:06:46.079 13 12 or 13 Celsius you might get down to maybe 00:06:46.079 --> 00:06:49.639 40 Fahrenheit which is about 4 Celsius at night 00:06:49.639 --> 00:06:54.180 in the coldest winter nights there and then you 00:06:54.180 --> 00:06:58.160 have in the summer you have days where it doesn't 00:06:58.160 --> 00:07:03.220 get any colder than like 75 or 80 Fahrenheit 00:07:03.220 --> 00:07:10.319 23 25 Celsius and it Can get as hot as 95 Fahrenheit 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:13.560 35 Celsius or sometimes even a little hotter 00:07:13.560 --> 00:07:19.839 depending on where you are So Yeah, there was 00:07:19.839 --> 00:07:25.699 quite a variety in temperature so that Combined 00:07:25.699 --> 00:07:29.360 with the Bay Area microclimates that all all 00:07:29.360 --> 00:07:33.000 made me very interested in weather so that's 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:39.170 why I've decided to Go after a I had actually 00:07:39.170 --> 00:07:43.870 studied some meteorology before but I ended up 00:07:43.870 --> 00:07:47.730 shifting Over to acting a lot of things were 00:07:47.730 --> 00:07:51.350 happening in my life things weren't it was really 00:07:51.350 --> 00:08:01.069 hard to To do the meteorology Through the program 00:08:01.069 --> 00:08:03.850 that I was doing because it involved having to 00:08:03.850 --> 00:08:09.189 take a lot of other classes that I wasn't That 00:08:09.189 --> 00:08:12.410 I didn't have any interest in and then it was 00:08:12.410 --> 00:08:14.629 just really difficult because I took all the 00:08:14.629 --> 00:08:20.569 meteorology at once and then I Only had the classes 00:08:20.569 --> 00:08:24.209 that I wasn't interested in Like that were completely 00:08:24.209 --> 00:08:29.069 unrelated after and I found myself Having like 00:08:29.069 --> 00:08:33.250 going to class but it was never Meteorology class 00:08:33.250 --> 00:08:35.210 it was always something else and then it just 00:08:35.210 --> 00:08:39.850 felt like oh, this is just like Regular school 00:08:39.850 --> 00:08:42.789 again, but I'm not even getting to study what 00:08:42.789 --> 00:08:46.590 I want So then I ended up stopping and then I 00:08:46.590 --> 00:08:48.889 ended up doing this two -year acting program 00:08:48.889 --> 00:08:52.210 which was great because I learned great skills 00:08:52.210 --> 00:08:56.269 and I've been able to use that and do some acting 00:08:56.269 --> 00:09:00.549 work, which I still do here and there, at least 00:09:00.549 --> 00:09:03.250 in the form of monologues and such. It's definitely 00:09:03.250 --> 00:09:08.090 given me great tools. And I plan to continue 00:09:08.090 --> 00:09:10.289 to use those acting tools in the future, but 00:09:10.289 --> 00:09:14.590 then I realize I started having more and more 00:09:14.590 --> 00:09:20.450 of a thirst to get back into meteorology. And 00:09:20.450 --> 00:09:23.210 then I happened to find this online certificate 00:09:23.210 --> 00:09:32.090 program through Penn State, entirely online, 00:09:33.230 --> 00:09:37.110 all meteorology classes, four different meteorology 00:09:37.110 --> 00:09:41.409 classes, which would give me a certificate in 00:09:41.409 --> 00:09:46.269 weather forecasting. And I realized, wow, this 00:09:46.269 --> 00:09:51.440 is something that I could definitely see myself 00:09:51.440 --> 00:09:55.500 doing and It's a one -year program for classes. 00:09:55.500 --> 00:09:59.840 I just finished the first class after three months 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:04.700 and I'm on track to finish with 99 % which is 00:10:04.700 --> 00:10:08.679 probably the highest grade I've ever finished 00:10:08.679 --> 00:10:13.259 a college course with so that's very exciting 00:10:13.259 --> 00:10:20.029 and It's it's felt really good to be able to 00:10:20.029 --> 00:10:30.549 dive back into this passion and Be able to formalize 00:10:30.549 --> 00:10:34.429 it like see myself legitimately Getting this 00:10:34.429 --> 00:10:39.769 certificate next year and having a formal Title 00:10:39.769 --> 00:10:42.990 in meteorology. I think it'll just be really 00:10:42.990 --> 00:10:53.490 great That's also the reason why all the coursework 00:10:53.490 --> 00:10:56.649 that comes with that program, even though it's 00:10:56.649 --> 00:11:01.809 very rewarding, it does take a lot of time. That's 00:11:01.809 --> 00:11:06.490 why I haven't been able to publish many episodes 00:11:06.490 --> 00:11:13.720 for the podcast. But I do plan to... Start publishing 00:11:13.720 --> 00:11:16.960 again. I don't want to promise and put a number 00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:22.440 on it, but I'm hoping On average maybe once or 00:11:22.440 --> 00:11:24.879 one or two episodes a month, which will be a 00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:29.379 lot less than I was producing at one point, but 00:11:29.379 --> 00:11:32.799 It does feel good to be able to come back on 00:11:32.799 --> 00:11:36.159 and give some updates or talk about something 00:11:36.159 --> 00:11:42.019 And it's nice that I'm working on this program 00:11:42.019 --> 00:11:45.720 and another huge update more on the neurodiversity 00:11:45.720 --> 00:11:51.580 front is that I am working on a documentary with 00:11:51.580 --> 00:11:57.960 several neurodivergent people that I've met and 00:11:57.960 --> 00:12:00.799 even a couple that I haven't met but they're 00:12:00.799 --> 00:12:05.860 friends of a friend that are going to that I'm 00:12:05.860 --> 00:12:10.059 basically trying to highlight the Highlight what 00:12:10.059 --> 00:12:12.879 different neurodivergent experiences can look 00:12:12.879 --> 00:12:16.980 like because I feel like it's one group that 00:12:16.980 --> 00:12:22.179 Is still very very misunderstood even compared 00:12:22.179 --> 00:12:26.399 to other marginalized groups I feel like in my 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:33.039 opinion Neurodivergent people and also disabled 00:12:33.039 --> 00:12:41.389 people in the broader spectrum Are very it's 00:12:41.389 --> 00:12:44.710 something that's very misunderstood. I think 00:12:44.710 --> 00:12:49.210 particularly like High masking neurodivergent 00:12:49.210 --> 00:12:52.370 experiences even non high masking experiences 00:12:52.370 --> 00:12:57.389 are misunderstood but As a high masking person 00:12:57.389 --> 00:13:01.289 I've always felt very misunderstood and I've 00:13:01.289 --> 00:13:03.629 met a lot of other high masking people along 00:13:03.629 --> 00:13:08.350 the way That have had very similar experiences 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:13.500 In terms of feeling misunderstood and then that's 00:13:13.500 --> 00:13:18.840 you know What led me to start this podcast and 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:20.980 everything but I want to talk about different 00:13:20.980 --> 00:13:28.600 experiences You know like From different people 00:13:28.600 --> 00:13:31.679 because people have different experiences with 00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:34.779 things like masking and things like how they 00:13:34.779 --> 00:13:39.370 grew up and You know their background and other 00:13:39.370 --> 00:13:45.669 intersecting identities and whatnot so This documentary 00:13:45.669 --> 00:13:49.129 is really gonna try to capture that and so I've 00:13:49.129 --> 00:13:56.769 been working on this with X my co -host Because 00:13:56.769 --> 00:14:03.669 and I did not X is not with us today because 00:14:03.669 --> 00:14:08.750 I decided I just wanted to do this update instead 00:14:08.750 --> 00:14:13.610 of doing the whole episode where we You know 00:14:13.610 --> 00:14:16.690 discuss topics at length and bring resources 00:14:16.690 --> 00:14:19.950 and everything which is what I What X and I tend 00:14:19.950 --> 00:14:25.070 to do? I just wanted to do a quick update episode. 00:14:25.070 --> 00:14:27.549 So that's why X isn't here today, but she is 00:14:27.549 --> 00:14:39.039 still a Host or co -host of the podcast And She's 00:14:39.039 --> 00:14:41.340 working with me. We're both working together 00:14:41.340 --> 00:14:43.879 on this documentary project on like putting it 00:14:43.879 --> 00:14:46.659 together So and she will be in it and I will 00:14:46.659 --> 00:14:51.480 be in it as well So as soon as that is ready 00:14:51.480 --> 00:14:55.019 Which should be within the next month to two 00:14:55.019 --> 00:15:00.879 months I will I will of course share that here 00:15:00.879 --> 00:15:04.480 on the podcast because I'm really excited about 00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:07.779 this project as well and you know this is pretty 00:15:07.779 --> 00:15:11.940 much exactly the kind of work that I've been 00:15:11.940 --> 00:15:15.779 doing with the podcast and the blog and now I 00:15:15.779 --> 00:15:18.019 get to do it with this documentary as well so 00:15:18.019 --> 00:15:25.330 that's really exciting. I, um, the other thing 00:15:25.330 --> 00:15:28.870 I wanted to talk about is a story related to 00:15:28.870 --> 00:15:32.809 hyper empathy. I was just remembering I used 00:15:32.809 --> 00:15:39.769 to, um, when I would visit my grandma when I 00:15:39.769 --> 00:15:45.470 was really young, um, I would, she had a treadmill 00:15:45.470 --> 00:15:54.100 and, um, even though she told me To not feed 00:15:54.100 --> 00:15:56.320 the treadmill because it would really upset her 00:15:56.320 --> 00:16:01.960 when I fed the treadmill I would Open the treadmill 00:16:01.960 --> 00:16:06.860 and I would put pretzels In there because I thought 00:16:06.860 --> 00:16:09.659 that the treadmill was hungry and then I was 00:16:09.659 --> 00:16:13.879 I later came to realize As I got older and I 00:16:13.879 --> 00:16:19.480 reflected on these moments I realized that I 00:16:19.480 --> 00:16:27.909 actually felt Such a strong hyper empathy For 00:16:27.909 --> 00:16:33.049 like things even things that were not Living 00:16:33.049 --> 00:16:37.330 like a treadmill or a towel like I've used this 00:16:37.330 --> 00:16:41.429 example I talked about towels like folding the 00:16:41.429 --> 00:16:48.559 towels nicely and like making sure that the Like 00:16:48.559 --> 00:16:52.519 I don't fold one towel like last and then make 00:16:52.519 --> 00:16:54.919 it feel left out there was all of this kind of 00:16:54.919 --> 00:16:58.980 stuff that used to go on in my head as a kid 00:16:58.980 --> 00:17:04.119 and Not to say that this is an experience that 00:17:04.119 --> 00:17:08.140 every autistic person has but a lot of Autistic 00:17:08.140 --> 00:17:10.880 people including myself tend to experience what 00:17:10.880 --> 00:17:15.619 we call hyper empathy in terms of the emotional 00:17:15.619 --> 00:17:24.759 empathy In like feeling very intensely empathetic 00:17:24.759 --> 00:17:27.019 even towards non -living objects, and I just 00:17:27.019 --> 00:17:30.160 realizing that the whole treadmill thing I know 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:33.119 my grandma will really like Hearing this because 00:17:33.119 --> 00:17:35.579 she probably remembers and I know she listens 00:17:35.579 --> 00:17:39.500 to all my episodes so shout out to my grandma 00:17:39.500 --> 00:17:45.369 Theo guns and Yeah, I used to feed the treadmill 00:17:45.369 --> 00:17:47.910 because I used to think, oh my god, the treadmill 00:17:47.910 --> 00:17:52.529 is hungry. I'm going to feed the treadmill. And 00:17:52.529 --> 00:17:59.289 I didn't come to realize until later that the 00:17:59.289 --> 00:18:02.450 treadmill does not get hungry. The treadmill 00:18:02.450 --> 00:18:09.470 does not have a stomach and it does not need 00:18:09.470 --> 00:18:11.849 food to survive. As a matter of fact, what I 00:18:11.849 --> 00:18:14.880 was doing I was just giving my grandma a bunch 00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:20.079 of work having to clean up all the times that 00:18:20.079 --> 00:18:23.480 I fed the treadmill. So sorry grandma about that. 00:18:24.759 --> 00:18:28.279 Because now I realize that that's the only thing 00:18:28.279 --> 00:18:30.019 that was happening when I fed the treadmill. 00:18:30.299 --> 00:18:35.119 It was just my grandma had to clean it up. But 00:18:35.119 --> 00:18:37.200 I stopped feeding the treadmill after a while, 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:41.700 so that's good. You know, I realized that and 00:18:41.700 --> 00:18:44.450 then... You know, I didn't have to make my grandma, 00:18:44.670 --> 00:18:50.109 inadvertently make my grandma clean it. So, well, 00:18:50.269 --> 00:18:52.609 yeah, I hope you all enjoyed this episode and 00:18:52.609 --> 00:19:01.289 this story. And thank you for listening. It's 00:19:01.289 --> 00:19:03.569 nice to be back on here, and I'll see you next 00:19:03.569 --> 00:19:03.750 time.