Hello, welcome to another episode of unpacking
neuro queerness So I know it's been a very long
time Since I've done an episode, but I just wanted
to Give everyone an update on What has been going
on with me? in terms of life Goals or such and
also in terms of the advocacy that I do and where
I'm planning to go with that and why I've been
absent from the podcast for a while and also
I want to tell a little story which relates to
hyper empathy which I've talked about before
on this podcast So I want to start out with The
life Update So I have always had a very strong
passion for weather and meteorology It's definitely
been one of my special interests since I was
quite young since I Remember it being a special
interest as early as eight years old, but it
could have easily been before that. A big reason
is the microclimates of the San Francisco Bay
Area growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area
and in San Francisco itself at the time where
you could have 60 degrees and low clouds and
fog and cold wind on one end of the city and
have Without joking sunny skies and 70 sometimes
even 80 degrees depending on the day I've seen
as much of a 20 degree difference or more actually
I've There was one time that I saw a temperature
reading of 57 degrees, I believe in the Ocean
Beach, Stonestown area, and a reading of 80 degrees
just a few miles away, what would be a 20 minute
drive in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco,
on the other side of the hills over there, the
Twin Peaks and adjacent hills. So I was always
very fascinated by how there could be, I mean,
I'll just like 60 degrees Fahrenheit, 57 degrees
Fahrenheit, which is about 14, 15 degrees Celsius.
And then go to the other side of town and you
have up to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 27
degrees Celsius. That's just a really significant
change in a short distance. That always fascinated
me and then understanding the sea breeze and
the marine layer and the the fog and all the
advection fog in this case and all the Mechanisms
that that make that happen and why I That that
started to fascinate me from an early age and
then I moved to São Paulo Brazil where I am where
I was born originally Although moved to the US
very young and then moved back to Brazil, my
mom's family is entirely from Brazil. My dad
is from the US anyways. I moved to São Paulo,
Brazil and there was very interesting weather
as well. We didn't have microclimates like we
have here, but we had very sharp changes in temperature.
from one day to the next, because you would have
the influence of tropical air masses from the
Amazon and from the north part of Brazil that
could make it really hot. It could be 90 to 95
degrees. And then you would have Fahrenheit,
which would be 30 to 35 Celsius roughly. And
you would have the influence of Polar air masses
from the Patagonia region In southern Chile and
Argentina that would make their way all the way
up to Sao Paulo, which is in the Upper southern
half of Brazil essentially And It's not technically
in the south, but it's it's what we call the
southeast which is or the center south, the Saint
-Toussou, it's on the top part of that. It's
like not quite halfway up the country, but it's
close, but it's still like in that southern half.
Anyways, because of that location, it was prone
to getting really hot air from really warm air
masses from the tropics, but also pretty chilly
air masses from the polar regions not cold enough
to snow but the temperature would be very close
to freezing because there's a slight elevation
and you're a little bit to the south of some
equatorial regions so considering you're in a
tropical country because of the topography and
the The topography and the slightly higher latitude
of Sao Paulo you do get Some You do you can get
pretty chilly like there will be days in The
winter where you might not get above 55 Fahrenheit
13 12 or 13 Celsius you might get down to maybe
40 Fahrenheit which is about 4 Celsius at night
in the coldest winter nights there and then you
have in the summer you have days where it doesn't
get any colder than like 75 or 80 Fahrenheit
23 25 Celsius and it Can get as hot as 95 Fahrenheit
35 Celsius or sometimes even a little hotter
depending on where you are So Yeah, there was
quite a variety in temperature so that Combined
with the Bay Area microclimates that all all
made me very interested in weather so that's
why I've decided to Go after a I had actually
studied some meteorology before but I ended up
shifting Over to acting a lot of things were
happening in my life things weren't it was really
hard to To do the meteorology Through the program
that I was doing because it involved having to
take a lot of other classes that I wasn't That
I didn't have any interest in and then it was
just really difficult because I took all the
meteorology at once and then I Only had the classes
that I wasn't interested in Like that were completely
unrelated after and I found myself Having like
going to class but it was never Meteorology class
it was always something else and then it just
felt like oh, this is just like Regular school
again, but I'm not even getting to study what
I want So then I ended up stopping and then I
ended up doing this two -year acting program
which was great because I learned great skills
and I've been able to use that and do some acting
work, which I still do here and there, at least
in the form of monologues and such. It's definitely
given me great tools. And I plan to continue
to use those acting tools in the future, but
then I realize I started having more and more
of a thirst to get back into meteorology. And
then I happened to find this online certificate
program through Penn State, entirely online,
all meteorology classes, four different meteorology
classes, which would give me a certificate in
weather forecasting. And I realized, wow, this
is something that I could definitely see myself
doing and It's a one -year program for classes.
I just finished the first class after three months
and I'm on track to finish with 99 % which is
probably the highest grade I've ever finished
a college course with so that's very exciting
and It's it's felt really good to be able to
dive back into this passion and Be able to formalize
it like see myself legitimately Getting this
certificate next year and having a formal Title
in meteorology. I think it'll just be really
great That's also the reason why all the coursework
that comes with that program, even though it's
very rewarding, it does take a lot of time. That's
why I haven't been able to publish many episodes
for the podcast. But I do plan to... Start publishing
again. I don't want to promise and put a number
on it, but I'm hoping On average maybe once or
one or two episodes a month, which will be a
lot less than I was producing at one point, but
It does feel good to be able to come back on
and give some updates or talk about something
And it's nice that I'm working on this program
and another huge update more on the neurodiversity
front is that I am working on a documentary with
several neurodivergent people that I've met and
even a couple that I haven't met but they're
friends of a friend that are going to that I'm
basically trying to highlight the Highlight what
different neurodivergent experiences can look
like because I feel like it's one group that
Is still very very misunderstood even compared
to other marginalized groups I feel like in my
opinion Neurodivergent people and also disabled
people in the broader spectrum Are very it's
something that's very misunderstood. I think
particularly like High masking neurodivergent
experiences even non high masking experiences
are misunderstood but As a high masking person
I've always felt very misunderstood and I've
met a lot of other high masking people along
the way That have had very similar experiences
In terms of feeling misunderstood and then that's
you know What led me to start this podcast and
everything but I want to talk about different
experiences You know like From different people
because people have different experiences with
things like masking and things like how they
grew up and You know their background and other
intersecting identities and whatnot so This documentary
is really gonna try to capture that and so I've
been working on this with X my co -host Because
and I did not X is not with us today because
I decided I just wanted to do this update instead
of doing the whole episode where we You know
discuss topics at length and bring resources
and everything which is what I What X and I tend
to do? I just wanted to do a quick update episode.
So that's why X isn't here today, but she is
still a Host or co -host of the podcast And She's
working with me. We're both working together
on this documentary project on like putting it
together So and she will be in it and I will
be in it as well So as soon as that is ready
Which should be within the next month to two
months I will I will of course share that here
on the podcast because I'm really excited about
this project as well and you know this is pretty
much exactly the kind of work that I've been
doing with the podcast and the blog and now I
get to do it with this documentary as well so
that's really exciting. I, um, the other thing
I wanted to talk about is a story related to
hyper empathy. I was just remembering I used
to, um, when I would visit my grandma when I
was really young, um, I would, she had a treadmill
and, um, even though she told me To not feed
the treadmill because it would really upset her
when I fed the treadmill I would Open the treadmill
and I would put pretzels In there because I thought
that the treadmill was hungry and then I was
I later came to realize As I got older and I
reflected on these moments I realized that I
actually felt Such a strong hyper empathy For
like things even things that were not Living
like a treadmill or a towel like I've used this
example I talked about towels like folding the
towels nicely and like making sure that the Like
I don't fold one towel like last and then make
it feel left out there was all of this kind of
stuff that used to go on in my head as a kid
and Not to say that this is an experience that
every autistic person has but a lot of Autistic
people including myself tend to experience what
we call hyper empathy in terms of the emotional
empathy In like feeling very intensely empathetic
even towards non -living objects, and I just
realizing that the whole treadmill thing I know
my grandma will really like Hearing this because
she probably remembers and I know she listens
to all my episodes so shout out to my grandma
Theo guns and Yeah, I used to feed the treadmill
because I used to think, oh my god, the treadmill
is hungry. I'm going to feed the treadmill. And
I didn't come to realize until later that the
treadmill does not get hungry. The treadmill
does not have a stomach and it does not need
food to survive. As a matter of fact, what I
was doing I was just giving my grandma a bunch
of work having to clean up all the times that
I fed the treadmill. So sorry grandma about that.
Because now I realize that that's the only thing
that was happening when I fed the treadmill.
It was just my grandma had to clean it up. But
I stopped feeding the treadmill after a while,
so that's good. You know, I realized that and
then... You know, I didn't have to make my grandma,
inadvertently make my grandma clean it. So, well,
yeah, I hope you all enjoyed this episode and
this story. And thank you for listening. It's
nice to be back on here, and I'll see you next
time.