Rebelling

In the first episode of my Social Security series, I explore the difference between individuality and individualism, between being truly ourselves in connection with others, and the cultural pressure to perform independence at all costs. Individualism is a survival story, a disguise precarity and control use to convince us they are actually freedom. And yet, somehow that freedom leaves us separate, continuously striving, and worn thin. Individuality, on the other hand, is only itself. It thrives when we are held, supported, and recognized by one another. Individuality is a relational story. 

This episode invites you to imagine a...

Today marks the start of a new series on Rebelling called Social Security. And I’m not talking about the monthly check you (hopefully) get someday. I mean actual social security- the security we build with other humans and the environments we live in.

In this episode, I introduce the series and lay the foundation for what we’ll explore in the coming weeks: how to understand security not as something we earn or hoard, but as something we create together through relationships, trust, and community.

This series is an invitation to think abou...

In this episode of Rebelling, I’m joined by certified ADHD coach Keltie McLaren, who works with values-driven independent creatives to help them stop fighting their brains and start building systems that actually work for them.

We talk about what it means to understand ourselves, others, and the spaces between us. We talk about trust, how understanding isn’t a destination, but something we practice: through vulnerability, curiosity, and reflection, rather than control, performance, or self-criticism. 

The heart of this conversation is when we recognize that real understanding is relational, not performative. It doesn...

It’s been a year since my autism diagnosis. 

In this solo episode, I reflect on what the year has been like, the relief of understanding myself, the grief of what was missed, and the ways my life has shifted as I’ve learned to work with who I am instead of constantly trying to fix myself.

I talk about what changed after being diagnosed with both autism and ADHD. What it’s meant for my relationships, and how knowing myself has softened the shame I carry.

This conversation is a look at...

In this episode of The Myth of Knowing series, I talk with Jen Andrew, who is finishing a two-year program in community herbalism and works in communications at a disability rights nonprofit. She has a background in philanthropy, public libraries, peer support, healthcare, and public school advocacy. Jen’s journey includes herbalism, chronic illness, grief work, sobriety, and neurodivergent living, giving her a unique perspective on how we relate to our bodies, health, and the process of healing.

We get curious about what heals, the both/and of natural and institutional medicine, healing as an ongoing process, cu...

In this episode, I have a curiosity-led conversation with Melinda Staehling, a certified nutrition specialist and Menopause Society practitioner, to explore what it really means to “know” our bodies. Melinda, whose late-in-life AuDHD diagnosis inspired her podcast Departure Menopause, brings a neurodivergent-affirming, weight-inclusive perspective to conversations about health, food, and aging.

We discuss how social, cultural, and systemic rules shape our early experiences with food, body image, and health, often teaching us to distrust our own sense of what our bodies want and need. We challenge the idea that there is one “right” way to eat, sleep, or care...

In this episode, the second in the series The Myth of Knowing, I talk with Dana Calder, a queer neurodivergent SVP in the fintech world, about what it means to “know” in the workplace. Work culture often treats knowing as currency—a sign of belonging, authority, and success. But what happens when certainty is a mask, and perfectionism becomes a survival strategy?

Dana shares her journey of discovering she’s autistic later in life, reflecting on years of over-preparing, masking, and striving to avoid mistakes. Together, we explore the hidden costs of “knowing at work,” the limits of binary th...

This episode is the first in a series called The Myth of Knowing- the story that says we have to be certain, be the same, and always know the answer. But what if we didn’t have to pretend? What if “I don’t know” was an opening, not a problem?

In this episode, I’m talking about the pressure so many of us feel to always have the answer—to be sure, to be confident, to know. We’ll look at how that pressure starts early, and how it shows up in adulthood as performance, especially for those of u...

What if addiction isn’t a disease, but a way we’ve learned to cope? What if sobriety isn’t just about abstinence, but about sensing ourselves, how things make sense, and what makes sense? What if recovery isn’t a rigid path—but a way to reconnect with something alive, relational, and yours to shape?

In this episode, I share the story of my own unconventional sobriety outside of AA and traditional recovery models. I talk about why those spaces didn’t work for me, what did, and how receiving late diagnoses of ADHD and autism gave me the...

I’ve been sitting with some big questions about identity for what feels like my whole life—what we call ourselves, what’s been put on us, what we outgrow, and what still feels like home. I read three things this week (linked below),  that cracked me open, especially around the language of neurodivergence, the limits of diagnosis, and how easy it is to forget who we were before the world started naming us. After reading the first two (they are linked in order of how I read them), I got uncomfortable with calling myself neurodivergent- not because I am asha...

Something most of the neurodivergent people I talk to have in common is a sense of not belonging. Connecting is supposed to be natural—but for many of us, it never feels that simple. In this solo episode, I explore some of my early friendships, what it means to want friendships and relationships while not understanding how they work. I tried learning from books and TV, and by trying to decipher how other people behaved, but it often didn't make sense or work for me. It wasn't obvious. 

This episode isn't a one-size-fits-all checklist or suggestion box—it's...

In this solo episode, I’m talking about a phrase that’s been hounding me for decades: why can’t I just? Why can’t I just be easygoing? Be normal? Be fine with things that make no sense? It sounds small, but it’s actually huge—and it’s shaped so much of how I’ve lived. I’m pulling apart the layers of self-management, shame, and survival that come with being neurodivergent in a world that isn't always clear or understandable. And I’m wondering out loud what changes when we ask that same question—but with curiosity instead of c...

In this conversation with 28-year-old writer and interdisciplinary artist Kelly Shannon, we dig into the complex landscape of identity, burnout, and diagnosis. We talk about policing your own intensity, contradicting the narrative of exhaustion, how the toll of performing normal led her to seek answers, and that weird liminal space you're in just before and just after realizing you're neurodivergent. 

We also take an unexpected detour into the Gothic — yes, the literary genre — and how its themes strangely mirror the diagnosis experience. As an autoethnographer, Kelly has used her research skills to dig deep into her own story...

What happens when you finally get the language for something you’ve felt your entire life—but never understood? In this deeply personal episode of Rebelling, host Amy Knott Parrish interviews Kelly Hambly, a 58 year old writer who was diagnosed with dyslexia as a child. Kelly shares what it's like being at the beginning of another neurodivergent diagnosis story. 

https://kellyhambly.com/

https://boththingstrue.substack.com/

In this first episode of Rebelling, host Amy Knott Parrish shares her journey from lifelong outsider to late-diagnosed ADHD and autistic adult. Through stories of identity, music, masking, and self-discovery, she explores what it means to rebel against “normal” and build a life that honors neurodivergent needs. This is a podcast for anyone craving belonging without pretending.

In this episode, I’m getting real about what brought me here — from growing up feeling like an outsider, to trying on different identities just to fit in, to finally discovering my neurodivergence in my 40s. I talk about the power of...