Hungry for information | Postcasts about Autism

“I’m not curious, I just want to know everything!” This used to be one of my regular statements. I’m always looking for information, on all kinds of different subjects. To form an opinion about something, or because it’s an interesting subject for me, or because someone asks me a question about something I don’t know much about.

When I got my diagnosis, after a while I started looking for all kinds of information about my diagnosis of Asperger. There was a lot of information on the internet. In all kinds of forms. YouTube videos, wikipedia pages, blogs, Facebook groups and so on. Today I’m going to talk about another source of information; the podcasts.

Podcasts?

Nowadays everything is more and more “on demand”. Think of Netflix, for example; you can see on your own time the series you want to see at that moment. This system is far from new. If we think of a library, for example, you can see that the idea of something decreases when you need it and is not very old before.

Podcasts can be seen as radio broadcasts “on demand”. There are different forms of podcasts. There are podcasts that focus on one subject and talk about it. There are some that focus on one type of reporting and then provide reporting about it. There are also podcasts that play music, for example a compilation of released music by a DJ. There are even podcasts that tell stories in different genres, short stories or longer stories, almost like a listening book.

I listen to different podcasts and often find them full of information. And so, after listening to several American podcasts about autism, I went looking for a Dutch podcast about autism.

Strikingly few Dutch-language podcasts to be found

First of all, many podcasts are in English. They try to reach as large an audience as possible. That explains why there are so few Dutch podcasts, and hardly any about autism.

Through Twitter I asked my followers if they knew one:

This tweet was retweeted, but there was little response with a link to a podcast. Unfortunately but true. The podcasts in the Netherlands about autism seem thin on the ground.

An idea comes to life

That’s how a new idea often starts for me. Without thinking about it a lot, let’s throw a ball at people. In this case with my twitter followers.

Now I’m mainly busy writing this blog. And I don’t have any experience with making a podcast. But if it’s not there, and I would like to have one, why not start one?

I don’t know what’s involved yet. To start something like that, I’m going to have to do some research to see what it takes. What kind of format it will have, what people like to hear and so on.

Future plans

I started this blog this year because I want to tell people about autism, what it means, how I look at the world and what we can do to help each other. To achieve this goal, I think it’s a good idea to start a podcast. This will allow me to inform and perhaps help people through another channel.

I still have to see what this involves. But the plan is to get to work on this seriously. Of course I will continue to write blog posts. Who knows where this new idea will eventually lead.

I don’t have a timeframe in my head about the podcast yet. I don’t know if I’m going to do it alone, or with someone else. But I’m going to figure things out.

Every project needs a name

And as work title has the podcast in my head currently “AutCast” (thanks to Sven). But I am open to any suggestions. As said, it is a work title. If you have a suggestion, would like to participate in the podcast, have information for me about making a podcast, or whatever; I’m always available through social media. For example via Twitter or Facebook (see links below)