9th December 2018
“1800 Seconds on Autism” is a brand new podcast on the BBC Sounds website hosted by two Autistic individuals, Robyn Steward and Jamie Knight. Jamie and Robyn had already teamed up together on the BBC Ouch podcast on a couple of their takeover shows. I really enjoyed these shows which discussed Autism and everything related to it. Therefore I was super excited to hear that the two of them now had their own show.
The show is about all things Autistic related and it’s objective is to raise Autistic awareness, dispel myths about Autism and to help people learn about people on the spectrum and to understand them better. There is a short introduction programme where the presenters talk about their aspirations for the show – give it a listen before launching into the episodes.
So far there have been two episodes. The first one is called “Turn the Studio Lights Down” and Jamie and Robyn talk about various aspects of Autistic life. For example, cooking and instructions being clearer so not be taken literally. Jamie talks about the fact he was cooking his pizza wrong because he was confusing the words “in” and “on”, and Robyn talks about being ill and using her parents as a triage to gauge the seriousness of her illness.
They explain some of the terminology that is used by Autistic people such as “Stimming” and “Spoon Theory” which is extremely informative, especially to anyone listening who is not Autistic. The explanation of “Spoon Theory” which is in essence energy accounting, comes across clear and in a way that is interesting to start conversations with other people. As an Autistic person I was listening to the show, thinking that is so correct, that I do that, agreeing with them, as well as picking up a few tips that Jamie and Robyn do to help them in difficult situations.
The second episode Robyn and Jamie talk about special or intense interests. The show begins with Jamie talking about his interest in milling machines with a little demonstration of a milling machine that he built to draw a picture of Lion. This actually came across well on the radio thanks to Robyn’s descriptions of what was happening. Robyn then talked about her interest in music.
The cool thing about this episode is the introduction of phone outs where the presenters contact other Autistics to discuss their interests too. This is different from a phone in, as the show is not live and they are ringing others rather then people ringing in. The first person is a guy called Lawrence, who was of particular interest to me, as he shared my passion for Rubik cubes. He was followed by Emma, who spoke about her interest in bugs and insects and finally followed by Georgia, who discussed Dr Who and the London Underground. The key thing was that although we had five different Autistic people they all spoke passionately and informatively about their individual interests. This is the very definition of what a special interest is. As an Autistic person I love hearing about the interests of others and so I thoroughly enjoyed this episode.
The show is excellently produced by Damian Rose (who also works on the awesome BBC Ouch Podcast about Disability) and works extremely well. The intro, outro sequences and breaks match the feel of the discussions and make the show easy and enjoyable to listen to. The show comes across as fun, informative and somehow relaxing. The voices and characters of Jamie and Robyn are perfect and the format of the programme which is an enjoyable listen for Autistic people and Neurotypical people alike.
Do I have a criticisms of the show? Well, no I don’t really. I can’t think of any way it could be improved at this time and I look forward to hearing more episodes. I particular like the introduction of Autistic guests on the phone and I hope that in future shows they have some guest speakers in the actual studio too. I think the length of the show works well, at around thirty to forty minutes
If you haven’t already listened to the shows then I would highly recommend them. The production is great, Jamie and Robyn are entertaining and interesting and I hope that it continues with more episodes to come. I would like to end by personally thanking Robyn, Jamie, Damian and anyone else connected to the show for their hard work, time and effort that has gone into producing the podcast.
Jamie has a website here http://spacedoutandsmiling.com/
Robyn has a website here https://www.robynsteward.com/