Michael Hobbes (@RottenInDenmark) is a journalist and co-creator of the hit podcasts Maintenance Phase—which he co-hosts with Aubrey Gordon—and You’re Wrong About, which he co-hosted with Sarah Marshall before leaving last year.

“Now, when anyone can go on Wikipedia and get a general timeline of events of what happened—that's not the hard part, putting things in chronological order. I want someone who's done a deep dive, and knows a lot more about a subject than I do, but is also able to tell me how it felt to them to read about it. …

“The fact that both shows are one person telling another person something, I think that's one of the reasons that maybe people like listening to it. It's fun to hear somebody who's like a super nerd for something telling you about it at a bar.”

Related links:

• Michael Hobbes on Twitter
• Hobbes on YouTube
• Post 10 on YouTube
• You’re Wrong About
• Maintenance Phase
• Stories by Hobbes at HuffPost

Special thanks to Ashley Smith (@Cosmic_Bigfoot) for production support.

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Dr. Kathleen Smith is the author of Everything Isn’t Terrible: Conquer Your Insecurities, Interrupt Your Anxiety, and Finally Calm Down.

I first discovered Dr. Smith's work through her must-read newsletter—she's an expert in Bowen Family Systems Theory, which looks at anxiety through the lens of our relationships. We don’t exist in isolation—we're constantly reacting to others around us, in our families and relationships, at work, and on social media.

This was a fun conversation, so thanks again to Dr. Smith. You can learn more about her work at kathleensmith.net.

Special thanks to Ashley Smith for additional production support.

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Eric Michael Garcia is an autistic journalist whose new book is We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation.

Garcia is the senior Washington correspondent for The Independent, following editorial roles at the Washington Post and The Hill. He’s also been a correspondent for National Journal, MarketWatch, and Roll Call, and has written for The Daily Beast, The New Republic, and Salon.com.

As a child, he was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, which is now diagnosed under the broader ASD (autism spectrum disorder). We talked about the history of the autism diagnosis, how it has evolved, how the language around it has changed, and how autistic people are using social media (like the #ActuallyAutistic hashtag on Twitter) to speak out in a media ecosystem that historically marginalized or ignored them.

Related links:

• We're Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation
• I'm Not Broken (National Journal / The Atlantic, 2015)
• Eric Garcia on Twitter
• You're Wrong About podcast: The anti-vaccine movement (2021)
• #ActuallyAutistic on Twitter
• Lauren Melissa (@autienelle) on Twitter

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