Beyond Autism

Mandi Alvarado
May 25
16 min read

Beyond Beautiful: Disability, Liberation, Love

Season 3, Episode 4 - Beyond Autism

🧭 Episode Summary

In this episode of Beyond Beautiful: Disability, Liberation, Love, Mandi sits down with podcaster, entrepreneur, speaker, and autism advocate Sam Mitchell, host of Autism Rocks and Rolls.

Together, they explore autism, identity, bullying, masking, authenticity, advocacy, and what it means to reject the idea that disabled people need to be “fixed” in order to belong.

Sam shares his journey of building a successful podcast and nonprofit while embracing his

identity as an autistic person and using his platform to challenge stigma surrounding autism and disability.

This conversation also dives into representation, success, selfacceptance, and the

importance of creating spaces where disabled people can show up

authentically.

💬 Key Themes

Autism and identity
Bullying and people pleasing
Masking and authenticity
Representation and inclusion
Embracing yourself fully as you are

⚠️ Content Notes

This episode includes a few technology and audio challenges throughout the recording. Mandi also reminds listeners that guests are invited to use the language and frameworks that feel authentic to their lived experiences, even when perspectives may differ from her personal disability justice lens.

🚨Partnership

Intersectional Access has a partnership with Buoy, a company that creates hydration drops designed to support people living with chronic illnesses and conditions where maintaining hydration is especially important. Before agreeing to collaborate, I reached out to my community to hear about their experiences, and many people shared that Buoy has been helpful for managing symptoms and staying hydrated. One thing that stood out to me is their Chronic Illness Support Program, which offers people living with chronic illness 35% off their orders for life. If you use my referral link, you’ll Up to 31% off + free dopp kit on first order over $40. Everyone else will receive 20% off their orders. I do earn a small commission from purchases made through the link, and that support helps sustain the podcast and the work I do to amplify disability-centered conversations. Use this Referral Link.

📜 Full Transcript

Mandi: Welcome to Beyond Disability Liberation Love. I'm Mandi, your Queer Christian Disabled host.

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Mandi: As we get ready to jump into today's episode, I want to offer a quick reminder that one of the values of this podcast is creating space for guests to show up authentically and use language they feel most comfortable with when talking about their lived experiences. As many of you know, I approach conversations through a disability justice lens, but that doesn't mean every guest will use the exact same language, framing or perspectives that I personally use. Disability justice is nuanced, identity is personal, and I believe there is value in allowing people to tell their own stories in their own words.

I also want to acknowledge that this particular interview had a few technology and audio challenges throughout the recording process, but even with these hiccups, I truly believe Sam's story, perspective and work are important to share, which is why I still wanted to bring this conversation to all of you. Today's guest is Sam Mitchell, host of the successful podcast Autism Rocks and Rolls. Sam is an autistic entrepreneur, motivational speaker, writer, blogger, nonprofit leader, and podcast host whose mission is to show the world that autistic people are not broken and do not need to be fixed. Through his podcast and advocacy work, Sam celebrates the successes of autistic people while challenging narrow ideas of of what success and normal look like. His podcast has reached more than 24,000 downloads and has featured incredible guests including NASCAR driver Armani Williams, American Idol finalist James Durbin, WWE legend Mick Foley, and autism advocate Dr. Temple Grandin. Sam is also a TED Talk speaker, award winning entrepreneur and creator committed to helping people embrace who they are authentically.

In today's conversation, we talk about autism, bullying, identity, success, masking, advocacy, podcasting, and what it means to reject the idea that disabled people need to be fixed in order to belong. Let's get into it.

Mandi: Welcome to Beyond Beautiful. Sam, I would love if you would introduce yourself and share a little bit about your journey as an autistic person.

Sam: All right, so what I do is I run a podcast Called Autism Rocks and Rolls. It's a podcast about autism, how we cope with daily struggles that you may or may not understand. Through the podcast, it's grown so much. I have developed sponsors, a board of six. I do events and any answers where I'm from and I do speaking engagements. I've spoken all the way to Top of Canada, to the bottom south in Orlando. I'm all over the place, my friend. I'm always looking for ways to collaborate and sponsors. We got a lot of irons in the fire too with modules and EMT training work.

Mandi: That's amazing. And I know when we talked before you self identified as high functioning. So what does that term mean to you and how do you feel about those kinds of labels?

Sam: I'm not a fan of them because someone said once on a video, if you say low functioning, you're focusing on their weaknesses but ignoring their strengths. If you say high in functioning, you're ignoring their strengths but ignoring their weaknesses. I just say person with autism as a whole. And my term is, I like to say higher understanding because I just have a better understanding of how the world operates compared to some others.

Mandi: I really like that higher understanding. I haven't heard that term used before and I really appreciate that distinction. What would you say are some of the biggest misconceptions about autism that you've personally.

Sam: The biggest misconceptions about autism that I've experienced is people think that I'm not capable of doing anything. I'm bedridden. I think I get underestimated a lot because they don't see my true potential. But I've proven it time and time again. Yet I still get stigmatized. So I guess I'll just have to keep proving myself. It's nothing new.

Mandi: Yeah, yeah, I hear that. Because it's something you've been doing your whole life, pretty much. And talking about that. How does your lived experience differ from how autism is often portrayed, especially in like movies or in different minds?

Sam: Is a little more real compared to the movies, first of all, because it's not for show. I mean, it's real world experience that I live and I'm one of those people who tells it how it is versus glamifying it like the movie does.

Mandi: Yeah. The experience is not always something that is glamorous and I feel like media often really tries to exaggerate things sometimes when you're not always having that real experience as someone who lives as an autistic person. So it's very interesting. And I know when we spoke before you shared that you experienced bullying when you were growing up. How did that impact you?

Sam: It's impacted me tremendously to this day. I still have trust issues because of it.

Mandi: Can you share a little more about that?

Sam: Like poked with pencils for no apparent reason and called dumb ass for no apparent reason and more behind the back bullying. I was excluded, all the stereotypes you can imagine. So people just left me alone and thought it'd be easier to push him off to the side. Said, eh, he's one of those kids that's just a little weird. We won't mess around with him. In a positive note.

Mandi: Yeah, I'm so sorry that you experienced that. How did you navigate spaces that weren't always safe or understanding?

Sam: I tolerated and try to be in the safer spaces as much as I could.

Mandi: And did you find community? Like how did you find your friends and people that you were able to connect with?

Sam: I decided to quit people pleasing because I realized people pleasing was a crutch and I just had to decide that that was not the route I wanted to go. But I put myself out there. If you don't like it, don't really give a dang. Well, best decision of my life to this day.

Mandi: I love that you just really leaned into being who you are and letting people take it or leave it. And I really appreciate that. I know you started a nonprofit called Autism Rocks and Rolls. What inspired you to start it?

Sam: I was in my high school's media club and I fell in love with it so much that I decided to start my own podcast. And that was when Autism Rocks and Rolls was born with the podcast. But it grew unexpectedly so much that we had to come to terms with the family meeting and we decided to make it to a nonprofit because we thought we could do more with this. Yeah.

Mandi: And can you tell me a little bit about the mission of the nonprofit?

Sam: The mission of Autism Rocks and Rolls is to take the stigma off of autism and other conditions and disabilities. People on the spectrum are not broken and do not need to be fixed. Those that have conditions don't want to be pitied. There's nothing to be sorry about. But there's more we want to do. I want to show the positive side of autism and we do that with educational, social media content, medical content. Lots and lots and lots of curriculum. We have a lot of irons in the fire too. We are in the process of training emergency workers. We have educational modules in the works as well.

Mandi: That's amazing. Especially with the emergency personnel. Can you tell me a little bit more about what kind of training you're offering?

Sam: Yeah, it's mainly firefighters and police stations and emergency responders on what to do in a scene. Because someone on the spectrum might act like they're drunk, but in reality they're stimming.

Mandi: Wow. That is really important. And I think that's really helpful for different types of disabilities too. I think we need our emergency responders to really be trained in engaging with different types of people. So I love that work that you're doing. And I know you said you've been on podcasts since you were about 16. How has using your voice shaped your advocacy?

Sam: It's been fun, but it's also work for me. I mean, I take every podcast I go on extremely seriously, and I try to be on their platform to show them that I'm a person with autism. Yet I'm still getting stereotyped for behaviors that I can't help. And sometimes you giving me this stereotype isn't. Is it fair?

Mandi: Yeah. What are some behaviors or ways that an autistic person may show up that often gets stereotyped?

Sam: Meltdowns. That's a big one right there. And it's neurological. People think it's a tantrum, but sometimes it isn't. Trust me. It could be something as the lights are too bright and that causes them to melt down. For me, mine is sensory issues. I got extremely bad sensory issues when it comes to clothes. I don't like to wear a wet T shirt. It hurts so bad I can't wear it.

Mandi: Wow. And I think a lot of people wouldn't even think about something hurting the way you described wearing that wet T shirt. It's something that feels like a physical pain for you. And that term meltdown, I think is pretty new also because you're right. I think it has in the past been. Been really stigmatized as a tantrum. And so can you talk a little bit more about, like, what is a meltdown and what it looks like?

Sam: It's a tantrum, but it's like a meltdown because of neurological reasons. Like the lights are too bright, you gotta wear a wet T shirt. Someone accidentally tasted yogurt because they can't stand a texture of yogurt. Next thing you know, they're on the floor plopping, flopping, plop in, turn their body around, and it's basically a full blown tantrum. But it's not. It's full fledged meltdown. And this one goes on for hours and hours and hours compared to a tantrum that might go on for 30 minutes.

Mandi: And how can someone who wants to be a good ally or who maybe is with someone who is experiencing a meltdown, react like, what is the best way for someone to show allyship?

Sam: You don't try to stop the behavior. You try to handle the behavior and manage the behavior, but don't try to stop it because they cannot help it. Not fair.

Mandi: Yeah, I appreciate that. And I think that's an important line to hold on to about getting through it and really being able to just be there and support the person through it. And talking about community, I know that you talked about how important community is to providing support to people. So how does a person's environment shape the way autistic people are treated or supported?

Sam: I would say the environment is shaped the way that we want it to be sometimes because I think we need to be active a lot more. Because sometimes people with autism have a lot of energy to release compared to other people. I mean, I have ADHD and I have lots of energy to release. So a lot of times they'll be put in a sensory room where there's tons of fidgety toys, activities, games for someone on the spectrum to do. And it's not out of the box stuff. It's basic stuff like coloring books. It's hard for me to do that. Putting on a karaoke machine.

Mandi: I personally love karaoke and I love how you're changing the idea of what activities people do. I think sometimes we forget that, like, adults can enjoy activities that we enjoyed as younger children as well, like coloring. I mean, that's why there's this whole adult coloring books now. Like, those are still activities that are good for our mental health and our wellness. And I appreciate you bringing that up. You had mentioned with Autism Rocks and Rolls that obviously you're trying to remove stigma about autism, but it sounds like you're also working to reduce stigma about all disabilities. So why is it important to you to be in support of people with other types of identities?

Sam: And sometimes I think them having to fight to fit in is ridiculous because the other person won't accept them. And this role needs to be an accepting place for everybody. That includes people who are on the spectrum, people who have OCD, people who are LGBTQIA, I'm a big LGBTQIA ally to people, they get stereotyped because they love the same gender. You can't help who you love. That's an emotion. Come on.

Mandi: That's really powerful. And I, I think that a lot of people don't realize that intersectionality. I mean, there are people who have disabilities who are also part of the LGBTQ community. And it's important that when we are talking about supporting each other, just like you said, it's about supporting all people, not just like a particular group. So I really appreciate that.

Sam: I think we all need to be more nurturing to others.

Mandi: Yeah. And in talking about that, if you could redesign how society understands and supports autism, what would you want people to understand?

Sam: They understand the behavior, want to force our child to go into the rain, even though that they may have to go to school because of the sensory issues. I might take that back a little bit. We can still go to school, but the parent needs to know, oh, it's raining, that boy or girl needs a poncho.

Mandi: Yeah. So just being more sensitive to each other's needs. That's great. And how can we shift people's minds from seeing autism as something to fix or something that we need to try and cure, to something that we should be understanding and valuing?

Sam: No matter what happens, even if you do try to cure it, fix it, they're still going to have autism, period. In my eyes, no matter what medicine you give them to try to take it away, it's not going to go away. Trust me. It's not like cancer where you can beat it. This is one where you have autism for the remainder of your life. Even if you take some medicine, drug that's going to take away, it's still diagnosed, you're still going to have it, end of story.

Mandi: Yeah, I appreciate that. And it's not something that you just, you know, snap your fingers and that's it. Can you talk a little bit about the idea of masking? I know I've heard this a lot in the autism community that people try and mask or hide parts of their autism, especially when they're in public spaces.

Sam: One of those who kind of does it or used to do it a lot. Sometimes masking involves maybe they are trying to not do a certain behavior because they have that urge to do it. Sometimes because they're anxious, they want to literally bite their arms off. And obviously, we go into public and do that, we're going to get some looks. And some people with autism are sensitive to those looks because while they understand we can't help it, there's some people who still think, why are you biting yourself? That's just nuts. No, it's a way of calming down, buddy.

Mandi: Yeah, it's a way of calming down. I really appreciate that. And I think to some degree, we all have different tools that we use to calm down. But for some reason, I think when those tools are visible or, you know, someone is stimming to ground themselves, it's for whatever reason it's looked down upon or it's seen as something that's so out of the ordinary because most people, I guess, do that calming internally. So when someone is masking, like, how hard is it for them to actually be able to cope? Oh, in public or in neuroscience, they won't go in public at all. Or it's a rare case to go into public.

Mandi: Wow. Just to kind of avoid having to.

Sam: To hide me. It's the best decision because I've seen it too many times where the parent decides, this is probably not the best idea to go to the airport because something's going to trigger them. And then next thing you know, they're biting themselves. And the TSA agent is getting called and being like, why is this person buying themselves? We're going to ask you to leave. No point of going there. And people, I think, get so comfortable with what they're used to seeing and they automatically assume. And I'm not going to lie, it can be unordinary. Yes. To see someone bite themselves. But at the same time, here's my thing. How are you getting injured by them biting themselves? How are you getting hurt by them biting themselves? You're not. Let it go. And I would get. They're biting you. I would say, yeah, I would nip that in the butt very easily. But biting themselves, why does that matter? I mean, the only person they're injuring is themselves.

Mandi: Yeah. And I know that there are, like, new kinds of assistive things that can help. I actually know of a young girl on the spectrum who uses something to chew on. Sometimes it's even just chewing on gum that can help. But I hear your point that it's really unfortunate that people, when they see someone doing something that, like you said, may seem out of the ordinary, there are these assumptions about it being this negative thing, when really that could just be the tool that they're using to calm themselves. What are you most proud to say?

Sam: What I'm most proud of. It's just me, the wonderful people I got to meet, because, I mean, I didn't have that for 15 years. And now I'm having all these people who want to interact with me, including you, including people in Orlando, and getting a chance to speak to people who actually want to hear my story, versus at 14, if I even said a peep, it would be big eyes. Look, that's what I'm proud of its own self, man. It's a whole new life. And I would rather live this life than that life.

Mandi: Yeah. And how did you become this, like, social?

Sam: I think a lot of times through my childhood was. I think a lot of people try to help, but parents, they did try. I'm not gonna say they didn't do their best. Trust me. They did not do their worst at all. They did their very best. But I was very a stubborn kid. And at the time they were trying to teach me, it was nagging. However, I think when else was 12 years of speech therapy, but also learning social cues, social etiquette, and social skills on my own. I'll admit I'm not perfect, but am I better than where I was before? Yes. Because of what I seen with other people and what I saw on airports, what I saw at police stations, what I saw at schools, the way they interacted versus parents nagging you.

Mandi: Yeah, I hear that. And in talking about schools and the education system, how difficult was school for you from an education standpoint?

Sam: Students suck, but the staff. Wonderful.

Mandi: That's great. And did you find academics hard?

Sam: Depends on what subject you're talking about. Math, yes, but English and social studies and maybe a little science. Not in particular. I did what I could with my academics. I think I made the best decisions with my academics.

Mandi: Yeah, and I bring that up. And I love your responses because I think, like we were talking about with media, sometimes, you know, people think about autism and they're like, oh, they're a genius in math or they're genius in music. And I think, like, there are so many people who are great at certain things, but, like, it doesn't necessarily always show up as being a savant in something. Not that that's a bad thing, but I feel like it kind of adds this stigma and expectations that people have of people in the autism community. So where can people learn more about your work?

Sam: I'm not buying a search engine optimization. Something will pop up. Just do me a favor. Don't search my name because you get a basketball player. Search. Autism Rocks and rolls.

Mandi: Awesome. And I'll be sure to add the link to Autism Rocks and Rolls in the show notes so that listeners can go and check it out. If you could leave listeners with a message or one thing that you would want them to leave this episode with?

Sam: Well, I leave the rules to be nice and not just act so stupid. I think we get along so much better. Don't you think, buddy?

Mandi: I think so, for sure. I love that. And I love that your message is really all about kindness and people just being kind and nice to each other. And you're right. If we could all do that, we would really live in a much better world. Well, thank you so much Sam for your time and for sharing your story. I really appreciate it and thank you for the work that you're doing through your nonprofit. I definitely hope people will go and check it out and listen and to the podcast that you are hosting.

Sam: I hope people check it out too. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate you inviting me on.

Mandi: All right, take care.

Mandi: Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. And a huge thanks to Sam for showing up, authentically sharing his story, and reminding us that disabled people do not need to be fixed in order to live meaningful, successful and joyful lives. One of the things that stood out to me most in this conversation was the importance of embracing who we are instead of constantly trying to fit ourselves into someone else's definition of normal. Truly, there is no such thing as normal, and this connects deeply to this season's theme of transformation. Transformation isn't about erasing yourself or masking harder, and it isn't about becoming more acceptable to the world around you.

Transformation is about becoming more fully yourself. And for so many autistic and disabled people, that journey can include unlearning shame, rejecting stigma, and finding spaces where authenticity is celebrated rather than punished.

I also want to encourage listeners to check out Sam's podcast, Autism Rocks and Rolls. I'll be sure to share all of the links in the show notes.

And before I go, a quick reminder that my new sticker collection, Don't Hide the Pride, will be available as a digital pack starting tomorrow Memorial Day. Members of my Beyond Beautiful Collective Facebook group and subscribers to Mandy Mail got early access and access to purchase the physical sticker sheet. If you would like the same early access to to this and other products coming in the future, please be sure to sign up today. Thank you for your continued support of this podcast and these conversations. I never take this community for granted, and until next time, remember Disability, Liberation, Love are always beyond beautiful.

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