This Week in Autistic Culture #13 | Elizabeth Holmes, Armchair Diagnosis and Autistic Standpoints

Welcome to another edition of This Week in Autistic Culture, our Sunday magazine podcast that brings together the stories, conversations and ideas shaping Autistic culture each week.

This week, Angela and Simon dive into the unexpected new Elizabeth Holmes documentary You Can See Everything, created by Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim. From Fielder’s famously awkward interviewing style and fascination with aviation to Holmes’ carefully constructed public persona, routines and intense eye contact, they explore the Autistic traits they recognise in both figures — and what happens when we look at familiar cultural stories through an Autistic lens.

That conversation also raises a bigger question about so-called “armchair diagnosis”. Is there a difference between diagnosing somebody and recognising Autistic traits in another person? And why can simply suggesting that somebody might be Autistic provoke such a strong reaction? Angela and Simon consider whether some of that discomfort reveals more about the stigma still attached to autism than the act of recognising those traits itself.

As always, we’ll also take you through everything coming up across the Autistic Culture Podcast Network this week, including the launch of Isha Snow’s Autistic Standpoint Theory, alongside new episodes exploring Zombieland, friendship and creativity, nervous-system regulation, Neurodivergent tales from Reddit, Alfred Kinsey and a joyful deep dive into the world of Pokémon.

Plus, we head to the Community Notice Board for books, events and opportunities from across the wider Autistic community.

📌 Community Noticeboard

The Community Noticeboard is your space to share what’s happening across autistic culture. Whether you’re launching a book, hosting an event, releasing a podcast, starting a creative project, celebrating a milestone, or have something you’d like the community to know about, we’d love to hear from you. Send your announcements, links and updates to [email protected], and we’ll feature as many as we can in a future edition of This Week in Autistic Culture.

This Week’s Topics:

New Nathan Fielding/Lance Oppenheim releasing Elizabeth Holmes surprise movie If you don’t know Nathan Fielding, watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8AYmVyIFsc Elizabeth Holmes podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-dropout/id1449500734 Matt Lucas has publicly shared for the first time that he is autistic, disclosing while speaking to Romesh Ranganathan on BBC Radio 2.

Books and Research:

Burning The Behaviorist Blueprint by Scott R Frasard, PhD

Events:

XMTR.FM/FESTIVAL - Annual Audio Arts Festival in St Leonards-on-Sea. 25th-27th September 2026

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