In this episode, I’m joined by Jodie Herbert, a neurodiversity mentor, lifelong carer, disability advocate, and the founder of Ability Pathways. Jodie has one of those rare brains that can take chaos, complexity, and bureaucratic nonsense and turn it into actual support, actual progress, and actual hope. She’s spent decades navigating disability from every angle: as a parent, a partner, a carer, and now as someone helping adults and the invisible labour neurodivergent people carry every day.

And because I can’t help myself… I also dive into my own past. While digging through old family documents for Ancestry, I found my high‑school report cards, those 80's classics where teachers wrote things so blunt they could strip paint. I read out some of the worst ones on the show. If you’ve ever been called lazy, unfocused, or “destined for ruin,” this episode is for you.

If you enjoy the podcast and want to help me keep it going, please consider supporting me on Patreon. It’s literally the price of a cuppa a month, and it means the world, helping me cover hosting, equipment, and the time it takes to make these conversations happen.

Ability Pathways Australia (official site) https://abilitypathways.au

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In this episode of Late to the Party, Dan speaks with MJ Warfield about what it’s really like to work in a job that looks completely incompatible with an AuDHD brain. Loud, chaotic, high‑pressure, the kind of environment most of us would run from. But MJ shows how building a career around your special interests can flip the script entirely. She shares the quiet superpower that helps her thrive in a loud job, and why it works.

Later, Dan sits down with his friend of forty years, Martin Ryan, for a conversation about late diagnosis, self‑knowledge, and the strange clarity that arrives when you finally get the right lens for understanding your own life. It’s thoughtful, funny, and grounded in the kind of honesty only long friendships allow.

If you enjoy the show and if you’d happily meet Dan once a month and buy him a coffee, consider supporting the podcast on Patreon. Your support keeps the show independent, covers production costs, and ensures Dan can keep making the kind of episodes no sponsor would ever approve… especially the song he wrote for Martin at the end of this one.

Links:

• The Round: https://theround.com.au
• Martin on Insta @martin_t_ryan
• Support the show on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/cw/LateToThePartyAutismPodcast

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This week on Late To The Party, I chat with author and engineer Travis Alexander about his memoir, life as a late-diagnosed autistic adult, and the many unexpected twists that led him to where he is today. We talk about relationships, communication, travel disasters, fatherhood, breakdancing, engineering, and the challenge of making sense of a world that often feels a little confusing. Honest, funny and deeply relatable, this is a conversation about self-discovery, resilience and finding your place in the world.

Find Travis Alexander

📖 Stairway to the Spectrum
https://www.travisalexander.com.au/book

🌐 Website
https://www.travisalexander.com.au/

🎧 Audiobook available on Spotify and Audible. Paperback and eBook available through Amazon.

Instagram: @travisalexanderbooks

Facebook: @TravisAlexander

TikTok: @travisalexanderbooks

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