Dartmouth man's podcast aims to help others understand autism

Sitting in a classroom as a child, Alex Kronstein felt overwhelmed by noise and rarely interacted with other kids in school. Kronstein knew he was different.

By the age of 26, he knew why. He was autistic.

"When I finally got the diagnosis it came to no surprise," said Kronstein.

The Dartmouth, N.S., man is comfortable now speaking about autism, following his diagnosis in 2012. So much so,he recently launched a podcast called The NeurodiveCast. Its audience is still modest (several dozen listeners for most episodes) but those tuning in come from as far afield as the United States and Australia.

'I don't want a cure'

In precise language, but with an easy style, he tells his own story of autism.He also reads chapters and blog posts in the subject, and speaks about the terminology.

For instance, he is not someone living with autism. He is autistic.

"I think most people know by now that autism is not a disease and it's not something that needs to be cured because many autistic people don't want a cure, I don't want a cure," said Kronstein.

'Helps me be a better parent'

The podcast is a resource, particularly for parents with children who are autistic.

One of them is Charlene Gagnon, the mother of two autistic teenagers, who reached out to Kronstein through Facebook after reading some of his posts about autism.

Kronstein creates his podcast biweekly at Gagnon's house.

"I really like connecting with autistic adults to get their perspective because it helps me be a better parent to my two autistic teenagers," said Gagnon.

Gagnon received equipment to produce thepodcast from a non-profit communications company.

People come to Gagnon's home often to produce podcast on her mixcloud channel called D'Artifactory Radio where Kronstein's podcast is also streamed.

Radio background

In fact, it was her idea for Kronstein to host a podcast on autism. One thing that sets him apart from many autistic peopleis that he's comfortable talking about himself, Kronstein said.

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Kronstein draws on his activism on raising awareness on autism and his education in theradio and television arts programatNSCC.

The podcast is completely volunteer-drivenand The NeurodiveCast is now in its fifth episode.

Gagnon hopes the next step for the podcast is to create an online video series combining many different people to tell their stories first-hand.