Strange Life

Dec 9, 2025 · 21m

Season 2 opens with a deep reflection on Christian upbringing, autistic childhood, losing faith early, and the lifelong project of rebuilding a worldview from scratch.Daisy shares how early biblical literacy shaped her understanding of the world, what happened when that framework suddenly broke, and how philosophy, psychology, neurodivergence, trauma work, and (ironically) metaphysics eventually filled the void.This episode is about what happens when the story you inherit stops holding you — and the long, beautiful, disorienting process of creating your own.#Christianity, #Autistic Childhood, #Neurodivergence, #Religious Deconstruction, #Philosophy, #Psychology, #Metaphysics, #Trauma, #Nigerian Diaspora, #Identity, #Meaning-Making, #Faith & Doubt

Oct 21, 2025 · 12m

Across this first season of Strange Life, we’ve met many of my selves — or rather, many aspects of one:The autistic one with learned patterns in place of reflexes.The Igbo one, shaped by ancestors and colonial ghosts.The ADHD one, chasing sparks and struggling in stillness.The 21st-century woman, performing a 12 000-year-old script.The traumatized one, re-wiring a spiky nervous system.The gifted one, both bright and burnt by her own voltage.Each episode turned one of these facets toward the light — examined it, questioned it, reframed it. But none of them exist alone. Each interacts with the others, transforms the others.That, in essence, is intersectionality: not addition, but chemistry.A concept coined by Kimberlé Crenshaw.To be autistic and Nigerian is not the same as being either alone.To be a gifted woman is not to be a gifted man with longer hair.To heal trauma within one culture may look like betrayal in another.Intersectionality is how those truths braid together.It shows us that identity is not a list of labels but a weave of forces — a living chemistry between internal wiring and external expectation. It’s why two people can live through the same event and walk away with entirely different readings of it. It’s why “who is the most oppressed?” is the wrong question, and “what is happening at this intersection?” is the right one.In this final episode of Season One, I try to map that weave — tracing how autism and ADHD merge into AuDHD; how womanhood and giftedness distort and refract each other; how trauma and heritage entangle across generations. And, ultimately, how intersectionality is not only an academic framework but a way of seeing — one that teaches us to recognize complexity with more precision, and each other with more care.Maybe that’s the invitation this season leaves you with:To look at yourself not in parts, but in patterns.To see how your intersections make you specifically, singularly, strangely you.🧭 Further Reading & ReferencesKimberlé Crenshaw, Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color (1991) — PDF via Stanford:https://www.stanfordlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2010/04/Crenshaw_43_Stan_L_Rev_1241.pdfbell hooks, Ain’t I a Woman? (1981) : https://www.routledge.com/Aint-I-a-Woman-Black-Women-and-Feminism/hooks/p/book/9781138821514Feminism is for Everybody (2000): https://www.routledge.com/Feminism-Is-for-Everybody-Passionate-Politics/hooks/p/book/9781138821620Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider (1984) : https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/198292/sister-outsider-by-audre-lorde/Patricia Hill Collins, Black Feminist Thought (1990) : https://www.routledge.com/Black-Feminist-Thought-Knowledge-Consciousness-and-the-Politics-of-Empowerment/Collins/p/book/9780415964722Stuart Hall, Cultural Identity and Diaspora (1990) : https://www.open.ac.uk/cultural-identity-and-diaspora-stuart-hall.pdfLeah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice (2018) : https://arsenalpulp.com/Books/C/Care-WorkBayo Akomolafe, These Wilds Beyond Our Fences (2017) : https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/600122/these-wilds-beyond-our-fences-by-bayo-akomolafe/Sara Ahmed, Living a Feminist Life (2017) : https://www.dukeupress.edu/living-a-feminist-lifeSami Schalk, Bodyminds Reimagined (2018) : https://www.dukeupress.edu/bodyminds-reimaginedMoya Bailey, Misogynoir Transformed (2021): https://nyupress.org/9781479830376/misogynoir-transformed/Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race (2018): https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/ijeoma-oluo/so-you-want-to-talk-about-race/9781580056779/Kimberlé Crenshaw, TED Talk – https://www.ted.com/talks/kimberle_crenshaw_the_urgency_of_intersectionality

Sep 30, 2025 · 1h 39m

In short: Sara and I argue and giggle for AN HOUR AND FORTY MINUTES about Womanhood, What Trans and Cis women have in common, the origins of Patriarchy, Whether the Donald Trumps of this world are born or environmentally shaped, and more... it's pretty epic actually. The long version: In Episode 4 of Strange Life, I traced a bold story of how “womanhood” as we know it might have emerged in the shadow of a climate catastrophe 12,000 years ago — the Younger Dryas. But no hypothesis, however compelling, can stand without testing, pushback, and fresh perspectives.So for this bonus conversation, I invited someone whose mind I deeply admire: Sara Caplan — writer, musician with the band Chill Touch, member of UCB’s first all-trans/GNC/non-binary improv team, and a philosopher currently pursuing her Master’s at Cal State LA. Sara brings sharp analysis, humor, and a trans studies lens to everything from David Graeber deep dives to tabletop RPGs.Together we pull at the tangled threads of:How trans women fit into a 12,000-year “chain of survival and storytelling” that I called womanhood.Whether it’s really possible to trace patriarchy back to a single climate event — or whether domination arises from other patterns.The contradictions of wanting to abolish gender categories and cherish womanhood as solidarity and joy.The role of fathers, daughters, and generational shifts in reshaping power.Beauty practices as both subjugation and resistance.And the underrated through-line of humor — how comedy has always been one of patriarchy’s fiercest challengers.It’s a lively, sparky exchange — part philosophical duel, part collaborative storytelling. Sometimes we agreed, sometimes we wrestled with the differences, and in the process we both got clearer on what’s at stake when we talk about origins, oppression, and the possibility of change.If the first Womanhood episode was a map, this one is a campfire debate — full of laughter, sparks, and deep questioning.✨ Listen in, and then take it further: share with a friend, sit down, and have your own version of this conversation. Because womanhood — however you define it — has always been carried forward in the stories we tell each other.📚 Further Reading & SourcesOn Patriarchy & Its OriginsThe Patriarchs: How Men Came to Rule — Angela Saini (2023)https://www.angela-saini.co.uk/the-patriarchsThe Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity — David Graeber & David Wengrow (2021)https://www.farrarstraus.com/books/the-dawn-of-everything/“The Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis” — NASA Earth Observatory explainer on sudden climate shiftshttps://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/features/YoungerDryasOn Gender, Trans Studies & WomanhoodSusan Stryker — Transgender History (2nd ed., 2017)https://bookshop.org/p/books/transgender-history-susan-stryker/8639719Judith Butler — Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity (1990, classic text)https://www.routledge.com/Gender-Trouble/Butler/p/book/9780415389556María Lugones — Heterosexualism and the Colonial / Modern Gender System (2007) [PDF]https://www.ou.edu/content/dam/WGS/Documents/Reading%20Room/Lugones2007.pdfOn Beauty, Power & Social ConstructionCaroline Criado Perez — Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men (2019)https://carolinecriadoperez.com/book/invisible-women/Naomi Wolf — The Beauty Myth (1991, foundational feminist critique)https://www.harpercollins.com/products/the-beauty-myth-naomi-wolfOn Humor, Resistance & PowerRebecca Krefting — All Joking Aside: American Humor and Its Discontents (2014)https://jhu.edu/books/title/all-joking-aside/Lindy West — Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman (2016)https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/lindy-west/shrill/9780316348452/

Sep 16, 2025 · 12m

Giftedness is more than good grades. It’s a brain wired for rapid signal flow between the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus — producing fast thought, big memory, and constant “aha” moments.But the experience isn’t all brilliance. It’s confusion, alienation, neglect, risk of psychosis, and real physical cost. In this episode of Strange Life, I explore:Why gifted brains develop the way they doThe psychological toll: confusion, alienation, neglect, madnessThe physical toll: stress, exhaustion, even immune dysfunctionAnd why recognition and support matter so much📖 Further Reading & References:Hebbian Learning — https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/hebbian-learningScience: “Memory—A Century of Consolidation” — https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.287.5451.248Psychology Today on memory — https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/memoryNIMH on ADHD — https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/attention-deficit-hyperactivity-disorder-adhdVA on Complex PTSD — https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/types/complex_ptsd.aspFrontiers in Psychiatry: giftedness and psychosis risk — https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.662558/fullBritannica on Stephen Hawking — https://www.britannica.com/biography/Stephen-HawkingHank Green on YouTube — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usQ0rSe-C9QSENG (Supporting Emotional Needs of the Gifted) — https://www.sengifted.org/

Sep 9, 2025 · 37m

This week we’re trying something new on Strange Life: a bonus conversation episode. After each main release, I’m aiming to sit down with someone brilliant to dive into your questions, your reflections, and the parts that deserve more dialogue.We begin with ADHD (episode three’s theme), joined by the wonderful Sheila Henson — a coach with over 20 years experience in the space. Sheila brings both lived experience and deep expertise, and I couldn’t imagine a better first guest for this experiment.Together, we tackle listener questions on:✦ How to stop beating yourself up when ADHD traits are misread as carelessness✦ Parenting approaches that encourage pattern recognition without shaming✦ Balancing punctuality needs with time agnosia and late-running brains✦ How managers can create workplaces where ADHD contributions are valued✦ Whether ADHD is “chemicals in motion” or culture, disability or superpowerThe conversation is candid, funny, and practical — weaving strategies, lived examples, and the reminder that curiosity often heals more than judgment.If this episode resonates, the best way to support Strange Life is to share it with a friend, leave a review, or keep the conversation going in your own circle. Together, we can reframe how we understand difference.Find more of Sheila’s work at sheilahenson.com. Or follow her on Instagram!