How many things do you do every day without realising they might actually be stims?

In this episode, Kate returns from running a neurodivergent writing retreat in Scotland after accidentally blowing everyone’s minds with a session on language stims. What starts as a chat about repeating words quickly turns into a much bigger conversation about humming, echolalia, accents, family phrases and all the small things people do to regulate themselves without even noticing.

Kate and Nic talk about the ways stimming gets misunderstood through a diagnostic lens, why so many people grow up hiding it and how certain phrases, songs and repeated words can become their own form of comfort.

There’s also a genuinely brilliant detour into musicals as communication, the phrase “hydrate or die straight”, and an unexpected history lesson on the gin crisis.

If you’ve ever repeated a word because it sounds satisfying, communicated entirely through song lyrics or suddenly realised your family all hum, whistle or bounce in their seats… this one might feel very familiar.

A quick note before this one: this episode was originally recorded as the April podcast for Autism Acceptance Month, but due to an upload error, it’s now landing in May. So if you hear Nic and Kate referring to “this month”, that’s why.

They also kick things off with a reminder that their live show is happening this Thursday, 21st May at Gosforth Civic Theatre, where you can see them in the flesh!

This episode tackles the growing conversations around overdiagnosis, “profound autism” and whether the spectrum has become “too wide.” Kate and Nic unpack why these debates can feel so exhausting for the neurodivergent community and why dividing autistic people into smaller and smaller categories helps systems far more than it helps actual people.

At the heart of this episode is a simple message: autistic people are not boxes. They’re people.

🎤 Live show news! Kate and Nic are bringing Neurotypicals Don’t Juggle Chainsaws to the stage for a live podcast recording at Gosforth Civic Theatre on Thursday 21 May 2026. ⁠You can book your tickets here!⁠

After spotting a Department for Education video claiming to show an “inclusive classroom”, Kate and Nic unpack what inclusive education actually looks like versus what systems say it looks like.

From SEND funding structures and EHCP realities to home education fears, tribunal delays and impossible academic expectations, this episode explores the gap between policy language and lived experience for neurodivergent young people and their families.

This isn’t a doom-and-gloom episode though. Alongside the realities, they also explore what is within people’s control: community, knowledge, self-understanding and support networks and why those things may matter more than any official system.