Yep, I'm back, caffeinated and undeterred, ready to take on the swirling mess of “autism registries,” junk science, and that perennial fixture of Twitter meltdowns: RFK Jr. himself.

It's not for the faint of heart—or for anyone who thinks the federal government has a “big red medical record button” (newsflash: it doesn’t).

Are you exhausted by the flood of misinformation around autism and tired of policymakers who couldn’t diagnose a runny nose, let alone understand complex neurodiversity?

I've got your back.

I've been running national mental and behavioral health organizations, helping autistic folks get real, accessible diagnoses, and pushing for patient-first, clinician-also-first, accessible-always care.

And I'm not here for the fantasy that “good autistics” and “bad autistics” are some kind of moral spectrum, or to let anyone label people as “burdens” because a guy with a microphone doesn’t understand science.

This episode pulls back the curtain on why the proposed national “autism registry” isn’t just misguided, but fundamentally impossible.

Listen as I call out the shadow incentives behind these political crusades—why it’s less about public health than…well, padding the pockets of a few very persistent anti-vaxxers.

It’s market research, not science, dressed up like a crusade. And it comes directly at the expense of real autistic people who are already fighting for space, resources, and dignity.

If you’re wondering how these hot takes at the top reach deep into everyday community life—shaping infighting, stoking fear, and making the realities of being autistic even harder—you'll be wanting to listen.

And, as always, we'll answer a question from our community in our "Small Talk" segment.

Ready? Press play. Spark some hope. And get the real story.

Ready to join our Patreon community? - https://differentnotbrokenpodcast.com/patreon

Signed up to our newsletter yet? - https://differentnotbrokenpodcast.com/newsletter

02:00 Eugenics Rhetoric - Ugh!

05:17 Autism Registry Data Mismanagement

07:36 Inaccessible Universal Medical Data

13:11 Flawed Data Sharing Assumptions Exposed

15:33 Debunking Autism-Vaccine Myth

17:40 RFK's Vaccine Injury Profit Motive

21:41 Handling Unwanted Job Discussions

25:23 "Truck Driver's Evasive Answer"

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I’m obsessed with my own podcast stats.

There! I said it.

If the first step is admitting you have a problem, then…well, consider this episode my very public confession.

But here’s the real kicker: I never saw this coming.

I didn’t realize hitting 'refresh' on the analytics page of my podcast hosting dashboard would become my new form of adrenaline. Or that watching the listener count go up (or, terrifyingly, down) would trigger a rollercoaster of feelings straight out of a neurotic coming-of-age movie starring a main character who really needs to learn to enjoy the ride.

If you’ve been following along on Threads or ever found yourself spiraling because you suddenly cared way too much about something you didn’t even know you could care about?

This episode is about stats, ego, validation, self-doubt, and, yes, generational trauma—all tangled up with the anxious humor only someone with a dedicated “kinahura” detector can provide.

I talk about what it’s like to watch the numbers climb (and sometimes fall), and how ego, imposter syndrome, and a hefty sense of “why are you all here again?” combine to create the weirdest kind of nervous excitement imaginable.

Thanks for being here, friends (repeat listeners, you’re my favorite kind of statistical anomaly).

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to refresh the analytics—again.

Love you, mean it.

Why is behavioral health so impossibly hard to access, navigate, and survive—especially if you’re wired a bit differently? Maybe you’ve asked yourself that before. We have too.

Heck, we’ve made a whole business (and apparently, a whole podcast) out of asking exactly that: Why does it have to be so hard?

Welcome to “Different, Not Broken”—the podcast where bureaucratic tangles, soul-draining waitlists, and “bring your own magic decoder ring” healthcare red tape get ripped apart, re-examined, and (when possible) outsmarted.

I’m Lauren "L2" Howard and I can promise you this:

In this episode, I peel back the curtain and share how a simple (if stubbornly repeated) question—"Why does this have to be so difficult?"—became the engine for everything I do.

Clinical dead-ends? Check.

Six-month waits and insurance mazes for autism and ADHD care? Rechecked.

People winding up in the ER instead of finding someone who could actually help, before the crisis boiled over? Double-checked and regrettably, deeply familiar.

But what if you didn’t have to run that gauntlet?

What if someone just built a bridge?

When my team and I ran face-first into the “that’s impossible” wall, we started looking for secret doors.

Sometimes, all it took was radical honesty and a burning refusal to accept the status quo.

PLUS: In this week’s small talk, the community asks, “How do I answer, ‘Tell me about yourself?’ without feeling like I’m humble-bragging my way to nowhere?”

Hit that follow button, share with your friends, or drop us a note about your own impossible-seeming battle with the system.

Every listen helps us make it just a little less hard for the next person.

And if you need daily reminders that you’re good enough, weird enough, and human enough—even without a signed diagnosis? You know where to find us.

Let’s make behavioral health make sense… for all of us.

I'll talk to you as soon as you click play...

00:00 Access Barriers in Mental Health

04:32 Simplifying Crisis Care Access

07:19 Streamlining Adult Autism Testing

10:23 Streamlining Healthcare Processes

14:44 "Rethinking Autism Diagnosis Necessity"

17:11 "You Deserve Softness and Light"

20:17 "Championing Self-Accomplishment Over Stereotypes"

Links to all our goodies:

Patreon - https://differentnotbrokenpodcast.com/patreon

Newsletter - http://differentnotbrokenpodcast.com/newsletter

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