Rebelling

In this episode of the Social Security Series, I talk with financial speaker, storyteller, and comedian Colin Ryan. His new book, Epic Tiny Victories, blends humor and humanity to tell the story of how he learned to work with his own mental health. Colin and I talk about money, privilege, and the unspoken rules that shape our financial lives. 

We talk about how shame, secrecy, and assumptions about personal responsibility keep peopl...

In this episode of the Social Security Series, I sit down again with certified ADHD coach Keltie MacLaren for a candid conversation about relational rebelling: choosing interdependence over independence, curiosity over certainty, and mutual sense-making over upholding norms.

We break down the delusions of independence and the way “self-sufficiency” is framed as a path to reward but more often functions as a tool of guilt and shame. ...

I've been wondering...what if social security wasn’t just a government program, but something we build together with the people in and around our lives? In this episode of the Social Security series, Jen Andrew, a disability rights advocate, herbalist, and guest from The Myth of Knowing series, joins me to explore another reframe: relationships as a form of social security, and how showing up, stretching, and repairing can cre...

In the first episode of my Social Security series, I explore the difference between individuality and individualism, between being truly ourselves in connection with others, and the cultural pressure to perform independence at all costs. Individualism is a survival story, a disguise precarity and control use to convince us they are actually freedom. And yet, somehow that freedom leaves us separate, continuously striving, and worn t...

Today marks the start of a new series on Rebelling called Social Security. And I’m not talking about the monthly check you (hopefully) get someday. I mean actual social security- the security we build with other humans and the environments we live in.

In this episode, I introduce the series and lay the foundation for what we’ll explore in the coming weeks: how to understand security not as something we earn or hoard, but as somethin...

In this episode of Rebelling, I’m joined by certified ADHD coach Keltie McLaren, who works with values-driven independent creatives to help them stop fighting their brains and start building systems that actually work for them.

We talk about what it means to understand ourselves, others, and the spaces between us. We talk about trust, how understanding isn’t a destination, but something we practice: through vulnerability, curiosity,...

It’s been a year since my autism diagnosis. 

In this solo episode, I reflect on what the year has been like, the relief of understanding myself, the grief of what was missed, and the ways my life has shifted as I’ve learned to work with who I am instead of constantly trying to fix myself.

I talk about what changed after being diagnosed with both autism and ADHD. What it’s meant for my relationships, and how knowing myself has softene...

In this episode of The Myth of Knowing series, I talk with Jen Andrew, who is finishing a two-year program in community herbalism and works in communications at a disability rights nonprofit. She has a background in philanthropy, public libraries, peer support, healthcare, and public school advocacy. Jen’s journey includes herbalism, chronic illness, grief work, sobriety, and neurodivergent living, giving her a unique perspective o...

In this episode, I have a curiosity-led conversation with Melinda Staehling, a certified nutrition specialist and Menopause Society practitioner, to explore what it really means to “know” our bodies. Melinda, whose late-in-life AuDHD diagnosis inspired her podcast Departure Menopause, brings a neurodivergent-affirming, weight-inclusive perspective to conversations about health, food, and aging.

We discuss how social, cultural, and s...

In this episode, the second in the series The Myth of Knowing, I talk with Dana Calder, a queer neurodivergent SVP in the fintech world, about what it means to “know” in the workplace. Work culture often treats knowing as currency—a sign of belonging, authority, and success. But what happens when certainty is a mask, and perfectionism becomes a survival strategy?

Dana shares her journey of discovering she’s autistic later in life, r...

This episode is the first in a series called The Myth of Knowing- the story that says we have to be certain, be the same, and always know the answer. But what if we didn’t have to pretend? What if “I don’t know” was an opening, not a problem?

In this episode, I’m talking about the pressure so many of us feel to always have the answer—to be sure, to be confident, to know. We’ll look at how that pressure starts early, and how it shows...

What if addiction isn’t a disease, but a way we’ve learned to cope? What if sobriety isn’t just about abstinence, but about sensing ourselves, how things make sense, and what makes sense? What if recovery isn’t a rigid path—but a way to reconnect with something alive, relational, and yours to shape?

In this episode, I share the story of my own unconventional sobriety outside of AA and traditional recovery models. I talk about why th...

I’ve been sitting with some big questions about identity for what feels like my whole life—what we call ourselves, what’s been put on us, what we outgrow, and what still feels like home. I read three things this week (linked below),  that cracked me open, especially around the language of neurodivergence, the limits of diagnosis, and how easy it is to forget who we were before the world started naming us. After reading the first tw...

Something most of the neurodivergent people I talk to have in common is a sense of not belonging. Connecting is supposed to be natural—but for many of us, it never feels that simple. In this solo episode, I explore some of my early friendships, what it means to want friendships and relationships while not understanding how they work. I tried learning from books and TV, and by trying to decipher how other people behaved, but it ofte...

In this solo episode, I’m talking about a phrase that’s been hounding me for decades: why can’t I just? Why can’t I just be easygoing? Be normal? Be fine with things that make no sense? It sounds small, but it’s actually huge—and it’s shaped so much of how I’ve lived. I’m pulling apart the layers of self-management, shame, and survival that come with being neurodivergent in a world that isn't always clear or understandable. An...

In this conversation with 28-year-old writer and interdisciplinary artist Kelly Shannon, we dig into the complex landscape of identity, burnout, and diagnosis. We talk about policing your own intensity, contradicting the narrative of exhaustion, how the toll of performing normal led her to seek answers, and that weird liminal space you're in just before and just after realizing you're neurodivergent. 

We also take an unexp...

In this first episode of Rebelling, host Amy Knott Parrish shares her journey from lifelong outsider to late-diagnosed ADHD and autistic adult. Through stories of identity, music, masking, and self-discovery, she explores what it means to rebel against “normal” and build a life that honors neurodivergent needs. This is a podcast for anyone craving belonging without pretending.

In this episode, I’m getting real about what brought me ...