FFF Podcast Episode 14: Interview with Temple Grandin

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The autism and animal behaviour expert, Professor Temple Grandin, kindly agreed to an online video call interview with Athamanatha Kitsune. We cover several interesting aspects of her work and how they relate to genetics, animal behaviour, autistic traits and who has them, and coping with being different. The interview was heavily edited and sometimes goes blank while audio continues due to internet issues, but we preserved the order of the questions and answers, and did our best not to change the meaning.

Previous episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2h8RThzt_TY

Interesting links (none of these is a paid promotion):

https://www.amazon.com/Genetics-Behavior-Domestic-Animals-Grandin/dp/0123945860 - Genetics and the Behaviour of Domestic Animals, Second Edition

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domesticated_silver_fox - The Fox Farm Experiment

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs00439-017-1865-9.pdf DOI: 10.1007/s00439-017-1865-9 - Genomic trade‑offs: are autism and schizophrenia the steep price of the human brain? - J. M. Sikela and V. B. Searles Quick

https://www.amazon.com/Somebody-Somewhere-Breaking-World-Autism/dp/0812922875 - Somebody Somewhere by Donna Williams

https://www.amazon.com/Autism-Inside-Out-Innovative-Mechanics-Developmental/dp/1853023876 - Autism: An Inside-Out Approach by Donna Williams

https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Pictures-Expanded-Life-Autism/dp/0307275655 - Thinking in Pictures

https://www.amazon.com/Autistic-Brain-Temple-Grandin/dp/054422773 - The Autistic Brain

https://www.amazon.com/How-Build-Hug-Grandin-Amazing/dp/153441097X/ - The Hug Machine

https://www.amazon.com/Animals-Translation-Mysteries-Behavior-Harvest/dp/0156031442 - Animals In Translation

https://www.amazon.com/Animals-Make-Human-Temple-Grandin/dp/0547248237/ - Animals Make Us Human

https://www.amazon.com/Emergence-Labeled-Autistic-Temple-Grandin/dp/0446671827 - Emergence: Labeled Autistic

http://www.therafin.com/ - Therafin Corporation

https://www.amazon.com/Elon-Musk-Ashlee-Vance-audiobook/dp/B00UVY52JO - Elon Musk by Ashlee Vance

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24188618/ DOI: 10.1037/a0034519- Solitary Mammals by Jared Edward Reser

Editorial (please read all of it to understand the context):

Since it is a topical matter during a pandemic, Atha did ask Professor Grandin about her views on vaccines and whether they have changed or there is anything to clarify since she spoke on the matter several years ago. She declined to give a response to that question due to how her position on the matter had been misrepresented in the past.

In this article,

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/magazine/temple-grandin-on-autism-death-celibacy-and-cows.html 

she was quoted to have said:

"Well, there’s only one vaccine that could possibly be a problem, and that’s the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine. Now that they’ve changed the vaccine, it has fewer antigens, and that would make it a lot safer. But with the old version of the vaccine, I have not yet come across a study that looked at regressives — when a child had some speech but lost it."

The way this was worded was as a scientifically uncontroversial way to say that good quality empirical proof is required before one can say for certain. Alas, the media seldom understand such logic and nuance from scientists, and they tend to miss the point with terrible results. Not recognising all of the potential ways that what you say might be taken before you say it, is a frequent trait of autism. We do not believe such genuinely accidental things should be held against someone whose intentions were in service of scientific rigour and the truth. We do believe that vaccination, which trains your immune system, is much more preferable than catching a dangerous disease.

The question was edited out of the video and audio of the interview as it was deemed unfair on Professor Grandin to include it when our editorial team reviewed it. It has been mentioned here for transparency and to address any concerns about why we spoke to Professor Grandin after she had been in such a controversy, at such a time as this. Please be considerate in any comments.

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FFF Podcast logo by Zennith, Ephor and Cammy.  

Intro and outro music: Huma Huma - Eureka

Numerous images sourced from internet searches are used here for humorous or informative fair-use references and are not intended to infringe upon copyright. Should you or your organisation or someone you represent object to their use, please contact the Freedom of Form Foundation first via our website so that we may come to a low cost, sensible resolution with you. Where we can, we use public domain and creative commons licensed images.

Recorded 11th October 2021

Uploaded to Youtube 6th February 2022