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Sam Mitchell began his podcast Autism Rocks and Rolls in October of 2019 after falling in love with podcasting in his high school’s media club. From there, his podcast quickly grew, and with the support of his mom, he’s been able to create an entire non-profit business.
Sam has welcomed numerous guests on his show. From WWE wrestlers to doctors and autism advocates, Sam has had the opportunity to learn and advocate for a better awareness and acceptance of autism. Because of his podcast, he’s had the opportunity to travel to places like Canada, Florida, Oklahoma and Washington D.C. to speak. Sam is also an ambassador for organizations like the Doug Flutie Foundation and the Make a Film Foundation.
Sam was diagnosed with autism at the age of four. His mother, Gina Mitchell, says her pregnancy with Sam was normal. It wasn’t until he began growing that she realized he displayed signs of autism.
“Now that we look back on it, Sam never looked at a camera whenever we were taking pictures of him. He didn’t hit his milestones typically when kids do so. I just remember he crawled, stood up, rolled over, and walked all within a month. I mean, just very, very quickly. He was almost a year old. We knew that there were some delays. But then once he did that, it was a pretty classic textbook case of autism. Being an educator, I kind of knew what it looked like, but I wasn’t an expert in it by any means. So he was diagnosed with autism when he was four. And then there were hard days. But there were also lots of good days because Sam is a pretty incredible person,” said Gina.
School presented its own challenges for Sam. His peers were often cruel, sometimes ignoring him or refusing to play with him. Gina, being an educator, understood this was a reality all children face, but for kids like Sam, who often appear a bit “different”, socializing can be difficult.
During his first podcast episode, Sam discusses his struggles with school. Eighth grade brought unexpected friends his way. He only realized afterwards that his peers were buttering up to him in hopes he’d put in a good word with his mom, the eighth grade English teacher. Sam says freshman year of high school was the hardest for him.
But now, new friends have found Sam in the form of fan mail. Autism Rocks and Rolls is making an impact on kids around the country and in his own community.
“He would go to school, and nobody would talk to him. And it wasn’t because it’s a bad school. It’s just kids that age, I’m around them all the time. Sometimes to them different is bad. The school that he went to was phenomenal. It’s a good school system, but kids can be mean and cruel sometimes. So now, when he logs on, and he’s got this fan mail, it’s pretty cool,” said Gina.
When people think of Sam, he doesn’t want them to first think of his autism diagnosis. Sam has regular hobbies and interests like any other twenty-one year old.
“There’s more to me; I like wrestling, I like bonfires, I love rock’n’roll music. There’s more to me than just autism,” said Sam.
Sam wants the world to know people with autism do not need to be fixed and they are not broken. Sam says he’s become successful with autism not despite of it. This is the message Sam had in mind when creating Autism Rocks and Rolls. He wanted to change the language and ideas surrounding autism.
“That became part of our mission-to destigmatize autism and really change the language. You know, I’ve done a lot of assessment with what’s out there, and it’s very negative. It’s a very negative dialogue. I think back to when he was diagnosed and we didn’t have YouTube, so I read books. But now a four year old would get diagnosed with autism, and the caregiver is probably going to go to YouTube because that’s where we all go when we want a question answered. You know, at this point, she’s gonna walk away from the computer thinking their lives are over, and her son or daughter has this terrible disease and disability, and that’s what we’re trying to change. We’re trying to get people to understand that people are people. And there’s an entire population of those on the spectrum that are skillful, talented, and are often ignored,” said Gina.
The impact of Autism Rocks and Rolls has led listeners to contact Sam expressing their gratitude that “someone actually gets it.” Sam has the unique ability to capture the realities of living with autism and placing it into an accessible audio format.
“Some of the best episodes that Sam has on his podcast, in my opinion, is when he’s talking to a mom, or he’s talking to somebody on the spectrum, and it’s just so real and it’s so authentic and those [episodes] are so helpful,” said Gina.
But understanding and accepting autism isn’t exclusive to those with a diagnosis. Sam and Gina say it’s critical that each generation teaches their children about acceptance, even when someone acts or looks different.
“Autism is not in the dictionary for [people]. So it’s like, okay, cool next page. For some, it is there. My problem is with those who don’t have it in their dictionary. In my opinion, I’m not gonna ask you to bow down to autism, I’m not like ‘all hail the king’, I’m not after that. But it needs to be in your dictionary, end of story. You can look and turn the page, but it should not be ignored,” said Sam.
Gina added, “It needs to go beyond awareness. We’re aware, we’re past that. It’s not just awareness anymore. Like maybe it was at one point when nobody really knew anything about autism. It’s critical that it continues to get better. We have to teach our kids at a young age that it doesn’t matter what this group of people are saying over there. Is that person sitting by themselves at lunchtime? That shouldn’t happen. That’s your responsibility to say, ‘Would you like to sit with me?’ And that sounds like common sense, but these kids don’t know […] so it needs to start early.”
Autism Rocks and Rolls Corp has their event, “Summerfest” coming up on August 5th. The event offers a scavenger hunt, corn hole, games, and prizes. The All Access Band and Duke Tumatoe will also perform. Tickets for the event are available via a minimum $10 donation. All proceeds go towards helping Sam continue his mission. More details on the event and Autism Rocks and Rolls are available at autismrocksandrolls.com . Sam’s podcast is also available on all podcasting platforms.
For now, Sam says he’s taking his business, “One day at a time.”
