I'm gonna leave you here. What is up, guys? How is everyone doing? Welcome to the show today we have a special guest author, podcaster, and autism awareness Miss Christy Michelson.
Yes, hi, Jake, Now you do it.
And by the way, I usually get your name wrong. Is it Micholson?
It is, it's Christy Michelson. You got it perfect.
Yeah, I hope. Hold on. We we got a little thing out here. Sorry if I'm Mike. They had this thing now where you could do the chat bot right there.
Oh yes, yes, box.
Yeah, But I hope everybody is staying save over. Everybody's doing well on this great, fabulous Thursday afternoon, and it's hot. It's hot. But tell us a little bit about yourself, Chrissy.
All right, well hello everyone. As Jake said, my name is Christy Michelson. I am a book author, a podcast host, and an APA for causes such as cancer, autism, and lupa's awareness. You can actually find out more about me by visiting my website at Christymichelson dot com, or you can find my podcast ww double a podcast on all the podcast platforms. I am a mother of two autistic children. Well they're young adults now, my son Josh and my
daughter Cassie. Josh has high functioning autism. Back in the day we called it aspergers and now I believe it's called level one. And then my daughter, yes, right ahead.
Sorry, is a thing that's called They now call it as ASD autism spectrum disorder.
Very good, thank you, Jasi. I have been It's been a while since I've done a lot of advocacy for autism. My kids are now in their twenties, so it's been a long time since I've gotten the terminology proper. So, yes, my children are autistic again. My daughter is moderate severe. And then I deal with LUPUS for myself on a daily basis. So that's a little bit about me, ladies and gentlemen. I never apologized, never apologize.
So one thing that you do a lot in work with wrestling, I saw that you promoted a few of its for wrestling.
Absolutely. Let me tell you a little bit about that. It's it's kind of a short, kind of long story here. I'll make it as short as possible. My son, being on the autism spectrum, had always been obsessed with WWE. He wanted to be a WWE wrestler. Well. Growing up, he had lived in California with me and my husband and my daughter, and during COVID, my husband lost his job and we had to move out of state and
find a whole new life for us. Well, we ended up moving to Texas, and my son decided that he was going to look up wrestling schools while we got here, and he found one called m WA, which is Main Event Wrestling, and he trained with the pro wrestlers out here in Texas on the indie circuit. And he had went far in his training and he got to where
he was doing intern security. He was paying his dues, but unfortunately, one night out in the audience during his interning, someone started calling him a very bad name, which a lot of us referred to it as the R word because we don't like that word. And someone started picking on him and bullying him, and him being autistic, he took it pretty hard and he went through suicidal ideation,
suicidal thoughts. So still putting him through therapy and getting him through the hard times that he was going through. We wanted to stay into the wrestling family and into the wrestling business, so I became a sponsor for our local wrestlers, and I sponsor a lot of our events, and our wrestling family, we call them our family, is helping me put together in November, November fifteenth, if we're putting together a suicide awareness and prevention fundraiser, wrestling and
karaoke VIP party afterwards. So we're going to have all kinds of wrestlers and we're going to do some matches and my son is actually going to get step back in the ring and be a referee for this event.
Yeah, you know, And I just want to say that number one, you know, and I think that people forget that when you have a disability, you're people they use in media, they use that word, that our word religiously to clarify, and that is not right for someone to, you know, for someone with a disability. By the way, your son had a birthday recently, he did.
He just turned twenty eight. Oh my gosh, I feel so old.
Yeah, and I want to say that number one is people who who don't understand you know, having to having to deal with it, and you know, and I want to say that you you you're a good person. You got a great community on Twitter. A lot of times, you know, we try to Oblah. You know, I this has been the second interview we tried. The first one we tried to get and you had we had this, you had to you had to back out the last minute because of uh problems or.
Yes, we had I don't remember what happened. I think it was a scheduling problem. We were supposed to have Axel Savage with us, and Axel was traveling. He's a pro wrestler ladies and gentlemen. Axel was traveling at the time, and then we could never get the schedules to coordinate between Jake, myself and Axel. So it's been a while and I'm finally here.
Yeah, you know what the thing is is. Also, I've been I've been watching a few of your stuff. And by the way, I am I am. I hope you're on I think you're on Apple Bag. I'm gonna look for you on Apple.
Yes, I'm definitely on Apple.
Apple podcast is good. But what do you think about? Like, you know, we talked backstage about like what do you think about? Like Number one, they're doing a show in your neck of the woods in Texas over on an Arlington called All in Texas AE W do you follow ae W do you.
I am not as big into ae W. My son he follows all of it. I have followed over the years. W W E a little bit of n X T. Ring of Honor.
Doing a show on tomorrow. They're doing a show the day before. They're doing a Texas show before all in tomorrow night.
Yeah. In fact, we actually had Shane Taylor from Ring of Honor wrestling my boy Axel Savage Goodness a year ago at an autism benefit show that we did so love love all of them to death.
You know. And I've actually had on my show earlier in the in my first year of podcasting because I pot I've been on I've been podcasting for five years, been on YouTube for nine years. And the reason why I started podcasting, thank you. The reason why I started podcasting is because of death of my father. I lost my father in twenty twenty two alcoholism, and it's hard for me to you know, I want to say that anytime that I'm not promoting my donation links because this
is not about me. This today is about Christy. Christy. Sorry you're finding you're because if you watch my shows, I'd be promoting my donation. But I'm not today, because I'm trying to I might do a stream later where after interview, because when I do these interviews, I'm just trying to do what's right for my fans.
And I think that's wonderful, Jake.
The fans are the fans of the guys that So what do you think about what's going on in the in those worlds? About like you know now it's say, you know there's TV shows talking about autism on the on the specs and you actually said that you had you didn't.
Sorry there, You're fine. I, personally, Jake, don't watch a lot of the television shows that regard autism because I the one that I actually started to watch, which was The Good Doctor, and that was a while back. To me, they stereotype autism, and that's not what I'm about. I'm not about stereotyping. I'm about the actual person, and you and my children you're actual people. So I try not to watch television these days, and I get a lot of backlash on that. A lot of people are like,
why don't you watch these shows? It's about autism. To me, autism is it's just a disability. It's not something that I want to sit here and say you're autistic. That's not what I'm about. I'm about getting to know the person. And so watching television shows sometimes they can help you understand autism, and I understand that, but again, the ones that I have seen, they do nothing but stereotype. And I'm just not about stereotip typing.
So when I was when I was younger, I got sent into a middle hospital twice. And I've talked about this. The first time was for fifteen days because the bleep doctors I'm trying to keep PG here, bleep doctors decide to put me on mix pros ou I can riddle in together.
Oh my god.
And the second time was because eight days because they put me on seven to ten different medications a day.
That's a day that's ridiculous.
And they so I'm not I'm not trying to I want to have This show is for real people, real life matters in this show. And and I thought I knew that you were busy. I knew you. I've been I've been bugging you about this.
For a long time.
Yeah.
In fact, today I'm kind of in a rush too. I was just telling Jake, ladies and gentlemen, but ten minutes before I came onto his show. I just finished a show of my own that I've got to get out and put it onto the podcast. But yeah, my son, who I pick up from work every day, I mean, gets out early tonight. So I'm like in a rush with Jake today too. I'm like, oh man, I feel bad because I've had to put him off so many times.
Here you know what, and the thing is is and you know what I'm I just am. You know. I've done an interview where I did a fifteen minute interview before I've done I've done where I did a couple of hours. But I know that you're a busy person. I know that you know. And the thing is is, and the thing is we and then and later and the thing is I was actually stressed in two days before the show. Why because because I was nervous because these interviews because number one, I don't know, didn't because
I've listened to you before. I try not to listen to like the X stuff, the X spaces because that's I think that's your guys, is that's yours stuff, not me. I'm not trying to like disrespect you, but I love that you are you are an amazing person. And by the way, I digging that fifty dollars you sent a couple months ago.
Awesome. I'm glad I do.
The thing is now let's say everybody, so, you said you haven't listened to Howard Stern in a while.
You said, yes, it's been a long time. I'll let me. I'm gonna date myself and how old I am The last time I listened to Howard Stern, Lisa Marie Presley was actually a guest on his show. So it's been a long time.
But the new Howard, the new Howard is not good. I'm gonna say this. He he turned into iMOS, he turned into Don Imis. Oh wow, he became he became woke. Howard Stern became woke. But that's my opinion, not not the guest, the guests opinion, because I think but Howard Stern did say they call people the R word very bad and and it's you're and you can't do that, you can't these are these are real people with real five stories in you're and you're going on there to shot job for that is not right.
Absolutely, my daughter, ladies and gentlemen, for those who can who can hear this. My daughter is mildly retarded. She has autism moderate severe, she has auditory process and disorder, and she has moderate retardation. It is not something to joke about. And calling people that word that are word is very offensive. If you got to know my kids. A lot of people, I get so many compliments because my kids are very loving. They're they're now young adults,
but they're very loving and they're just normal people. They're looking for acceptance. They're not looking for people to look at them and say, oh my god, you're crazy. They're looking for acceptance of who they are.
And you know what the thing is is, and that's what That's what sometimes I try to do on these shows is because I try too because I've gotten I'm I don't leave my house. I don't, but I'm hoping to lead to get to go to that con and stuff because help get awareness for autism and all that. So, yeah, I do appreciate, appreciate a lot of people that I and you we might do like twenty minutes so and then we because I know you're busy. I know you guys.
Yeah, I'm going to have to go eventually soon here, but I can go a few more minutes with you, James.
Yeah, thank you. And one of the one of my things is I'm always trying to be And I made you a few songs you.
Have and those have been very popular. We play them around the house and my kids absolutely love it. So I thank you for that.
Yeah. And the thing is, it's like so many so the one thing we did. You were a preschool teacher before becoming an author.
I was back goodness, two thousand and four. I think it was two thousand and four. I had started my schooling and back in cal Alifornia, where I used to live, there's a thing called state preschool, and it's pretty much you are working for the state. It's not your typical go in, watch the kids play for a while. You're teaching actual subjects. So I had to go to college, get my ECE units, get some certifications, and then I
went to teaching preschool. And I taught preschool for eight years, and I made a character called the Crazy Hat Lady Silly Preschool Teacher, where I would wear funky hats and funky socks and funky makeup because I wanted to show the children that education can be fun. It doesn't have to be boring, so we would come up with some crazy hats, and we taught all kinds of things, like the first Man that walked on the Moon, Neil Armstrong.
We taught so many subjects to these little preschoolers, and we had so many people talking about our crazy hat lady teacher at the school, and the kids learned a lot through that. So I do a thing, or I used to do a thing called whole brain teaching. I mean that's where you use every inch. You're teaching the entire child things, not just ABC one two three. You're teaching a lot about a lot of things in life. I loved teaching. However, I got sick in I think
it was twenty twelve. Twenty twelve, I ended up finding out I have lupus and fibromyalgia, and they were also testing me for MS, and I had to leave preschool teaching. And from there I ended up working at a nursing home. Later and then now I can't even explain it. It's been a long journey, but I am now a full time author, podcast host, and advocate.
Yeah, and you also travel. I've seen you. I've seen you do stuff in New York. You do stuff over, and so I was like, to know you're saying like I told you in the beginning when we when we when we turned to the room and you said four o'clock, I'm like, because I was because you didn't say central. I thought I didn't read the things as central. But when you because I know you and I are on
the same time zone. So it's a profession that I have to do central and not Eastern time zones because I work with people with Eastern time zones and it's it's you have. And I even work with people in the Mountain time zones and the Pacific time zones in Japan, Australia. Uh. By the way, I I I heard there was a show called My six hundred Pound Life. Yes, you know Doctor Now moved over to Lifetime. Now he's doing stuff with Doctor Now, the person who does the.
Doctor right, I haven't heard about that yet.
He's moving. I I don't watch DC anymore. Turned into like to me, he's turned into like a channel where they'll just play reruns or they'll they'll show shows where it's uh, people with multiple kids or little people and I'm I don't say I know that they don't like them getting called the M word, the the what they what they refer to little people. They like to be called little people. Now they don't like to be called that word.
Absolutely no, absolutely yeah.
But what what was your inspiration of doing podcasting?
Oh, podcasting itself. But when I first started X a few years ago, I had been posting my stuff for my books and I was still a newbie, trying to figure out how to work X and all that kind of stuff. And I somehow connected with Billy D's the podcaster. And Billy has had a strong podcasting background. He's been in the business for over thirty years with radio and podcasting. And he asked me, he goes, would you like to
be a guest on my show? Well, I didn't even know what a podcast was i first came on here, but I agreed and I went on his show, and within the first few minutes to fewse through hours, et cetera, we had over six thousand hits in just a few minutes. And then people that was just on YouTube, and then all the audio platforms were really listening because my story. He had interviewed me about my dad's cancer, he had interviewed me about how I became an author, how my
children are autistic. And that episode went skyrocketing, like there were so many views. And he looked at me afterwards and he's all, you have a gift. Why don't you consider podcasting? And I said, I don't even know what I would do or what I would talk about. And so he got me started by going into Twitter spaces and talking to people and listening and see how they went through. And then he helped me pick out equipment like my microphone and my boom arm and all the revelator,
all the stuff that I have. He helped me pick out my equipment, and he became my producer and he's really helped to launch my career between podcasting and him and I do a lot of stuff. In fact, I am now one of the associates. I'm one of his producer you know, his team on the Abilities podcast. So I think Billy D's he's my biggest inspiration for the podcast.
By the way, the one thing that I am I Will I loved about stream Yard and this is something stream Yard. The two things that they did for the AI clip pool in the in the chat box, because the chat box I could tell people, people can know what we're saying when this goes to audio, I will do all I will let I will get this put up. Give me give me about an hour to put this up on the audios, because because number one, I have to download it. Make sure that I hand out. I
don't export these. I just get it done, do my own stuff. And then this will also be a vote, will be a high line on Twitch, because we're on Twitch and kick and wonderful and we and we learned a lot of stuff, and I think we might be I know that you are busy. I know you just got done. I know you got you got some most you gotta do any any plug I think we're done.
I'm gonna go ahead and plug a couple things really fast, and just let everybody know that I just put out a new memoir called Sweet Inspiration, available on all the bookstore platforms. So please check that out if you get a chance. And also check out my podcast, ww double a podcast available on all podcast platforms. That's ww A a podcast, and we talk about all kinds of different themes, from cancer to autism, to lupus, to sex to drug
and alcohol addiction. We talk a little bit about everything, so please feel free to check it out ladies and gentlemen, and hello, I see people in the chat box.
Hi gays, by the way. I just want to let people know. This is actually my first interviews that I'm doing with the new headset.
It sounds great.
With the new headset that I got. I want to say thank you, guys. And I know that I haven't been you know. And I want to say this to the fans that watch this show. And they're gonna ask why I'm doing an interview with Christy Chris, I'm sorry. I do these shows because I want to show people Christy. I think Christy is an awesome human. She's a very strong person. She's a very strong person when she's dealing she has to deal with two people to kids. Both of her young adult kids are both on or that
has a disability. I think it's hard for someone to do that and have to deal with other stuff. And you are showing that you're strong and thank you for what you're doing you and you know it for me to be I'm I'm thirty one. I'll be thirty two on the twenty eighth. Got a birthday coming up, so I don't I don't count birthdays anymore. I like I said, I told someone yesterday, I don't count my birthdays anymore.
You know why? And I don't because my birthday, you know, for me, is I just the only thing that I count on my birthday. I don't. The only thing is when I had a big number, like my thirtieth. I did an eight hour on my thirtieth birthday two years ago.
Wow, you won't catch me doing eight hours for my birthday, Ie.
I do. I don't do things that I try to do. I try to pug you know, I try to do what's right. And you know what the thing is is, you know God's going to see us through it. And you know, I believe in I believe there's a God. I believe in God, and I believe in and I know that you're I know, I don't know if you're a Christian or not aam aam sorry?
But if you not apologize?
If yeah, all right? Any anything that you need to talk say before we end the show, before we hit that.
Yeah, if you if you don't mind, I'm gonna leave your guys, your your listeners with the same thing that I would leave my listeners with, and that is every day people are battling things that we know nothing about. Sometimes it's autism, sometimes it's lupis. Sometimes it's things are happening at home that nobody else understands. Every day, people are battling things that we know nothing about. So it's up to us. It's up to all of us to
stand up and be kind to one another. Be the one to say, hey, you're looking good today, or thank you Jake for taking the time to get to know me. Be the one to stand up, be the voice, be the change, and be the one to make a difference because you might be the one to save a life. And with that, I'm going to say thank you very much, Jake.
And thank you. And also and I want to say I always say this peace loving corn bread, y'all, remember du I means that's so well, And always remember this. You're always loved, and you're always loved, and we'll see when we see you.
Bye, absolutely bye, everybody.
Don'