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First part of scintillating dialogue with the author Olga Bogdashina on autism as behaviors vs. autism as perceptual, Olga’s background, early diagnoses of schizophrenia, maintaining a neutral perspective, a dissertation on sensory perception, autism & language development, the problems of theory of mind, autism & spirituality, extra-consensual perception, reality construction, Intense World Syndrome, mini-columns in the autistic brain, reduced pruning process & sustained sensation, Huxley & the brain as reducing valve, Jasun’s night terrors and sensory overload, autistics’ aversion to nail-cutting, adapting to changing seasons, autistic super-senses, whose reality is real? the body as barometer, Chronic fatigue syndrome & suppressed perceptions as symptoms, emotions as physiological responses, how emotions create atmosphere, absorbing disowned feels, poison containers, long-term relationships and transference, autism and connectedness, the social construct of “people,” instinct and intelligence terminal points in evolution, intuition & merging, Donna Williams and autistic resonance, the body’s internal guidance system, emotional intelligence & IQ tests, intellectual engagement, sensory-based language, communicating with aliens, energetic intelligence and connecting, the many forms of language, an eye for detail and difficulty with generalization, quantum mechanics and entanglement, the Grinch and naming the indescribable, vast regions of signals, the language of the interiority of the body, character armor trapping poisons in the body, the pros and cons of socialization, the autism bridge.
Songs: “El Mariachi” by The Freak Fandango Orchestra; “Shanghai Pancakes” & “Siren Song,” by The Underscore Orkestra.
I’m really interested in your podcasts, but to be honest: I often stop listening after a few minutes ’cause the audio-quality is so low. I’m not a native american speaker, o.k., but I don’t have problems listening to other podcasts at all. In the case of the Liminalist it’s so hard to understand what you are saying that I surrender after a few minutes.
I suppose you would have much more people listening to your podcast if you would care more about being audible.
They sound fine at my end. Besides the Grandin one, the quality seems as good as any other podcast I listen too (including WTF). How are you listening to them?
Maybe it’s my way of speaking?
Anyone else have a problem?
I often listen to podcasts at night, in bed, with earbuds. I also listen thru my own desktop computer on a pair of speakers, on my husband’s desktop with two monitor speakers, and thru an iphone in my car audio system.
I’ve consistently found The Liminalist podcasts to be difficult to listen to in all of these various conditions – as a rule, your own soft spoken, bit mumbling voice is quiet, the guests’s louder, and the music breaks have blasted me awake on a number of occasions. I no longer listen in bed or in the car for this reason. I find this situation is not uncommon on podcasts, though i sincerely appreciate podcasts which are easier to listen to – ie. i don’t have to constantly turn the audio up and down so i can understand the soft parts while not getting blasted by sudden bursts of volume.
It’s my understanding that there exists software which can be used to evaluate and correct sound levels, if one is interested in catering to those with less than perfect hearing and listening skills.
I have tried to address that volume irregularity (the result of recording my own voice separately in audacity and then splicing it to the Skype recording) and I hope it is getting better. The music levels I generally keep to about the same as the conversation, tho admittedly I listen back on speakers, not headphones.
well, there is software to help/automate, as i said. Frankly it’s to the point where I don’t listen unless it is someone i am very interested in hearing, like Peter Levanda or one of your readers. This is an issue for me thru speakers as well as headphones. Other people who are around when i am listening have commented on this as well.
FWIW, my two cents, seeing as you asked, etc. But i have stopped listening to most episodes, same as with the Paracast with it’s inane and obtrusive adverts.
well you’re not a serious listener then. I’ll look into that software but it’s an exaggerated reaction.
I don’t know what you mean by one of my readers.
“Randon Dude”, the guy from the forum. He mentioned he reads what you write.
I just wrote here as you asked if people had problems. You know how you’ve been talking about how not everyone has the same experience in the world? Well i for one am old and hypersensitive – and not alone in that, it appears.
It’s quite obvious you put a lot into these podcasts, they are unique and quite informative. That is why when you asked for feedback I took the time to respond. Audio mixing is like any other skill – you can always improve 🙂
But then you might get a bigger audience 😉
Curious you’d be interested in me talking to a reader more than someone else you haven’t heard of; maybe because the focus is on me?
The current podcast is probably the one I am most satisfied with and it’s also i think the one I talk the least on.
Absolutely, regarding everyone having distinct experiences. But of course there’s no way to cater to indvididuals, by definition. People have also complained about the music, but more people have expressed appreciation.
I honestly don’t think there is a way to improve the sound significantly short of changing everything. Any poor sound quality relates to Skype and Pamela, recording the other person’s voice (my end is done via Audacity). Audacity has a normalizing function which I tried on the latest podcast, but the sound levels remained the same, suggesting, at first pass, that they were pretty even. I also listened to some of it on headphones, as well as an earlier one with Lethem; the sound levels are pretty much the same. It could relate to my different style of speaking and how it is harder for some people to understand, but there’s nothing I can do about that besides change my way of speaking or boosting my own levels to higher than the other person. Actually there was the period, around John Michael Greer, that my voice was louder than the other person due to the echo effect in the room I was using. But since you’ve already admitted you don’t listen to most of the podcasts, then I don’t know which of the recent ones, if any, you have heard.
I sincerely doubt, comments here notwithstanding, that the size of my audience relates to sound quality. Bret Easton Ellis’ podcasts sound worse than mine. Marc Maron shouts at his audience and I always skip his intros because I find his voice unbearable until he gets into interview mode. and so on….
“Curious you’d be interested in me talking to a reader more than someone else you haven’t heard of; maybe because the focus is on me?”
No – if so i would have said my favorites were your solo episodes. I appreciate hearing new voices and perspectives. I haven’t had teevee in over 15 years, but do listen to the public radio – even so i’ve heard Temple Grandin interviewed (in hour long shows) getting on a dozen times. The only new info i got out of your interview was the size of her amygdala (fascinating to me personally, btw).
I only responded to the audio quality because you asked. If all you were going to do was denigrate my opinion/experience i would not have bothered.
“increasing size of audience’ was a little joke as you have often expressed conflicting feelings in this regard.
I’ve spent a considerable amount of time addressing your complaints. If that’s denigration then my guess is you must spend a lot of your time feeling denigrated.
I have the same problems you describe. And to say it again: I really really like the podcast but to not understand what is being said just turns me off.
It is a general rule in audio: if you have to focus on understanding what is being said you can no longer focus on the content.
Just remember the times when you have a conversation on the phone and you have a bad connection…
Sure. But most people don’t have a problem and I take a lot of care with the audio quality. So I have to deduce something else is going on.
the podcast just stopped at 12:11. i waited a bit and noted olga’s link. thanks for your audios and i will try this again~i’ve had no trouble following the conversations.
keep trying, the full audio is there.
Great episode, great guest and very interesting, it even gave my stubborn self a few “aha moments” and alternations of a view or two.
Sound quality been nice during the liminalist seriers for me in all episodes besides the TG Episodes.
A mere coincidence I am sure.
Dont know if Dirk is refering to the same thing.
But as a none native english speaker myself, I sometimes have or like to re-listen, sometimes to entire episodes and sometimes i rewind a minute or so to listen to a sentence again. For me it is not due to that I think you are speaking unclear or mumbling or anything like that, but you speak in a manner and use words and build sentences in a way that sometimes require one to think a little extra, this could be due to the complexity of many of the topics aswell as/or words that for one that not has english as a native language, needs a little longer to grasp the meaning of the word and or the sentence. If it would have been in my native language I think I would grasp it faster. Still I think my english is pretty decent. So it is probably a mixture of the complexity of many of the topics and a language thing. For example, this episode I will probably re-listen to again to make sure that I comprehended as much as possible of what was said.
A redemptive comment; glad we were able to please this time. 😉
🙂
Actually you are always pleasing. Also I dont pay a dime for this podcast, I can download it at 3mb/sec wich means a couple of seconds to get it down. It is commercial free and I dont have to listen to some dude trying to push collodial silver or what not. So I am actually very greatfull for all you’re podcasts, even the few single episodes where I might not like the guest etc.
I know I come across as a little “hostile” sometimes in my disagreements, I think it is mainly from being raised in the ghetto. There, kindness and gentleness almost always was misstaken for weakness and then prayed upon.
So sometimes I easily get back into that mentality when things get heated, and that is most of the times not productive due to the points wanted to be made often gets missed or not listened to due to the imposing tone.
It can ofc also be usefull in some situations when someone is trying to fuck you over or take advantage, but overall it is a side of me that I “work on” controlling a little better.
I never ever got voilent a single time during my 30+ years alive though, other then a few single times where I had to defend myself against physical attacks.
Preemptive/compensatory aggression/hostility may be symptomatic of the neurodivergent experience of struggling to survive in an NT environment. I can relate.
for sure it is 🙂
Getting better?
yes I would think so.
atleast I dont burn the bridges as often/easy as I have might done earlier.
But there is still this other side of the coin that reacts quickly to what it consider as bullshit or moraly wrong.
Approach is somewhat better to it though.
Not sure if I wanna get into a talk about morals with you, lol 🙂 but I always had this feeling that autistics have an internal moral compass that most NTs lack, A compass that is not as infected by external sources as the kind of morality that is fluent and constantly changes due to the external input.
never been able to rly explain what I mean by it nore get other autistics to relate to it, rather been called an autistic supremacist and what not and people often get the impression that I would think that I / WE “would be better” due to it.
I try and not judge others, but still there is this troll in me that loves to push on peoples buttons in order to expose there own delusions to them.
Extremely enjoyable convo.
I enjoyed the interview but the music is really unfriendly to my ears