Kirsten Carder is the host of the I Have ADHD podcast. She helps adults with ADHD create the life that they’ve always wanted in her coaching program, Focused. She has been living life with ADHD and accomplishing everything she set her mind to, and now she’s dedicating her life to helping other adults with ADHD do the same thing.

The week’s guest is Jennifer Knopf, President of the REED Charitable Foundation based in Florida. The REED Foundation trains public school teachers to support children with dyslexia and other reading challenges. Jennifer was motivated to start her work through the experience of supporting her own son in his struggles with reading and spelling. Her first venture was a free community education event which was a huge unexpected success. Listen in to hear how her work grew from there.

Dr. Hallowell chats with Bob Broudo, retiring headteacher of Landmark School which specializes in supporting students whose brains work a little differently. Bob has spent a lifetime helping young people learn, and showing that there is much more there is to intelligence and creativity than smart and stupid. Listen in to hear them discuss how attitudes to neurodiversity have changed over the last 50 years and how much more needs to be done for everyone to understand the strengths of different.

Bryan Rigg is a military historian with a Phd from Yale and the author of 4 books. But at the start of life Bryan struggled, his then undiagnosed ADHD causing him lots of difficulties. After diagnosis, a teacher who took time to understand and support him made all the difference and helped him on the path to a successful and rewarding life.

Dr. Hallowell invites several guests to present a different form of diagnosing a difference, including discussion of an exciting new tool for screening for ADHD: the Virtual Reality Attention Tracker!. This wearable device is a project of Cognitive Leap, a digital mental health company exploring innovative ways of applying the latest technology to the diagnosis and treatment of all kinds of conditions. Jack Chen is the CEO of the company and overseer of the VR Attention Tracker project, and he joins the podcast today along with his colleagues Skip Rizzo, a professor at USC, and Aram Ma, the principal investigator of the project.

This week Dr. Hallowell talks to Dan Shaughnessy, nationally renowned sports writer for the Boston Globe and friend of Dr. Hallowell. During a fun and casual conversation filled with personal anecdotes, they discuss some of the many characters in the world of sports that Shaughnessy has come across in his career. This episode is, at various points, both humorous and eye-opening while showing the humanity in people that many of us see as larger than life athletes.

In today’s episode, Dr. Hallowell speaks to a student from his own former prep school, Phillips Exeter Academy. 18 year old Justin Rigg was diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia himself at a young age and has learned to utilize these diagnoses rather than just cope with them. Giving us an inside look at what his daily life is like, he shares his experiences, both on and off campus, at one of the most rigorous prep schools in the country.

Today’s guest is fellow podcaster, Angela Stephens, host of the RE-Focus podcast. She is the CEO of RE-Focus The Creative Office, a woman owned diversified company with WBENC. As a single mother, she worked a commission based job and her son was diagnosed with high level ADHD at the age of ten. He went from a D student to an A student through therapies, a lot of work, and medications.

This week I had a fantastic chat with Dani Donovan, graphic designer turned ADHD social media influencer and educator. Her witty and informative comics and graphics have helped thousands, especially women, understand more about ADHD and themselves. Dani also has her first book coming out soon – The Anti Planner: How To Get Sh*t Done When You Don’t Feel Like It.  She is upbeat without downplaying the challenges that come with living with ADHD. Listen in to her lively and inspiring story.

This week I had a fantastic chat with Dani Donovan, graphic designer turned ADHD social media influencer and educator. Her witty and informative comics and graphics have helped thousands, especially women, understand more about ADHD and themselves. Dani also has her first book coming out soon – The Anti Planner: How To Get Sh*t Done When You Don’t Feel Like It.  She is upbeat without downplaying the challenges that come with living with ADHD. Listen in to her lively and inspiring story.

This week Dr Hallowell explores some of the ways in which society can perceive people as being different, when they are actually just working to be themselve. Kim Sabate is a transgender woman who was born in the Phillipines and endured a difficult upbringing, stuck between wanting to be herself and the culture of her home at the time. Kim is incredibly open as she describes the many challenges she has faced in becoming her true self, including moving to a new country, difficult relationships and a new career.

Dr Hallowell’s guest this week is Tracy Otsuka, host of the popular “ADHD for Smart Ass Women” podcast, currently at over 1 million downloads. Her Facebook group of the same name seeks to provide a strength-focused forum for women. Tracy has had a rich and varied career including practicing law, high end clothing design, and being an ADHD coach. Listen in to hear how she has used her creative strengths and why she values her ADHD brain.

Today Dr Hallowell gets the chance to go down-under in Australia where Vivian Dunstan, a devoted mother and teacher, identified her own difference as ADHD when her daughter was diagnosed. She took the diagnosis as an opportunity to bring resources and support to others through founding “ADHD Support Australia”. Describing her own experience and symptoms like “time blindness”, she demonstrates how people can harness their difference, rather than see it as a deficit. She is driven by a desire to bring success to others with ADHD and show people how changing their perspective can bring positive outcomes. We hope you enjoy this fun and informative conversation.

This week Dr Hallowell talks with Kristin Seymour. Kristin shares how she has been working as a nurse practitioner with patients suffering from heart and vascular concerns, but of late her passion has shifted towards those who think differently. Kristin’s passion for ADHD was catalyzed forward through authoring a book on ADHD, The Fog Lifted A Clinician’s Victorious Journey With ADHD. Kristin’s own experience of living with ADHD has proven to be the best source of wisdom for her to offer others. She shares about the pros and cons of having ADHD, how sometimes the best parts can also be the worst. From having quick wit, to being extremely innovative, and caring about other people, Kristin sheds light on the different aspects these qualities can bring to people’s lives.

In today’s episode, Dr. Hallowell is joined by two super talented female artists who came together to tell a story. The filmmaker, Gillie Richards, had the vision, while Rosemary Thomson, a renowned symphony orchestra conductor with ADHD had the story. What happened, though, was totally unexpected. From the challenges that Rosemary overcomes while Gillian makes discoveries of her own that she did not see coming.

Listen as the women describe their experiences working together and creating the film “Shiny Objects”, along with the things they did not expect to learn or experience. Ending with Dr. Hallowell asking some questions about their experiences and opinions on their own difference and difference in general.

Today Dr. Hallowell speaks with a very special guest named Carrie Wilkins who is the founder of the Center for Motivation and Change (CMC) one of the top addiction rehabilitation clinics in the country. Carrie fills Dr. Hallowell in on the ways she has found to be very successful in treating the disease of addiction, despite many people telling her the method she employs is counterproductive and caters to junkies. Lucky for those who suffer from addiction and have loved ones in the same position, Carrie WIlkins has brought dignity and hope back to addicts who have been cast aside or shunned by the people they loved most.

Dr. Hallowell and his wife Sue discuss life, love, relationships, and marriage both inside and outside the realm of “different” according to pop culture, and contrasting that to the rapidly changing landscape and public perception when it comes to what actually is “different” within the boundaries of love, relationships, sexuality, and marriage.

Yakini Pierce is a mother whose 2 children were diagnosed with ADHD, leading her to discover that she has this fascinating condition too. Yakini embraced both her own and her children’s diagnoses and has worked to make them feel confident and safe. Listen to her story today.

Dr. Hallowell talks to his good friend and former student Ken Duckworth who is currently the head of NIMA and is a leader in the field of mental health. He is currently writing a groundbreaking book which he will discuss with Dr. Hallowell, sharing exclusive and deeply personal details concerning who he is and why he does what he does.

This week I talk to Kaitlyn Tollefson from Colorado. Kaitlyn recounts an incredible journey of self-discovery that put her on a path towards creating change. Listen to find out how at just 16 years old she successfully campaigned to get groundbreaking mental health legislation passed in her state.