Daniel Tammet on real autistic lives

How We Live Now with Katherine May

Katherine was excited to speak to Daniel Tammet about his latest book, Nine Minds: Inner Lives on the Spectrum. Katherine has been reading Daniel’s writing for a long time - his first book, Born on a Blue Day, came out in 2006. At the time, he was writing about his experience as a savant (his synaesthesia means that he conceptualises numbers and dates in a completely different way to most of us), and in this conversation Katherine and Daniel talk about the way that he was treated during those years. Daniel is a beautiful writer, but his talent was often invisible to people who only wanted to see him as a kind of specimen, not fully human. Hear as they talk about the way Daniel’s persisted, asserting his rightful place as a thinker and a master of prose.

Katherine's book, Enchantment, is available now: US/CAN and UK

Links from the episode:

• Daniel's Website
• Daniel’s book, Nine Minds

• Join Katherine's Substack
• Find show notes and transcripts for every episode by visiting Katherine's website.
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