51 min
121: Autism with a Side of Sushi with Kuri Levine She Doesn’t Settle
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- Careers
Today I’m just so incredibly happy to welcome Kuri Levine to the podcast. A Georgetown graduate and marketer for National Geographic and the Discovery Health Channel, Levine is also a mother whose son lives with autism and she has since become an advocate for those with special needs. We open up the podcast by talking about her early experiences in the U.S., her career and how it changed when she left for maternity leave. Kuri goes on to reveal that she never returned to her job after having her children, especially after finding out her son was on the spectrum. She also shares how she struggles as a parent seeing her kids battle with things other children might deem common sense, and how difficult it is for her to find activities or sports that she feels comfortable leaving her son at. We go on to talk about her book, Autism with a Side of Sushi - a book that aims to normalize autism - and draw our conversation to a close by discussing the importance of language and framing as they relate to the stigma surrounding disabilities. Today’s conversation is a vitally important one, filled with insights that we all really need to hear and take to heart.
The Finer Details of this Episode:
Experiencing cultural shock after immigrating to the U.S. How Kuri’s life changed post-childbirth Her sons’ diagnosis How COVID impacted her children’s schooling The difficulty in finding activities for children living with autism The importance of language and ableism
Quotes:
“When I do math and simple arithmetic, I do it in Japanese, because that's how I learned it, whereas when I do other subjects, obviously it's in a different language. I've had people comment in Japan that when I speak in Japanese, I sound like a mom talking to a baby, and it's because the Japanese I know is my mom talking to me when I was five and younger.”
“It was sort of the first time I got to see each one was developing at different rates and all the things that kids were doing and whatever. And I noticed that there were a couple things that stood out.”
“Being able to rely on other people that knew what they were doing, instead of having to do it myself was so important, because I was terrified. I was going to break my child and mess him up.”
“Some kids are way more social than Daniel, some kids are nonverbal, some kids have impulse control issues or whatever. So like, it's really interesting that everybody has a different experience.”
“What I was hoping for in that title is that, just as Sushi has become so normalized, and so accepted, it would be amazing if autism, the same thing happens.”
“So ableism is something I support. It's like a positive way of thinking and rephrasing words, I feel like that's important. I think that's another step in the making, not even just autism, any sort of disability less scary, right?”
Links:
She Doesn't Settle Podcast
She Doesn’t Settle - The Experience: www.kellytravis.net/sds
Instagram: www.instagram.com/shedoesntsettle/
Kuri's Homepage
Kuri Levine on Instagram
Today I’m just so incredibly happy to welcome Kuri Levine to the podcast. A Georgetown graduate and marketer for National Geographic and the Discovery Health Channel, Levine is also a mother whose son lives with autism and she has since become an advocate for those with special needs. We open up the podcast by talking about her early experiences in the U.S., her career and how it changed when she left for maternity leave. Kuri goes on to reveal that she never returned to her job after having her children, especially after finding out her son was on the spectrum. She also shares how she struggles as a parent seeing her kids battle with things other children might deem common sense, and how difficult it is for her to find activities or sports that she feels comfortable leaving her son at. We go on to talk about her book, Autism with a Side of Sushi - a book that aims to normalize autism - and draw our conversation to a close by discussing the importance of language and framing as they relate to the stigma surrounding disabilities. Today’s conversation is a vitally important one, filled with insights that we all really need to hear and take to heart.
The Finer Details of this Episode:
Experiencing cultural shock after immigrating to the U.S. How Kuri’s life changed post-childbirth Her sons’ diagnosis How COVID impacted her children’s schooling The difficulty in finding activities for children living with autism The importance of language and ableism
Quotes:
“When I do math and simple arithmetic, I do it in Japanese, because that's how I learned it, whereas when I do other subjects, obviously it's in a different language. I've had people comment in Japan that when I speak in Japanese, I sound like a mom talking to a baby, and it's because the Japanese I know is my mom talking to me when I was five and younger.”
“It was sort of the first time I got to see each one was developing at different rates and all the things that kids were doing and whatever. And I noticed that there were a couple things that stood out.”
“Being able to rely on other people that knew what they were doing, instead of having to do it myself was so important, because I was terrified. I was going to break my child and mess him up.”
“Some kids are way more social than Daniel, some kids are nonverbal, some kids have impulse control issues or whatever. So like, it's really interesting that everybody has a different experience.”
“What I was hoping for in that title is that, just as Sushi has become so normalized, and so accepted, it would be amazing if autism, the same thing happens.”
“So ableism is something I support. It's like a positive way of thinking and rephrasing words, I feel like that's important. I think that's another step in the making, not even just autism, any sort of disability less scary, right?”
Links:
She Doesn't Settle Podcast
She Doesn’t Settle - The Experience: www.kellytravis.net/sds
Instagram: www.instagram.com/shedoesntsettle/
Kuri's Homepage
Kuri Levine on Instagram
51 min