Autism's First Child

Country: USA

Number of Episodes: 6

Average Length: 35 minutes

Year of Release: 2022

Created by: iHeartPodcasts

Donald Triplett was born in the small Mississippi town of Forest in 1933. As a child, he exhibited some unusual behaviours and propensities. He was diagnosed as autistic in 1938 and was in fact the person to receive such a diagnosis. Triplett died in 2023 at almost 90 years of age, having lived a life full of love, care and community. The podcast aims to walk us through Triplett's story and the people who have nurtured him as well as the nuance of the man himself. We are also told about the history of autism and the social and political reactions to the condition. I appreciated that the podcast did not look only at Triplett's story in a vacuum and considered the lives of other autistic people that were lived under different less ideal circumstances. A heartwarming podcast that also taught me a lot.