Who Needs Shoes? Conversations About Autism
Claim This Podcastby Tanya Manning-Yarde, PhD
Podcast Overview
<p>Authentic conversations about autism, community, and what really matters.</p><p>My journey with this show began with a deeply personal story. When my son was in preschool, his teacher counted over 100 times in one day that he took his shoes off and told us he couldn't learn until he learned to keep them on. This all-consuming focus on his feet, instead of his growth, potential, and real needs, is why I'm here. </p><p>Welcome to Who Needs Shoes, where we have authentic conversations with the people who truly understand the autism community. From parents and self-advocates to teachers, therapists, community leaders, and unexpected allies, every episode explores what really matters for thriving in this world.</p><p>This podcast is not about compliance or fixing; it's about loving our children for who they are and who they can be, not through the myopic lens of others. It’s about celebrating the full spectrum of voices that make our community stronger and discovering what support actually looks like when we look beyond the surface.</p><p>Every episode asks the deeper question: What do people actually need to thrive?</p><p><strong>Topics we explore:</strong></p><ul><li>Education and inclusion strategies</li><li>Community building and advocacy</li><li>Family experiences and perspectives</li><li>Professional insights from the field</li><li>Creative approaches to support</li><li>Stories of resilience and growth</li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>Hosted by: </strong>Tanya Manning-Yarde, PhD</p>
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
12/1/2025
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Recent Episodes
May 8, 2026
When Personal Pain Becomes Purpose: Kay Anderson on Autism, Cancer, and Building What's Missing
"I was literally living minute by minute, trying to survive." What happens when a breast cancer diagnosis and your child's autism diagnosis arrive at the same time — and you're averaging 30 to 40 hours a week between treatment and therapy, just trying to stay alive? For Kay Anderson, it wasn't the end. It was the preparation. In this deeply moving episode of Who Needs Shoes, host Tanya Manning-Yarde, PhD sits down with entrepreneur, advocate, and breast cancer survivor Kay Anderson. Kay spent over two decades at Eli Lilly helping launch groundbreaking treatments in neuroscience and immunology — but it was her own journey as a patient and a mother that changed everything. Kay didn't just survive. She built a sanctuary. From Prana Play, her sensory-friendly play space in Carmel, Indiana designed to give neurodiverse children a place to thrive, their siblings a place to feel seen, and parents a moment to finally exhale — to the Waves of Change Foundation for Neurodiversity, expanding access to therapy, respite care, and community for families navigating a system not built for them. In this conversation, Kay talks about: → Receiving a breast cancer diagnosis instead of a baby — and then her daughter's autism diagnosis while still in treatment → What 20+ years at Eli Lilly taught her about stigma, advocacy, and building things that change minds → Why most sensory-friendly spaces miss the mark and what she does differently → The guilt she felt at every trampoline park, every playdate, every moment one child won and the other didn't → What she wants every parent to know who is sitting in a parking lot after their child's diagnosis, devastated and Googling → Her vision for a world where sensory tools are recognized as basic human rights, not toys Whether you are a therapy mom, a caregiver who hasn't exhaled in months, or someone wondering if your hardest chapter could become someone else's lifeline, this episode is for you. Learn more about Waves of Change Foundation: www.wavesofchangefoundation.org Find Prana Play Carmel on social media (FB & IG) Info@prana-play.com Follow Who Needs Shoes: Instagram: @whoneedsshoes Web: whoneedsshoes.com
May 1, 2026
The Camp That Was Built for Them: Reimagining Adaptive Summer Programs
There is a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from having to explain your child to the world before the world will make room for them. This episode is about what happens when someone decides to make the room first. At the Greater Brandywine YMCA in Jennersville, Pennsylvania, Erin Lacotta— a Board Certified Behavior Analyst—and Kristen DeTaeye—a veteran educator with 14 years in the classroom — built something that many neurodiverse families have quietly longed for: a summer camp designed around the child, not in spite of them. Bumblebee Camp is structured but not rigid. Data-informed but never cold. And it is, by every account, joyful. In this conversation, we go behind the program: how it started, how it was scaled, what a full day actually looks like, how staff are chosen, and why the ratio of 1:3 is not just a number but a philosophy. We also talk about something that doesn't often make it into reports: the moment a parent drops off both of their children at the same camp for the first time and realizes they no longer have to choose. This one is personal. And it is practical. And it is, I hope, exactly what someone out there needed to hear today. 🔗 Learn more about YMCA adaptive programs: ymcagbw.org/adaptive 📧 Jennersville programs: kdetaeye@ymcagbw.org 🌐 whoneedsshoes.com 📩 askwhoneedsshoes@gmail.com 📱 Instagram: @whoneedsshoes Who Needs Shoes is a podcast about loving our children for who they are—not through the myopic lens of others. New episodes explore education, inclusion, family, advocacy, and the people doing the quiet, necessary work of building belonging.
March 19, 2026
Every Child Is Our Child: Neurodiversity, Parenting, and the Soul of a School
What happens when two veteran educators, both parents of neurodiverse children, finally sit down and tell each other the truth they have been carrying for decades? In this deeply personal episode of Who Needs Shoes, I sit down with my mentor and friend of nearly thirty years, Mike Pipa, National Board Certified ELA teacher, building administrator, and now an Instructional Design Coach with the Capital Area School Development Association. What begins as an interview becomes something I didn't fully anticipate: a mirror. Because the story Mike has been living as a parent is not so different from the one I have been living too. Mike takes us back to the early 1990s, when the word "autism" carried almost no roadmap with it, not for families, and certainly not for schools. He walks us through the moment a developmental pediatric psychologist, who understood his child's neural profile from the inside out, gave his family not just a diagnosis, but a direction. He speaks honestly about the grief that arrives when the parenting story you imagined has to be released, and about the breaking and remaking that follows, again and again, as you learn to see the world through your child's eyes. And running like a thread through all of it, through thirty-seven years in classrooms, through IEP meetings and parent conferences, through his work coaching educators today, is a conviction he has never let go of: that the soul of a school is not found in its data or its compliance, but in whether every child inside it is treated as our child. "Every child is our child. It's the system that lulls us into the falsehood that that's not true." — Mike Pipa
11 total episodes available
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- What is Who Needs Shoes? Conversations About Autism?
<p>Authentic conversations about autism, community, and what really matters.</p><p>My journey with this show began with a deeply personal story. When my son was in preschool, his teacher counted over 100 times in one day that he took his shoes off and told us he couldn't learn until he learned to keep them on. This all-consuming focus on his feet, instead of his growth, potential, and real needs, is why I'm here. </p><p>Welcome to Who Needs Shoes, where we have authentic conversations with the people who truly understand the autism community. From parents and self-advocates to teachers, therapists, community leaders, and unexpected allies, every episode explores what really matters for thriving in this world.</p><p>This podcast is not about compliance or fixing; it's about loving our children for who they are and who they can be, not through the myopic lens of others. It’s about celebrating the full spectrum of voices that make our community stronger and discovering what support actually looks like when we look beyond the surface.</p><p>Every episode asks the deeper question: What do people actually need to thrive?</p><p><strong>Topics we explore:</strong></p><ul><li>Education and inclusion strategies</li><li>Community building and advocacy</li><li>Family experiences and perspectives</li><li>Professional insights from the field</li><li>Creative approaches to support</li><li>Stories of resilience and growth</li></ul><p><br></p><p><strong>Hosted by: </strong>Tanya Manning-Yarde, PhD</p> - How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
- Does this podcast accept guests?
Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
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