How far would a parent go to understand their child? How much might a parent believe? A popular new podcast claims that some nonspeaking kids with autism can read people’s minds. But is it real? Or does it just come from a deep desire to connect? Read Dan Engber’s story at The Atlantic here. Get more from your favorite Atlantic voices when you subscribe. You’ll enjoy unlimited access to Pulitzer-winning journalism, from clear-eyed analysis and insight on breaking news to fascinating explorations of our world. Subscribe today at TheAtlantic.com/podsub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
On a long road trip over winter break, I listened to all 10 episodes of this podcast called The Telepathy Tapes. The show is about a group of non-speaking autistic kids who are able to communicate using a method sometimes known as spelling or facilitated communication. Essentially, someone, the facilitator, helps guide the kids using a keyboard or an iPad to spell out messages.
That already is a kind of magic, because kids who have been unable to communicate can now share their thoughts. But this podcast takes it to a whole new level of magic. It's not just that they can communicate. These kids can read minds.
I'll bring Houston up to them and just tell them, hey, think of one little thing. And he writes it out on the board.
So he's read your friends' minds.
He has read my friends' minds before. I've seen it firsthand.
By the end of the series, the kids are not just reading minds. They're commuting with the dead, predicting disasters, and generally outclassing the neurotypical mortals.
So again, she always tells me about these God visits, as she calls them, that happen at night. And so I said, did he talk to you again last night? And she said, yes, unfortunately. And then she does dot, dot, dot, dot, dot.
On that road trip, my partner and I got into a big argument about this podcast. The mind-reading scenes sounded so believable on the podcast. But telepathy?
What is this phenomenon happening? Why are his mind and my mind completely connected?
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