The Brief

While the movement to increase awareness of neurodiversity has been around since the 1990s, you might be hearing the term "neurodiverse" in conversations, news stories or even on your social media feeds more frequently in recent years. Neurodiversity diagnoses in adults has been on the rise, and more people today are self-diagnosing as neurodivergent, some because they can't get a diagnosis from a health care provider.

One of those people struggling to get the assessment and treatment they feel they need is LAist's Weekend Edition host Julia Paskin.

"Many of us (myself included) have spent years living with a core belief that we are inherently 'broken,'” she said. "So, to discover that no, we are not broken but different, and not alone, can be a tremendous relief. It’s also angering to think about how long you may have struggled personally and professionally because you lacked support."

This series from LAist's daily news show AirTalk explains the complexities of neurodiversity, our history of understanding it as a society, why awareness surrounding it has increased recently and how people who are neurodivergent interact with the world and communicate with others.

We invite you to listen to those conversations:

The spectrum, provider shortages and self-diagnosis 

Neurodiversity is a term that has become ubiquitous in the past couple of years. It was first coined in 1997 by sociologist Judy Singer to explain a span of cognitive and neurological differences in the human brain. The term encompasses everything from Tourette's syndrome and dyslexia to autism and ADHD.

While there is lots of research on these disorders, the focus tends to be on children, not adults. Many adults with neurodivergence struggle to get a diagnosis for a number of reasons. This week on AirTalk we’re covering neurodivergence for various angles.

Guests: Vanessa Bal, associate professor of applied psychology at Rutgers University in New Jersey, Lawrence Fung, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University and Karissa Burnett, licensed psychologist at Divergent Pathways.

Defining characteristics & long-lasting stigma

For most of the 20th century, neurodiverse conditions like autism were considered to be quite rare, having less to do with their prevalence but more so with their researcher characteristics. Despite books like The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders having definitions for disabilities like ADHD or autism, the 1990s saw notable increases for both once clinical diagnoses began to understand the complexities of neurodiversity.

In this conversation, we get into this century-long development of definitions and how recent decades have led to a much more nuanced look into what neurodiversity is.

Guests: Steve Silberman, science writer and author of the book "NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity," and Dr. Shulamite Green, licensed clinical psychologist and assistant professor of psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences at UCLA.

Advice for businesses and employees

Neurodiversity is a rising umbrella term used to describe people with variation in their mental function. It can be used to describe people with things like autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ADHD, epilepsy, obsessive compulsive disorder and many other conditions. In this conversation, we focus on neurodiversity in the workplace, the various challenges neurotypical people can experience, and advice for both individuals and employers for how to improve the situation.

Guests: Devon Price, social psychologist, professor at Loyola University Chicago, and the author of the book Unmasking Autism (Harmony, 2022), and Alex Gilbert, coach, CEO and founder of Cape-Able, a consulting and coaching organization that supports individuals with learning disabilities and works with companies.

Dealing with mental health challenges

The world isn’t built for neurodivergent people. At the very least, it’s exhausting to navigate a neurotypical world, potentially leading to burnout from having to constantly mask one’s true self. But neurodivergent people can also face significant mental health challenges, like depression and anxiety. How common are mental health problems in the neurodivergent community?

How do these conditions present themselves? And how does finally receiving a diagnosis affect a patient’s mental health?

Guests: Melody Marin, clinical psychologist specializing in neurodivergence and Ryan Sultán, pediatric psychiatrist at Columbia University’s Mental Health Informatics Lab.

Navigating relationships

This week, we’ve covered the topic of neurodiversity from a variety of angles, including the challenges of getting diagnosed, the need for workplace accommodations and mental health challenges that often accompany neurodivergence. Today, we’re talking about neurodiversity in relationships. One in five people in the U.S. identify as neurodivergent; so it’s very likely you’re in a relationship of some kind with someone who is neurodiverse. What does that mean for the relationship and how conflict is approached and addressed?

Guest: Jodi Carlton, neurodivergence relationship expert and host of the podcast "Your Neurodiverse Relationship.”

Producer and engineer Rich Mouser built his recording studio, The Mouse House, more than two decades ago — it was part of his home in the Altadena hills. The space featured 35-foot ceilings, soundproofed isolation rooms and a library of vintage recording gear that the 63-year-old musician had been collecting since he was a teenager. A year ago, the Mouse House burned to the ground in the Eaton fire.

"I went through and started making a list and adding it up. It's got to be close to half a million [dollars] in lost equipment," Mouser tells NPR. "In hindsight, if I had known the house was going to burn down like that, I would have gone to great more lengths to get stuff out."

The Los Angeles wildfires destroyed more than 16,000 homes and businesses. Mouser, who has worked with bands including Weezer, Dream Theater and Spock's Beard, is one of countless musicians doubly impacted by the natural disaster. He not only lost the house for which he'd finished paying off the mortgage and everything inside it; suddenly, a large chunk of his livelihood also vanished.

"Three days after the fire, I went to London to run sound for some live shows. A lot of people were like, 'Are you really going to go? You have to cancel,'" Mouser remembers. "I thought, 'This might be the only work I have for who knows how long, so I'm going to go do it.'"

Adron McCann, a singer-songwriter, visual artist and audio producer who performs as Adron, was facing a similar uncertainty. She'd been renting half of a duplex in Altadena with her partner, who is also a working musician, for two years when the Eaton fire tore through their home. Overnight, the couple lost virtually all their personal belongings — including McCann's three treasured aquariums — as well as their at-home studio setup. A lifetime's worth of gear, instruments, paintings, vinyl albums and a collection of vintage synthesizers disappeared.

"I'm still working on just the personal grief of it, the whole story," McCann says. "And so trying to put the pieces back together professionally — it's just really, really blended with our personal lives."

Starting to piece things back together

Immediately, friends and family for both Mouser and McCann sprung into action, setting up GoFundMe pages that raised tens of thousands of dollars. Mouser says he initially purchased core items needed to get back to work: a graphic equalizer, Neve microphone preamps, a portion of the same model of mixing board he lost in the fire. Fellow musicians loaned him studio spaces, equipment and helped him scour the internet for gear. Much of what he lost is irreplaceable, he says, or has significantly gone up in value since he bought it decades ago.

McCann says her community has majorly stepped up, too. Through the generosity of friends and strangers — including comedian Fred Armisen, who donated a couple of his guitars — McCann and her partner have been able to continue playing gigs. Artists share resources about grants and other rebuilding efforts, leaning on one another to find housing, work opportunities and instrument replacements. None of this, McCann says, would be possible without being plugged into their local music scene.

"I'm really aware of the trade-offs that we make as musicians," McCann says. "We trade off stability and security, but we gain friendship and community and the care and concern of people very far away who we don't even necessarily know in person, but they are moved by the art we make, and so they come to us when we're hurting."

Adrienne McCann in her original home studio before the fires.

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Adrienne McCann

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Both McCann and Mouser say they've received support from a wide patchwork of colleagues, mutual aid networks and official relief organizations, all working together to address the ongoing needs of wildfire survivors as time passes. That includes government agencies like FEMA and Los Angeles County, nonprofits like Guitar Center Music Foundation and MusiCares, and more grassroots collectives like Altadena Musicians, an instrument-giving network started by composer Brandon Jay.

Myka Miller, the executive director of Guitar Center Music Foundation, says that for the first six months of 2025, the organization fulfilled grants for over 700 people to replace lost or damaged equipment, in addition to supplying instruments to 15 affected schools and community organizations. Miller says it's the largest natural disaster relief effort the nonprofit has tackled in recent history. "What was surprising to me was that a lot of people were asking for studio gear overwhelmingly," Miller tells NPR. "Studio monitors and microphones were one of the top things — DJ equipment, that kind of stuff."

One of Guitar Center's partners has been MusiCares, the nonprofit founded by the Recording Academy to support the financial, mental and physical wellbeing of people in the music industry. The organization says that since the wildfires broke out last year, it's provided more than $15 million in assistance to over 3,200 music professionals. In December, the nonprofit hosted a health and wellness clinic in Altadena for industry professionals impacted by the fires. The event offered physical therapy, vision and hearing screenings and opportunities for survivors to connect with one another over the ongoing challenges of finding a new normal. Executive director Theresa Wolters says these kinds of spaces — and a focus on mental health specifically — will be a big part of the work going forward, along with ongoing financial help.

"It is not too late to access support. We are still here," Wolters tells NPR. "We know that so many people are just now starting to come up for air through this disaster. They're just now starting to figure out what they need and what kind of assistance they might benefit from."

Looking ahead

As the anniversary of the fires passes, Wolters emphasizes that recovery is a long and nonlinear process. While some artists have made significant progress, others are still operating on survival mode.

Today, Rich Mouser and his wife are renting a house with a converted garage that doubles as Mouser's temporary studio. He's been able to continue his work mixing albums, touring with bands and is getting used to the newer equipment.

He's also working with an architect and sound engineer on rebuilding plans for his permanent home and studio in Altadena. They'll be prioritizing concrete over wood in case of future fires, he says, and are planning on a few improvements, like building a separate entry for The Mouse House so musicians don't have to walk through his kitchen to enter the studio. Mouser hopes building can begin within several months so the project is completed by summer or fall of 2027.

Insurance and relief aid are currently covering his rent, but he's worried that won't last all the way until the new house and studio are ready. Finding and applying for grants, he half-jokes, is a full-time job of its own. "We need this place because it's got this back house where I can work," Mouser says. "If we didn't have this situation, we could move into a smaller apartment, but I'm able to work out here and generate income."

McCann and her partner, on the other hand, are still taking things day by day. They are no longer living in their dream neighborhood of Altadena, but they're settled into a new rental home for now. Due to federal funding cuts to public radio, she recently lost a significant portion of her income as a producer for WABE, leading to more fear and uncertainty. Songwriting, she says, has taken a backseat for now.

"We're still not done recovering in the immediate sense. We're still not done trying to figure out home and gear and recording and our basic building blocks of our life we're still working on," McCann says. "I'm just going to keep trying to get a more stable foundation under my feet. But as an artist, that's a surprisingly comfortable place for me."
Copyright 2026 NPR

Maria Silva works at the El Super off Century Boulevard in Inglewood, in the same sprawling parking lot as a Home Depot.

She's been on the job for 17 years. The work is hard, and her wages are low. But since summer, her role as a supervisor at the grocery store chain has included a new challenge: co-workers and customers are worried about ICE.

Her customers come in talking about recent sightings, or asking if federal agents have been in the area. After a regular stopped coming into the store, Silva said she heard through the grapevine that he'd been picked up by federal agents.

" It's somebody that I would interact with almost every single day, because he would come and get his coffee and bread," she said, holding back tears. "It upsets me. It makes me feel like I can't do anything about it."

Silva is among the workers at seven unionized El Super locations in Southern California, including the store in Inglewood, who are asking their employer to implement more protocols to protect them and shoppers at their stores from federal agents.

Around 700 workers are currently negotiating a new contract with the grocery store chain. Their union, United Food and Commercial Workers, says the supermarket's owner, Chedraui USA, which also owns Smart & Final, is refusing their demands, including substantial wage increases.

Chedraui USA declined to comment on the specifics of ongoing negotiations.

"We value our team members and the communities we serve, and remain committed to bargaining in good faith, following all labor laws, and creating a safe and respectful workplace for every associate while continuing to provide affordable food for our customers," the company said in a statement.

What are they asking for?

Maricruz Ceceña, the organizing director for UFCW local 770, said the El Super workers want the company to agree to establish certain safety protocols in the contract, such as not allowing federal agents into non-public areas without a signed judicial warrant and establishing private areas in stores.

She said they also want the employer to re-affirm compliance with certain laws, such as a requirement that federal officials give three-day notice before inspecting I-9 Employment Eligibility Verification forms.

According to UFCW, other major grocery chains, including Ralphs, Super A, Vons, Pavilions, Gelson's and Albertsons, have agreed to similar protections in contracts with workers represented by the union.

"That Chedraui or El Super is still refusing to put basic language in that would protect its customers and its workers when other companies have already done so?" Ceceña told LAist. "I think workers just find that baffling and insulting."

Why workers are pushing for this

The grocery store workers are part of a broader effort to win immigration protections through labor negotiations. Victor Narro, an expert on workplace rights for immigrant workers and a lecturer at UCLA Law School, said more and more unions have been adding the type of language El Super workers want to their contracts in recent years.

"Especially unions that have a large immigrant workforce as members," he said. "One of the misconceptions is that the unions are then trying to circumvent immigration laws in the union contract. But that's not the case. What they're trying to do is get the employer to do what they are able to do under the law."

The first push for these types of union protections dates back to the 90s, Narro said, in the wake of a Reagan-era immigration law that established penalties for employers who knowingly hired unauthorized workers.

Narro said contract language can help add a layer of protection for some workers, but pointed out that the vast majority of private-sector workers in the U.S. have no union representation. He said policy change is needed to keep all workers safe.

" So what unions have been doing for the majority of workers who are not unionized is doing the policy work," he said.

'Customers, they're scared'

El Super markets itself to a Spanish-speaking clientele. Its website states "El Super is at the heart of your cocina." The union says most customers and workers are Latino.

Araceli Ortiz has worked at a unionized El Super store in Pico Rivera for eight years. She said after immigration sweeps ramped up in June, her store was quieter than usual, and she saw customers buying groceries for multiple families who were too afraid to do their grocery shopping in person.

She had one customer burst into tears at the checkout counter, saying her husband had recently been detained by ICE.

" We get customers, they're scared," Ortiz said. "Mostly every day they mention ICE, immigration and their surroundings. And they ask us, 'Have they come around here?' And what can I say? They're everywhere."

Ortiz is on a team of El Super workers who are bargaining with their employer over the new contract. She said that the grocery chain has said verbally that it will follow the law.

" But you know, we want them to put it in the contract," she said. "Because if there's signs right there [saying] it's only for employees only, the employees are gonna feel a little bit safer."

An upgrade to the website used to make camping reservations within California State Parks may have you locked out of your account — just as highly-sought-after campsites are being released for the summer. 

The overhaul, which happened in late October of last year, requires anyone who had a ReserveCalifornia account before the change to reauthenticate their account before making any camping reservations.

That means if you’re planning on logging on at 8 a.m. to snag a campsite for a busy summer weekend, you may get caught in login troubles while other people are snapping up your top choice.

If you have a ReserveCalifornia account, keep reading for step-by-step instructions on what to do now — so you’ll be ready when summer reservations become available.

Jump straight to:

• What should people with existing ReserveCalifornia accounts do?
• What about those who never had an account?

What happened to the California State Parks reservation website?

On Oct. 29, 2025, the ReserveCalifornia website, which California State Parks uses to help visitors book campsites and other park amenities, underwent a system upgrade, said Adeline Yee, a spokesperson for the agency.

That upgrade helped improve the system’s operations and incorporated multi-factor authentication for users, requiring anyone trying to log into an account to provide a code sent to their email address to improve system security.

A public campground near Camp Richardson is shown on Aug. 4, 2013, in South Lake Tahoe, California. (George Rose/Getty Images)An email about the changes was sent to ReserveCalifornia account holders in advance of the Oct. 29 switchover, Yee said — but the initial instructions it contained for reauthenticating accounts, encouraging users to use a “Forgot Password?” link, didn’t actually work on the version of the website that went live on that date.

The day after the update went live, Yee said, state parks added a banner alert to ReserveCalifornia with updated login directions – which now required even existing account-holders to hit “Create Account” to reauthenticate their details.

Yee said while the update affected all 1.2 million ReserveCalifornia accounts, only around 400,000 of those accounts have been active in the past two years. During the first five days after the update, the ReserveCalifornia customer service line saw a 30% increase in calls and emails, Yee said — around 300 more inquiries per day than normal.

“State Parks apologizes for the confusion and inconvenience and will work with ReserveCalifornia so future website updates and account enhancements go smoother,” Yee said.

I have a ReserveCalifornia account, and I want to reserve a state parks campsite soon. What should I do?

First, don’t panic. Your account is still active, and your reservation and account history haven’t been lost — so if you were signed up for the lottery of a must-have spot like the Steep Ravine Cabins, you’re still on the list.

But you will have to go through a couple of steps to log back in – and it may take a few minutes, so it’s best to do it before you’re racing others to get a prime camping spot this summer.

Campsites are filled at Half Moon Bay State Beach in Half Moon Bay, California, on June 29, 2010. (Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)How to reauthenticate and reactivate your ReserveCalifornia account:

Go to “Log In/Sign Up” on the top right of ReserveCalifornia.com, and click the “Create an Account” link.

Then, use the same email address of your existing account, and re-set up your profile. You can use the password you previously used for your ReserveCalifornia account, or create a new one.

Once you do so, your new ReserveCalifornia account should be automatically linked to your old one, Yee said — and you’ll be immediately able to make campsite reservations once more.

If you got an email or searched the web and got different instructions, like those saying to hit the “Forgot Password” button — ignore those.

And if you’re still having trouble or are stuck in password reset purgatory, try refreshing the page and starting over — or call ReserveCalifornia between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. PST at 800-444-7275.

I’m new to ReserveCalifornia. What should I know?

New account users shouldn’t have any issues. Simply go to ReserveCalifornia.com, hit the “Sign Up” button in the top right corner and create a new account.

Make sure you know the reservation policies at state parks, as they’ve just changed this year — and make canceling campsites more costly in an effort to keep more reservations open.

And you should know that campsite and cabin reservations open up to six months in advance at 8 a.m., so if you have big summer plans to get out into the wilderness, you may want to check now for availability. Read our full guide on how to snag desirable California campsites for summer 2026.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said he was blindsided by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal Thursday to curtail the superintendent’s duties and he disagrees with it, although it’s unclear what he can do to stop it.

“Tony Thurmond is proud and grateful to work with Gov. Newsom. They’re both champions of public education,” said Elizabeth Sanders, spokeswoman for the California Department of Education, which Thurmond heads. Sanders was speaking on behalf of the superintendent.

“Unfortunately, on this particular issue they are not aligned.”

In his State of the State address on Thursday, Newsom proposed shifting oversight of the Department of Education, a 2,000-employee state agency, from the superintendent to the State Board of Education. The move would concentrate more power over K-12 schools with the governor, who appoints the school board.

The superintendent would remain an elected position, but with diminished and less defined duties.

Referencing a December report from Policy Analysis for California Education, Newsom’s aim is to simplify California’s convoluted system of K-12 school governance. Currently, education leadership comes from the governor, the Legislature, the State Board of Education, the superintendent and the Department of Education — who may or may not have the same vision for how to best run schools and teach children. At the local level, school boards and county offices of education also have a good deal of power over budgets and day-to-day school operations.

The result of the many-headed leadership structure is that schools often don’t know which policies to follow, according to the PACE report. Guidelines can be contradictory, redundant or just plain incoherent, researchers found.

A slew of education advocacy groups have supported Newsom’s proposal, saying it will clarify a system that’s been confusing and inefficient for a century. California is one of only a handful of states with such an education governance model.

‘Unnecessary disruption’

Thurmond’s staff had a few hints that an announcement might be forthcoming, but otherwise was caught off guard by Newsom’s proposal, Sanders said. They also hadn’t talked to PACE researchers about their report, although PACE staff said they reached out to the department prior to the report's publication.

Thurmond questions the point of the change, Sanders said.

“It’s unclear how this would benefit students and families,” Sanders said. “It’s an unnecessary disruption. … We should be staying focused on creating results for students.”

If the governor really wanted to help schools, he should pour more money into K-12 education. The Department of Education has been underfunded for years, she noted, and schools could use more funds for initiatives like tutoring and mandatory kindergarten.

John Affeldt, managing attorney at Public Advocates, a nonprofit law firm focused on education, also questioned the value of Newsom’s proposal. It would take power away from the voters and give it to the governor, which might be great if the governor supports public education but may backfire if a governor doesn’t, he said.

“It might improve the governance structure a bit, but I’m not sure it’s worth the tradeoff,” Affeldt said. “It might be a lot of political theater for not much real change.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.