The Unmasking Unschool Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

"The art world is so opaque and it really doesn't provide a lot of feedback or clear communication. So many processes are difficult to navigate, I think, probably for most people. And then for someone like me, who really needs to understand the whole process, why things are happening, it's just so difficult to access.

and because there was a sense of scarcity and precarity, we didn't really feel stable. Like we just had to keep working and overworking to prove ourselves..."

This week on the Unmasking Unschool podcast, I speak with artists Mia Rushton and Eric Moschopedis (Mia + Eric).

They share insights from their 15-year collaborative art practice, and what unfolded in our coaching journey that formed part of their ongoing project 'Art School'.

You'll hear about their struggles with art world opacity and inaccessibility, and the resulting self doubt, and sense of not belonging, as well as the breakthroughs that enabled them to recognise the value of their work, and embody that value with a new level of confidence.

Plus the ripple effects - including in how they care for themselves within their practice.

"[it's] been liberating and exciting because it means that we get to decide which systems and structures are interesting to us and which support us and which ones don't and which ones we want to engage in."

Mia and Eric also share about their unique approach to creating a poetic, adaptive and relational culture of access, that informs their work now, and their artwork: 'A Guide for the Prepared'.


To learn more about Mia + Eric's practice:

miaanderic.ca

@mia.and.eric

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TRANSCRIPT

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The Unmasking Unschool Podcast is for autistic visionaries, creatives and change-makers. Who are seeking to exit the burnout cycles, pathology paradigms, masks and self-negations of the past that keep you stuck, and want to realise the self-reinventions, life pivots and culture-shifting projects to become your boldest most authentic self.
Hosted by Louisa Shaeri, artist, coach, cultural activator, founder of SOLA Systems.
Learn more at solasystems.xyz

Subscribe to the SOLA Systems mailing list HERE

"I don't think I need some tweaks. I think I need to burn it down."

This week on the Unmasking Unschool podcast, I'm joined by the wonderful Andrea Cox (she/her). Andrea joined Unmasking Unschool in 2023 after a burnout that coincided with realising her neurodivergence, and led to the decision to review every aspect of her life, from the inside out. I talk with Andrea about taking the huge leap of going from full time employment to starting her own business as an Occupational Therapist working exclusively with hypermobile and neurodivergent clients.
A decision that was part of a complete reinvention of her life structures.

We also talk about the self doubts that come with working for yourself, and getting comfortable with a new level of visibility. How creating belief in the value of what you offer means your actions and decision are in integrity with how you best live and work so you can offer that value sustainably, and without waiting for permission.

"There's not a single area of my life, honestly, that hasn't been changed."

Find out more about Andrea's Occupational Therapy practice, access relevant resources, and subscribe to her waiting list here:
https://www.hypermobileot.com/

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TRANSCRIPT

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The Unmasking Unschool Podcast is for autistic visionaries, creatives and change-makers. Who are seeking to exit the burnout cycles, pathology paradigms, masks and self-negations of the past that keep you stuck, and want to realise the self-reinventions, life pivots and culture-shifting projects to become your boldest most authentic self.
Hosted by Louisa Shaeri, artist, coach, cultural activator, founder of SOLA Systems.
Learn more at solasystems.xyz

Subscribe to the SOLA Systems mailing list HERE

This episode is an interview with Jem Dobie (they/them). Jem is a 'sensory sibling' who has been through the Unmasking Unschool journey, and you're going to hear them talk in generous and vulnerable detail about what it's been like to transform their experience of their life, their sense of self, their relationships and the work they're doing in the world.

More about Jem:

The Feel Good Circus:
Jem Dobie & Rowan Berry
thefeelgoodcircus@gmail.com

On instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the.feel.good.circus/
On facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefeelgoodcircus

Mentioned:
Access Intimacy, by Mia Mingus:
https://leavingevidence.wordpress.com/2011/05/05/access-intimacy-the-missing-link/

Jem's favourite resource on boundaries, by Prentis Hemphill:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/65HYFdou7s7vR8LDQpjVAV?si=T3NN1_M8QOearLu-O22cPA

The 'Finding our way' series is also a really important resource for Jem, and this episode, in which Prentis Hemphill interviews Kazu Haga, is where Jem first heard ‘slow is smooth, smooth is fast’:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/5oPiPY4iB7GbbLSq3oOOEr?si=wNnzzGPqQTy_m537SX-nXw

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TRANSCRIPT

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The Unmasking Unschool Podcast is for autistic visionaries, creatives and change-makers. Who are seeking to exit the burnout cycles, pathology paradigms, masks and self-negations of the past that keep you stuck, and want to realise the self-reinventions, life pivots and culture-shifting projects to become your boldest most authentic self.
Hosted by Louisa Shaeri, artist, coach, cultural activator, founder of SOLA Systems.
Learn more at solasystems.xyz

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OPEN FOR ENROLMENT:

Unmasking Unschool, the groundbreaking 6 month coaching program, for ambitious, kind-hearted, visionary #autistic folks seeking to enact the life pivots, self-reinventions and creative innovations to become your boldest, most authentic self. Learn more:
https://www.solasystems.xyz/

In this episode I talk about what comes after the deep dives into all things autistic stop being satisfying; when information stops being transformative, and you need actual change. I introduce another frame for this series: the 'metaskills' of becoming yourself .

TRANSCRIPT

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The Unmasking Unschool Podcast is for autistic visionaries, creatives and change-makers. Who are seeking to exit the burnout cycles, pathology paradigms, masks and self-negations of the past that keep you stuck, and want to realise the self-reinventions, life pivots and culture-shifting projects to become your boldest most authentic self.
Hosted by Louisa Shaeri, artist, coach, cultural activator, founder of SOLA Systems.
Learn more at solasystems.xyz

This episode introduces the concepts of 'affordances', 'disaffordances', and 'dysaffordances'; concepts from design thinking that have a lot to offer the project of reframing the value and importance of recognising and embracing what our bodyminds afford us to do, experience, understand.

TRANSCRIPT

This episode mentions:

A designer's approach: how can autistic adults with learning disabilities be involved in the design process?, By Katie Gaudion
https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/43099267.pdf

Activist Affordances: how disabled people improvise more habitable worlds
By Arseli Dokumaci

Design Justice: commuity-led practices to build the worlds we need, by Sasha Constranza-Chock

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The Unmasking Unschool Podcast is for autistic visionaries, creatives and change-makers. Who are seeking to exit the burnout cycles, pathology paradigms, masks and self-negations of the past that keep you stuck, and want to realise the self-reinventions, life pivots and culture-shifting projects to become your boldest most authentic self.
Hosted by Louisa Shaeri, artist, coach, cultural activator, founder of SOLA Systems.
Learn more at solasystems.xyz

In this week's episode, I'm sharing with you an interview I did with the gorgeous, generous, visionary soul that is Opal Turner. I featured on their podcast Rebel with a Cause. This was my first time being a guest on someone else's podcast and it's going to be hard to beat! Opal asked some really juicy questions. We cried. We laughed, and I felt truly held and seen. And I believe it was mutual. And my hope is that you also feel seen as you listen in enjoy.

This is PART TWO.

The Original podcast was hosted by MediaCat

Mentioned on the podcast:

Jem's The Feel Good Circus creates a space that is not about getting it right.

Visit Laurie’s neuro-queer network.



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Transcript:
www.solasystems.xyz/blog/038

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The Unmasking Unschool Podcast (formerly: sensory siblings) is brought to you by Louisa Shaeri, beaming from The SOLA System; the liberatory framework and unmasking unschool for late identified autistic+ folks seeking a new way to see, know and be yourself, beyond the paradigm of pathology, and the fiction of 'normal'.

Unmask, unravel the false ideas of who you are, build a life that works, and emerge from systemic invisibility into the confidence to realise culture shifting projects in the world:
Sign up to the mailing list at solasystems.xyz

In this week's episode, I'm sharing with you an interview I did with the gorgeous, generous, visionary soul that is Opal Turner. I featured on their podcast Rebel with a Cause. This was my first time being a guest on someone else's podcast and it's going to be hard to beat! Opal asked some really juicy questions. We cried. We laughed, and I felt truly held and seen. And I believe it was mutual. And my hope is that you also feel seen as you listen in enjoy.

This is PART ONE of two.

The Original podcast was hosted by MediaCat

Mentioned on the podcast:

Jem's The Feel Good Circus 

Laurie’s neuro-queer network.



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Transcript:
www.solasystems.xyz/blog/037

_____________________
The Unmasking Unschool Podcast (formerly: sensory siblings) is brought to you by Louisa Shaeri, beaming from The SOLA System; the liberatory framework and unmasking unschool for late identified autistic+ folks seeking a new way to see, know and be yourself, beyond the paradigm of pathology, and the fiction of 'normal'.

Unmask, unravel the false ideas of who you are, build a life that works, and emerge from systemic invisibility into the confidence to realise culture shifting projects in the world:
Sign up to the mailing list at solasystems.xyz

Doors to The SOLA System + Siblings are OPEN for enrolment:
https://www.solasystems.xyz/summer
This is the 6 month, online, group program for kind-hearted, ambitious, visionary folks who happen to also be autistic, and are seeking the support system and social context to create culture shifting projects.

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Episode Summary:

When what you want to CREATE or BECOME
isn’t just new or unknown, but ALSO involves being more of the parts of you that have in the past been actively discouraged,

the fear of being “too much/not good enough” can stop you expanding and moving forward into your most fervently coveted dreams and goals.

In this episode I share the solution...

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Transcript:
www.solasystems.xyz/blog/036

The next cohort of The SOLA System + Siblings is OPEN!
https://www.solasystems.xyz/summer

_____________________
The Unmasking Unschool Podcast (formerly: sensory siblings) is brought to you by Louisa Shaeri, beaming from The SOLA System; the liberatory framework and unmasking unschool for late identified autistic+ folks seeking a new way to see, know and be yourself, beyond the paradigm of pathology, and the fiction of 'normal'.

Unmask, unravel the false ideas of who you are, build a life that works, and emerge from systemic invisibility into the light of your full self:
Sign up to the mailing list at solasystems.xyz

Connect with Louisa on Instagram HERE

Episode Summary:

In the legacy of Eurocentric forms of knowledge,

that are about having a self appointed god-like gaze over others

and naming and labelling and defining meanings

into splits separations and hierarchies,

there is an obsession with being right.

With doing the right thing
in the right way;
fitting in with the status quo
being a good cog
not rocking the boat.

This can complicate the path to identifying, expressing and contributing your gifts.

And contribute to a sense that - it’s not actually okay for me to express my gifts.

It's not possible for me to prosper AND be myself.

It will lead to rejection or harm.


And yet, you have an inner conviction, right?

There is some part of you that does know that you have strengths, insights, perspectives, gifts, unique zones of excellence...

So the solution is to get around people who can amplify that inner knowing.

And who can reflect that conviction back to you.


Transcript:
www.solasystems.xyz/blog/035

The next cohort of The SOLA System + Siblings will open in July.
Get on the mailing list here:
solasystems.xyz


_____________________
The Unmasking Unschool Podcast (formerly: sensory siblings) is brought to you by Louisa Shaeri, beaming from The SOLA System; the liberatory framework and unmasking unschool for late identified autistic+ folks seeking a new way to see, know and be yourself, beyond the paradigm of pathology, and the fiction of 'normal'.

Unmask, unravel the false ideas of who you are, build a life that works, and emerge from systemic invisibility into the light of your full self:
Sign up to the mailing list at solasystems.xyz

Connect with Louisa on Instagram HERE

Episode Summary:

Money does not have to equal extraction and exploitation.

But when we witness corruption that leads to lives being valued below profit,

AND also hear phrases like "charge your worth",

it can lead to thinking that our worthiness has something to do with our ability to be productive or fit into pre-existing agendas, values and flow structures.

In this episode, I make the case that your inherent worth is infinite - and separating the value of what you create from your inherent self worth, means you can consider HOW and to WHOM you communicate the value of what you create, without attachment.


Transcript:
www.solasystems.xyz/blog/034

The next cohort of The SOLA System + Siblings will open in July.
Get on the mailing list here:
solasystems.xyz


_____________________
The Unmasking Unschool Podcast (formerly: sensory siblings) is brought to you by Louisa Shaeri, beaming from The SOLA System; the liberatory framework and unmasking unschool for late identified autistic+ folks seeking a new way to see, know and be yourself, beyond the paradigm of pathology, and the fiction of 'normal'.

Unmask, unravel the false ideas of who you are, build a life that works, and emerge from systemic invisibility into the light of your full self:
Sign up to the mailing list at solasystems.xyz