Episode 15 - Carter: Parenting, Mental Health & Neurodivergence
In this episode, we’re joined by Carter—creator of the Touched Out podcast—for an honest, funny, and deeply relatable chat about parenting (and also just *life*) while neurodivergent. We dive into the messy realities of raising kids, managing overstimulation, and navigating mental health as parents who don’t always fit the mold. Whether you’re juggling meltdowns (yours or theirs), feeling all the feels, or just need a reminder that you’re not alone—this one’s for you.
Larissa: This podcast is recorded on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nations. We pay our respects to the traditional custodians of this country and elders past and present. We extend our respects to any First Nations, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people joining us today.
Maddy: Welcome to today's episode of No Spoons to Give, the podcast where we explore life's ups and downs with neurodivergence, chronic illness and disability, and we chat with the voices that make our community so wonderful. I'm Maddy, the community manager of Spoony, and I'm here with Larissa, the head of community. How are you going today, Larissa?
Larissa: I am going great today, Maddy. Actually, that's a bit of a lie. I am having a bit of an Endo flare up and you very kindly brought me in some heat packs, which I've got strapped on, but apart from that, I love being in the studio and love chatting with you, so I'm having a great day. How are you?
Maddy: I'm doing okay. I'm running a little bit low on energy, but I am getting to do something that brings me a lot of energy, being in the studio, chatting with you, getting to interview some amazing people. It always brings me a huge burst of energy, so I'm very happy and lucky to be here.
Larissa: Can totally relate to that. Yes, things can be exhausting, but also it is such a great time being in here too, and I'll most definitely be taking a nap after.
Maddy: Same here. You'll see me conked out in bed, but definitely worth it.
Larissa: 100%.
Maddy: Do you have a recommendation for us today?
Larissa: I do. Mine is a Netflix documentary. It is based on Belle Gibson, who I have spoken about before. So it goes hand in hand with the Apple Cider Vinegar documentary or Apple Cider Vinegar TV show. This is a documentary called The Search for Instagram's Worst Con Artist. So this follows the people who I guess tracked her story and follows the journey of the journalist who tracked her story and essentially took her down.
Maddy: Wow.
Larissa: For anyone who doesn't know Belle Gibson, she was someone that lied to the public. She had quite a following. She lied to the public about having terminal brain cancer and she claimed to have cured it through whole foods, green juices, that type of thing. And she sold a cookbook. She had an app that was on the Apple Watch. So yeah, she took advantage of a lot of people. Definitely recommend watching it. It's pretty mind-boggling to say the least.
Maddy:
Yeah, that sounds like a fantastic documentary. I think I see my weekend plans ahead of me.
Larissa:
Yeah, it is very good. What have you got for me today?
Maddy: Surprise. Surprise. I have a book to recommend today. It's a book called Say Hello by Carly Findlay, and it's a powerful, honest, and surprisingly hilarious memoir about appearance, diversity, ableism, the joys of fandom, self-love, and so much more. So of course it's written by the appearance activist and our very own Spoony ambassador, Carly Findlay, and I'm not just saying it because she's our ambassador. It is such a fantastic book. I read it ages ago and I recently reread it, and just the wisdom and wonderful stories that Carly has to share, that everyone should be reading this book. I think if I'm going to say that about a memoir, everyone should read this book.
Larissa: For sure. Carly has such a beautiful way with words and yeah, she's such a strong storyteller and I've really loved the advocacy work she does, which is why she is one of our Spoony ambassadors. So shout out to you, Carly.
Maddy: Shout out to you, Carly. You're doing amazing.
Larissa: So today we'll be chatting with Carter, the creator and host of the 2024 Australian Parenting Podcast of the Year, Touched Out. The podcast explores the intersection between mental health and parenthood through raw unfiltered conversations with guests, and it also provides a genuine look into the realities of parenting and self-care.
Maddy: Welcome, Carter. Thank you so much for joining us in the studio today. Congratulations on your recent win at the Australian Podcast Awards. It's so well deserved and we're so thrilled to have you here.
Carter: Thanks so much for having me. It's great to be here.
Larissa: So exciting. For those who don't know you, could you share a little bit about yourself?
Carter: Yeah, certainly. I am a 37-year-old father of three. My oldest is Hendrix, she's five. My four-year-old is Roman and two-year-old is Salem. I'm married, live in the country and I work as a mental health support worker, and the podcast was created about it'll be two years ago this month. And yeah, it's been an absolute whirlwind, so busy. Yeah.
Maddy: So busy. I'd love to dive in a little bit more about your journey with the podcast. What made you decide to start out?
Carter: Yeah, certainly. So when my son was two, he was diagnosed with Autism. He was diagnosed with a global developmental delay. Prior to that he had a lot of health issues from birth onwards, had to have some surgeries and everything. But after his diagnosed, there's a lot of the markers that we saw in him, my wife started noticing in me and she was like, "Oh, that's a bit interesting." So from there, I think it was around about the same time that ADHD TikTok blew up a lot and there was a lot of people that are like, "Oh wow, I've never had an authentic experience in my life." So there was a lot of things that were filling boxes for me and making me understand myself a bit more. So that made me want to seek out an official diagnosis for ADHD.
So yeah, I did all of that and got told that I have ADHD and then the Autism diagnosis came a few months after that, after I started medication and all of the Autistic traits started coming out.
Larissa: Came to the top.
Carter: Yeah. Then that ended up in a full-blown meltdown because I just realised that my entire personality was masking and I didn't know who I was anymore, and I'm sure that that's a very authentic experience for a lot of late diagnosed neurodivergent people. So I started looking for podcasts for parents who are on the spectrum, not for parents of kids that are on the spectrum, and I couldn't really find anything that fit what I wanted to know more about. There was a few episodes here and there, but nothing that was just in one place. So I decided to make my own podcast and I love connecting with people. I feel like everyone has an important story to share, so I just started reaching out to people that I already knew or who might be interested in coming on a podcast about parenting and mental health and it grew from there.
Maddy: That's awesome. So fantastic. There's something that it really connects with Spoony about seeing that there's this gap and that there's people who are not being served by the content that's out there or the spaces that are out there and then going, "Hey, why don't I just create something that addresses that need?" And I really feel like you've done that with Touched Out. It's such a great podcast. Congratulations.
Carter: Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Larissa: And what's the response been like? Have you been finding a lot of neurodivergent parents who are raising neurodivergent children as well? Or what's the main, I guess, makeup of your listener base?
Carter: Well, it's not a specific podcast for neurodivergent because I am neurodivergent and a lot of the content that I was posting was in regards to that. I think a lot of my listener base is in the neurodivergent community, but there's other people that are just out there living their lives the best they can. Parenting's hard for anyone regardless of their neurodiversity or not. So I think that just parents who are able to sit and listen to the episodes and take even a little thing away from that and feel a little less alone, a dark room maybe has lit up and they've seen that they're not alone in that room and there's more people there and it's just fostered this real awesome little community.
Larissa: I love that. I want to talk a little bit about being diagnosed later in life. We have a lot of people in our community who were late diagnosed with ADHD. Yeah. And my experience was really similar to yours, started treating the ADHD and then the Autism was like, "Hey, whoa."
Carter: Hey, I'm not going to look you in the eye, but hey.
Larissa: What was all of that? Was it your son, sorry, that... Did he go through a diagnosis first and then you got diagnosed or it was happening at the same time? How was that being late diagnosed and then also parenting at the same time?
Carter: Yeah, it was a few months after my son's diagnosis and we'd noticed a lot in me and yet again with all of the content that was emerging on TikTok and everything like that, my diagnosis isn't official, so I couldn't be on NDIS or anything like that. But my psychiatrist who had diagnosed me with ADHD, we were talking about Autism and did the screener and all of that sort of thing, and he said, "What is it that you are looking to gain out of having the diagnosis? Are you wanting to seek extra supports or is it just something that you want to know about yourself?" And I was like, "I just want to know about myself." And he was like, "Yeah, you for sure have Autism," so it's officially unofficial.
Larissa: That's the exact same as mine, and that's so valid. Mine was a few questionnaires and sometimes they just take a look at you and they're like, "Yeah."
Carter: Yeah. It felt really validating for him to be able to say that, but not go through with the actual diagnosis and all of the costs that are associated and the waiting list and all of that. So yeah, it was a really, really validating experience and one that I've learned so much about myself since that day and I'm still learning.
Larissa: Yeah, it's such a learning journey too, and once you have that diagnosis or that validation from a health professional, you almost like you step out of that appointment sometimes and you just have this whole new outlook on life. Have you found that as well? Like you just see things differently and you notice your reactions to things differently and why we're having those reactions to certain things, it just opens up a whole new world as well.
Carter: Yeah. I like to think of it as finding pieces of a puzzle that you started 30 years ago, finding pieces that were missing and you're able to continue on the journey, but there's peaks and valleys to all of it. I have days where I understand my mind and how it's working, and I'm really attuned to my own needs and my own sensitivities. And then there's other days where I'm just fog and haze and autopilot and nothing's working, and I still hold a lot of the societal standards towards myself, so I am quite critical of myself if I feel that I'm overwhelmed or burnt out and I have a day off work, there's a lot of guilt associated with that like, "Oh no, I'm going to get in trouble and they're going to think that I'm slack or lazy," and that lazy tagline is something that really sticks to me and follows me. I'm very critical of myself. Still learning to try and be kind to myself.
Maddy: Internalised ableism is the worst, and it's so hard to rid yourself of it because it's society telling you these things and of course you internalise it.
Carter: Yeah.
Larissa: It's so hard too because some of the things like you say to yourself, you'd never say to a friend, I always try and frame it. I wouldn't speak to my best friend this way, "Why do we speak to ourselves this way?" It's so hard.
Carter: Well, yeah, even to take a step further, as I'm a mental health support worker, I may encounter people with neurodiverse needs and I would be able to give them all of the right... There you go.
All of the right advice or tips or tricks or anything like that, but I don't apply any of them to myself. It's like those that can't do teach.
Larissa: Yeah. Sometimes it's so much easier to give advice to other people and the things you need to do to make yourself feel good or get through, but it's just like you just don't do it yourself. It's bloody hard.
Maddy: Yeah. It's sometimes hard to even remember that when you are just so embroiled in your own fog of things to just reach back into your back pocket and be like, "Hey, this is my survival guide. I can use this. I use it on other people."
Carter: Exactly right.
Maddy: It's so tough.
Carter: Yeah. We are our own worst enemies.
Maddy: Yes. Couldn't agree more. As someone who has struggled with my mental health, I really love how you've spoken so openly and authentically about your own struggles. Why do you think it's important to talk about mental health even though some people still think it's a bit of a taboo topic?
Carter: We can't break the stigma unless we talk about it. And I think breaking that stigma is the most important thing that we could do as a society. I don't understand why societal standards decided that it's not okay to talk about emotions or experiences or anything like that because without talking about it, without creating that discussion, without fostering and nurturing that discussion and having it literally be a snowball effect and starting this massive, massive conversation, that's what leads to change. Nothing will change otherwise. If it's always kept in the dark, that means that it's always something to be ashamed of, and it's not. It's no one's fault that they have mental health issues or diagnoses or anything like that, so why is it still viewed that way?
Maddy: Yeah, such a good point. And yeah, thank you for helping to shift the narrative about mental health because I think, yeah, around the world, but especially I know that there's a lot to overcome with mental health and men as well talking about it. It seems in Australia, there's a lot of barriers to people being comfortable to talk about that. And that makes it even more important to be open and to have those difficult conversations that maybe not everyone wants to hear, but I think they should listen anyway.
Carter: Yeah, definitely.
Larissa: It seems so much harder as a male too, and this is just my observation, where I live, I see a lot of men's mental health initiatives, but all they do is go do pushups together. And I'm not sure if that's like they're not having the chats, and I think those conversations are so important like train together, that's awesome, but we need to be having these conversations and normalising it as well.
Carter: Yeah. Yeah. I think it's hard because it's not a one size fits all kind of thing, and there are some people out there that are genuinely just not comfortable talking about their experiences or anything like that for a multitude of reasons. Things like this podcast and my podcast and communities that are gathering surrounding mental health. The great thing about those spaces and sharing that space and sharing people's stories is that those people that aren't comfortable in talking about it have the chance to at least listen and that's participating in the change.
Larissa: 100%.
Carter: And that the more they listen, the more they get used to those types of conversations and the more of a chance they may have to open up to someone one day.
Larissa: Absolutely. Or even hearing that someone else is going through the same or similar things to them and feeling as though they're not alone in that experience is really important. We might jump to a quick ad break and then we'll be back with Carter to chat some more.
Hey, Maddy. I want to talk about something that's been a total game changer for the neurodivergent, chronically ill and disabled community.
Maddy: Oh, you mean Spoony?
Larissa: I do. But today I want to focus on one of their standout features, the journal for symptom tracking, whether you're managing flareups, trying to spot patterns, or just need a space to unload your thoughts, Spoony's Journal is a tool you didn't know you needed.
Maddy: And it's so easy to use. You can track how you're feeling day to day, jot down notes about your symptoms and even tag triggers or treatments to see what's working and what's not. Over time, it helps you make sense of what might otherwise feel totally random.
Larissa: Plus you don't have to worry about ever feeling judged. It's private, secure, and designed with empathy in mind. It's like having a health diary that gets you.
Maddy: Honestly, it's perfect if you're looking to take charge of your health while staying in tune with yourself.
Larissa: So if you're ready to track your symptoms, find patterns, and gain some real insight into your health, download Spoony now and check out their journal feature. It's a little extra support in your pocket right when you need it most.
Maddy: Spoony, it's more than just an app. It's your safe, stigma-free space for friends, support, and now powerful tools like symptom tracking.
Larissa: You can download it in the App Store or Google Play and try it for free today.
I saw this TikTok the other day, and it was a guy who was crying on a train, but quietly, and it was just going on the topic of talking about mental health. He's just commuting and going about his day. And so many of us do that and we're struggling with mental health, and it's just such a sad experience that sometimes you go through shit as an adult and then you're just expected to, you go to work and you got to act okay, and you've got to present normally, and it's just so bloody hard.
Carter: Yeah, it's weird.
Larissa: That wasn't even a question. It was just a thought. I just thought of that TikTok and I was like, "Yeah, it's bloody hard to put up a front when you're going through." You can be going through the worst week of your life and you've got to show up as an adult every day. And it's like you are the adult. And I don't know, it's just something I think needs to change.
Carter: Yeah. And you can't even be honest about it. If you're going through the worst week of your life and you tell your employer, unless they are an amazing workplace, they're usually like, "Okay, well, have a day off, but you still need to meet your KPIs," and it's just more than it's worth. And we've just become this society that just pushes it all down just to please other people and it's so much more detrimental.
Maddy: Oh, it really is. Because what happens when you push it down? It will come up in its own way.
Carter: Yeah, tenfold.
Larissa: Absolutely.
Carter: And then someone that doesn't deserve it, cops it.
Maddy: Exactly.
Larissa: It's rough. From personal experience, I know that being neurodivergent can be socially isolating. Having a community who is understanding and supportive can be a lifeline for some people. How important has community and connecting with other neurodivergent people been for you, and do you find that you gravitate more towards neurodivergent people?
Carter: Yeah, it's been really important in terms of connecting with neurodivergent communities outside of the podcast, I'm pretty reclusive. I work, I come home, I'd be a dad, I'd be a husband. Apart from that, I don't really venture out of my house that much. I don't have a social circle. I've got my best mate who lives in Queensland that I see once every two years at the moment. Outside of that, yeah, it's all kind of online, but the fact that it's something that I've created and nurtured and to see this collection of people all there because of something that I started just on a whim one day because I was selfish and wanted some knowledge from other people. Very special. Very special.
Larissa: That's awesome. Yeah, I really find that the neurodivergent community online is so strong. We just seem to find it particularly as we were saying before, TikTok, like ADHD Autistic community on TikTok is just such a great place to be, and we're all so hilarious. The comment sections are so good, and just watching everyone have these realisations and then seeing people who think they might be neurodivergent and the rest of us are like one of us.
Carter: Yeah, one of us. The hive mind.
Maddy: I think there's a reason why there's so many neurodivergent comedians because yeah, got a great different perspective on things and can actually break through and say the things that the neurotypicals are too boring to say.
Carter: Exactly. Comedy, it's a performative thing. So masking is already built in.
Larissa: 100%.
Carter: That's why all of us got A pluses in drama and theatre studies and media and stuff, failed math.
Larissa: And also the humour is a coping mechanism. I don't know if that's something you find, but that's always been a masking such coping mechanism for me.
Carter: Yeah, definitely. The class clown wearing a sad face.
Maddy: Exactly. Now I'm not a parent, but I know that parenting fur babies can be exhausting at the best of times, let alone actual human children. What's been your experience of being a neurodivergent parent?
Carter: It's a hard one. It's really a hard one. I mean, there's no right or wrong with parenting, and there's also no handbook. Everyone's got their own journey with being a parent I feel like regardless of my neurodivergence, it would be a struggle a lot of the time, but to add on my sensory needs and my ability to focus and the amount of spoons I may have from day to day, it can make it pretty hard. But I'm upfront with my kids. They know daddy's a little different. I wrote a children's book. I've written several children's books, but one of them is about dad being on the spectrum.
Maddy: Oh, I love that.
Carter: So I'm happy to read it to you guys before the end if you want.
Maddy: Yeah, please.
Carter: And yeah, if anyone listening is in the field of making books, publishing books, hit me up. But yeah, no, it's peaks and valleys yet again. I have some days where I am locked on to being a dad, and it's all about them. And then I have some days where I'm like, "I need you to be away from me. Watch as much TV as you want. Eat whatever snacks you want. I just need to reset."
Larissa: For sure.
Carter: And they see me get upset, they see me get angry, they see me cry. We always talk about it afterwards. If I get upset with them, I apologise. I tell them why. So from that standpoint, my kids are going to grow up with the ability to have emotional intelligence and understand their emotions. We have a whole wall dedicated to emotion charts and things that they can do if they're feeling big feelings.
Maddy: It's so important to have those conversations with children.
Larissa: And modelling that behaviour as well, because what ages are your kids, sorry?
Carter: Two, four, and five.
Larissa: Okay. So yeah, potentially the five, are they at that age where the older ones are starting to understand, I guess if you're explaining to them that you're neurodivergent, like can they start to understand it a bit or is it more just modelling that behaviour of emotional regulation?
Carter: Yeah, we've tried to talk to them about it because my oldest is definitely ADHD, undiagnosed at the moment, and then my son is diagnosed, it's all kind of in one ear and out the other. I could have a two-minute conversation about why dad's mind a little different and they'll be like, "Can you please get out of the way of the TV?" So majority of the conversations come from theirs or my behaviour when there's a little bit of an argument or they feel that something's unfair or I feel like I'm just past my tether. That's when the good conversations happen and we've started implementing with my oldest, if we're having a conversation and I start to raise my voice a little bit, because I feel like I'm not being heard and I feel like... She's five, so I don't blame her, but it's hard for me to regulate my own emotions sometimes. So we've implemented a way for both of us to stop ourselves in the moment. So if I start to raise my voice, she'll be like, "Dad, let's go to the emotions wall."
Maddy: Oh, that's lovely.
Carter: So we go to the emotions wall and we sit on the floor next to each other and we hold hands and we look at each other and say, "I love you." And then we talk about what we're feeling and why we're feeling it. So that's something that's only just started happening in the last few weeks.
Maddy: Oh, that's so lovely. Actually, it makes me teary to think about.
Larissa: I don't know why I'm crying about that. That is so beautiful.
Maddy: That makes a world of difference in normalising that you can have emotions and you can express them and you can talk about them afterwards, and it isn't like the worst thing in the world because I feel like for a lot of people, there've been that negative association with big emotions is something that happens at such a young age, and so you're bottling your emotions from very young and just having the space and feeling comfortable to be able to express yourself and have a parent who understands you and wants to help you learn more about yourself. Wow, that is life-changing.
Carter: Just being heard is the most important thing. Feeling like my feelings are valid. There's someone that loves me enough to actually listen to what I'm going through and wants to know what I'm going through, and then together we can just work through it all and move forward. And instead of it being an argument where both of us come away from it being grumpy at each other or just wanting space, it creates this environment where we can actually have a really beautiful and unique moment where we figure each other out.
Larissa: I just wanted to make a note too, on that emotions wall. I imagine so many of us diagnosed neurodivergent people, we were told as children and younger people that our emotions aren't valid, and we felt like so many of our problems stem from not feeling like we're listened to and that feeling of feeling overwhelmed and everyone's like, "Why are you acting like this?" Having an emotions wall for you and your children, I can't even imagine the amazing impact that's going to have on them growing up and just feeling emotionally safe. It'll just be incredible.
Maddy: That safety is a huge thing.
Carter: Yeah, I think it'll work really well for my oldest. She's really attuned to it. I don't know about my youngest. I think she's too chaotic.
Larissa: Maybe a big red button would work better.
Carter: I think I'd be like, "Hey, Salem, do you want to come talk about your feelings?" She'd be like, "No, I'm going to fart on dad's face," which is her new favourite thing to say.
Larissa: Still expressing emotions, but in a different way.
Carter: She dropped the F-bomb the other day for the first time, which we've got it on video. It's the best thing I've ever seen. It's the best.
Larissa: Love the sass.
Carter: We don't swear, so I don't know where it comes from.
Larissa: Interesting.
Carter: I swear a lot, but not inside the house around them.
Larissa: Oh, they're going to learn it someday, right? It's like Santa. They're going to learn the Santa thing.
Carter: I'll never silence them if they want to swear. They have to understand that safe space to do that is in their home. But outside of that, don't swear until you're an adult.
Larissa: Yeah, different the way it's directed, "Don't swear at other people in public, please."
Carter: Yeah. Don't drop F-bombs in front of teachers, all of that.
Larissa: So much to learn. As a neurodivergent person myself, I've faced a lot of struggles with social isolation and friendships and everything that comes with that. I know you mentioned before you've got your one best friend up in Queensland. I want to ask you, what has friendship been like for you? Have you, I guess, tried to go out and join different friendship groups and you haven't enjoyed it or you haven't found your people? Or you prefer having close friends? What's that been like for you?
Carter: That's a great question. Throughout my entire life, I've jumped from friend group to friend group kind of thing. I never felt like I fully fit in anywhere. I always felt like I was on the outside and the people that I spent my time with, they had the inner circle and they were all really close, and then I'd see them going out and I got no invite and just fostered this self-hatred. Obviously there's something wrong with me. I can't keep friends. And a man making friends with other men as an adult is so hard, so, so hard because especially the neurodivergent community has definitely made it a lot easier to meet new people and form some connections, but unless it's in their niche or their special interests, it's hard to pry them away from that as well. But my wife is my absolute best friend and my kids.
Larissa: I love that.
Carter: The fact that I get to come home from work every day to a house full of all of my best friends who are also my family, that's the best.
Maddy: That's the dream.
Larissa: I love that.
Carter: That's straight up the dream. I can hang out with everyone without having to leave my house, which is something that I definitely prefer not to do if I can help it.
Larissa: I love that. My partner's also neurodivergent, and I always say it's having a sleepover every night with your best friend, and it's just like adorable. It's just so much fun.
Carter: But yeah, my wife is, she's all into her little arts and crafts and dilly-dallying and everything, we're quite often just I'll lay on the bed and we'll watch some shows together while she does macrame or knitting or anything like that.
Maddy: That's so lovely.
Carter: We're alone together, which is a very, very neurodivergent love language.
Larissa: Yeah. Yeah, I can relate to that. My partner loves watching planes, which I can't stand. He just watches planes streaming at the airport. He'll do it for four hours, and I'll be like he'll have his headphones in. I'll be on my Kindle reading my book of interest, and you're just doing your things, but you're together and it's great.
Maddy: I love that so much.
Carter: So good. Love that. Yeah, I like playing PS5.
Larissa: Oh, cool.
Carter: And my wife was never interested in it at all, but we started playing a game together last year called It Takes Two. It's the best. It's like a co-op adventure game. You have to work as a team to solve puzzles and get through the levels and stuff.
Larissa: That's so cool.
Carter: And that developer's just brought out a new game today called Split Fiction, so it's the same thing.
Larissa: Shout out Split Fiction.
Carter: Yeah, I'm going to buy it today, and we're going to start playing games together again.
Larissa: That sounds awesome. It's a rainy day here in Melbourne too, so it's a perfect day to get stuck into a new game.
Carter: It won't be till the weekend, unfortunately. Yeah, after this, I've got a meeting with SBS.
Larissa: Super exciting.
Carter: To pitch an original podcast idea here I've got and then I've got work tonight, so it's flat out afternoon.
Maddy: Yeah that is flat out. I'm sure the hope of that game on the weekend will keep you going.
Carter: Yeah, I think so.
Maddy: It's little things like that, they keep you going in tough moments.
Carter: Yeah, that's it. I've got a lot of exciting things coming up with the podcast as well, because I'm recording episodes for season three, which is going to start releasing end of March, but I've got a special one next week with a mum and her son. It's my first in-person recording, but her son is a boy named Levi. He's going through chemo and adjusting to life with an amputated leg. He was diagnosed with osteosarcoma last year, so he's had to give up a bunch of his hobbies, but he really wants to be a DJ. And I reached out to a rep at DJcity who donated a whole bunch of podcasting equipment to me when I started my journey, and they have contacted Pioneer, and they've donated about four grand worth of DJ equipment to him.
Larissa: That's awesome.
Carter: Also, I'm going to give that to him next week. It's a complete surprise.
Larissa: That is so special.
Maddy: Exciting.
Carter: So exciting.
Larissa: This podcast will definitely come out after that.
Carter: That's all right.
Maddy: We won't spoil any surprises, but that is so fantastic. It's so important to be able to enjoy your hobbies and to have something that grounds you. And we've talked a little bit about how games and your wife's crafts are just so helpful to keep you going in tough times, and I imagine this would make a world of difference.
Carter: Yeah, I think so. I'm very, very honoured to be in the position that I'm in with the podcast where I was able to organise something like that. That's very special. I'm very excited to give it to him.
Larissa: That's super exciting, and that's probably a great spot to wrap up on as well, Carter. If people want to find out more about you or your podcast or any of the amazing work you're doing, where can they find you?
Carter: Yeah, so I have a website. It's www.touchedout.com, or you can find me on Spoony and LinkedIn.
Larissa: Awesome.
Maddy: Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining us today. It's been absolutely lovely chatting to you, getting to know you a little bit better.
Carter: Thank you so much. It's been awesome.
Maddy: Thank you.
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