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ST Medical Monday: "No Map to This Country: One Family's Journey through Autism"

Aired on Monday, August 22nd.

On this edition of ST Medical Monday, a discussion with Jennifer Noonan, a Texas-based mother of two who is the founder of thegfcflady.com, a website for autism parents. She speaks with us about her book, "No Map to This Country: One Family's Journey through Autism." As was noted of this detailed and opinionated (yet also accessible and engaging) memoir by a critic for the Evansville [Indiana] Courier & Press newspaper: "Let me start here: if you're the parent or caretaker of an autistic child, I have absolutely no doubt it won't take long before your copy of 'No Map to This Country' is dog-eared, highlighted, and marked-up. It'll be battered and well-loved because author Noonan writes about ideas that worked for her family, theories that didn't, frustrations, comforts, camaraderie, things you can do to help your child, and a wealth of things you may be experiencing. Noonan will even make you chuckle now and then, in between the teeth-gritting episodes. On the other hand, there's fodder for argument: not-so-kind statements made about medical and insurance personnel, discordant blanket condemnations, and things that rather gave me pause.... Still, parents of autistic children may find succor here, just the same. They may find info that can only help -- and if that's what you need, then 'No Map to This Country' is another outlet to turn to."

Rich Fisher passed through KWGS about thirty years ago, and just never left. Today, he is the general manager of Public Radio Tulsa, and the host of KWGS’s public affairs program, StudioTulsa, which celebrated its twentieth anniversary in August 2012 . As host of StudioTulsa, Rich has conducted roughly four thousand long-form interviews with local, national, and international figures in the arts, humanities, sciences, and government. Very few interviews have gone smoothly. Despite this, he has been honored for his work by several organizations including the Governor's Arts Award for Media by the State Arts Council, a Harwelden Award from the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, and was named one of the “99 Great Things About Oklahoma” in 2000 by Oklahoma Today magazine.
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