The Brady Bunch of Autism
Join Navah and Matt Asner as they discuss topics relating to the world of autism and family. Navah and Matt have six children. 3 who are autistic. They are the founders of the Ed Asner Family Center. A center that provides arts and vocational enrichments and counseling services and support groups to special needs individuals and their families.
The Brady Bunch of Autism
Welcome Back to the Brady Bunch of Autism: We Missed You!
Get ready for an inspiring ride with Navah and Matt Asner in this new episode of "The Brady Bunch of Autism." After a hiatus, the hosts are thrilled to reconnect with their audience and share their powerful experiences navigating the world of autism. Drawing from their journey of being parents of six children in a blended family, they talk about the chaos, the laughter, and the unbreakable bonds that tie them to their community.
As they reflect on their own lives, the Asners provide insights into the growth of the Ed Asner Family Center, a sanctuary for families dealing with autism and special needs. They share the pivotal moves they've made as a family, discussing the importance of community support and the value of mental health resources. If you've ever felt overwhelmed, this episode is a heartfelt reminder that you’re not alone and that reaching out to others can create light in dark times.
Stay tuned for future discussions on current affairs, personal stories, and all the topics that matter to families navigating the complexities of autism. We invite you to join the conversation, share your challenges, and find inspiration within the community we’re building together. Don't forget to subscribe to catch all future episodes!
www.teafc.org From Our Family To Yours
Welcome to the Brady Bunch of Autism, your source for family parenting and all things. Autism and special needs Created by our family for your family Live from the Ed Asner Family Center and now your hosts, Nava and Matt Asner.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Brady Bunch of Autism. This is Matt Asner.
Speaker 1:Welcome everyone. I'm Nava Asner and we are so glad to finally be back.
Speaker 2:It's unbelievable. It feels like it's been a long time it has, I think.
Speaker 1:I was trying to figure out how long it's been. I think it's been a couple of years at this point.
Speaker 2:I think so. Lots of things have happened and we're going to go through all that as we get through this first episode. This is going to be a bi-weekly show that we come to you on all your favorite platforms and talk about autism and autism-related stuff, special needs stuff and stuff in our community that makes a difference and that's important to everyone, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. I think the biggest change in our lives is that our facility has moved. We have a new beautiful building, we have a new day program. We have expanded. I mean it's really been. This is now our eighth year with the Ed Asner Family Center.
Speaker 2:And if you haven't been here, you really should come Right.
Speaker 1:Yes, you can't just show up.
Speaker 2:No, you've got to call and let us know you're coming so we can bake a cake.
Speaker 1:But you know, this is something that Matt and I really, really missed. We missed being a part of everyone's lives. We missed hearing questions from our community. Matt and I are founders of the Ed Asner Family Center, but we're also parents. You know, we have six children. We have autism is our every day. We have more autism than not in our family and we are just really happy to be back in your lives, in your house, in your car, wherever you are, listening to us.
Speaker 2:And if you're out there and you don't know who we are, you're probably wondering.
Speaker 1:Google it.
Speaker 2:You're probably wondering why we're called the Brady Bunch of Autism. Who gave us that name? What is? What is what's up with that name? Why is why we're called the Brady Bunch of Autism? Who gave us that name? What is what is what's up with that name? Why is why are they called the Brady Bunch of Autism?
Speaker 1:Why, nava? Why are we called the Brady Bunch of Autism? Well, I, when you and I one long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, we were both going through really hard times. I was a single mom of four children, three autistic, and I was really struggling and my youngest son had newly been diagnosed and one of my brothers said hey, you know, a good friend of mine just got hired to this huge autism organization. You should call him. He has some, you know he can help you in some way. And I looked you up and I saw that you were, you know, the head of this big machine organization. And I said this guy's never going to talk to me, he doesn't have the time to talk to me. And I called you and I was very impressed that you answered your own phone.
Speaker 1:Yes, I did and you know, a couple hours later, in many tears, you gave me the best piece of advice I think that any autism parent of an autistic child can get, which is to what was?
Speaker 1:that To reach out in your community, find some like-minded parents, find parents who are on the other side and have been through the struggles and the dark places that you're in right now and can really, really tell you that there is light at the end of the tunnel, and for me it was the best advice. It helped me in ways that I can't even begin to explain, and Matt and I just became really good friends for a long time.
Speaker 2:Started in friendship. Right, you were totally not my type.
Speaker 1:I've always dated models and surfers, but you're.
Speaker 2:Well, and I quite honestly didn't think you were interested in me at all. Someone had to kind of hit me over the head.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that was probably me.
Speaker 2:So anyway, to make a long story short, we got married.
Speaker 1:Yes, and we became a blended family.
Speaker 2:We became a blended family and that gave us the Brady Bunch of Autism moniker.
Speaker 1:Yes, absolutely. And we wear it proudly moniker yes, absolutely, and we wear it proudly, and I think that people who are listening can really be inspired by some of the trials and tribulations we've been through. It has not been easy all the time. When we first got together, we had a lot of teenagers, had a lot of teenagers. Eddie was still nursing, I mean, we had every aspect of the generational challenges that you could go through as a blended family.
Speaker 2:There was actually a moment in time when we got up in the morning and we literally drove six kids to six different schools.
Speaker 1:I remember that. I actually remember vividly, taking a picture of six brown lunch bags, that I had always made lunch the night before and those were hard times.
Speaker 2:But good times, good times, it's all good.
Speaker 1:I know Well, there was always chaos and there was always laughter. And I've got to say this.
Speaker 2:I've got to say this because I have an opportunity now to kind of sing your praises a little bit. So you know Nava. I met Nava as a mom, you know, who was concerned about her kid, and she's grown into this incredible leader in the community and what. I'm a little biased, but I really speak the truth. What she's done with the Center and with the programs that we have at the Center is nothing short of a miracle. It's pretty incredible and I'm incredibly proud of you, thank you.
Speaker 1:Well, I couldn't have done it without you, and you couldn't have done it without me.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right. So what's the first topic of the day? Well, I think let's segue.
Speaker 1:I think that in our upcoming shows, I think people are going to want to know what we're going to talk about.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 1:I think that it's really important that we talk about current affairs. What's going on? There's a lot going on in the world. There's a lot going on that could be very scary to our special needs community very uncertain times in America. We're going to be talking about current affairs. We're going to be giving people a biweekly update of the Academy, which is our full day adult job training program, which is my new baby it's only two years old and it's really incredible. And in our next show we're going to talk at length about the Academy and every show we're going to be giving our family perspective from the Brady Bunch of Autism and Crazy Wild and you know crazy wild family. All of our kids are much different and much more independent and grown. Some of them are here working at the center and you know we have changed so much in the last 10 years and we're really excited to share a little kind of window into our family.
Speaker 2:And into a family.
Speaker 1:Egg no a A family, yes. A family yes.
Speaker 2:Just like your family out there, if you're listening. Well, we've had an incredible time since we've been here doing this, right, yeah, we've done a lot of amazing things We've done. I mean, the last show we did was, I think, right at the end of COVID. So we've you know, we've, like Nava said, we've moved, we've done several. It's a Wonderful Lives it. So we've you know, we've, like, like Nava said, we've moved, we've we've done several. It's a wonderful lives. If you know what we do in December, we do a kind of a reading of it's a wonderful life and we have some of the greatest actors around kind of get together and read it's a wonderful life, cause it's honestly one of my favorite movies and it was one of my father's favorite movies.
Speaker 1:But what we did in December and it's a movie.
Speaker 2:I asked Nav to marry me while we were watching. So let's not forget that.
Speaker 1:I know right, how can I forget that? But what we did in December, which was so wonderful, we did it live. This is the first time that we ever did it live.
Speaker 2:We did it live. This is the first time that we ever did it live. We did it live and it was incredible. We had the cast of SpongeBob and Joey King and Mark Hamill, and I'm forgetting one.
Speaker 1:Well, the whole cast of SpongeBob. I said that, yeah, and of course we had our autistic actors who joined the cast and they were over the moon and we had such a beautiful location. Phil Lamar he's not in SpongeBob. I forgot Phil Lamar.
Speaker 2:But it was incredible because we had the same. It was the same thing we had, but we did it as an old school radio play and you can go and check out clips from it on our website, teafcorg, or the Ed Esner Family Center dot org. The cast from Spongebob were incredible. Joey King was incredible, everyone was incredible, mark Hamill was incredible, phil Lamar was incredible and it had a totally different energy. We did it at the Gary Marshall Theater in Burbank.
Speaker 1:It looked beautiful.
Speaker 2:It was gorgeous.
Speaker 1:The set was so beautiful, it was so beautiful.
Speaker 2:And we'll be doing that again because it was fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think we have to mention that those nights are fun, but they also are vital to our center because you know we have a very tough past few years in fundraising and you know we are going to continue to be tough. We're going to talk a little bit more next segment, about some of the nature challenges.
Speaker 2:We can talk about it now.
Speaker 1:We can.
Speaker 2:Why not? No, I mean, it's hard right now, isn't it? Yeah, well, a lot of nonprofits are struggling.
Speaker 2:We've got a situation in this country where we've had a devastating fire in our city, two actually devastating fires in our city, two actually devastating fires in our city and we're licking our wounds from that and trying to get back on track for that and a lot of money rightfully so is going to help the families that are going through something that no one listening or no one doing this show wants to go through or no one doing this show wants to go through. I can't tell you how many friends that we've had who have lost a home and have had issues related to the fire.
Speaker 1:Well, my first segue into this whole community was in the Palisades. And so I'm very connected to the Pacific Palisades and so I'm very connected to the Pacific Palisades. Our son, jake, had the most incredible footage from the fire.
Speaker 1:I remember how we were up all night that first night because he was actually in the Hades hell in Hades that night. But you know, my first segue was at Friendship Circle and running the family conferences for Chabad of Pacific Palisades and I, you know so many of my friends, lost their homes. I mean, they lost everything. And you know, I know that just our own family, when we were on such high alert and trying to explain to our autistic kids why we had to pack and are we going on vacation, mama? And no, we're not going on vacation and I'm trying to keep my panic tempered to not set them off and it was just a really, really incredibly hard time for families in general but special needs families, time for families in general but special needs families, next level anxiety. And I think that's a perfect segue to talk about our mental health division because at the Ed Asner Family Center, mental health is such an important and such a personal priority for me.
Speaker 1:I've struggled my entire life with panic disorder, general anxiety disorder, and you know when Matt and I first met I was a single mom, four kids just struggling so hard with my panic and not being able to afford mental health support. So when we started the center, for me, this was such an important pillar of this center and having mental health services be one of the foundational pieces. So I just want to tell anybody, if they're struggling or if they feel alone, to reach out to us. Reach out to us at teafcorg and let us help you. You're not alone. We want you to be part of the community. But there's a lot to be anxious about and in our next show we're definitely going to expand on that and some of our other services. But we're wrapping up and I think we should.
Speaker 2:I had some anxiety from that.
Speaker 1:Yes, you did.
Speaker 2:I did. I mean I really did, I think I looked at you one day and I said I think I'm depressed and that was kind of a revelation for you. I think I'm depressed and you know, that was kind of a revelation for you, I think.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, I think a lot of people were really scared and really uncertain and, yeah, there's a lot going on in our world and in the United States of America right now, so we want to be here for you. Matt and I are again, we're parents, we are the founders of the Ed Asner Family Center, and this show is really going to be about our lives and the community and everything to do with just supporting one another and how we can best do that. So, please, please, tune in. On whatever platform you listen to, we're going to be here.
Speaker 2:Spotify, itunes, podcast World.
Speaker 1:Central.
Speaker 2:Wherever you get your podcasts, we'll be there, right, yeah, and I think what's important is, before we say goodbye, I wanted to say that one of the things that this show will be kind of highlighting is the stories that are out there that people are talking about, and I can rattle off a few that we'll do next show. We're going to talk about Kanye West, you know, announcing that he has autism, and what does that make people feel? How does that make people feel Angry.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it makes me angry too, and not just not that he's saying he has autism. No no, that's not. The fact that he's using it to kind of justify any kind of antisocial and horrific behavior that he has is, I think, offensive to people who are autistic.
Speaker 1:We're also going to talk a little bit.
Speaker 2:We're going to get a little personal next show because we're going to talk about one of our autistic kids, who have really One of our autistic kids who have really, really had a hard journey in the last 18 months and it's been a huge struggle for our family.
Speaker 1:Come out the other side. Come out the other side, exactly.
Speaker 2:But you know definitely something that I think we're going to get into next show. Going to get into next show, and so you know.
Speaker 1:look, have a cup of tea with us when you have tea when you listen to our podcast, or you're driving to work and you're bored and you want to hear just some friends and to just talk story, as my dad would say. So you know, I'm Nava Asner.
Speaker 2:And I'm Matt Asner.
Speaker 1:And we will see you next time. Shalom aloha everyone. Yes.
