The Autism Wellbeing Podcast
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On 19 April, Jon and a few comrades are running the Manchester Marathon—not because he enjoys suffering (debatable), but to help raise awareness and quietly cause good trouble with Autism Wellbeing Project CIC. It’s his preferred method of advocacy: put the work in, start conversations, and push for a more humane, inclusive autism world—one mile at a time.
The Autism Wellbeing Podcast
Episode 20 - Kaleidoscope Festival 2026: Everyone Has Their Own Story: Rick and Joe Talk About Live Cheshire's Our Chatter Matters and The Importance of Speaking Up
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Welcome to the first EVER podcast pop-up special! Our podcast was invited by Nicola Haigh, Community Manager at the Storyhouse in Chester to be a part of the incredible Kaleidoscope Festival that is held annually celebrating people with learning disabilities, neurodiverse and all kinds of disabilities as part of Disability Pride Month! Sarah had the mammoth challenge of doing FOUR different interviews in ONE day, with guests with so many different stories to tell.
Joining Sarah on this podcast special episode filmed in The Den in the Children's Library at the Storyhouse for Kaleidoscope Festival, we welcome to the guest spinney chairs (rather than the usual sofa) the first time onto the podcast, Rick and Joe are the deputy chair and of Our Chatter Matters, a social action group that comes from Live Cheshire based in Chester.
Rick and Joe are a dynamic, multi-talented duo that are a part of the focus group that brings the Kaleidoscope Festival to life! It's all thanks to Joe that the Autism Wellbeing Project's podcast has been a part of this festival when he brought the idea to the table as he wanted to be able to give disabled people a platform to share their voices and stories alongside them.
Rick talks with such passion and pride especially when it comes to subjects close to his heart including how he wants to change community transport where he lives, about his love of podcasts and about he represents North West Care Co-Operative, a care company that provides PAs for his needs; Out Chatter Matters and the Kaleidoscope Festival focus group (yes, Rick is a very busy guy!). With his love of performing in a choir that recently performed on the main stage at Deva Fest in Chester and performing with the drama group Patchwork as part of Live Cheshire, Rick shares how when he first sat down to record the podcast that he felt nervous but now he feels "amazing". We are sure he is already planning his next episode with us for the podcast with Joe, which we sincerely welcome!
Joe talks about his biggest achievement that has led to an event occurring in September this year at the Garrett Theatre, Storyhouse; his passion for content creating around Pokemon and how important it is to remember that disability doesn't define you. His love for his friends and family really shines through and is really heartwarming to see. Hearing how as the episode goes on his confidence blooms, Joe brings great insight and advice to anyone that has been diagnosed with a disability, how being driven to walk 500 miles like The Proclaimers has become a goal and tools that help him when he is out and about to adapt to the different environments that he is in day to day.
Rick & Joe bring up really important talking points about how breaking barriers and communicating well is so important, how we define who we are not our disabilities and that it's ok to be nervous to try something new like being interviewed for a podcast!
If you want to attend the event that Live Cheshire is holding at the Storyhouse called "Ask Away", a Question Time-style event for the neurodiverse and disabled community, on the Wednesday 2nd September at 7pm - 9pm, please click on the link here.
Get in touch, we'd love to hear your thoughts
Want to know about The Autism Wellbeing Project and the amazing activities that are provided for free for autistic adults?
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It's just a conversation between us three. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I have all the questions. If you need it, you can have it out. That's absolutely no problem. Action. Hello and welcome to the Autism Wellbeing podcast. I'm your host Sarah, and I hope wherever you are listening to this, I hope you're well. Now we are at the Story House as part of a pop-up podcast, which we were very excited to be invited to by the wonderful Nicola Haig. And it is an honour, and actually one of the people that we're interviewing right now is right here who had the idea for having a podcast pop-up. So we're very, very honoured to find this mysterious joke that Nicola told us all about. Now, I'd love you to introduce yourselves to the audience.
SPEAKER_02I am Rick, and I am part of the Focus Group that Kaleidoscope. With me Evan Mump and Death Ghost Programme for Manette Kaleidoscope. I've been doing that for a number of years.
SPEAKER_01Oh thank you, Rick.
SPEAKER_00Hello, I am Jo. I am the chair of R Chatter Matters, a social action group within Chester, and I'm also part of the Kaleidoscope Focus Group that plans this festival.
SPEAKER_01That's brilliant. Thank you so much for your introductions. I'm going to talk a little bit about how this podcast came to be. So we are from the Autism Wellbeing Project, and one of the free activities that they provide to autistic people was a podcast. Emma, one of our co-directors, loves podcasts and just had this idea that she wanted to do one. So that is when the podcast was born. And we then have come here, which is amazing, and then we cross paths, which is pretty awesome. And then I also get to have Mr. Rick being there with the microphone smiling away. So before we start the interview, we're gonna share something interesting about ourselves. I can start. So my fact about myself is that I love making friendship bracelets when I have spare time because I just find it really relaxing.
SPEAKER_02Mine is um helping people.
SPEAKER_01It's helping people. Oh that's brilliant, Rick. Thank you. Joe. I kind of have two if that's okay.
SPEAKER_00Of course. Share, way. So my first one is I'm also in the content creation game like Such as Yourselves. Yes. I make my own YouTube videos.
SPEAKER_01Oh amazing! What do you do your YouTube videos with?
SPEAKER_00So I make Pokemon gameplay videos.
SPEAKER_01I love Pokemon. Okay, we're gonna have to talk about this after the podcast because I love Pokemon so much.
SPEAKER_00Yes. And my second fact about myself is I'm on a self-employed mission at this moment in time to walk a thousand miles.
SPEAKER_01A thousand miles?
SPEAKER_00Yes. Wow, is it a fundraising event or basically anytime I'm walking, I'm recording my miles and hoping to hit that target. It's not for fundraising, it's just something I'd wanted to do for myself, really. That's amazing. And to be the person from the proclaimer song.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I did not think about that reference. That's brilliant. That's genius.
SPEAKER_00I could yesterday to time this podcast. Sorry about that. But also I hit 700.
SPEAKER_01You're on 700 already? Yep. Wow, so you've only got 300 to go. You're gonna be there like before the sun's over.
SPEAKER_00Possibly.
SPEAKER_01Keep us updated with that because that's a really amazing goal to have. Joe, we've touched on the fact that the idea of having a podcast for the festival actually came from you, from the vocus group, because Nicola told us about Joe, but there's a lot of Joes that are involved with the Story House, and now I find it's this wonderful Joe right here. So, why did you want a podcast to be at the festival of the Kaleidoscope?
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm very interested in getting disabled voices out in the world to help show that everyone has their own story and why they are who they say they are, and I really wanted to create a platform for that to exist.
SPEAKER_01That's brilliant. Having your voice heard is so, so important. Mr. Rick, I'm gonna have to call you that because that's your name I know you by. Yeah. You signed up for the podcast as soon as I told you about you were the first slot booked.
SPEAKER_02We should make it more regular thing. We should we should do it all together, and now we invite other people to do it, and I felt very nervous guy doing it. Now I'm enjoying it.
SPEAKER_01Good, I'm really glad, Rick. We were a part of the Northwest Care Cooperative, so we all have PAs, and Joe, you've recently joined. Yeah. So that's how I know Rick, and I'm thankful for you two for being the first two to have a go because it is a bit daunting coming in here and talking, so you're doing amazing. Now, you're excited about being on this podcast, I know that, but you've been lucky enough to meet some of the podcast team before Rick.
SPEAKER_02Before Kaleidoscope started, we had a tour around um a tour round the storyhouse and a history.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, we did, we learned a lot about it, didn't we? And we got to see some of the backstage bits, didn't we?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we did.
SPEAKER_01That was really fun, that was really special.
SPEAKER_02And we're representing the North West Kerr Crop, the focus group, our Chatter Matters.
SPEAKER_01And as you mentioned, Jo, you're a part of Our Chatter Matters, and can you tell me more about the role that you've got in the group?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, sure. So I am the chair of Our Chatter Matters. My job is to lead meetings, to put a face on the social action that we are doing. So whether that means going to events and talking to various schools and clubs and stuff like that, or leading meetings and being part of like social media posts for life.
SPEAKER_01That's a lot of stuff that you've been involved with. I had a little look into our chatter matters, and I know that you guys did some feedback for Parliament about autistic people, and then you've mentioned about the schools, but is there anything in particular that's been your favourite thing that you've done with our chatter matters?
SPEAKER_00One of the favourite things that I have done is I have got a member from all five major political parties to come to our meetings and talk to us about the issues that we have, and through that, we are going to be putting on an event here. Yes. Sort of like a question time.
SPEAKER_01That's incredible. When is that going to be taking place?
SPEAKER_00So that is going to be on September 2nd in the Garrett Theatre on the very top of Story House between 7 and 9 o'clock.
SPEAKER_01Excellent, thank you, Joe. That's really useful to know. That is amazing. I'm not surprised it's been your favourite thing that you've been able to do. Mr. Rick, Our Chatter Matters, it's part of the Life Cheshire.
SPEAKER_02I'm a deputy chairman. Joe is not available. I step into meetings and I go to events when Joe can't do it. I'm in charge of it and I have to have some help when I'm doing it.
SPEAKER_01So you're like his wingman, basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Obviously, I know about Owl Chatter Matters, but what other things can you do when you go to Life Cheshire?
SPEAKER_02We have Papswork on a Monday, Big Live on a Wednesday, drama, media, and bikes.
SPEAKER_01Wow, so you've got a lot of stuff. You've got creative, you've got sport, there's questions for both of you. But what activities do you enjoy at live?
SPEAKER_02Only Chatter Matters, but it's close to my heart and I've been pertinent to get changed in the community. You're a member of Patchwork as well.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the choir and stuff like that.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, shit like that. I am a part of Patchwork. We do events. We're going to do a festival form on the main stage.
SPEAKER_01Oh, that's amazing, Rick. I didn't know you were in Patchwork.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I've been in Patchwork for a long time. From the start.
SPEAKER_01From the start? Yeah. How long has it been going on for? It's been a long time. Joe, what activities do you enjoy at Live?
SPEAKER_00So I enjoy the all-mobility bicycles that we have at Live. So we have bicycles for wheelchairs, bicycles to help people candle bicycles, we have hand bikes, we have trikes, we have two-wheel bikes as well.
SPEAKER_01That's amazing. I actually recently did that with my PA and Marie in Marbury Park in Northwich and absolutely loved it. It was brilliant. I didn't even know a thing like that existed that you could have it adapted for people with disabilities. Joe, what would you say is the most important thing that you want people to understand about you? Is there any way that people can help you when you're trying to communicate or is there any sensory needs that you have?
SPEAKER_00Really, it's just being adaptive to my environments and not having to deal with unexpected change. Yes. Changes are when I can adapt and I can process them, I can deal with that. But if my train is delayed and stuff like that, I can't really do anything about that. I'm already at the platform the train, it's supposed to be as the train is not here, I am here, can't do anything.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and being out of control is it can be is very overwhelming, isn't it? So knowing that that can be a trigger for you is quite important for people because then it means that if you are overwhelmed that they can try and help you in a way that you tell them to. You shouldn't expect that the way someone helps me is the same way as someone helps you because we're all different. I want to ask you, Rick, what would you say to someone who's maybe listening to this episode and they worry about speaking up?
SPEAKER_02They adore different channels to go for and you need to listen to the next podcast and to like get other people to like break barriers down and it's important.
SPEAKER_01Yes, I definitely agree because breaking down barriers means that conversations happen.
SPEAKER_02Communication barriers break down all the time. I don't like change and it made me anxiety worse and upsetting.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if there's like a very sudden change, it's not nice.
SPEAKER_02No, it's not.
SPEAKER_01Now, important thing I think as well is if you talk about it, then you're able to share what's on your mind, and that's really important to talk, isn't it, Rick?
SPEAKER_02Yes, it is, yes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Now I've got a very interesting question for you because you are a man of many talents and you do a lot of things, but do you have a goal or a dream?
SPEAKER_02To change the community transport. My dream is to change other community transport, the services letting me down right now.
SPEAKER_01Oh, so you're wanting the transport um to be a lot better for you? Yeah. Yeah. I know that you've talked about that quite a few times. Yes, I have, yeah. Yeah. And I know I've spoken about um transport with my MP because I can't actually use my train station because there's stairs, and if I'm in my wheelchair, I can't use stairs. It is a big topic, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02It's a pet, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And Joe, what advice would you give to somebody who has just got a diagnosis of a disability?
SPEAKER_00It's quite daunting, you might need to take time to reflect, but don't let that disability define you. You are the one who defines who you are, and it you can also realize that you know this has always been with me, I just didn't know it was there, and now that I know it's there, I might be able to find help and tools that might make myself feel better.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if you don't know, then a lot of the time you just feel very alone and isolated. But once you get a diagnosis, it is sad at some point, but then also learning about it. I know that I love to do a big deep dive and research things. That's what then I would then do to find what's gonna work best for me. I think that's really important what you said, that you define who you are. And actually, we are gonna be wrapping up. Can't believe it's gone so fast. Well, I know that to start off with Rick, you said you were a bit nervous. How do you feel now?
SPEAKER_02Amazing.
SPEAKER_01Oh good, that's exactly what I want to hear. Now, for each of you, do you have a message of thanks?
SPEAKER_02I'd like to say thank you to the Northwest. I know I do like to say thank you, Nicola Haig, and people that may be a member of the Folkest group. I've done it for a number of years. I want to say thank you to Andrea Thompson Mother from Live.
SPEAKER_01That's really lovely. Like you thanked a lot of people there in that. Joe.
SPEAKER_00I'd like to thank my family and my friends and my partner who have all really helped me, have been really caring and loving, and helping me find my voice and speak through my environments, and they've been able to help me with love and care and attention, so I'm really happy. I was a little shy at first, obviously, but I really enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_01This is the first time we've met in person as well. I know Rick, but for you to come in here, it's a brand new environment. So thank you for being brave and coming here and just being an amazing guest, and obviously, Mr. Rick, you know that you're amazing. Um, so thank you so much for coming onto the podcast. I know that you are very keen on podcast ricks.
SPEAKER_02I will be coming back in the future. I will be coming back in the future.
SPEAKER_01And Jo, if you ever want to come back, you're more than welcome to. You made some really amazing points about not having disability to find you, and I think that's really important. So if you ever want to come back. Alright, thank you very much. So thank you for our guests, Rick and Joe, for coming here and being interviewed by us, and we will see you and or you'll hear us in the next episode. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rick. Thank you so much, Joe. You were brilliant. Oh don't worry, you're brilliant.
