Hi Pod! I'm Dad.
James Guttman, the dad behind "Hi Blog! I'm Dad", on raising a non-verbal teenager with Autism and a neurotypical teenage daughter. A show dedicated to positive special needs parenting and centered around his journey from Autism Awareness to Autism Acceptance to Autism Appreciation.
Hi Pod! I'm Dad.
My Son With Autism Is More Than Just What People See
Ever wondered what pure, unfiltered humanity looks like? My son Lucas shows me every day. Through the lens of raising a nonverbal child with autism, I've discovered something remarkable about human connection that I never expected to find.
Most people see limitations when they look at someone like Lucas. Politicians make sweeping statements about what autism is, focusing on what's missing rather than what's present. But they're missing the extraordinary gifts hiding in plain sight. Lucas communicates his desires more clearly without words than many people do with thousands of them. There's no social game-playing, no hidden agendas—just pure, authentic expression.
What makes Lucas truly exceptional isn't just how he communicates, but who he is at his core. When he discovers joy in something—even a YouTube video he's watched hundreds of times—his excitement eclipses nearly anything I experience. And what does he do with that joy? He shares it with everyone around him, tapping strangers on the shoulder to include them in his happiness. He feels emotions deeply, loves unconditionally, and lives without the burden of caring what others think about him. He'll never bully anyone. He'll never be intentionally cruel. In many ways, he embodies exactly what I'd hope for in any child.
The journey from hearing "autism" for the first time to where we are today has transformed me completely. The "worst-case scenarios" I feared have come true, yet here we are, living our best life together. That's why I wrote "Hi World, I'm Dad"—to show others that the autism journey holds unexpected treasures for those willing to see beyond society's narrow understanding. Pre-order my book now on Amazon, follow me on social media @HiJamesGutman, and join me every Friday for new podcast episodes where we continue exploring this extraordinary journey together.
Preorder James Guttman’s new book – “Hi World, I’m Dad: How Fathers Can Journey to Autism Awareness, Acceptance, and Appreciation”
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Also, be sure to read the blog that started it all - Hi Blog! I'm Dad.
Hi Pod, I am Dad. He's not just Hi Dad, he's my dad. James Gutman Folks. James Gutman, just hi dad, he's my dad. James gutman folks, james gutman, I'm pot on, dad.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to another edition of the podcast. It is another friday, it is well, it is mid-april, it is 2025. Thank you so much for taking the time to check me out any streaming service we're there, like subscribe, all that good stuff, hypodomdad Archives up there for the world to see and, of course, hiblogi'mdadcom. That is the blog that started it all. Twice a week, every week, since February of 2017, which does not feel like so long ago, but it is so long ago and I thank you guys so much for giving me the opportunity to talk to you about my son. He's nonverbal, he has autism.
Speaker 1:Tell you about who he is, some of the qualities that make him one of the purest souls I've ever known, and that is not an exaggeration, that is not a level of I don't know man. I think sometimes people hear that and they don't really get what it means, and I say this because there was a time that I didn't have Lucas in my life and I wouldn't have gotten what it means. I understand those who aren't in my family those who can't really grasp the positives of having someone like him in my life, but it's very real and I think sometimes, when people think about it enough and they start to project it into their own lives, they can see it. I deal with people all the time. We all do right Every day, at work, at a play, whatever you are, people are being people and people have the same kind of basic instincts. They want to get what they want. Sometimes they talk around things. There's a lot to figure out when it comes to dealing with people.
Speaker 1:With Lucas, there is not a lot to figure out, which is ironic because when he was little, I thought he was going to be the hardest person in the world to figure out because he has no words. He's nonverbal. How do I understand what this kid wants? I will tell you this with no words. My son can tell me what he wants quicker than some people with a million words. There's no games with Lucas. We don't go back and forth on like you know.
Speaker 1:Do you want this snack? Yeah, do you want it? I don't know, maybe. And that goes on with all of us. I do it, you do it, we all have people who do it.
Speaker 1:Lucas doesn't do it very straightforward I want that cookie, all right, that's it. And now, as he's gotten older and he's found new ways to ask for it, whether it's through his tablet, which I love when he does that, by the way, I know I talk a lot about the gestures. I'll take you by the hand, I'll bring you over to the pantry, I'll kind of throw my hand up towards the cookies, but I'll say I to him, I'll go dude, what do you want, why? And I'll go over to the device and he'll clear it out. He always clears it out. He has to start from the main menu and exit, exit, exit. And he just presses the button and goes cookie, you gotta go. All right, I laugh and he laughs and we're laughing and he's eating cookies and it's a great old time for everybody involved. And that's one of the many reasons why I don't know.
Speaker 1:Just having my, my son, in my life is refreshing. It's a different dose of humanity that I'm used to getting all day than any of us are used to getting. And what's crazy is that the one-dimensional ways that some people see him whether it's politicians and all this stuff that's out there right now in the mainstream, all the boogeyman stuff about autism that's going on lately. People want to tell you what autism is. They want to put a name on it. They want to take the most basic things they observe about my son and say them out loud. He's not going to be on a date, he's going to need assistance for the rest of his life All the things that my son deals with.
Speaker 1:There's people out there who are offended by some of the things that were said about autism because it doesn't reflect them. Like, that's not me. Why would he say that? Well, a lot of the things that were said do reflect my son, but it doesn't fully reflect him. You're pointing out the most obvious things, the things that you can see from across the room. Oh, he doesn't really, you know, socialize. Oh, he's not going to get to play football or baseball or whatever the hell you want to play.
Speaker 1:You don't know this kid. I know him. He's a good person. He cares, he gives back, he loves. He's real. There's no ego or cruelty. He's just a good person. He cares and he's sincere. I don't know anyone who feels emotions as strongly as my son does.
Speaker 1:He gets more excited. I've said this a million times he gets more excited over the same YouTube videos that he's seen over and over and over again than I do about almost anything in the world. And when he gets excited, what does he want to do? He wants to share that with everybody. He'll come over to me, he'll tap me, he laughs, he claps but not just me, he goes up to everybody. I wrote about that this week, about how he's the most accepting person I know, because he'll walk up to a stranger who just came into the room and tap them and give them a smile like hey, are you hearing this video that I'm watching? He shares the love that he has with everybody else. When he gets upset, he gets upset. It's amazing. I'll turn to him and he's putting his shoes on or something. I go, luke, hurry up, come on, get your shoes on. Tears are coming, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What is happening? Stop, calm down, all right, take a breath. Take a breath.
Speaker 1:He feels things. He knows who he is and for that I respect him and I gotta be honest with you. There's a I envy him in some ways that he's able to live without caring what anybody thinks one of the biggest things that bothers me about people who are mean and cruel to people like my son is that not only is it a low-hanging fruit like what do you, what are you doing? Why would you make fun of these people who literally do nothing to anyone? But Lucas doesn't even know, you know, he doesn't register it, he's. So I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't think he understands that that exists, that people are just jerks to each other for no reason, because he'll never be a jerk to you for no reason. Maybe he's overwhelmed, he's tired, whatever Gets cranky, but he's not. He's not ever just like oh, I'm going to go pick on, he doesn't do that. Man, holy cow. And as a dad I can say that, right, we don't think about that. We think, oh, his kid doesn't talk and his kid doesn't do these things. My kid doesn't bully anybody. My kid shows love and appreciation. My kid has all of the personality traits that I would want my son to have.
Speaker 1:Is it exactly the way I pictured it before he was born? No, but honestly, man, like, are any of our kids really the exact way we pictured them? Anyway, I know a lot of people out there. I don't really get them. I don't know what he does in the Pokemon. You know that kind of stuff we all have, that we have disconnects.
Speaker 1:I have a daughter. I have a neurotypical daughter. There are moments where I'm just like who the hell is this kid? I have that with her. She has a million words, she's not nonverbal, so at the end of the day, like I, don't you see the good that they have to offer, and in the case of my son, I really didn't have to look that deeply. What made it sweeter was the fear that I had before all of this came out, hearing the word autism out loud, thinking about what that meant for my family. I was scared, I was worried and in the end it ended up being almost the flip side the opposite of everything that I worried about ended up coming true, and for that reason alone, it's a sweeter thing to discover this, to see this, to realize that this is a person that I have in my life, and that's why I do what I do. Right For everybody who talks about people like my son, for everybody who goes out there with these preconceived notions that aren't true about my son.
Speaker 1:My goal is to do this podcast and the blog and to write my book High World I'm Dad how Fathers Can Journey from Autism Awareness to Acceptance and Appreciation. I do this so that I can tell people about him, explain who he is, and that's why I've always said like you can't take lessons from my writing and that that light, what works for me a hundred percent might not work for another parent, but there's little pieces that might be able to work for you. And even if none of that works for you, check this out. This is my kid. If you don't have a nonverbal person in your life, if you don't have someone with autism, severe autism, whatever, this is one of them. And he's amazing and the fears that I had were real. They're the same as anyone else who has a newborn, anyone else who's beginning the autism journey. I had the exact same fears that everybody else had and a lot of the things that I said to myself had to come true, didn't? A lot of the quote, unquote worst case scenarios came true. And here he and I are living our best life. It's amazing and I'm grateful for the opportunity to live it, I'm grateful for the opportunity to tell you guys about it and I'm grateful for all of you tuning in, checking it out, picking up the book High World I'm Dad on Amazon Grab it pre-order.
Speaker 1:It's out in June. Thank you for following me on social media. Hi, james Gutman, h-i. James Gutman being back here every single Friday. Hipodi'mdadcom new podcast, wherever pods are casted. Hi blog I'm Dad Monday, wednesday and that'll do it for me this week. Guys, until next week. This is James Gutman saying be well, bye, pod, I'm done. I'll see you next time.