Jul 11, 2021
Fourteen-year-old Jack Kearney, an active Touretter whose name you might've heard around the community, brings an important point -- when it comes to community, don't forget yourself. When Tourette became a focus at his school, with visiting ambassadors spreading peer education, Jack made sure to share his own story, style and perspective -- a solid move to improve peers' contextual connection. It includes a really comfortable openness for Jack and even a time when he bailed a fellow Touretter out of isolation. That's big -- Jack remembers telling the universe he knows there's someone else out there like him, and how it felt to confirm that in meeting a fellow Touretter. But let's go further. Jack is a budding standup comedian (and fan of Samuel Comroe) and doesn't see his Tourette diagnosis as some irritible, sensitive, sacred subject to leave out of the jokebook -- a pretty hot topic. He explains himself perfectly here in a great conversation with a big reminder for Ben, who, separately on this episode, questions his own positivity.