MPR News with Angela Davis

Understanding autism

two people posing for a portrait
Zephyr James (left), the director of marketing and communications at the Autism Society of Minnesota, and Dr. Jennifer Hall-Lande (right), a psychologist and one of the principal investigators of the Minnesota division of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, pose for a portrait in the Kling Public Media Center in St. Paul on Wednesday.
Nikhil Kumaran | MPR News

Last week, the Centers for Disease Control released new data that shows a continued increase in the number of children diagnosed with autism.

One in every 31 children in the U.S. has an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis. That’s up from one in 44 just a few years ago, and it’s a huge increase from the one in every 150 children who received the diagnosis twenty years ago.  

Autism has gotten more national attention in recent months after U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. resurfaced debunked claims linking autism to childhood vaccines.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with experts and advocates about the prevalence numbers, what autism is, what it isn’t and why the conversation matters.

three people smiling in a broadcast studio
MPR News host Angela (right) talks with Zephyr James (center), the director of marketing and communications at the Autism Society of Minnesota, and Dr. Jennifer Hall-Lande (left), a psychologist and one of the principal investigators of the Minnesota division of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, in an MPR News studio in St. Paul on Wednesday.
Nikhil Kumaran | MPR News

Guests:

  • Zephyr James is the director of marketing and communications at the Autism Society of Minnesota, also known as AuSM.

  • Dr. Jennifer Hall-Lande is a psychologist and one of the principal investigators of the Minnesota division of the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network.  

    For autism information and resources, contact the Autism Society of Minnesota.

    Call: 651.647.1083

    Email: info@ausm.org

    Text: 651.321.2909

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