Hunter Demarcy

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Thanks for coming back and joining us. Megan and I are back into one of our absolute favorite formats, the interview. A little bit of background. Megan and I have talked many times how we are part of various Facebook groups in our communities that talk about lots of different things that are affecting the students and the families that we work with. So in one of those Facebook groups, there was a parent who posted and said, Hey, my son started a podcast. If you have an opportunity, please go out and give it a listen. So, of course, that's going to pique our interest, and that's what we did. And we found Hunter de Marcy. So Hunter started his own podcast. But before we even get into all of that, we are going to let him introduce himself. Hunter, for listeners meeting you for the first time, how would you introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Thank you, Patrick and Megan, for putting me on this podcast. My name is Hunter DeMarcy. I'm 25 years old. I live in Westminster, I live in Westminster, which is in Carroll County, and I run a podcast called A Talk of Carroll Podcast, where I interview people who have connections to the neurodivergent community, or as we like to call intellectual people with intellectual disabilities, where I just talk about them, what they do, like if they run a business, what they do in their business, and how they've gotten connected with the neuro with the neurodivergent community, and also like what they do so that way people in a neurodivergent community can kind of get to know what they do in their business, what they do in the community.

Starting his podcast

SPEAKER_02 1:46

Hunter, I love it because that's exactly what Patrick and I have been trying to do as well. So it's nice to see someone else out there doing it. But I I'm curious, what gave you the idea to start a podcast? Because I know from our own experience it was not easy.

SPEAKER_01 2:00

Well, last year I was part of a project that the Carol Media Center was working on called Thriving Together to Power Up Inclusion. And I was one of four participants from it. They had one person from the ARC, one person from Target Community and Educational Services. I was a person for the ARC, by the way. Then we had Belle McCree and then Penmar. And I was the person for the ARC as I get residential services. And I actually get my day program and my other services from Target as well. So I already knew the other participant in that program, who her name was Randy.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

It takes a lot of confidence to be a part of a podcast. What gave you that confidence to do it?

SPEAKER_01 2:52

So like I was trying to like get the answer to your last question. So to answer your like your first your your the question you just asked me, I've never really had any problems with speaking to another person or recording myself speaking. Maybe public speaking hasn't really been the the best for me, but but just recording myself talking with another person has never really been that bad for me. But to but to go back to your previous question, I got the idea to start a podcast because just being able to be an influence to other people has been my absolute passion. And being and I felt like being part of that project gave me a platform where I could where I could be seen as a reliable person. And I just wanted to do more and expand on what I what I did with that documentary. So I decided, hey, maybe I I'll do I'll do a podcast at Carol Media Center where I can interview people and continue to improve the relationship between a neurotypical and a neurodivergent community. Because that's that has always been a passion of mine. Because as a person who has overcome a lot of obstacles that were put in front of him when he was first diagnosed with autism, I feel like it's my opportunity to give back.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

I agree with you. There's a big difference between public speaking and just having a conversation with somebody. And you forget when you're sitting here talking that thousands of people could be listening ultimately.

SPEAKER_00 4:39

Yes, absolutely. And so it sounds like you've communicated what you hope to accomplish with the podcast. One other question that I have, and Megan had kind of alluded to this before. Being a podcast host can be challenging to say the least. What has been the most difficult part for you in your hosting of these discussions?

SPEAKER_01 5:06

The most difficult thing for me has always only really been scheduling my guests and picking my guess who I want to pick because I my next guest I wanted to interview was our state senator, Justin Reedy. His assistant got back to me and he's talking about that he could do it with me. But communication has been I I wait like three weeks at a time to just to get a response.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Yeah, it's funny that you should say that because I had told Megan at one point, I am a transition coordinator, I am a podcast host. I will never ever be a scheduler, somebody who sets up scheduling, because that is one of my personally one of my biggest struggles. I am not a time management person.

SPEAKER_02 5:56

Well, and when you're reaching out to people like that, Hunter, that's that's even more difficult because you're going through all that red tape and other people to get a schedule, you know, something put on the schedule with him.

Media Support and ideal discussions

SPEAKER_00 6:08

And for those people who don't know, our series of discussions are audio only. You actually have taken it a step further. Your podcast is a video podcast.

SPEAKER_01 6:21

That is correct.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

Without getting too technical, but the technical stuff really interests me. Do you have a team of people that help you? Are you the only person that is doing it in the recording and the scripting and that like how what does development look like for you?

SPEAKER_01 6:39

So as far as like the in-interview stuff goes, as far as questioning and answers, like scripting, I actually make my questions myself. I don't usually record questions or or write down questions until the date of my interview. Because like I already know on the top of my head what I'm gonna say and stuff like that. So questions don't really come too hard to me. But as but as far as the technical stuff, uh recording the videos and stuff like that, I do have the staff at the Carol Media Center that helped me with the video recordings.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

They taught you when you started the project last year, and they've continued helping you with it.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

They did. They taught me how to use the audio equipment, but a very fast learner. And sometimes with those kinds of things, I can teach myself sometimes.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Yeah, sometimes you just have to play around with it trial and error.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Yeah. And then in terms of the scheduling, like how often do you try to put out your discussions?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Once a month. Because I'm also uh busy with other things I have going on. So I usually just try to do that basically. I usually try to do it on Thursdays or Fridays.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

It already sounds like you're going down a really good path. I mean, you're talking about scooping in political figures, but we are curious who would be your dream guest, be it locally or nationally, who would that be?

SPEAKER_01 8:22

Probably if I could get like a local NFL player on my podcast, that would be great. I'm very, I'm very, very into football. So so just to have like a someone who has played in the NFL or a current NFL player who has met someone who's autistic and has kind of gotten an understanding of it would be would be a dream to come true for

Brainstorming

SPEAKER_01 8:47

me.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

I'm curious how you brainstorm and come up with ideas of who you'd like to interview next. Do you have a way that you do that?

SPEAKER_01 8:57

There's not really any like real rhyme or reason to it. I just think, okay, I want to eventually have this person on my podcast. So I so I so I put him on my podcast. I I interviewed my best friend Maddie for my for my first podcast because I wanted to start off with someone who was very familiar with. And then I interviewed my executive director at my school that I work at, and then I did an and then I did a third interview where I interviewed myself, and then I had another teacher who also has her own business with an executive functioning coaching, who said that she really wanted to be on my podcast, so I made her my third guest, and then my fourth guest, since I met Justin, since I met Senator Reedy at DDA Day back in February, I believe, or was it January? I I forgot which month it was, but we had a day where we went to go to uh Annapolis and we and we discussed the importance of keeping our services for DDA. So that's why I felt like I was able to reach out to him because he was very particular about making sure that we get our services. And it really interested me because he was a Republican and Republicans are and I've understand that Republicans are more focused on more individual effort instead of public effort. So the fact that he as a Republican was fighting to keep those services alive publicly, it really meant a lot to me. How unexpected it was.

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SPEAKER_02 10:39

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Connecting the dots

SPEAKER_00 11:10

So then changing lanes into your advocacy, you we heard you talk earlier about building stronger relationships between neurodivergent and neurotypical people. What does something like that look like to you?

SPEAKER_01 11:29

As far as how my podcast goes, just just a mutual understanding of each other, like for example, the community understanding the neurotypical community more, the neuro the neurotypical people and understanding the neurodivergent community more, or the divergent community, understanding the neurotypical community, like just a mutual understanding of each other. Like my my fellow participants in my day programs understand that there are people who are wanting to get to know them and are and are under and are trying to understand who they are. It's just basically that mutual understanding of each other.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

If you could suggest anything, is there one simple thing that a person could do to communicate more respectfully with someone who is neurodivergent?

SPEAKER_01 12:22

My suggestion would be to once you get to really know them, speak at their level. Like some some people might some people might communicate very and and just neurotypical people in general, they might speak very loudly or they might speak very quietly. So I feel like talking at the level that they talk at, I think that is very beneficial for them because it might make them feel intimidated if they if they are speaking too loud or or their ears might not be able to understand what you're saying if you're speaking too lowly, speaking too quietly.

SPEAKER_00 13:04

So Hunter, then how has your understanding of autism changed as you have gotten older?

SPEAKER_01 13:14

Well, back when I was in elementary school, I never even knew that I had autism. So I never really understood it. But as I've gotten but at but like when back when I was in high school, I graduated high school in 2019, and I was and I would have panic attacks, and the girl would like be like freaking out during class, like or like sometimes like I would like literally scream in front of the class, like, oh no, what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? And then I've also come to understood that that's that's because my autism, that I have those that I'm so fearful, or that I'm not as mature as my peers are, because when I was diagnosed, when I was originally diagnosed with autism, the doctors had all these things that they thought I was gonna struggle with. The only thing I've really struggled with was maturing at a maturing at a sort of pace than my peers, which was expected because most neuro almost almost, if not all neurodivergent people mature at a sort of pace than neurotypical people. So I think that like as I've matured, I have come to understand that the part of the reason why maturing at a server pace is because I'm different than most of my peers that I see with on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_02 14:40

Well, and it sounds like as you matured, you learned how to advocate more and more for yourself. Yes. Was there one specific person that might have helped you learn how to advocate, or was it just all the staff or family that you've had around you?

SPEAKER_01 14:56

My mom, my mom has taught me to be more self-reliant has taught me to be more self-reliant. But as far as as far as the self-advocacy thing goes, I've just been I've just been motivated to to just be myself and I'll and I'll I'll ask my mom for advice on things uh on things like certain words that I should say or stuff like that, but but the fact of me being able to do it by myself hasn't really never really come hard for me at all. It's always come easy for me.

SPEAKER_02 15:31

So it's nice just to have mom there just to kind of check in.

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yep, just as like just like she she's more of an ideas person of things I can say. But as far as talk, but as far as speaking my mind, I've never really had an issue with that.

Moving on

SPEAKER_00 15:46

Hunter, I am curious. You I heard you say that you had graduated in 2019, and that is something that Megan and I are very interested in because of course that is what we do for our work. We work with people who are getting ready to transition from high school outside of high school and essentially to the next part of their life. And I'm curious, was there someone there that helped you with that? Like someone that explained to you what was going on and what things might look like when school was over?

SPEAKER_01 16:19

Honestly, I nobody really had a one-on-one conversation with me about that. Mean my I mean our guidance cancer just gave us like the the basic the basics in general because I was never I was never in any of the special education classes when I was in high school. When I was in high school, I was always in the general education classes because I didn't need the because I didn't need the supports that the special education teach classrooms had because I felt like I was very independent and I knew what I was doing. So that transition from call from high school to college was never really hard for me. I didn't really need anybody to really sit with me one-on-one and and describe that process because I was always because I because I knew what to expect.

SPEAKER_00 17:18

And did you go to college?

SPEAKER_01 17:20

I did go to college. I I only did community college. I started I started in the fall of 2019 at CCB C Caitonsville because I went to high school in Baltimore County and then I I did the first semester, the fall of 2019, and half of the spring of 2020 semester. The the second half was when COVID happened. So I so I so I still but then I moved to moved to Westminster in August of 2020. Then I then I did online school completely, did school completely online. And then the next year, fall of 21, I started at Carroll Community College. Then I took a semester off, and then I completed my then I completed my degree in the fall of 2022. And then walked in graduation in May of 2023.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

And what did you get your degree in?

SPEAKER_01 18:23

Just associates arts, which is their fancy way of saying general studies. Because I thought I wanted to be a high school teacher, but I wasn't always so sure. So I just walked to general studies because my mom thought that I that it was just a better workload for me than actual college and like a university. And I would say that that was right.

SPEAKER_02 18:54

I think that's every mom.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:56

Oh no, no, no. That's dad too. That that's totally that's a dad thing too.

SPEAKER_01 19:02

So you would always love to hear kids telling you that you're right.

SPEAKER_02 19:08

If you were to give advice to a young, neurodivergent person now who wants to be more involved in their community, what kind of advice would you give them?

SPEAKER_01 19:17

I would just I would just say before you start getting involved in your community, make sure that you're very comfortable with advocating for yourself and potentially advocating for others. Because if you go into this and you're and you're not sure how to advocate for yourself, then you might not be able to succeed as someone who is already a big enough advocate for themselves. You it won't for you, you won't, you won't feel because you won't feel as prideful in your work if somebody, if if somebody else is also doing it for you, than you would if you're fully ready to do this by yourself.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

And this is a good place to pause our discussion with Hunter. So please join us back here in two weeks'

Outro

SPEAKER_00 20:10

time.

SPEAKER_02 20:19

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