Helping families understand how to bridge the developmental gaps gifted, asynchronous, and neurodivergent kids face every day. Real stories, expert conversations, and sometimes-irreverent humor — hosted by Mark Talaga, M.A., LPC.
Gilda Evans, founder of the Autism Resource Project, on raising her son with autism, building a central knowledge database for parents, and the strategies that actually help kids thrive.
Listen on Apple →Mark walks through early signs of giftedness, the family challenges that come with it, when testing actually makes sense, and how to have the conversation about evaluation findings with your kid.
Listen on Apple →Scott Lutostanski of State Street Education on executive-function coaching for college students — organization, time management, and the emotional and cultural pressures gifted kids hit when the scaffolding goes away.
Listen on Apple →Language and dyslexia therapist Faye Bankler Casell on the interconnected reasons bright kids struggle with literacy — and how parents can advocate effectively when something doesn't add up.
Listen on Apple →Writer and parent advocate Jen Merrill on the burnout that comes with raising gifted and neurodivergent kids — practical strategies, and the scaffolding-of-the-scaffolders problem nobody warns you about.
Listen on Apple →Caroline Gulick and Julie Kastelan demystify residential treatment, partial hospitalization, and intensive outpatient programs — and how to figure out which level of care is the right one for your gifted, neurodivergent kid.
Listen on Apple →
Mark is a former video-game professional turned Licensed Professional Counselor and the owner of the Center for Identity & Potential. He's an expert in counseling the gifted, asynchronous, neurodivergent, and complicated.
Hopelessly Gifted is the podcast he wishes existed when he was figuring out his own asynchronous brain — and the one he kept reaching for as he started counseling families navigating the same. Real stories, the people doing the work, and the occasional bit of irreverent humor when the subject matter calls for it.
Listener questions drive some of the show's best episodes — like Episode 34. Send Mark what's on your mind. He reads everything, and he might just put yours on the mic.
★★★★★"Finally a podcast that talks about my kid like he's a whole person, not a diagnosis. Mark gets it from the inside out."
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★★★★★"The mix of Mark's own perspective with the experts he brings on is what keeps me hitting subscribe on every new episode."
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★★★★★"I cried twice in the first episode I heard. The asynchronous-development one explained five years of confusion in 30 minutes."
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