The Telepathy Tapes: why so many autism parents can’t stop listening

If you’ve never heard of The Telepathy Tapes, you’ve probably heard someone talking about it. It’s a podcast about non-speaking autistic kids, made by filmmaker Ky Dickens, and in early 2025 it briefly topped the US podcast charts.

Its third season, The Reincarnation Records, started in October 2026, and a film is due in early 2027.

Why it hits home

For once, non-speaking kids were the centre of the story. Not a problem to manage. Not a statistic. People with an inner life worth listening to.

That’s rare. Most of the world assumes that because my son Eden doesn’t speak, there isn’t much going on inside. Every parent of a non-speaking child has been on the end of that look.

And every one of us has had moments we can’t explain. You just know what your child needs, or where they are, before anyone says a word. Ten minutes into the first episode, a lot of parents felt seen for the first time.

The Hill

The part everyone talks about is “the Hill”. In the podcast, families and helpers describe it as a meeting place outside ordinary space where non-speakers say they gather and talk to each other, mind to mind. Whatever you make of it, it’s one of the strangest and most moving ideas in the series.

In this short bonus episode, Dan Kolen, a volunteer in a Chicago classroom for non-speaking students, describes how he says he reached the Hill himself, through meditation and lucid dreaming.

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Where I land

I love this series. I love the whole subject of consciousness, and I think what Ky Dickens and Dr Diane Hennacy Powell have done is remarkable. I’d love to talk with Ky one day.

I’m open to it. Over the years there have been things between Eden and me that I can’t explain, and the more of them there are, the more I find myself leaning towards it.

I’m not telling you it’s real. I’m telling you I can’t explain some of what I’ve seen, and I’d rather stay curious than pretend I’ve got it all worked out.

What I will say is this: the people in it are telling the truth about how it feels to raise a child the world underestimates. That part I know is real.

What the critics say

Not everyone’s convinced, and it’s fair to know why.

• Many of the sessions use spelling boards with a parent or helper close by. Critics say that setup can’t rule out the adult steering the answer without meaning to, known as the ideomotor effect.
• Major professional bodies, including the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, say facilitated communication is not a valid technique, because studies found the messages often came from the facilitator.
• Ky Dickens has said her material isn’t scientific evidence. Critics argue the show still presents it as proof.

The bit both sides agree on

Strip away the telepathy argument and there’s something nobody disputes: non-speaking autistic people have been badly underestimated. A 2024 University of Virginia study found more than half of the non-speaking autistic people it tested responded to a letter task the way a literate person would. Most had never been formally taught to read.

So whatever you make of the podcast, take this away from it. Talk to the kid who doesn’t speak. Assume they’re listening. Because they probably are.

Worth knowing

Questions people ask

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Sources

1. PR Newswire, The Telepathy Tapes launches season three: The Reincarnation Records (21 October 2026).
2. Wikipedia, The Telepathy Tapes (summary of release history and published criticism).
3. Skeptical Inquirer, The Telepathy Tapes: A portal into a world of woo (August 2026).
4. University of Virginia, Study reveals unexpected literacy in autistic people who cannot speak (Jaswal et al., Autism, 2024).
5. The Telepathy Tapes, A Volunteer's Passage to the Hill (19 January 2025).