Jezz Chung
Appearances
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
The first thing that comes off of what you said, Libby, is that sounds like parallel play, which is one of the five neurodivergent love languages. For anyone listening, I highly recommend it. I think there's a website called Stimpunks and it's five neurodivergent love languages. One is please crush my soul back into my body, which I love, like just deep pressure.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
So it's it's just letting people be. So a lot of the time I'll text a friend because I feel like I'm dating my friends all the time and I'll text them. Can we parallel play? I really have to get this done and I can't get it done alone. But to me, what keeps me going? curious about friendship and dating, et cetera, connections in general is honesty and curiosity are so sexy to me.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
Those are two of the sexiest traits where if someone is being honest in who they are and they know who they are because they've spent time with themselves, There's so much wealth of wisdom to share from there. And I like, I hate small talk as most autistic people I know hate small talk. So I want to get deep. I want to know your inner world.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
I want to know all of these things and whether we do that through parallel play or conversation or whatever it is. I feel like I practice that honesty and curiosity through my singing, my acting, my writing, my screenwriting, my poetry, everything, even talking online daily. I share my thought processes out loud and that to me is keeping that muscle alive because
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
I think we get better at anything we practice. That's one of my creative mottos. So I think it's not about perfection. Perfection isn't the goal. Honesty is a much more attainable goal. So as long as I have that as a metric for myself, I just say, it's okay. If it was awkward or weird or whatever it is, I'm still trying and that's what matters. I love that.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
To me, love can't exist without safety, respect, and dignity. And so that's kind of foundational for me. And then from there, I'll actually read you a quote that I wrote, a life philosophy statement when I was 13 that kind of summarizes my philosophy on love and connection. And this was me thinking about the meaning of life at 13 years old.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
It's... Explain it. It's kind of the in-between of codependency and hyper-independence. The way that I see it, it's this knowing of you matter to me, I matter to you, I need you, and you need me. And it's working in symbiotic reciprocity relationship with each other and deep, deep, deep listening.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
To strive to fulfill the potential of complete and utter happiness, we all bear inside ourselves, transforming each challenge life throws at you into a lesson of wisdom and strength. To attain all your goals while maintaining your personal morals, despite how corrupt the rest of the world may become. To stay true to oneself, even after enduring the best and the worst of life.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
Big tasks ahead. Busy. There's so much resonance in what both of you shared because just to go quickly back to friendship, that's why I'm a big cinephile. And I looked at the landscape and thought, where are the queer love stories about friendship? I want a rom-com, but instead of two lovers, it's two friends. But it follows that same arc. So I wrote it. And I really need help getting it made.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
We will make it for you. Okay, amazing. Let's do it. And it's... And to what you said about having that consent and agency and choice, I write about all these things in my book, interdependence, and this access to me is this trifecta of consent, agency, and choice. And also to what you said of, can you name your values and then design your life around it? That's literally what I did. Really?
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
And that's why I wrote my book. I need a reason. Yeah, to give people questions and prompts to get into that and really reflect on their lives and think, what matters to me? How can I live a life that is more aligned with who I am? So to answer your question, Kai, that's where I am. I want to be even more aligned with the essence of who I am.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
And I want to meet people who are aligned with who they are. so that we can build a better world together, a world that's more safe, compassionate, collective, care-minded, and yeah, loving.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
This Way to Change, A Gentle Guide to Personal Transformation and Collective Liberation. Please support local bookstores. They are in need of our support and they are hubs for community resources and care.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
So all of this to me is a kind of love and connection that makes life worth living for.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
I think love is a way of being, and love is a way of being with yourself. One of my favorite thinkers, Grace Lee Boggs, said, transform yourself to transform the world, which is the thesis of my book. And to build off of that, love yourself to love the world. And not just love as in fleeting or… empty or surface love, but deep, present love. How do you move through conflict with yourself?
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
How do you love yourself when you make mistakes? How do you love yourself when you are not at your best? And that is, as we've all been saying, the way we relate to ourselves will also shape the way we relate to others. So I really believe that when we do that, we can return to our original state innate state, which is love. And that's how we can be forces of healing for each other.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
Oh, my thoughts really do matter.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
What I love about this podcast is it's getting people curious about autistic people's experiences. And as a saying goes, if you've met one autistic person, you've met one autistic person. And I'm more on the hyper-empathy. I'm actually hyper-verbal. I need to verbalize things to process it out. I'm more verbal than anyone that I know. And I...
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
Looking back, I think I just didn't have access to myself for so long because I don't see my experience represented in media and in the few autistic stories we have because I didn't have supportive parents who listened to me when I said, hey, I need help. when I was having symptoms of ADHD at a young age. And there were all these things.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
I was in the Talented and Gifted program and people said, you're getting good grades. And I looked around and I said, yes, but everyone seems to be having an easier time than me. I feel like I am having this experience that no one else is having. And so from a young age, I learned to build this intimacy and connection with myself.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
And then as I got older, I realized that I was autistic in my late 20s. That's a long time to go without accessing a huge part of who you are, a fundamental part of how you experience the world. So once I unlock that, I got really... I'm pretty loud about everything I'm passionate about. So everything that I believe in, all the experiences I have, I just share that loudly. And that has...
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
I think made me realize so much of the work I do is to help people feel less alone and more alive because I want people who are like me, who are later realized, who don't have a supportive family system, who use friends as their family system, who have a different experience, who's first generation, who's Asian, who's queer, et cetera, multiply neurodivergent, to know that your experience matters and that your voice also deserves to be heard.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
I've learned through thorough personal experimentation that you will find people who just get you where you won't have to over-explain. And I really believe that you shouldn't force a connection out of obligation. And that's come from hard choices I've had to make and realizing the...
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
the safety that I feel, not even just the freedom and the love, but just the safety that I feel in myself when I'm able to say, actually, I think there's something better. I think sometimes we can fall into scarcity mindset, especially if you are a survivor of childhood trauma. You might not even know what real true love looks and feels and sounds like because you've never experienced it.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
So even to this day, in all my healing practices, I'm trying to recognize love when I feel it in me, when I'm receiving it, when I'm giving it, being really present with it. So I would say that you don't have to force something that's not working because there's nothing wrong with you. There's nothing wrong with who you are and how you feel and feel.
The Telepathy Tapes
BONUS - LIVE TALK TRACKS EPISODE - Love Beyond Words
um and how you communicate and what you need i think i i say all the time it is okay to have needs and the biggest question shift that has helped me in my healing process is instead of asking myself what's wrong with you why can't you do this why can't you be like everyone else i say actually what do i need what do i need that i'm not getting and that has been a huge shift for me yeah yeah