John Elder Robison, Lavin speaker and author of Look Me in the Eye, was recently profiled on an episode of Science Channel’s Ingenious Minds – a show that explores the lives of savants. Robison was born with Asperger’s syndrome (but wasn’t diagnosed until age forty), a type of autism that is characterized by an extreme lack of social skills coupled with intense talent in narrow interests. For Robison, his interest has always been in electronics and engineering, so much so that he has become a highly skilled electrical engineer without even finishing his high school education.

This deeply personal look into Robison’s life profiles his extraordinary professional journey – he’s built guitars for KISS, games for Milton Bradley, equipment for nuclear test facilities and currently runs a successful custom car shop – all leading up to his mid-life realization that his peculiar social issues and immense technical talent were a result of Asperger’s syndrome. The show then moves into the work Robison and Harvard scientists are doing to try and treat Aspergers by using magnetic stimulation to the brain, in the hopes of improving the natural social abilities of those with Asperger’s. A fascinating look into the personal effects of Asperger’s, Robison’s story is as inspiring as it is touching. Watch the full episode, in two parts, below:





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