JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Last week, as Tim Walz accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president, it was his 17-year-old son who stole the show. With tears streaming down his face, Gus Walz pointed and repeated the words, that’s my dad. It was an emotional moment, especially since some political opponents mocked it. You see; Gus has a nonverbal learning disorder, ADHD and an anxiety disorder, according to his family. They call it his secret power. Our next guest wrote an essay published in The New York Times titled “My Son And Gus Walz Deserve A Champion Like Tim Walz.” She is the journalist Tina Brown, and she joins us now. Tina, welcome.

TINA BROWN: Thank you so much, Juana.

SUMMERS: Tina, I just want to ask you, what was going through your mind as you were watching this unfold? I mean, it started with Tim Walz there talking about his family. And then we all saw the cameras panning to his family in the front row. Hope, his daughter, Gwen, his wife, and Gus were all there. They were clapping, cheering, the tears coming. What were you thinking?

BROWN: Well, my eyes went directly to Gus because as the mother of Georgie, who’s a 38-year-old on the spectrum son who still lives with me, I just recognized immediately that he was one of what I call ours, the community of people who have, you know, who are on the spectrum or special needs or whatever you want to call it, whose emotions are sometimes a little bit sort of overexpressed. And there was something so sweet about it. It just reminded me of my son, Georgie. And it sort of prompted me to write about that, about how for people like us to see Gus and see the love of his family towards him, it was very, very moving. And I felt important.

SUMMERS: Tina, tell us a little bit about Georgie. What’s he like?

BROWN: Well, he – what is Georgie’s great superpower is, because he’s on the spectrum, I mean, he just – he can only tell the truth. So he has no ability to have any of the social lies that sort of make the world go around. For instance, one evening, we were at dinner, a sort of fancy, you know, dinner in the Hamptons. And Georgie at the end of the evening said to the host, thank you so much for that evening. I enjoyed it. It was fine. But unfortunately, nobody spoke to me really, so it was pretty boring. The food was OK. And I doubt that I’ll ever come again.

And, you know, and at the end of it, my husband sort of shouted in the car, you know, I’ve never been more proud of you in my life, Georgie, because, you know, how many of us have said these – things after dinner? You say, oh, what a wonderful time. I had a fabulous time. And it was kind of the opposite, right? But Georgie actually cannot make it up.

So there are all of these things that he does that are just very, very entertaining to his parents, anyway. But, of course, you know, sometimes cause him issues when he’s, like, on a job or with people who have no idea why this person is blurting these things out and saying these things, makes it hard to get hired. It’s a very, very painful thing. And we’ve all been as parents, you know, as I am of someone like Georgie, to – aware of kind of like the eye rolling at the next table and the sense that, you know, other people are not accepting. And, you know, this can be very heartbreaking indeed.

SUMMERS: Now, Gus Walz was attacked by some on the far-right for crying in public, which that is a separate conversation in itself. But he was also celebrated by others in a way that that left at least one mother of a neurodivergent child writing an opinion essay in Bloomberg called “Gus Walz Is Not Your Inspiration Porn.” Those were her words. Tina, I want to ask you, do you think that there is a danger of objectifying people like Gus Walz in the rush to celebrate him a bit?

BROWN: I mean, I think that what we all want to do is simply treat Gus Walz as if he’s just a sweet, charming guy like anybody else, you know. I mean, that’s what they want. That’s what my son wants. He just wants to be normal and considered normal. And he feels that he’s a person who should be treated as if he’s normal. And no, they don’t want any kind of special behavior going on towards them. They just simply want someone to pay attention to them and talk to them, take time with them.

For instance, you know, the kids in this community are very loyal employees because, you know, the jobs are very often something they love so much because it’s the only place they have where they feel community. So they don’t quit. They love whatever small job they’ve been given and are happy to turn up on time and, you know, don’t sort of feel it’s boring or beneath them. And they are delighted to do it, you know. So it’s also a big waste for employers not to realize that this is a very golden group that they can hire if they’re willing to be patient and kind and assign a manager who understands.

SUMMERS: At the end of the essay that you wrote, you say that there’s a chance that soon parents of people who struggle with being different could have a powerful advocate in the White House. And setting aside the particulars of the Harris-Walz ticket for a moment, I just want to hear from you. What do families like yours, what do people like Georgie, in your opinion, need from powerful people in this country who are in a position to shape policy?

BROWN: Well, first of all, I think jobs and a real sense, a real push for people to hire people with special needs in jobs that they can do and which they absolutely are qualified to do. First of all, jobs. And secondly, really a movement towards assisted living because many of these people, they’re perfectly able to live alone – and, in fact, they want to. But what they really need is an assisted living community so that in that building with them, perhaps there are others like them, and perhaps there are a den mother and father who are in the building too who could be there to help connect them, to help give them things to do, you know, in the evening, social connections, perhaps, you know, do some meals a couple of times a week.

They need a special, you know, assistance in living. And that is completely not there. I mean, this kind of thing I’m talking about is something I think that should be a big movement in this country because I think it would have many, many, many people who would be thrilled to be – have their kid in a place like that.

SUMMERS: We’ve been talking with Tina Brown, who founded The Daily Beast and once edited The New Yorker. Tina, thank you for your time.

BROWN: Thank you so much.

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