{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"Coworking Values Podcast","title":"Brain-first Coworking spaces with Amanda Perry","html":"","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":2026,"description":"Brain-First Coworking Spaces with Amanda Perry\nBrain First Workspaces: What Neurodivergent Members Need From Your Space\nWhat a curry, a Bluetooth headset and a missing front door taught one founder about designing coworking spaces that more people can use.\n\nWant the short version by email? Grab the free five-day email course, 5 Mistakes That Hollow Out a Coworking Community and What to Do Instead, at thecoworkingvaluespodcast.com.\n\nEpisode Summary\nAmanda Perry booked a coworking desk in a hurry, without researching the space. What she got was someone reheating leftover curry beside her, a woman pacing past on an aggressive recruitment call through a Bluetooth headset, and a set of phone booth rules that changed depending on who was asking.\n\nShe wrote about it on LinkedIn. Around 165 comments later, Bernie found her, and the conversation that followed is this episode.\n\nAmanda is the founder of Brain First, a platform for neurodivergent founders and leaders, and the author of Brain First Business. Her argument is straightforward. \nPlenty of late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults spent decades masking, telling themselves to get over it, and assuming the problem was them. Learning how your brain is wired changes that. You stop treating your needs as a character flaw and start building accommodations around them: an extra ten minutes to travel, checking the route on Google Maps before you leave, needing certainty about where you will sit.\n\nThen the question flips to the space. Most coworking operators are not trying to exclude anyone. They simply have never had the sensory and communication detail written down. A London space Amanda tried to use had no signage on the door. She could not find the entrance, arrived dysregulated, stressed and sweaty, and never went back. A different app, Worksee, takes you right to the door of the workspace, and she rates it for exactly that reason.\n\nThe most useful idea in the episode is the drop curb. Designers built kerb cuts for...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/WIBJeL0fXbpb8oNZHEtSu5qeC3870OdCYV3XNCIVY1M/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8yZTBm/NGQ1N2YzYTcyNmE3/NTc2ZmU5NTBlYmNj/OTEwOC5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}