Episode 50: Why Medicine Thinks We’re Arrogant: Rational Therapeutics, Clinical Isolation, & Putting Our Field on Extinction w/ Dr. Steven Merahn, MD

For decades, the applied behavior analysis sector in autism has treated the broader healthcare ecosystem like an aversive stimulus. We built a fortress out of rigid jargon, locked the gates, and convinced ourselves that clinical isolation equals purity.Here’s the unfiltered truth: our stubborn refusal to practice basic selective accommodation and collaborate across disciplines is putting our own field on a fast track to being faded out permanently.On this episode of Rad N Bad, Sean Yocum and Mike Carrero sit down with physician executive, health system leader, and author Dr. Steven Merahn, MD (Care Evolution) to hear what the rest of the medical world actually says about behavior analysis behind closed doors.In this episode, we unpack:Autism is Neurodevelopmental, Not Behavioral: Why treating autism strictly through a reductionist behavioral lens violates the medical principle of Rational Therapeutics.Hours Are Not Dosage: Why prescribing arbitrary 30-to-40-hour weekly clinic minimums fails pharmacokinetic principles and alienates pediatricians and health plans.Why Our Assessments Are Inherently Ableist: How comparing autistic children against normative peer curves or criterion sequences creates deficit-based traps rather than functional trajectories.The 5 Rules of Earning Professional Equity: Why behavior analysts must leave their echo chamber, attend adjacent medical conferences, read journals like JAMA Pediatrics, and stop denigrating allied disciplines.The "Default Mode Network" & Inner Life: Understanding the neuroscience of attention, why joint attention doesn't require forced eye contact, and why developmental relationship-based models (DRBI) must be respected.Professional Humility: Moving past professional supremacism to recognize that ABA is a powerful tool in the healthcare toolbox—not the entire toolbox.Find Dr Steve on Linkedin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenmerahn/