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Rad N Bad Podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Sean Yocum and Michael Carrero from Hickory Learning Group
The Rad N' Bad Podcast by Sean Yocum and Michael Carrero isn’t your average ABA podcast, it’s a full-blown wake-up call. These two BCBAs from Hickory Learning Group are smashing through outdated norms and calling out the BS in the field. No fluff, no sugar-coating, just raw, unfiltered truth about what ABA should be. They challenge you to think, question the “why,” and push past complacency. If you're ready to disrupt the status quo and make this field better for clients and practitioners alike, buckle up, Rad N' Bad is here to raise hell and raise standards.
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- 1 weeks ago36 min
Episode 38: No Man's Land-The Myth of Ascent: Why Choice is Just a Contingency
Is "assent" the future of ethical ABA, or is it a clinical retreat into "fragile tolerance"?In this installment of the No Man’s Land series, Sean Yocum and Mike Carrero step directly into one of the most emotionally charged debates in behavioral health. While the field currently treats assent as an ethical evolution, Sean and Mike strip away the marketing and the buzzwords to look at the raw mechanics underneath.From a radical behaviorist perspective, does "assent" even exist? Or is it simply a hypothetical construct—a label we’ve placed on behavior that is actually being shaped by environmental contingencies?Sean and Mike dive deep into:The Reality Gap: Are we preparing learners for a world that requires persistence and resilience, or are we engineering "safe spaces" that fail to translate to the real world?Buzzwords vs. Science: Why "Trauma-Informed Care" and "Assent-Based Care" are often just rebrands for what should have been good behavioral design all along.The Middle Ground: Moving past the extremes of forced compliance and unlimited refusal to focus on shaping, reinforcement schedules, and functional communication.The Radical Lens: Reframing refusal not as a philosophical choice, but as critical data that tells us exactly where our behavioral design is failing.Stop asking if your learner "assents" and start asking what your environment is reinforcing. It’s time to move beyond the "feel-good" terminology and get back to the science of shaping independence.
- 2 weeks ago1h 4m
Episode 37: Who the Hell is This? Solving the Access to Care Bottleneck with Amol Deshpande from Frontera Health
The ABA industry has an access problem, and throwing generic corporate software at it isn't fixing a damn thing.In this episode of Rad N Bad, Sean and Mike sit down with Amol Deshpande, the founder of Frontera Health, a Silicon Valley veteran who is injecting radical disruption into the behavioral health tech space. Driven by his personal experience as a parent of an autistic son who achieved a life-changing outcome through high-quality early intervention, Amol isn't here to build another corporate tool. He’s here to dismantle the bottlenecks keeping families stuck on waitlists for months just to get a label.We strip away the marketing crap and dive deep into what it actually takes to scale access to quality care without burning clinicians into the ground. We talk about utilizing advanced, clinician-built AI to obliterate the administrative nightmare of report writing, and why billing platforms do absolutely nothing to change what happens in a child's home on a Tuesday night.Amol pulls no filters as we tackle the toxic tech trends plaguing the sector—specifically software providers who attempt to build a business "moat" by hoarding clinical data and blocking integrations. We unpack the line between clinical augmentation and replacement, why parent-mediated therapy models are the next major frontier, and how passive data collection through video could revolutionize accountability and RBT supervision.Stop letting corporate billing convenience dictate your clinical priorities. It’s time to use technology to eliminate the noise so we can get back to what actually matters: human connection, clinical depth, and radical behavior change.www.fronterahealth.com
- 3 weeks ago39 min
Episode 36: Who The Hell Is That with Dr Lou Sandler-Dosing Disruption & Why 40 Hours is the Gummy Bear of ABA
In this "Who the Hell is That?" episode, Sean and Mike welcome Dr. Lou Sandler, a 45-year veteran of the field who isn't afraid to take a sledgehammer to the industry’s "sacred cows." The trio dives deep into the "40-hour work week" obsession, the private equity takeover of behavioral health, and why we’ve traded clinical precision for billable presence. From the "seismograph" data of failing center-based programs to the "pink dumbbell" of low-intensity dosing, this conversation is an unapologetic call to return to the human side of human behavior.
- May 1, 202648 min
Episode 35: Prove It: The Policy Shift That’s Forcing ABA to Grow Up
ABA is under pressure—and a lot of it is deserved.In this episode of Rad N Bad, Sean and Mike break down the real impact of North Carolina’s recent Medicaid policy changes and what they signal for the future of the field. This isn’t speculation. This is a direct response to rising costs, federal audits, and growing questions about how ABA services are delivered and justified.For years, the industry has been highly effective at getting services authorized—but far less consistent at proving meaningful, real-world outcomes. Now, states are starting to ask better questions:Why this many hours?What is actually changing outside the session?Can caregivers implement the intervention independently?Where is the plan to fade services?North Carolina didn’t eliminate ABA.They challenged it.And in doing so, they introduced a new reality:Telehealth is being restrictedSupervision is being defined and enforcedParent training is no longer optionalHigh-intensity services must be justified—monthlyExceptions for rural and underserved areas must be proven, not assumedThis episode goes beyond the policy language and gets into what it actually means for providers, BCBAs, and organizations trying to navigate the shift.Sean and Mike also call out the uncomfortable truth:At some point, hours became the product.Instead of focusing on independence, generalization, and caregiver competency, parts of the field leaned into volume—and now the system is correcting it.But this isn’t just criticism.They break down what a defensible, outcome-driven model actually looks like, including:Lower direct hours with higher impactParent-Mediated Intervention (PMI)Caregivers as the primary agents of changeMeasuring outcomes through adaptive functioning and real-world performanceBuilding models that lead to titration and discharge—not dependencyThe takeaway is simple:This isn’t the end of ABA.It’s a filter.And the field is being asked one question:Does what you do actually create independence?Because the future of ABA won’t be defined by how many hours are provided…It will be defined by what changes because of them.Here is the policy if you would like to read it:https://webservices.ncleg.gov/ViewBillDocument/2025/7815/0/H696-PCCS10584-LUXR-3
- Apr 22, 20261h 5m
Episode 34: Beyond the Clinic Walls with Dr. Nick Green-Breaking the Iron Ceiling With Data, Discipline, and the Science of Moving
In this episode, Mike Carrero sits down with Dr. Nick Green, a behavior analyst who traded the clinic for the gym. As the founder of BehaviorFit, Dr. Green is on a mission to prove that ABA isn't just for autism—it's the secret weapon for human performance. They dissect the "Autism Industrial Complex," explore why only 20% of adults worldwide meet physical activity guidelines, and reveal why your "lack of motivation" is actually an environmental design flaw. Whether you're a "reconditioning athlete" chasing former glory or a professional trying to find time for a treadmill, this conversation reframes fitness as a sustainable behavioral contingency.
- Apr 13, 202647 min
Episode 33: Who the Hell is That? The High-Tech Future of Autism Diagnostics with Dr. Cheryl Tierney, Chief Medical Officer at EarlyPoint
In this episode of the Rad N Bad Podcast, Sean Yocum and Mike Carrero sit down with Dr. Cheryl Tierney, Chief Medical Officer at EarlyPoint, to discuss a technological seismic shift in the world of autism evaluations.For decades, the diagnostic process has been a subjective, "bottlenecked mess" relying on antiquated tools (some still asking if kids can use a VCR!). Dr. Tierney introduces EarlyPoint, the first FDA-cleared eye-tracking biomarker designed to provide an objective "yes/no" diagnostic aid for children aged 16 to 95 months.Sean, Mike, and Dr. Tierney dive deep into how 12 minutes of passive video watching can capture tens of thousands of data points, comparing a child's social visual engagement to a normative sample with clinical precision.Key highlights include:Beyond the "Wait and See" Trap: How EarlyPoint helps pediatricians in rural America skip the two-year waitlist and diagnose within the medical home.The "Subjective-Objective" Problem: A critical look at why traditional tools like the ADOS can be influenced by clinician bias or cultural/language barriers.Proactive vs. Reactive: Using eye-tracking to identify neurodivergent learning patterns before "outward symptoms" even fully emerge, allowing for intervention during peak neuroplasticity.The "Billion-Dollar Fridge": The story of how this tech shrunk from the size of a refrigerator to a portable, handheld device.Neurodiversity & Eye Gaze: Clarifying that the goal isn't "training eye contact," but ensuring children don't miss vital social learning opportunities.Is technology finally catching up to the science of behavior? Join the guys as they vet the innovators turning the "Autism Industrial Complex" on its head.To better understand how EarlyPoint works, it tracks where a child focuses during social interactions. While neurotypical children often focus on "social anchors" like eyes and mouths to gather information, children with autism may focus on non-social or peripheral details, leading to different data clusters.https://earlipointhealth.com/
- Apr 3, 202638 min
Episode 32-Your Programming Sucks: How to Stop Chasing Milestones and Start Engineering Freedom
We need to talk about the "copy-paste" problem in our field. Across the industry, too many of us have become "milestone chasers"—clicking and dragging generic goals from standardized assessments into plans without ever considering the messy, beautiful reality of the family living them. An assessment is not a curriculum, and a milestone is not a program. If your intervention plan ignores the individual, you aren’t doing behavior analysis; you’re running an assembly line.In this episode, we’re tearing down the template. We discuss why we’ve become so obsessed with checking boxes that we’ve forgotten how to engineer behaviors that actually grant our clients their freedom.We’re diving into the "Three Pillars of Better Programming":The Roadmap: Why your goals must be justified 3, 5, and 10 years down the road, and how to build a roadmap that actually captures family buy-in.Domains vs. Targets: Why a score going up doesn't mean life is getting easier, and how to stop treating targets like ends rather than means.Generalization as a Design Constraint: Why generalization should never be an afterthought, and how to define "mastery" by how a skill survives after the therapist leaves the room.We’re done apologizing for how powerful this science is. It’s time to stop performing "circus tricks" in ideal conditions and start programming for the real world.
- Mar 23, 20261h 21m
Episode 31: The Billion-Dollar Jackpot- Is the "Autism Industrial Complex" Facing a Reckoning?
In this hard-hitting episode of the Rad N Bad Podcast, Sean Yocum and Mike Carrero dissect the explosive Wall Street Journal investigation that has sent shockwaves through the ABA industry: "The Boom in Autism Therapy Is Medicaid’s Fastest-Growing Jackpot."Sean and Mike pull back the curtain on a system they’ve long warned was "hollowing out." They tackle the "Gold Rush" in North Carolina and beyond, where private equity firms have allegedly traded clinical rigor for "capacity utilization" and "frozen marathons." From the $340,000-per-child billing scandals in Indiana to the "ghost supervision" of bloated caseloads, this is a "clinical autopsy" of a field at a breaking point.The duo doesn't stop at the headlines. They also analyze the Council of Autism Service Providers (CASP)'s defensive response, questioning whether proposed "policy guardrails" are a genuine fix or a silent admission of systemic failure.Key highlights include:The 40-Year-Old Ghost: Why a 1987 study is still being used to justify 40-hour work weeks for toddlers.EBITDA vs. Outcomes: How the "strip and flip" private equity model creates "RBT factories."The Documentation Crisis: Why 99% of billing in some states is being flagged as "improper."The Exit Strategy: Why Sean and Mike believe a quality ABA model should plan for its own ending from Day 1.It’s time to stop chasing ghosts and start building a model that empowers families instead of billing for seat time. Let’s get radical.
About Rad N Bad Podcast
The Rad N' Bad Podcast by Sean Yocum and Michael Carrero isn’t your average ABA podcast, it’s a full-blown wake-up call. These two BCBAs from Hickory Learning Group are smashing through outdated norms and calling out the BS in the field. No fluff, no sugar-coating, just raw, unfiltered truth about what ABA should be. They challenge you to think, question the “why,” and push past complacency. If you're ready to disrupt the status quo and make this field better for clients and practitioners alike, buckle up, Rad N' Bad is here to raise hell and raise standards.
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