Bøger af Joe Biel

Ever since he came out as autistic, people have been contacting Joe to share their stories and ask questions. The most common question by far: How do I find a romantic partner? Dr. Faith G. Harper, author of Unfuck Your Brain and Unfuck Your Intimacy joins autistic publisher and author Joe Biel to offer hard-won guidance on a wide range of topics about friendships, dating, and romance and answer a ton of questions. Autistic readers will find valuable answers and perspectives in this book.

During the Civil War, the enslaved Black crew of a Confederate ship was left to sleep on board overnight. Following a carefully laid plan, they picked up their families and sailed behind Union lines under a white flag, winning their freedom and capturing the ship for the north. Robert Smalls was their daring, 23-year-old leader. He went on to have a long, celebrated career as a soldier, businessman, investor, and politician, including five terms in congress. This is the story of a brilliant man who bucked the system and gained power not just for himself, but for his entire community.

Do you want to start a business? Or does your existing business feel stuck? Either way, this no-fluff workbook will walk you through the steps of planning and troubleshooting your enterprise. Publisher Joe Biel and bestselling author Dr. Faith G. Harper, co-authors of Unfuck Your Business, reunite to help you make your business idea viable, find your niche, and evaluate your growth and success. With the help of worksheets and exercises, you'll make sure the money adds up, plan your strategy for growth, hone your management skills, and work through common pitfalls like imposter syndrome and self-sabotage. Even if you've never run a business before and don't see yourself as a numbers person, you can succeed with the right tools. Work out your dreams on the page and then watch your hard work, critical thinking, and belief in your meaning and purpose make them come true!

Start and grow your successful business your wayUnlike any other small business guide out there, A People's Guide to Business contains 26 years of institutional wisdom and best practices that you can use no matter what field or type of business you are in. Offering rules like "respect the math," "no more accidents," and "believe in yourself," Biel takes a problem-solving approach to the actual issues small business owners face, like how to earn more than you spend and how and when to bring on a staff person (and how to manage them when you do). Biel translates and simplifies dozens of "essential" business books into one slim, jargon-free volume! Determine if you are suited for business, establish your niche, think like a small company, ensure your viability, build the thing, get to scale, understand your leverage, align the carrot and the stick, do management well, handle service and sales, solve the most common problems, evaluate your progress, and so much more.

In 2006, Joshua Ploeg and I found ourselves in Minot, North Dakota to put on the inaugural event at the Red Carpet, a brand new DIY venue. I played my films, he served the food, and that night we sold every single piece of merch. Mystified, I talked to the promoter. North Dakota is a flyover state. Don't treat the performers right and they'll never come back. I became fascinated with Minot and spent months researching their scene politics. Minot is a perfect little outpost of creative freedom, but also a cautionary tale of racism, alcoholism, and isolation.

If you're an autistic adult, there probably hasn't been a whole lot of guidance or community for you past the age of 18. Joe Biel writes about what it's like to be autistic. Dr. Faith writes about what it's like to care for autistic folks, based on her experience as a parent, friend, and therapist. The zine covers diagnostic criteria and how they play out in practice, what it means for autism to be a disability, and co-occurring symptoms, like depression and anxiety, and life skills and social skills that a neurotypical world doesn't always think to teach autistic people.

"Hey Jealousy," "Found Out About You"... most of the hits from the Gin Blossoms' 1992 breakout album, New Miserable Experience are credited to "D. Hopkins," but the mysterious songwriter isn't mentioned anywhere else in the album notes, or even on the band's website. Joe became fascinated with the forgotten story of Doug Hopkins, the band's co-founder and original songwriter, and delved into the history, scouring decades of old interviews and news articles to piece it together. It's a story of heavy drinking, creative genius, and fraught band relationships, ultimately ending in tragedy. This zine serves as a belated eulogy for Hopkins and a powerful parable about the very real stakes of the choices artists make about how to pursue their goals.

Throughout human history, dogs have performed service tasks for us. Some of the earliest documented cases occurred during the First World War. Do Not Pet: A Service Dog's Graphic Tail follows the story of one such service dog, Ruby, who gave the author Joe Biel mobility, health, and companionship through the most difficult years of his life. This book details their personal struggles with public awareness and accommodation, as well as celebrates their remarkable interspecies bond.

Do you have a passion that you want to obsess about in a love letter to the world? In this new edition of Microcosm's popular DIY guide to zine-making, Joe Biel updates the information provided in the first edition (edited by Biel and the late and great Bill Brent) to address zine making in today's digital and social-media-obsessed world. Covering all the bases for beginners, Make a Zine! hits on more advanced topics like Creative Commons licenses, legality, and sustainability. Says Feminist Review, "Make a Zine! is an inspiring, easy, and digestible read for anyone, whether you're already immersed in a cut-and-paste world, a graphic designer with a penchant for radical thought, or a newbie trying to find the best way to make yourself and your ideas known." Illustrated by an army of notable and soon-to-be-notable artists and cartoonists, Make a Zine! also takes a look at the burgeoning indie comix scene, with a solid and comprehensive chapter by punk illustrator Fly (Slug and Lettuce, Peops). Part history lesson, part how-to guide, Make a Zine! is a call to arms, an ecstatic, positive rally cry in the face of TV show book clubs and bestsellers by celebrity chefs. As says Biel in the book's intro, "Let's go!"

"How do you start and run a successful business despite the odds? This unique business guide teaches you practical-alongside emotional-intelligence and coping-skills that you need in order to overcome internal barriers to success no matter what type of business you are in. Joe Biel draws on 26 years of business ownership and management experience to walk you through how to think like a business owner and keep your focus on what's most important. Dr. Faith Harper provides vital skills that aren't often lauded in business books, such as communicating your boundaries, overcoming imposter syndrome, and more"--

In the 1960s through 1980s, the Black Panther Party rose up throughout the United States, envisioning a world without systemic racism and police violence. This is the story of Portland, Oregon's chapter of the Party, told from original interviews, first-hand accounts, and extensive research, including police surveillance documents. This account shows a vivid picture of neighborhood activists determined to improve their community by creating their own social services, and wildly succeeding--despite the best attempts of police, city officials, and media to paint them as violent extremists, and to spy on, infiltrate, and violently suppress their activities. Portland's Black Panther chapter innovated healthy free breakfasts for children in poverty, the longest-running Panther free health clinic, the Panthers' first dental clinic, and a powerful system of self-directing neighborhood associations. Joe Biel's account shows that the Portland chapter's successes resound to this day, with current programs for free breakfasts in schools, Portland's strong neighborhood associations, and even the Oregon Health Plan owing their existence to Black Panther initiatives. Despite a racist city hall and police force, Black Panthers in Portland persisted, outlasting most branches in the United States and permanently changing the city for the better. All author proceeds are being donated to the movement.

Just about every breakthrough discovery and some of the most innovative inventors in the history of the world have been autistic--or at least, looking back, experts have strongly suspected they were. From Len Bosack, who invented the hardware for computers to share information, to Satoshi Tajiri, inventor of Pokémon, to Ignaz Semmelweis, who discovered that hand washing kills germs. Today's societal stigma against autism is misplaced. The title, playing on the absurd myth that vaccination causes autism (with the underlying assumption that it's a disease that could or should be cured), points out that many of the scientific and cultural advances we take for granted and rely on are the direct result of the hard work, outside-the-box thinking, and singular focus of neurodiverse minds. Learn about the accomplishments of such unique individuals as Marie Curie, Benjamin Banneker, Alfred Kinsey, and more in this collection of short biographies.

The R-word has been used against us as hate speech for decades. Neurotypicals have tried to dictate our motives, experiences, and words without stepping back to look at how taking the word away does nothing to take away their attitudes behind it. While leftist culture has abandoned the word "retarded," we are still treated with the same hatefulness and discrimination implicit in that word. It's time to own this word for ourselves. Queer punks were told that they would be accepted as soon as they acted like straight people. Autism now occupies a similar place in the public consciousness at this moment: no one understands it and The Borg demand our assimilation! Don't Be Retarded offers exposition on neurotypicals' neurophobia and the frequent claim that they are supportive of #ActuallyAutistic people...as long as we act like they do. These stories of overcoming and disputing myths will become the roots of the new autistic pride movement and the people who have suffered under the R-word should own it.Featuring work by Temple Grandin and others.

The life expectancy of autistic people is 36 years old. The most likely cause of this is suicide. Autistic people are being killed in massive numbers by the disability of how society treats us.This zine collects stories of people who have defied these odds and lived past 36. It shares wisdom for how we did it and offers narrative about both what that process was like as well as tips and important things to understand if you care about one of us.More importantly and perhaps surprisingly, the most effective way to reduce suicide is to talk about it. This way people who are having suicidal feelings can normalize talking about it with you instead of the fear of bringing it up. Talking about suicide does not increase risk or efforts. It's the one true way to save lives.

In the 1890s, bicycling was a cultural activity for the wealthy elite, with a bicycle costing about twenty weeks of a laborer's pay. And even if you were to somehow acquire one, you were most likely going to land face-first on the gravel roadway. There were strict cultural norms and bicyclists were painted as scofflaws in the media. Kittie Knox, a teenage Black girl, began making headlines in her hometown of Boston, showing up in homemade tailored suits while most participants had expensive, specialized clothing. Knox soon took home a first prize and was bolstered to attend the League of American Wheelmen's national event in Asbury Park, NJ. The only problem, of course, is that Kittie was absolutely not welcome. The League had recently passed the color bar, saying that only white people could join the organization. But Kittie showed up anyway, turned heads, made her mark, and changed bicycling forever. In this excellent, deep-research piece full of cultural analysis, you can see how Knox's actions continue to affect cycling today.

From Chick-Fil-A to the Boston Tea Party, Nike to Women's Suffrage in the U.S., United Farm Workers to the Woolworth's Lunch Counter, boycotts have been an instrumental way to push the needle and change the world from the ground up. This zine distinguishes between virtgue signaling and boycotts and how to channel the lessons from history to change the world in your own movements by building effective coalitions and creating public sympathy for them. Read up and you'll be along with the wild ride of history as well as tips from those who were successful about how to be the change that you want to see!

The first time that I met my favorite autistic mentee, she walked right up to me, declaring "You don't look like prey!" We discussed at length how we are both consistently perceived as vulnerable from our appearances, body language, and mannerisms. I had never thought about this as a trait of autism until I began to research the relationships of crime statistics and autism to find that we are frequently victims. When I looked up the meaning of "getting taken advantage of," I had a startling discovery. The phrase has two components, someone using you unfairly for their own benefit and you being complicit and accepting in this dynamic. According to this definition, being robbed on the street is not being "taken advantage of." While everyone experiences these types of encounters, it seems that so many neurodiverse people are taken advantage of because they are easily fooled into being complicit in these exchanges. This zine is a forum of advice and stories to explain the neurodiverse experience so that we can be seen as real, whole people. One theme that kept coming up in conversations with neurodiverse people as "being taken advantage of." Every neurodiverse person seems to be a survivor of abuse, whether that be emotional, financial, sexual, physical, or mental. These stories humanize those experiences and provide context, humor, and real solutions for how to overcome them. Ultimately, living in our society it becomes difficult not to internalize ableism and see ourselves as lesser, rather than just different.

Minot may only be the fourth largest city in North Dakota, but it's a key player in the punk ecosphere. Home to the longest continuous scene in the Dakotas, it has long served as an important stop for touring bands. Local teens grow up, start bands, and instead of moving to larger cities, take the reigns on their scene to keep the magic going. From finding venues to booking shows, they strengthen the community by showing each other and younger generations that life can truly be what you make of it.

Neurodiversity occupies a similar place in the public consciousness as gay rights did in the 1970s: most people on the outside don't understand it and The Borg demand our assimilation! A necessary contribution to the dialogue around neurology, this zine features advice and exploratory narratives about how to accept the neurodiverse experience. Even the less divergent can understand us and see us as real, whole people. Featuring comics, narrative, advice, and origin stories that all teach how to better interact/collaborate/interface with us, this zine is the beginning of a social movement towards a future where people can be treated like, well, people. We find neuroatypical people inspiring and we think you could learn from our stories too!

Plan out your publishing empire, from mission to budgets, with this workbook companion to Joe Biel's A People's Guide to Publishing. A great resource for visual thinkers, note-takers, and anyone without a photographic memory, this little book will help keep your visions on track and hold you accountable to your goals. Because pursuing your meaning and purpose depends on keeping track of the details!

What's it like to be autistic? As many as one in forty-five people live that reality every day, but our culture remains full of myths, stigma, and dangerous misunderstandings of this type of neurodiversity. This guide to life on the autism spectrum is a must-read for autistic adults, their friends, coworkers, partners, and parents--and for anyone who wants to understand the experiences of many people they meet every day. Joe Biel, who was diagnosed as an adult, writes about what it's like to be autistic, joined by the bestselling Dr. Faith G. Harper who speaks from her experience as a parent, friend, and therapist to autistic people. Their real talk and accessible language discuss a wide range of topics, including the diagnostic criteria for autism and how they play out in practice, what it means for autism to be a disability, and co-occurring conditions like depression and anxiety. They answer many frequently asked questions from neurotypicals, and offer some basic life and social skills that the world doesn't always think to explicitly teach autistic folks. Most of all, they affirm the many strengths of the autistic brain and point the way to a world where autism is just another way of being.

Want to write but the words won''t come? Do you have a lot to say but don''t know how to write it so people will read it? Do you struggle with anxiety, procrastination, or feeling like an imposter around your writing? Microcosm''s two most prolific authors teach you their tricks of the trade in this no-nonsense, practical guide to the craft of being a writer. Learn skills like setting and sticking to goals, communicating effectively with your writing, having fun while writing, working with an editor, and creating reader-oriented work.

Have you made choices you regret, grown away from your values, damaged your relationships, or hurt yourself and people you care about? It's never too late to choose accountability, change your behavior, and become the person, friend, partner, and/or parent you know you can be. Figure out where you went wrong, explore what you want to change, and get back on track with the exercises in this workbook. Can be used as a companion to How to Be Accountable, and is designed to stand alone. Whether you want to quit smoking, stop lying, or figure out how to build the stable life, career, and relationships that have always seemed out of reach, you'll find these step-by-step tools eye-opening and practical.

Accountability is an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility for and to repair the harm caused by one''s actions. It features prominently in our relationships, personal lives, and professional lives. Everything from stealing money from work to lying to a friend to making a mistake at school that caused someone else to get in trouble to pressuring your spouse into having sex when they aren''t interested to murdering a stranger on the street each require accountability; albeit dramatically different kinds.

Every autistic person is capable and worthy of having happy, healthy, fulfilling relationships. This workbook takes you step-by-step through getting to know your own wants and needs and engaging with others whose wants and needs are compatible. Exercises include evaluating your relationship history, figuring out what you want in your relationships and what steps you need to take to achieve your goal, expressing your needs and boundaries, and so much more.

In 1996, everything about Joe Biels life seemed like a mistake. He was 18, he lived in Cleveland, he got drunk every day, and he had mystery health problems and weird social tics. All his friends lives were as bad or worse. To escape a nihilistic, apocalyptic worldview and to bring reading and documentation into a communal punk scene, he started assembling zines and bringing them in milk crates to underground punk shows. Eventually this became Microcosm Publishing. But Biels head for math was stronger than his ability to relate to people, and it wasnt until he was diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome that it all began to fall into place. This is the story of how, over 20 years, one person turned a litany of continuing mistakes and seeming wrong turns into a happy, fulfilled life and a thriving publishing business that defies all odds.