The Telepathy Tapes - Bonus Archipelago At The Treffert Center

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

In this bonus episode, we visit the Archipelago event held by the Treffert Center - the first and largest gathering of savants in the world. We meet two incredible born savants: Tony DuBlois, a completely blind musician who learned to play the piano at age two and now plays over 23 instruments. And Grant Marnier, an artist whose medium is also his muse - he crafts intricate paintings using recycled materials, most notably, puzzle pieces.Thank you to our Sponsors!Visit Quince.com/tapes for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Visit happymammoth.com and use code TAPES to get 15% off your entire first order.Save 20% Off Honeylove by going to honeylove.com/TAPES! #honeylovepod.Get 40% off your entire order at Lolablankets.com by using code TAPES at checkout. Experience the world’s #1 blanket with Lola Blankets.Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance.Visit Graza.co/TAPES and use TAPES to get 10% off your order.Use code TAPES at jonesroadbeauty.com to get a Free Cool Gloss with your first purchase! #JonesRoadBeauty #adVisit Tonetoday.com and use my code TAPES to get 20% off your first order.Visit FactorMeals.com/TAPES50OFF and use code TAPES50OFF to get 50% off your first box, plus Free Breakfast for 1 Year.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Treffert Studios hosted the world's first international gathering of savants at an event called the archipelago last July. Let's take a closer look at Treffert Studios. Here's the Treffert Center's medical director, child and adolescent psychiatrist, Jeremy Chapman. Because Dr. Treffert's work with savants involves by definition these beautiful creative gifts, artistic gifts, musical gifts, video. And so they were already thinking, we want to have a place where we can bring all this together, opening a studio and looking for ways to combine that with mental health. And we opened Draford Studios. We designed it from scratch. We knocked down the walls of this 8,500 square foot building to have a hybrid outpatient mental health clinic and creative production studio under one roof. I don't

know of any other place that has all of those together. And so we're always looking for ways to marry those two things. And we specifically hired clinicians who have a creative twist to them, a background in film or media or who know how to play guitar and stuff like that. So we have a really cool team now, and we have a totally unique space to serve the savants community of the world. Dr. Treffert's legacy of seeing Islands of Genius where others see limitation expands every day. The telepathy tapes was invited to visit the Treffert Studios for its first ever archipelago event. This historic event was the first official international gathering of savants in history, connecting many of the islands of Genius who worked with Dr. Treffert for years and sometimes decades

until his passing in 2020. The name referring to a collection of islands, because Dr. Trefford's book, Islands of Genius, referred to the phenomenon in which someone who has Savon Syndrome seems to have this island of intactness or genius in an otherwise somehow compromised brain. So we brought Islands of Genius together into an archipelago,

and we had an art gallery there, we had a live music performance. And we have a very special message for all of you. It's okay to be. different. Believe in yourself. That's Tony de Blois again, playing at the archipelago piano. That's Tony DeBlois again, playing at the Archipelago piano lounge for fellow savants and event guests. We had the pleasure of seeing this amazing community in action, showing artworks,

calculating equations, explaining the universe, playing music, and much more. We caught up with Tony and his mother, Janice, in between Tony's live sets. Tony was a preemie. He weighed a pound and three quarters of an ounce. he was born. I have a picture of him when he's six weeks old. I'm holding him. His arm is the same size as what my finger is. I was actually given a choice to let Tony Lipper die. Now we do gala's. We play a gala tonight at five o'clock. So first off, we're excited to see you perform again tonight at the Big Archipelago stage show. And you've played all over the world, right? Singapore twice, Taiwan, three times, Canada, and Limerick in Dublin, Ireland. And Lago,

goes to Nabudja, Nigeria, Beijing, Wuhan, San Juan, San Juan, China, between the Olympics and the Paralympics of China. Who'd you get to play for? Leonard Bernstein. I get to meet him. And the United Nations to New York. Tony weighed less than two pounds of birth. He's autistic and he's 100% blind.

Janice got him a toy piano when he was two years old, hoping it might help him to sit upright. But Tony did much more than that. He was doing twinkle, twinkle, twinkle, little star, and I recognized what he was playing. Then he was playing all the songs from all these music founties. After so quickly learning Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star and theme songs he heard from the television, Tony was not only sitting upright, he was beginning what would become a prolific career in music years before he could communicate verbally. He was performing music professionally by the age of nine. Now 51, Tony entertains internationally and can play 23 different musical instruments.

Yeah, 23 musical instruments and 11 different languages and 9 in 3.5.5. So, Tony, can you sing in other languages? Abriest my eyes in Spanish. Open my eyes. Abre my eyes, signor. Aura me out of there, Seigneur. Abre my eyes, signor.

By becoming passionate and learning the motions of playing musical instruments, Tony also learned how to do everyday tasks like brushing his teeth that had previously been an incredible motor challenge. Oh, with the violin, I used the bow. They had to use his music to be able to teach him. And because it was in his ed plan, they even had to rent a violin for him to do it to be able to brush his hair.

He got to take drum lessons for the up and down wrist motion. We played rock and roll 60s songs, but the Beatles. We did 50s and 60s music for the, for my recital. When Tony started undergraduate music studies at the prestigious Berkeley College of Music, he was still nonverbal. But eventually, he did learn to speak through song lyrics. Due to his mom's advocacy and love and the deep support from Dr. Treffert, he studied jazz improvisation and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1996, the first blind autistic student to do so. Tony, like a lot of the savants we met, is now a teacher himself, notably at the Vandercoq College of Music in Chicago.

I'm a visiting professor now. He's a visiting professor there. And I'm teaching the students about jazz improvisation. So I get up at 5.30 in the morning to go teach the students. Not only can Tony improvise through jazz music, but he has an incredible memory for music in many popular genres with a repertoire of over 10,000 songs and counting. He can play a song after hearing it only once and loves to do all request performances. So, Tony, what are some of the impressions that you do? I'm doing three Franks Sontra trivia.

shows with an 18-piece orchestra behind me. It's going to be a lot of fun. People can probably sit and have a drink, Mom. Enjoy some Sinatra. Tony and his mom, Janice, are incredibly close, and Janice's dedication, support, and love for her son is tangible in the room as they share memories of their incredible adventures together. Tony tells me things now about things that we did when he was little before he had language. Tony, do you remember Mrs. Keene? Do you remember Mrs. Killam. It was a babysitter than he had. Hot dogs. And I said, well, what do you remember about her?

She fed me hot dogs with sweet potatoes and apples in him. I said, Tony, I used to make that for you. I'd put it on in the crock pot before I went to work. And Mrs. Killum used to feed you that. The throughline and the headline of all the conversations we had with the savants at the archipelago was the unbelievable advocacy and encouragement. from their families. When things were complicated or difficult or disconnected, they didn't turn away, they didn't give up, they leaned in. And whatever people can think of a song with that word in that song,

play that song with the word in it. Hmm. How about coffee? Well, the coffee song by Frank Sinatra. Way down among Brazilians, coffee beans grow by the billion, because he's got to find those extra cups to fill. They got an awful lot of coffee in Brazil. You can't get cherry soda because they got to fill their quota and the way it things are. Janice's book about Tony, some kind of genius, was published in 2005. We asked Janice if she had any words for those facing the challenges that she and Tony have overcome. And listen to their kids. Tune into what your kid wants.

And tune in what they want. Sometimes they made something that does. make any sense, but try to figure out what it is. When it doesn't make sense, try to figure out what it is. In other words, it's assigned to tune in even more. People like Tony Diploie. Oftentimes, they're born with a disability and some undiscovered gift. And it's a matter of chance that they get exposed to the thing that they can thrive in.

And so we didn't want to rely on that. So we have now outfitted our facility, Treffert Studios, with all the creative stuff we can. So come on by. We'll sit you down in front of the piano. We'll sit you down in front of watercolors. Let's see what your gifts are. And that's what we do with our patients, but also with the savants who reach out to us. Because of the Trefford Center's insistence on tuning in and connecting, where others see disconnection and challenges,

many of the savants in the Treffert archipelago have become art and music superstars. And their lives were literally transformed. by someone believing in them and leaning in. What seemed like sometimes nonsensical and destructive behaviors would become amazing examples of humanity and what we're capable of at our best. When I was like four or five years old, I would have an obsession for paper,

coloring, drawing, tearing paper for hours and hours. This is visual artist Grant Manier, also known as Jigsaw Grant. At the archipelago, he's exhibiting the artworks with his mother and collaborator, Julie Koy. So as Grant would tear up, paper, he would tear everything and he would get in trouble. And they'd ask me to make him stop tearing. Julie, then a seamstress, taught Grant how to use scissors. And eventually, instead of

tearing paper, he started cutting intricate shapes, which led to his first collage artwork, The Son of God. I showed it to my mom, and she loved it. And then I just created more and more. And eventually, it turned into a business, the business it is today. So what are you most known for today as an artist? I am known as the eco-friendly artist. That means I reduce, reuse, recycle, and then upcycle paper materials to create beautiful eco-art masterpieces. Grant's paper tearing blossomed into a prolific career, and he's now known for his master award-winning collages.

And Grant, now you use a lot of recycled materials in your works, right? Wallpaper, posters, nowadays I can use beads, jewelry. But what I'm best known for, my signature mark is using recycled puzzles. What I do with puzzles is I'd like to peel the prints off of them one at a time. so they're nice and paper thin. Jigsaw Grant and Julie now teach other kids like Grant how to make earth-friendly art and how the art-making process can grow and heal.

They collaborate making children's books together. Yeah, we write children's books too. Grant's my illustrator and I'm the author. A lot of them are based off our friends. The message we are trying to convey is that it's okay to have challenges because there's always a way to overcome them. And an animal to make you feel good.

We sold over 20,000 books. Then we wrote one with Dr. Temple Grandin. And that one's about autism. and Dr. Temple Grandin has taught me the different ranges. So she calls them fully verbal, partially verbal, nonverbal. Everyone had their story to tell. So an animal is connected to a person here. This is Tony, who's actually here today playing the piano.

Another challenge that Grant and Julie faced recently was Grant's cancer diagnosis. In 2021, Grant was diagnosed with Hutchkin lymphoma cancer, almost stage three. For me, it just was one day of screaming and crying because I knew it was. We worked so hard, and he was still young. I mean, 24, I think you were at the time. And then we went to the SSM Cancer Center, and they took care of Grant. He was tired after each chemo, but never got sick. So we used a lot of tuning forks, meditation, frequency healings, and we did it.

And everybody who was praying for Grant as well. I would say in the six months process, Grant was cured within three months. Starting the year with a wardrobe refresh, Quince has you covered with lux essentials that feel effortless and look polished. They're perfect for layering, mixing, and building a wardrobe that lasts. Their versatile styles make it easy to reach for them day after day. Quince has all the staples covered from soft Mongolian cashmere sweaters that feel like designer pieces without the markup to 100% silk tops and skirts for easy dressing up.

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You'll receive two bottles of extra virgin olive oil, sizzle for cooking, and drizzle for finishing with an extra kick of bold flavor. So head to graza.com and use tapes to get 10% off and get cooking on your next chef-quality meal. Working with my art is like a form of therapy to me. It's like meditation. Once I start and I just get into the art work, I can be doing it for hours and hours. And by the time I look up, I'm like, when do you get dark outside? We have a program called Grant Gives Back. That's therapy for us to give back. And he's raised over a half a million dollars with his art for special needs, wheelchairs, hearing aids, equine therapy, scholarships. Another program that we have is called The Voices of Inclusion. And we do voiceovers. And we have. And we have, we have. have people, those with disabilities, and not help us with the voices of these characters. And our goal is to either a network series or a streaming series and using the voices of our people, not AI voices because our people are authentic. You can't make those voices up the way our people

speak for themselves. And that is my goal called the Voices of Inclusion. Grant has a professional tape, voiceover tape, and he's quite a character himself. Basically, I'd just like to say, my autism does not define me. I define my autism through my talents and skills. And I hope you all will feel the same way, too, whether it's autism or anything else in challenge you have. The Islands of Genius that we met at the Treford Archipelago validate that neurodivergency is a transformative strength. He has a great body of artwork, and we want to help him get a cartoon about Grant the Jigsaw giraffe and friends, where they each have a different disability,

such as autism, et cetera. And I would love nothing more than to help any platform we have give him exposure so that he can find more clients and he can become financially independent. These people have very specific dreams and goals, and they deserve to have those things met, and we have the tools now to tell their stories to the world and to carry on Dr. Truffert's legacy,

his impact on people's lives, and at the very least, if we can help them and they could help others. We hear from people. They want guidance from us. And of course, they want to connect with others who can relate to them. Because it can be very isolating, actually. It's cool. But when you can't relate and you don't know how to play into your child's gift in the school system,

or perhaps you're an adult, all of a sudden you wake up, you have a new skill and it's consuming your attention in your life, it can be very lonely and confusing. So they ask us. I call myself the senior savant because I've been with Dr. Trefford for long enough, almost 18 years to where I've seen a few go, a few die, if some new ones come in. That's Acquired Savant musician Derek Amato, also in attendance at the archipelago, sharing his story with a live audience.

If there was a circus of savants, I would be the guy in the red coat up front, screaming at all the people getting ready to sit down to watch the show telling them what's about ready to begin. and you're in for a ride, right? Welcome to the show. And it's the behind-the-scenes stuff that's amazing, the stuff that the general population doesn't see. Those are the moments that I think everybody would even like more so

than the performance, the stage performance, you know? That's so much in itself that that is the show to me. We had a little informal gathering at dinner the night before the event, and we had about 20 or 30 of these savants together in a room. man, it was surreal. And the way that they connected with one another and felt one another and spoke to one another, it was like we, we, the Treffert Center team looked at each other and we were like, the event, the concert, the gallery is just the icing on the cake.

We brought these people together so they could meet each other. And when they did meet each other, we could just see, you know, the looks on their faces, the hugs that they gave each other and the tears that were streaming down their faces, like they had found their people in a way that was, you know, never before. It was so validating, I think, for them. Of course, all of them virtually had been called crazy or doubted or not believed is that when you find people who can validate you in a world where you've been, maybe ostracized or doubted or just alone and disconnected from the rest of humanity because of their experience of the world. And that's why I tell these new savants,

man, when they're telling the world, hey, I'm here and this is my gift. I tell them, get ready, man. You've got to prepare for some of these rock throwers because it hurts for a second. There's this new kid that came into the circle, a couple of them. And every time I would get near him, I would start crying. He would start crying. His dad would start crying. People around us started crying. And I'm like, what in the hell is happening?

There was such an exchange and energy. We wouldn't even let each other go. Like when we hugged, it was like we just melted into. one, but I found that there was a strand of empathy, this relationship and this common denominator with a lot of these other people that have experienced some sudden genius or what have you. We always want to test one another because we're always, we're fascinated with each other's gifts, right? So he wants me to play piano for him. I want him to calculate dates at lightning speed. So, you know, I was so worked up. The only thing I could think of to say to him after that

two-minute hug was my mom was born December 31st, 1943, and I need you to tell me what day that was quickly. And he said, that was a Saturday, Derek. And I said, welcome home, kid. There's so much there to unearth. That's kind of where I'm going with all of this, is I'm trying to unearth the possibilities of the human behavior, the human potential. I'm still fortunate to be articulate. I'm still very lucky to use parts of my brain that are probably obviously damaged, but still make some sort of sense through life as we go. So I do feel like that ringleader guy, you know? It was truly, I mean, it was wild. Seeing them meet each other for the first time, so inspiring. And just when we saw these people look at each other, hug each other, tear streaming down their faces,

it was absolutely magical because they connected in a way that we knew none of us could understand. How many islands of genius could be undiscovered out there who could one day join the archipelago? And how many did Dr. Treffert estimate could be out there? You know, he felt like there were fewer than 100. That's the one thing that I actually disagree with my mentor about, I think there are a lot more. And I think with the advent of social media and the internet and all this stuff, we're going to start finding them. By the way, Dr. Trefford in his day was handwriting letters, you know, correspondences with people. Then he had email towards the end of his career.

now we have social media where people can reach out to us and send us a link. Now, if you Google the term Savant syndrome, you'll probably find us, right? Dr. Trefford is the guy for that. Unfortunately, he passed away, by the way, shortly after I took the job. So he never even got to see Trefford Studios. We are all carrying on his legacy here. And now that we hear from Savants and we have Trefford Studios, we can invite them and sit down and try and understand and discover the extent of their gifts from all around the world. We've now had people from Nigeria, reach out to us, and they found us online, and they're really interested in what we do. And so we're starting to craft a savant evaluation protocol, which is a comprehensive way of going,

really, modality by modality, and see what are the extent of this person's gifts. Not because we're trying to give them trophies and, you know, give them, you know, official certification. It's just more about understanding the brain and guiding them. Because after we do an evaluation, we can then sit with the family and the individual and say, okay, here are some ways that you could maybe build off of that, you know, so the person can gain meaningful employment that's rewarding to them. Or maybe just here's another person that you might like to connect to it. It would help us connect them with each other, which is the most important thing.

And then lastly, it would help the world learn about these amazing people and take in their music. Even Savant syndrome is not really a household term necessarily for many people. And so people have no idea that this even is happening or that people with these gifts are out there. The world should see this stuff. It's beautiful. This is a gift that you should be sharing with the world. And given the huge success of the Archipelago 2025, the Treffert Center continues their outreach, advocacy, research, and community building and plans to make Archipelago a yearly event getting bigger and better every year. Keeping Daryl Treffert's vision alive, he saw islands of genius where others saw limitation. Treffert's legacy reminds us that possibility lives everywhere. We are trying to identify and connect and elevate the world's savant community.

So we'll be back next year and hopefully be bigger and better. Before we left the archipelago event, we asked Grant and Tony if they had any inspirational words of advice to others on how to make their creative dreams come true. Let's see, my advice, if you want to be an artist, whether it's working with paint, work with paper like I do, or maybe it's a different form of art like music, music, digital art. I would suggest practice first, then get your name out there, enter competitions and contests, get your name out more, make a portfolio. Start with the small stuff and then work it, work it, and eventually you will reach a success. Well, we're going to keep dreaming it,

and we're going to keep doing it. Be yourself to parents out there. Well, keep them on their dreams and keep them going where they're going.