August 2026 Preview

Summary

ABA Inside Track – August 2026 Preview

Date: August 5, 2026
Hosts: Robert Perry Crews, Jackie McDonald, Diana Perry Crews
Location: Hotel room, Utica, NY (during UCP Upstate Caring Partners Compassionate Care Conference 2026)

---

Episode Overview

This preview episode gives listeners a sneak peek at what's coming up on ABA Inside Track for August 2026. The hosts—Rob, Jackie, and Diana—share updates from the Compassionate Care Conference, highlight the upcoming episode lineup (including legislative policy in behavior analysis and their annual book club), and chat about their professional and personal summer activities. The episode maintains a relaxed, travelogue vibe, as the team records on location at a conference.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Location, Conference Context, and Special Recording Circumstances

• The team records together in a hotel room in Utica, NY, attending the UCP Upstate Caring Partners Compassionate Care Conference (CCC) 2026.
• Acknowledges the possible difference in audio quality due to the setting.
  Notable moment:

"If you say the audio sounds a little weird, this [is] because we are in a hotel room...all of us fabulous. We're all in a hotel room in fabulous Utica, New York..." (00:27 - Rob)

2. Conference Reflections & Upcoming Bonus Content

• Gratitude expressed to UCP Upstate Caring Partners for the invitation.
• Mention of trivia and great conference talks.
• Tease of an upcoming bonus episode dedicated to conference takeaways and audio from poster sessions.
• Promise to dive deeper into conference highlights in a forthcoming dedicated episode.

"...we are going to have a full episode, a bonus episode where we discuss some of the things that we saw at the conference, some of the topics that came up and we're going to have some of our awesome poster all audio which we love to do at conferences." (01:46 - Rob)

3. August Episode Lineup

• Legislation and Policy in Behavior Analysis (Main episode for August)
  • Featuring Dr. Bill Ahern, notable for his role in Massachusetts licensure.
  • Discusses the challenges and process behind licensure policy.
  • Articles to be discussed:
    • "We Have a Behavior Analyst License Law. Can't We Relax Now?" by Borland et al. (Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2025)
    • "The Road to Licensure of Behavior Analysts in Texas: History and Lessons Learned" by Della Cruz et al. (Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2025)

  "...that is a discussion around legislation policy in behavior analysis...a listener choice episode...joined by Dr. Bill Ahern...to give his details on how that all went down..." (02:53 - Diana)

• Book Club Release:
  • The Body Keeps the Score by Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, previously only for Patreon subscribers, will be released on the main feed.
  • Opportunity for CEUs (Continuing Education Units) linked to the episode.

  "That was our last year book club, but it's now going to be free for everybody to listen to." (04:19 - Rob)

4. Behind-the-Scenes: Summer Schedule and Life Updates

• Balancing taking time off and managing podcast workload.
• Early recording with July guests to make summer breaks possible.
• Rob shares insights from running an RPG-based (Role-Playing Game) social skills group at summer camp, inspired by their recent therapeutic RPG episode with Danielle Yang.
  • Children showed increased empathy, choosing discussion over combat within the game.

  "...we tied experience for their characters to level up to following, you know, more empathetic choices...a couple kids who...spending a lot more time talking to the monsters..." (05:14 - Rob)

• Personal summer reading and interests (Rob reads Martha's Vineyard history books).
• Diana’s involvement in multiple book clubs, with playful chat about confusing upcoming book assignments.
  • ("The Opposite of Cheating" and "Defy Me" mentioned. 06:36-07:07)
• Jackie’s focus on teaching summer classes and prepping for the new academic year; shares excitement for upcoming summer break.
• Local highlight: Jackie’s tradition of visiting Donnelly’s Ice Cream in upstate NY ("the best ice cream you’ll ever get anywhere." (07:48 - Jackie))

5. Community and Listener Appreciation

• Heartfelt thanks to listeners who approached them at the conference, including long-time fans now serving as clinical directors.
• Acknowledges meeting new listeners and forming personal connections.
• The longevity of the podcast is reflected on with humor and gratitude.

"We have had people who are now, you know, clinical directors or things like, 'oh, my god, I loved your podcast when I was a practicum student,' which...I kind of crumble and turn to dust..." (08:41 - Rob)

• Encouragement for listeners to say hello at events and the joy of listener feedback.

"If you come up and say something nice to us, we promise we will say something nice back, because we will never get tired of being told, 'hey, it's nice you have a podcast'..." (09:11 - Rob)

6. Upcoming Initiatives

• Preview of website updates and planning for "Supervision September" and "Supervision October."
• Emphasis that the podcast continues rolling, despite vacation time.

"But the podcast game, it does not stop. It keeps rolling." (10:20 - Rob)

---

Memorable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On the reality of podcasting

  "Usually if you take time Off, all you're doing is shoving all your work into smaller week time so you can have some time off." (04:33 - Rob)

• On RPGs and Empathy

  "...we had a couple kids who came in pretty sure they were going to spend the whole week killing monsters, spending a lot more time talking to the monsters and seeing what was going on in their lives..." (05:44 - Rob)

• On podcast legacy

  "It was one thing when people did it, like, I just became a BCBA. But now we're getting people who've been in the field a long time who listen to our show." (08:38 - Rob)

• On community and support

  "Thank you to our listeners. We really appreciate you." (09:34 - Diana)

• On persistence

  "If you heard no one was listening to your podcast and you kept going, I can't imagine it would be definition of insanity." (09:51 - Diana)

---

Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:13–01:28: Welcome, explanation of episode focus, and conference context
• 01:43–02:53: Reflections on the Compassionate Care Conference and upcoming bonus content
• 02:53–04:19: August episode previews (policy & licensure, book club release)
• 04:33–07:41: Summer activity updates (work-life balance, research, book clubs, summer classes, and local food highlights)
• 07:41–10:20: Gratitude for listener engagement, funny podcast legacy reflections, upcoming changes and initiatives

---

Episode Summary

This preview episode blends a casual, friendly update format with professional previews. Highlights include gratitude for the ABA Inside Track community, sneak peeks at the August policy-focused episode and beloved book club, as well as tidbits about the hosts' professional and personal summer ventures—all delivered with the hosts' signature candid, humorous banter. The episode is especially valuable for listeners seeking both ABA content updates and a sense of community in the field.

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Hey everybody. Welcome to ABA Inside Track, a podcast that's like reading in your car, but safer. I'm your host, Robert Perry Crews and with me as always, are my fabulous co hosts.

[A]

Hey there, Rob. It's me, Jackie McDonald's and it's me, Diana Perry Crews.

[B]

Hello. Well, this is our Preview episode for August 2026. Usually on our show we pick a relevant topic to the field of behavior analysis, discuss it at length as well as some awesome research articles and then you know, sometimes a guest. But for the beginning of the month or the end of the month, if you're one of our awesome Patreon supporters, we do a little discussion about some of the things that are coming up in the month, what articles you should be looking at and then then some things about what we've been doing. So that's what this episode will be. And if you say the audio sounds a little weird, this because we are in a hotel room in all of us fabulous. We're all in a hotel room in fabulous Utica, New York because we are currently attending the compassionate care conference up here. The 2026 conference.

[C]

Yep. By UCP Upstate Caring Partners.

[B]

It's been a fabulous. It's not a weekend because it's only, it's only Friday right now.

[A]

Hey, it's a fabulous midweek conference.

[B]

Yeah, that's. You know what, I love a midweek conference. The weekend conference is like, ooh, I got a lot of stuff I gotta do. I don't know about time for this conference.

[C]

You're just so jet setting around. We even know what day it is.

[B]

No, it's just, it's hard, it's hard to know when you're in a different time zone. Except it's the same time zone when

[C]

normally feels like it is different.

[B]

Yeah. But anyway, we're having a fabulous time here. It's the last day of the conference so we're doing a little quick preview here. Now you might say, oh great, now they're going to tell us all about this awesome conference. Well, not exactly. Because while we're going to say it has been an awesome conference, we're very excited for the talks coming up later today we are going to have a full episode, a bonus episode where we discuss some of the things that we saw at the conference, some of the topics that came up and we're going to have some of our awesome poster all audio which we love to do at conferences. It's a great way to hear lots of kind of small studies or studies in the early stages or studies that are going to be scaled. So that's going to be coming out this August. So a little preview of the preview of what's coming out this month. So if you want to hear more about that, well, you're going to have to listen to that episode. But we will say thanks to UCP for inviting us. We did our trivia. There have been a lot of great talks and we'll get into a little more discussion on all of that in the fall. UCP CCC 2026 episode, which is going to be probably the first episode coming out this month. But Diana, what other episodes do we have coming out this August?

[C]

Ah, yes. Well, it is a little bit of a funky month, right? Because it's summer, it's August, and we also have a book club release. So we have one new episode coming out on the main feed, and that is a discussion around legislation policy in behavior analysis, where we spent a lot of time talking about licensure and it was a listener choice episode. So we're also going to be joined by Dr. Bill Ahern there, who was very instrumental in licensure in Massachusetts, to give his details on how that all went down, I guess you could say. But there's also two articles that will be discussed, and those are we have a Behavior Analyst License to Law Can't We Relax now by Borland, Wolzinski, Garcia, Cyback and Gotro. That was in Behavior analysis and practice, 2025 and the road to Licensure of Behavior Analysts in Texas History and Lessons Learned by Della Cruz, Borland, Johnson, Pedigook, Dylan, Tommen, Fritz and Krone. That was also in Behavior Analysis and practice, also in 2025. And then our book club released to the main feed where it had previously been hiding out on the patron feed for the last year is the Body

[B]

Keeps the score by Dr. Vander Kolk.

[C]

There you go.

[B]

That was our last year book club, but it's now going to be free for everybody to listen to. And if you're interested in getting CES for that episode, well, you certainly can. But. Or you can join us on Patreon if you're like, I don't want to wait a year next time. Great. Join us on our Patreon page. That's a great way to get those book clubs right away. Yeah. So it is kind of an interesting month, an interesting August. Now, one of the things I think, if you don't know about the making a podcast, is that even though we do try to make sure we take time off, usually if you take time Off. All you're doing is shoving all your work into smaller week time so you can have some time off. So we have fortunately been able to schedule enough things. We had a lot of our July guests we were able to meet with early. So we've all had a little bit of time off. And some of what we do in that time off is kind of for fun things with the family. Some of it's more of our continued practice. Like, speaking of which, we got to do. If you listen to our episode on therapeutic RPGs or RPGs and behavior analysis, one of the. With Danielle Yang, we took some of those ideas myself and a colleague in my district, and we put together a little RPG pilot group that we ran at a summer camp. And while our social validity questionnaire didn't get to be used because we didn't time out the adventure long enough, and we thought it was more fun for the kids to, you know, beat the evil wizard then to be like, we're gonna stop here, kids, so we can do a social validity survey, which children love. We sort of just did a quick asking of, but what did you think? Did you like it? And everyone was a huge fan. We saw some really great signs. We tied experience for their characters to level up to following, you know, more empathetic choices. And we did have a couple kids who came in pretty sure they were going to spend the whole week killing monsters, spending a lot more time talking to the monsters and seeing what was going on in their lives rather than, you know, pulling out their sword immediately. So some good signs there. So we're going to be continuing that work. So I've been doing a lot of RPG reading myself between. Kind of starting to get ready to prep for the next set of episodes coming to the conference here, and also just kind of trying to catch up on some other. Some other. Some other non aba. Reading a lot of Martha's Vineyard history books. Sort of my. My jam for this time of year. Jackie, Diana, what have you been up to? D. I kind of know what you've been up to, but you can, because I've been there for a lot of it because we're all home for the summer. What's everyone else been up to?

[C]

Am I telling you about books? I've been reading? I've been reading some books.

[B]

You read a lot of books?

[C]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm. Well, I'm in multiple book clouds, as you all know. So I've been working my way through some of those books. Books. And then I have a book for My workbook club that's upcoming, and it's called the Opposite of Cheating. Oh, and it's. Yeah, yeah.

[B]

Is it not cheating?

[C]

It's the other one.

[A]

Oh, no. We're supposed to read Defy Me.

[C]

You didn't read the updated email? Well, I was really excited to read the Opposite of Cheating, so that's too bad.

[B]

You can read multiple books.

[C]

I already bought it and everything.

[B]

Oh, well, that's the nice thing about book clubs is there's so many books to read.

[C]

Yep. So that's what. Maybe mostly what I've been doing. Nothing very exciting, I can promise you that.

[B]

Oh, okay. That's good. How about you, Jaggy?

[C]

Hi.

[A]

I've been working.

[B]

I know.

[A]

I work during the summer. I've been teaching classes and trying to get myself caught up so that I can get ready for fall. Classes end in two weeks, so.

[C]

Yay.

[A]

So by the time you hear this, I will be on summer vacation.

[B]

It is. It is fun to think of like this. It's like, oh, yeah, my trip to Utica to go to a conference is one of my vacations. I put in the schedule.

[A]

And today. Well, the best part of my summer is today I get to drive up to upstate New York and go to Memo's favorite ice cream place called Donnelly's Ice Cream. That's the best ice cream you'll ever get anywhere.

[B]

I was jealous when Jackie first mentioned that. I said, oh, there's one nearby. And it was like, no, you got to go up New York, two hours away.

[C]

There may also be one nearby.

[A]

Yes, but not a Donnelly's. There's only one Donnelly's Special.

[B]

Got to have your own special ice cream. It's. It's so true. Well, I think, you know, usually we do kind of an email. I think what we'd rather do right now, though, is give a huge shout out to anyone who came up to us at the conference to say thank you or that they were listeners to the show. We had some folks, you know, talking about specific episodes. I think we've definitely reached a point in how long we've had a podcast where I have had people who are now, you know, clinical directors or things like, oh, my good, I loved your podcast. When I was a practicum student, which, you know, my response is always, oh, my God, thank you so much. And then I kind of crumble and turn to dust. Because, you know, it was one thing when people did it, like, I just became a bcba. But now we're getting people who've been in the field A long time who listen to our show. They're graduate students.

[C]

That's fine. We've also been in the field a long time. We also met a lot of new people as well, who maybe didn't, you know, didn't listen to us for a long time. And that's great, too. I met lots of really cool folks at this conference, and I had a great time. Yeah.

[B]

I get to touch base with a few folks from one of my SBT communities of practice, one of whom I'd never met in person. I'd seen it a bunch of zooms, so now I got to see him a whole bunch of times. That was nice, too. So, yeah, so our email is just from people who come up and say nice things. And you know what? If you come up and say something nice to us, we promise we will say something nice back, because we will never get tired of being told, hey, it's nice you have a podcast or. Oh, you have a podcast. That's always fun.

[C]

I think what Rob means is there's no point in doing a podcast if no one is listening to it. Thank you to our listeners. We really appreciate you.

[B]

Well, not to. I don't want to. If you were interested in making a podcast for, like, two months that no one listens to you, go right ahead. I think after 10 years, if you heard no one was listening to your podcast and you kept going, I can't

[C]

imagine it would be definition of insanity.

[B]

Yeah, that would be. That would be. That would be a lot.

[C]

That would be a good. We. We have to talk about other mediating factors there.

[B]

You know, I love hearing the sound of my own voice, but, like, 10 years of doing it, I don't know, Even. Even I might get satiated there. Well, I think that's everything. We got our August episodes coming up. Oh, we're also working on some stuff behind the scenes, updating the website a little bit. Again, not as big a change as last time. So we've got. That we've got. Working on. We're starting to get ready for supervision. September.

[C]

October.

[B]

Yeah, a little bit. A little bit extra vacation time. But the podcast game, it does not stop. It keeps rolling. So look forward to hearing more about the UCP conference in our upcoming bonus episode. We've got our public policy episode with Dr. Ahern and last year's book club unlocked for everybody. Well, that's about it. So we got. We. We got. We got stuff we got to do, so we're gonna head on out, but please come back next week for the first of those porn filled episodes. Until then, keep responding. Bye.