Depresh Mode with John Moe

Kristin Hersh is an acclaimed and accomplished musician and songwriter through her solo work and as part of the bands Throwing Muses and 50 Foot Wave. When Kristin Hersh was young, her father, Dude (that’s what everyone calls him), taught her some basic chords on the guitar. And that was fine but to Kristin, Dude was just showing her the red, blue, and green chords whereas she wanted to learn, like turquoise, burgundy, and magenta chords. Synesthesia has always been part of Kristin’s approach to music, she sees sound as color. Another more alarming aspect of her music was that for many years she didn’t really remember performing. She was mentally present between songs and all the rest of her day but when it came time to play the song, it was like someone else was doing it while Kristin just went... elsewhere.We talk about those phenomena as well as trauma, car accidents, babies, misdiagnosed bipolar disorder, and her journey of mental health discovery.Kristin’s web site - https://www.kristinhersh.com/Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John’s acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepressionFind the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Jason Kander had heard of post-traumatic stress disorder. He just didn’t think he had it. After all, he hadn’t been in any firefights while stationed in wartime Afghanistan, he had merely worked as an intelligence officer. And even though that job put him in positions of tremendous vulnerability where he may have to kill or be killed in an instant, it never occurred to him that he was experiencing trauma.So when Jason got back stateside and remained hypervigilant, was destroyed by night terrors, patrolled his house with a gun, and was generally a mess, he figured it was something that would soon go away. As he waited for that to happen, he climbed the ranks of Democratic politics, eventually being told by Barack Obama that he should consider running for the highest office in the land.But you can’t run from mental illness forever. It catches you. It caught Jason in the middle of a race for Mayor of Kansas City. That’s when he hit bottom and got help. It’s a story told in his new book, Invisible Storm: A Soldier's Memoir of Politics and PTSD.Get your copy of Jason's book, Invisible Storm: A Soldier's Memoir of Politics and PTSD, wherever books are sold. Listen to Majority 54, Jason's podcast with Ravi Gupta, wherever fine pods are cast. Visit Jason Kander's website at JasonKander.com. Follow Jason on Twitter @JasonKander and on Instagram @jasonkander.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John’s acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepressionFind the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

People are many things. Tabitha Soren became famous for her conversations with star musicians of the 90’s during her stint on MTV News. But that’s not who she is anymore. Tabitha is, among many things, a mother grieving the loss of her daughter, Dixie, in a 2021 car accident. She talks about the challenge of having to come up with words to talk about Dixie and what her family has been through in the last year and a half. And she talks about the inspiration she stills draws from the life Dixie led. Tabitha is also a successful and acclaimed artist, working within the medium of photography to create pieces that are vibrant, complex, and multi-layered in both the literal and figurative sense.And yeah, she is still the same person who had a front row seat to important musical moments. She fills us in on what it was like to be an extra in the Beastie Boys’ “Fight For Your Right” music video. It involved cream pies that were far from fresh.For more information and Tabitha's photography, visit her website at TabithaSoren.com. Follow Tabitha on Twitter @tabithasoren and on Instagram @tabithasoren.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John’s acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepressionFind the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, MD, MBA, is serving his second non-consecutive term as U.S. Surgeon General, having previously served under President Obama. Dr. Murthy’s office has issued a Framework for Mental Health & Well-Being in the Workplace. It’s a set of guidelines aimed at reducing burnout at work and promoting positive mental health:1. Protection from Harm2. Connection and Community3. Work-Life Harmony4. Mattering at Work5. Opportunity for GrowthBut the framework isn’t really aimed at employees as much as it is aimed at employers. Management has the power to create better environments, retain more employees, attract new ones, and increase productivity.We talk with the Surgeon General about the challenge and opportunity employees and employers face and how realistic these goals are. We also get into the effect of social media on our collective mental health and the ongoing problem of loneliness in America.Read the Surgeon General's Workplace Well-Being framework in full here: www.hhs.gov/surgeongeneral/priorities/workplace-well-being/index.htmlThank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John’s acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepressionFind the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

If you’re a fan of the podcast Song Exploder, and a whole lot of people are, you know that it’s all about creativity. A musician walks the audience through the components of their song and the inspirations and decisions that went into forming those parts as they came together as a whole. Meanwhile, Hrishikesh Hirway, creator of the show, drops in separated tracks so you can follow the story. It’s somewhat surprising then that Hrishi, a musician himself, was unable to write a song for years, even during the run of his show that so many other people find inspirational. Any idea he would get would be shot down by the negative voices in his brain, which told him that anything he made was bound to suck, that he had no business even attempting music. Finally, an invitation came from musician Jenny Owen Youngs to collaborate on a song for her podcast about Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The pressure was off and Jenny’s belief in Hrishi’s talent was enough to break through those horrible voices.Hrishikesh Hirway has a new single, Still Dreaming, out October 19th, and he’s on tour with Jenny Owen Youngs.For music, tour dates, podcasts, and more information, visit Hrishikesh Hirway's website at hrishikesh.co. Follow Hrishi on Twitter @HrishiHirway and on Instagram @hrishihirway.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John’s acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepressionFind the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

A lot of people think of clinical depression as a condition wherein the patient lies in bed immobilized with sadness and despair. And sure, it can present that way. But depression can show up in a lot of other ways too, including road rage, which John details in a harrowing and darkly funny chapter of his memoir. Learn why frat bros in fancy trucks set off a potentially dangerous episode at the city dump.We also hear about John finally getting help for his depression at the urging of his wife after a great deal of resistance. John experiences the unexpected joy and exhilaration of being told he has a chronic mental illness.And we check in on a role-playing game in the Dungeons & Dragons tradition that’s helping teenagers navigate therapy.John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepressionLearn more about Mary Devorak and Dungeons & Dragons therapy here: https://taggsummit.org/using-rpgs-with-family-systems/Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

From a very early age, Kevin Love was great at sports. He had the talent, the size, and, most of all, he loved playing basketball. In this way, he was just like his father, Stan, who played in the NBA long ago. But with high achievement comes more pressure than Kevin was ready to handle and depression and anxiety came calling. As Kevin’s career progressed - scholarship player at UCLA, 5th overall pick in the NBA draft, All-Star selections, an NBA championship - he waited for the next big achievement to solve his mental health problems. He didn’t realize that mental health doesn’t work that way. It took an on-court panic attack during a game against Atlanta to get him the help he finally needed. Now, 34 and a respected veteran in the league, he’s telling his story in order to help players and non-players alike. Find out more about Kevin's mental health advocacy work by visiting KevinLoveFund.org.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

You Are Not Alone: the NAMI Guide to Navigating Mental Health is a deep and thorough look at mental health and mental illness as they are experienced by people from all walks of life. The book’s author, Dr. Ken Duckworth, medical director of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, interviewed 130 people who have dealt with trauma, depression, psychosis, OCD, and just about any other mental disorder you can think of. He hadn’t intended to talk to so many but it was all too fascinating to stop. He says it was only a book deadline that prevented him from talking to 130 more. Ken contends that there are two kinds of experts: the ones who get advanced degrees and career achievements in psychiatry and psychology and the ones who become experts by living through mental health situations.In this interview with Depresh Mode, Ken talks about the vast knowledge and wisdom we can gain from one another and how the new societal openness about mental health is creating a better world.We also talk about Bigfoot.Get your copy of You Are Not Alone: the NAMI Guide to Navigating Mental Health wherever books are sold. Learn more about the National Alliance on Mental Illness by visiting nami.org.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Eating disorders are, unfortunately, pretty common. It’s also pretty common to experience shame and anxiety about them and thus suffer in silence. Annie Weisman is a veteran playwright and television writer and producer. From her late teens to age 30, Annie dealt with bulimia. She was binging and purging and not telling anyone. Even after she got help for the condition (she now considers herself to be recovered), she kept quiet about that part of her history. That is, until she made a TV show called Physical, which debuted last year. In this interview, Annie Weisman talks about taking on the most painful mental health experiences of her life and translating them into this show, which stars Rose Byrne as a character not precisely based on Annie but with a lot in common. She also talks about the pain of keeping the bulimia a secret and the pain of those around her when they finally found out.Watch the first two seasons of Physical on Apple TV+. Follow Annie Weisman on Twitter @mrsanniemac and on Instagram @annieweisman.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

In the entire 321-year history of Yale University, the most popular class ever is a relatively new one called “Psychology and the Good Life”, taught by Dr. Laurie Santos. Since it’s debut in 2018, it has proved to be so much in demand that Yale now offers a version of the class for free online to anyone in the world.Part of the appeal is that Dr. Santos is a really great professor. She’s smart, presents lessons in a compelling way. But beyond that, the class holds appeal because so many people these days are not happy at all, with college students reporting depression and anxiety in numbers that are astronomical and terrifying. This trend was happening before the pandemic and has only gotten worse since.In this interview, Dr. Santos, who also hosts the podcast The Happiness Lab, talks about what happier people have in common and how to implement practices in your own life to start doing better. Importantly, this isn’t a recipe for suddenly being a character in a musical comedy, jumping and singing for joy all the time. That’s unrealistic and frankly a bit gross. But students who learn from her teachings report an incremental uptick in their levels of happiness, laying the foundation for better times ahead.Helpful Links:Paul Rudd goofing around to the Partridge Family in Ant Man and The Wasp: youtube.com/watch?v=LzXywwT9fI0The Worry About Yourself Video: youtu.be/4A6Bu96ALOwThe Science of Well-Being course on Coursera: coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-beingDr. Santos at the Aspen Ideas Festival: youtube.com/watch?v=ZizdB0TgAVMListen to Dr. Laurie Santos' podcast, The Happiness Lab, wherever fine pods are cast. Learn more about Dr. Santos' Yale course, Psychology and the Good Life, by vising her website at DrLaurieSantos.com. Follow Dr. Santos on Twitter @lauriesantos and on Instagram @lauriesantosofficial.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

It used to be that Jonathan Ames read and wrote all kinds of books. But somewhere along the line everything but detective novels kind of fell away and now that’s pretty much his thing. His big project these days is a detective series, featuring private eye Happy Doll, a 50-year-old Angeleno who tries to solve cases and not get killed in the process.Ames says we relate to detective stories because we’re all constantly trying to solve our own mysteries. That’s hard in real life, to put it mildly. But when we know a book has 250 pages, we also know that by the time those pages are read, we will have some answers.Get your copy of Jonathan Ames' latest book, The Wheel of Doll, out September 6th, 2022, wherever books are sold.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Maybe you, dear podcast listener, put on a couple of pounds during COVID. You were home more because there weren’t as many other places to go. You just weren’t as active. That was the case with actor and singer Lola Kirke, who describes this period of cocooning at home as being a time she was very happy.But chances are you weren’t prevented from working in your chosen field as a result of that body change. Lola Kirke was.Lola has starred in television shows like Mozart in the Jungle and in movies like Gone Girl and Mistress America. She’s really good at acting, acclaimed by critics, loved by audiences, she’s at the top of her game. But she says her team of agents and managers have told her that she’s a leading lady and needs to lose weight if she wants those parts.Meanwhile, Lola poured her heart and soul into her new album, Lady For Sale, only to find that it didn’t meet with the reception she was hoping for.While Lola has observed eating disorders in people close to her, she says she’s never experienced it herself. She was however, dealt with depression, recently emerging from an extended down cycle.We hear from Lola about being a brand, a commodity, a lady for sale.Get your copy of or listen to Lola Kirke's new album Lady For Sale on the music service of your choice. Visit Lola Kirke's website at LolaKirkeMusic.com. Follow Lola on Twitter @LolaKirke and on Instagram @lolakirke.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

You really should watch City of Ghosts. It’s on Netflix, six episodes long, and it’s a delightful and important exploration of Los Angeles, cultures, and how we manage history. City of Ghosts also happens to be, at least at first glance, a show for children. It’s animated and features a group of kid characters who fan out across L.A. to interview and record the ghosts that live there. It’s guileless and smart and often very funny.Elizabeth Ito created the show. She wanted to create something less intense and anxious for her son, who often got overwhelmed by children’s shows. She also wanted to pay tribute to her hometown and the people and cultures that have been there. You can tell City of Ghosts comes from the heart.Unfortunately, the show was canceled after just one season. Then it won the prestigious Peabody Award. And all of this made for a tremendous emotional roller coaster for Elizabeth, who is prone to anxiety and depression. She joins us to talk about the need to create and the wringer that being an artist in the practical world puts her through.Watch City of Ghosts on Netflix. Watch Mall Stories, Welcome to My Life, and Elizabeth's Peabody victory dance video at her website, ElizabethIto.com. Follow Elizabeth on Twitter @kikutowne and on Instagram @ottersnaps.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Gaby Dunn is well-known to podcast audiences for her shows Just Between Us, co-hosted by Allison Raskin, and Bad With Money with Gaby Dunn. They’re well-known to readers for books like I Hate Everyone But You and Bury the Lede and articles in The New York Times and Buzzfeed. But Gaby Dunn hasn’t always been well-known to Gaby Dunn. Raised in Florida, where talk about sexual orientation was scarce and talk about transgenderism was non-existent, Gaby had a long journey to figure out who they were in terms of orientation and gender. And then there were problematic hypomanic episodes that landed Gaby in Paris on a whim, broke and with no clear plan for what comes next. Gaby shares with us the story of figuring out that what was happening in terms of mental health was bipolar 2, which doesn’t feature the extreme mania of bipolar 1 but can still be incredibly destructive. As Gaby recovered and found their bearings, they channeled their learning into helping other people find their bearings in regard to money.Listen to Bad With Money with Gaby Dunn and Just Between Us wherever fine pods are cast. Get Gaby's books, Stimulus Wreck, I Hate Everyone But You and Please Send Help... (with Allison Raskin), Bury the Lede (with Miguel Muerto and Claire Roe), and Bad With Money wherever books are sold. Listen to Gaby's audio drama, Apocalypse Untreated, on Audible. Follow Gaby on Instagram @gabyroad and on TikTok @dabygunn.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Within the comedy world, Tom Scharpling is known as a bit of a Swiss Army Knife. He’s the host of the long running Best Show, online now and on WFMU before that. He’s a veteran TV writer on shows like Monk and What We Do In The Shadows. He directs music videos. Now he’s a book writer, with the memoir It Never Ends. In that book and in our interview, he tells stories of his own mental health journey that he’s never shared with an audience before.Tom started running into trouble with depression when he was around ten years old, which evolved into two hospital stays, the second of which involved electroconvulsive therapy. That treatment wiped out the depression but wiped out a big chunk of his memory in the process.Get your copy of Tom's memoir It Never Ends: A Memoir With Nice Memories! at www.tomwroteabook.com or wherever books are found. Follow Tom on Twitter @scharpling.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Getting Jamie Lee Curtis to open about her many years spent addicted to Vicodin is, frankly, not very difficult. She wants to talk about it. And that’s for a couple of reasons. One, she wants to make it clear that she’s no different from any other addict in any other walk of life. That’s why she calls herself a dope fiend. She just happens to have had success in an industry she derisively calls “show off business”. Two, because she committed to sobriety after reading someone else’s story of addiction so maybe her story can help someone too.We talk to Jamie about how she got hooked, how she sustained the habit, and how she carried on a perfectly successful movie star life without anyone catching on. Until they did catch on.Listen to Letters from Camp, now on its third and final season, at Audible.com. Follow Jamie Lee Curtis on Twitter @jamieleecurtis and on Instagram @curtisleejamie.Jamie's Gifts to John:"At such a time, it seems natural and good to me to ask myself these questions. What do I believe in? What must I fight for and what must I fight against? Our species is the only creative species and it has only one creative instrument: the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man. And now the forces marshalled around the concept of the group have declared a war of extermination on the preciousness, the mind of man. By disparagement, by starvation, by repressions, forced direction, and the stunning hammer blows of conditioning. The free roving mind is being pursued, roped, blunted, and drugged. It is a sad, suicidal course our species seems to have taken. And this I believe that the free exploring mind of the exploring human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for. The freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I'm about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind for this is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. Surely I can understand this. And I hate it. And I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost." - John Steinbeck, East of Eden"When things go unexamined for a long enough time, certain things happen. They become very very powerful. They create conformity. They intimidate." - E.L. Doctorow"Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something." - The Dread Pirate Roberts, The Princess BrideThank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Issues of depression and anxiety have been present in Open Mike Eagle's raps for a long time. His most played track on Spotify is "Ziggy Starfish (Anxiety Raps)" and it's from 2015. Mike has always been more prone to self-effacement and worry than to the boasting and swagger you might find in other hip-hop artists. But after a year that saw him lose his tv show, his touring income, his marriage, and his home, Mike became more open than ever before and hit record on all of it. His album, Anime, Trauma and Divorce, touches on his experiences and the psychological narratives of his life.Listen to or buy your copy of Anime, Trauma, and Divorce here. Find out more about Open Mike Eagle, his music, tour dates, and his podcasts at his website, mikeeagle.net. Join his Patreon and follow him on Twitter @Mike_Eagle and Instagram @open_mike_eagle.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of MaximumFun.orgHey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe

Even if you’re not completely aware of Shane Koyczan’s poem “To This Day”, at least 25 million other people are. That’s how many views the YouTube video of the poem has as of the time we made this episode. It’s not just a great poem, it strikes a nerve. “To This Day” talks in a very direct and meaningful way about the effects of bullying and how people can carry it with them from the playground deep into adulthood. Because, many times, it’s not just kids messing around, it’s actual assault or emotional abuse or a kind of terrorism that can fall under the category of trauma.Shane was bullied from a very young age and had a hard time making friends throughout his childhood. He also had a key ally: his grandmother Loretta, who encouraged him to write things down. When he reached university, he found more encouragement for his writing and his talent bloomed.Today, Shane is a successful writer and a person with depression and a performer who has had a hard time getting by during the pandemic.In this episode, Shane Koyczan shares a poem about his grandmother that left us speechless.Find out more about Shane Koyczan at his website, ShaneKoyczan.com. Listen to "To This Day" on Shane's Youtube channel, Youtube.com/ShaneKoyczan. Follow Shane on Twitter @Koyczan and on Instagram @shane_koyczan.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Right now, in Jamie Loftus’s childhood home in Brockton, Mass., there are dozens, maybe hundreds of notebooks in storage boxes. They’re from second grade up through middle school and each of the notebooks is filled, cover to cover, with detailed descriptions of where she was and what was happening: who was there, what were they wearing, what was on the walls. The descriptions are all written in a shorthand Jamie developed and that no one else could read. At the time, the adults in her life thought this indicated that she was a budding reporter. But no, it was obsessive-compulsive disorder.Over time, her OCD would evolve into self-harm and put her in the emergency room. That’s where she found a doctor who understood her and could help.Today, Jamie stays aware of her OCD tendency as she experiences a booming career in comedy and, yes, journalism, through her stage performances and podcasts. She says that she’s able to better control the same world that used to be so much more chaotic.Find out more about Jamie Loftus's podcasts, comedy, videos, and writing on her website JamieLoftus.xyz. Follow Jamie on Twitter @jamieloftusHELP and on Instagram @jamiechristsuperstar.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

This episode of Depresh Mode with John Moe came about as part of a challenge to our listeners: if we reached our member goal during the last Max Fun Drive, we’d make and release an episode with Justin McElroy. We hit the goal, here it is. Of course, making that goal can be and was a pretty nervous-making enterprise. There’s more than a bit of anxiety involved. Appropriately to that proposition, anxiety is something our guest knows well. Justin is one of three McElroy brothers hosting the comedy advice podcast, My Brother, My Brother, and Me, a long-running hit here on Maximum Fun. He’s also a person who has struggled with an anxiety disorder for a long time. He talks about the disorder flaring up especially fiercely during times of great stress in his life, including during his wife’s pregnancy, and not so stressful times, such as simply trying to gather quotes as a newspaper reporter.Listen to My Brother, My Brother, and Me, Sawbones, The Adventure Zone, and all things McElroy on the podcatcher of your choice. Visit the McElroy Family on their website, themcelroy.family. Follow Justin on Twitter @JustinMcElroy and on Instagram @justinmcelroy.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

The CBS News Sunday Morning commentator, Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me panelist, and veteran actor had all the approval and validation one could want early in her life. She was a pageant winner, Harvard grad, and Rhodes Scholar by the time she went to Los Angeles to make it in film and television. But the vagaries of the entertainment industry, the death of her mother, and an unsuccessful marriage showed her that there’s only so much you can prepare and study for. Faith talks about her experiences with anorexia, depression, and eventually finding love and family. We also discuss approval, specifically who you seek it from and why.Get your copy of Faith Salie's book, Approval Junkie: My Heartfelt (And Occasionally Inappropriate) Quest to Please Just About Everyone, and Ultimately Myself, wherever books are sold. Listen to the Off-Broadway production of Approval Junkie on Audible. For more information, visit www.FaithSalie.com. Follow Faith Salie on Twitter @Faith_Salie and on Instagram @faithsalie.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

It’s not actually all that hard to tell when Tim Heidecker is kidding and when he’s not, but it does take a little bit of practice. When he’s performing on shows like Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! or Tim & Eric’s Bedtime Stories, it’s comedy. When he acts in comedic movies, sure, that’s comedy as well. But on albums such as his new one, High School, you don’t need to listen carefully for the punchline because there isn’t one. He’s not trying to fake you out with his music, he’s giving it you straight as a singer/songwriter with a bit of a 1970’s sheen to it.Tim says he’s never been diagnosed with depression but he’s had some rough times. He talks about losing close friends to drugs and alcohol and he talks about an incident several years ago when he got stabbed by someone he knew.We talk to Tim about comedy, tragedy, and whether a clinical diagnosis of a particular disorder is really all that necessary when dealing with the dark parts of life.Pre-order Tim Heidecker's new album High School, out June 24, 2022 on Spacebomb Records, here. For tour dates and more information, visit Tim's website at www.timheidecker.com. Follow Tim on Twitter @timheidecker and on TikTok @timheideckermusic.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Honestly, I really expected to call this episode “Covid Sedaris” because David Sedaris had just tested positive for COVID when we taped the interview. But when we spoke, he wasn’t feeling it much at all. Had some symptoms that might have been allergies or COVID but were barely noticeable. Other people have it a lot worse, he says.David has been delighting audiences for 30 years now, ever since the broadcast of Santaland Diaries. His latest book, Happy-Go-Lucky, is deceptively titled, containing a lot of stories and memories that are pretty painful. David’s father died last year at age 98 and liberated David to share some things he hasn’t shared so openly before. He talks about how his father ridiculed him, belittled him, and just flat out didn’t like him. He shares the story of being invited to give the commencement address at Princeton and bringing along his dad, who told the university president that they should have booked his sister Amy Sedaris instead.David also shares stories of his sister Tiffany, who died by suicide in 2013. He’s caught heat over the years for writing and talking about how difficult it was for him to deal with her when she was at her most unstable. He also talks about the charges of abuse Tiffany made against David and their father before he died.There are still plenty of laughs in the interview because, come on, it’s David Sedaris, but there’s also pain and melancholy that you might not have heard from him before.Get your copy of David Sedaris' Happy-Go-Lucky wherever books are sold.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Comedian and writer Ginny Hogan got interested in standup comedy when she was in her twenties and working at a tech startup in San Francisco. Soon she was hooked on comedy. And alcohol. She got hooked on alcohol as well. The comedy was definitely more positive and healthy than the alcohol.In this interview, Ginny recounts a habit she developed for getting drunk, picking up a little extra wine to take with her, and then spending the night walking the streets of San Francisco and New York with headphones on. We also talk about her experiences with eating disorders, anxiety, depression, and ADHD, and she speculates on which of those might a symptom of which other ones.Ginny is sober now and in recovery and she can have some hard-won laughs about those days. She’s also dating once in a while, which she says is a different kind of thing when you’re sober compared to when you’re not. She writes a lot about the often strange and confusing world of dating in her new book, a collection of essays called I’m More Dateable Than a Plate of Refried Beans.After you hear the interview, come on back here to catch her standup hour:https://youtu.be/NnFTAYIhdy8For tour dates and more information, visit Ginny's Linktree at linktr.ee/ginnyhogan or her website: www.ginnyhogancomedy.com. Follow Ginny on Twitter @ginnyhogan_.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Jamie never expected to be a mental health advocate. He was working in the industry that had always been his dream career: surfing apparel. But things changed after several days spent taking care of a young woman he didn’t know, who was struggling with suicidal thoughts, substance use disorder, and self-harm. Renee had carved the word “fuckup” onto her arms but couldn’t get into a treatment facility for several days. Jamie’s essay about their time together became a viral sensation on MySpace, which led the way to t-shirt sales to help fund Renee’s recovery. From there, the essay became a large, successful mental health advocacy non-profit.Jamie tells that story as well as why he ultimately left TWLOHA, how he perseveres through bleak suicide statistics, and what he’s doing about a recent breakup.Visit Jamie's website at JamieTworkowski.com. Follow Jamie on Twitter @jamietworkowski and on Instagram @jamietworkowski. Check out Jamie's new clothing company Needs An Ocean at NeedsAnOcean.com. To learn more about To Write Love On Her Arms and to read Jamie's original story, visit twloha.com.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Right now, in our society, there is so much to be anxious about. There are many factors that could lead one to feel depressed and defeated. If one already has a tendency toward anxiety and depression, that path can be even shorter. But as a member of that society, one must look for hope anyway. It’s that dynamic relationship between despair and hope that led us to reach out to Maggie Smith. The American poet Maggie Smith, not the British actor Maggie Smith.Maggie is the author of several volumes of poetry and her work has appeared in the New Yorker, the Paris Review, the New York Times, and the Best American Poetry anthology. She became very well known in 2016 when her poem “Good Bones”, about the bleakness of the present and the possibility of a better future, became a viral hit.In this interview, she talks about her anxious childhood, the pessimism people knew her for as an adult, a divorce that changed her significantly, and how to unleash your inner weirdness for the benefit of yourself and your writing.For books, events, and more poems, visit Maggie's website at www.MaggieSmithPoet.com. Follow Maggie on Twitter @maggiesmithpoet.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

The English language is constantly growing and evolving, and so is our usage of that language. We don’t refer to people with mental illness as “lunatics” anymore. At least we shouldn’t. But there was a time when that was a commonly accepted term.Even language that we think to be more enlightened can fall out of favor. Person-first terminology has become popular in recent years. That’s where you don’t say “Tom has depression.” You say, “Tom is a person with depression,” in an effort to convey that Tom is a person above anything else. But the person-first has detractors as well, who argue, among other things, that one’s personhood shouldn’t require reiteration and that doing so could call it into question.We’re joined by Helen Zaltzman noted wordsmith and host of The Allusionist podcast. And we speak with Dr. Ksera Dyette, a therapist in practice in Boston.Listen to The Allusionist podcast wherever fine pods are cast. Follow Helen Zaltzman on Twitter @HelenZaltzman and on Instagram @helenzaltzman. Learn more about Dr. Ksera Dyette and Cup of Tea Counselling by visiting beacons.ai/cteacounselling. Follow Dr. Dyette on Instagram @cteacounselling and on TikTok @drdyette.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

A lot of people listen to Shamir’s music, and have since he was 19 years old and his songs began circulating. People listen for the innovative arrangements, the poetic lyrics, and the artist’s unique singing voice. The music has been described as house-hop, disco, and indie-pop.Shamir pays a lot of attention to the music as well. He’s listening to make sure he’s staying true to himself. He wants to make certain that what he’s creating forms an accurate portrait of who he is. This conviction, this personal requirement to stay true to himself, has helped guide Shamir through depression, self-doubt, bipolar disorder, and a psychotic break.In this episode, Shamir walks us through his career and the challenges he has faced along the way. For tour dates, music, and more, visit Shamir's Bandcamp at shamir.bandcamp.com. Follow Shamir on Twitter @ShamirBailey and on Instagram @shamir326. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Current events in the world today can be a lot to deal with even as a regular person. You got war in Ukraine, anti-democracy and pro-Putin forces in a major political party, a movement against LGBTQ and trans people, COVID, and environmental worries to name just a few things. And it might be even more intense if you’re one of the people producing the news. S.E. Cupp has to follow the news very closely, it’s part of her job at CNN and as a newspaper columnist. But she says the close proximity to things like the war in Syria and school shootings have taken their toll on her and she hasn’t always had a great strategy for managing that kind of potentially traumatic stress. S.E. was in line in a store last summer, just out running errands, when she checked her Twitter feed and saw a kid on a ventilator. That sight was the final straw and she had a terrifying panic attack that wounded her mind pretty severely. She’s more functional now, though she says she’ll never be the same. And that experience has prompted her to make some big changes in how she approaches something like social media.It is week 2 of MAX FUN DRIVE! Now is your chance to support Depresh Mode so it can keep happening!To entice you, we are offering:The satisfaction of helping make this show, which helps people, possible!Access to SLEEPING WITH CELEBRITIES, our star-studded sleep aid mega-episode! It features beloved voices like John Hodgman, Peter Sagal, Janet Varney, Jordan Morris and Jesse Thorn, and more talking about the most boring stuff imaginable. You can put it on, let it soothe you with it’s lack of drama and surprises, and drift off to sleep! A one-of-a-kind Depresh Mode patch featuring Oops Nope, our official Depresh Mode mascot!Hats, messenger bags, and so much more!Go to maximumfun.org/join, find a level that works for you, and join us RIGHT NOW! Exclamation points!Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

The singer, songwriter, guitarist, and acclaimed author John Darnielle is one of the more prolific creative forces you’re likely to run across. He’s released 20 full-length studio albums, plus a mess of EPs, tapes, and singles over his 25-plus years of recording. And he’s written three novels in recent years as well.In this interview, John talks about his interest in written material about violence and horror and what he thinks might be behind society’s stronger than ever fascination with true crime. We also hear about his experiences on drugs, his need to get off drugs to avoid going to prison, and his modern relationship with wine at parties, which has a connection to his lifelong relationship with anxiety. Learn about a nervous party experience with John Hodgman and why he also makes sure to have lunch with John Hodgman at every opportunity, even if he has a full schedule. Yep, John Darnielle, in conversation with John Moe, talks about John Hodgman. So many Johns. It’s a Johnslaught. They form a Johntourage. OH AND ALSO it’s the very beginning of our annual MAX FUN DRIVE! Now is your chance to support Depresh Mode so it can keep happening!To entice you, we are offering:The satisfaction of helping make this show, which helps people, possible!Access to SLEEPING WITH CELEBRITIES, our star-studded sleep aid mega-episode! It features beloved voices like John Hodgman, Peter Sagal, Janet Varney, Jordan Morris and Jesse Thorn, and more talking about the most boring stuff imaginable. You can put it on, let it soothe you with it’s lack of drama and surprises, and drift off to sleep! A one-of-a-kind Depresh Mode patch featuring Oops Nope, our official Depresh Mode mascot!Hats, messenger bags, and so much more!Go to maximumfun.org/join, find a level that works for you, and join us RIGHT NOW! Exclamation points!Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Sarah Edmonson and Anthony “Nippy” Ames were doing okay in life. They were healthy, they were working, and, like a lot of people, they were looking for more success. So when they were introduced to some self-help courses called the Executive Success Program, they gave it a shot. When it seemed to be working pretty well, naturally, they stuck with it.The group they ended up in, pronounced “nexium” but spelled in unpronounceable capital letters, manipulated that desire for success and happiness, eventually consuming the time, money, and lives of the people who joined. Members were made to follow the charismatic leader, Keith Raniere, as though he were a divine figure. You could move up in rank and wear special symbolic sashes. Many members were encouraged to move to Albany to live together and be near Raniere.From the introduction to this episode:“I’ve always been fascinated by the mental health aspect of cult membership. How was someone doing, psychologically, before they joined up? What happened to their mind during their time with the cult. And how their mental health was after being in a group like that. I think it’s comforting to think, well, I could never be sucked into something like that, I’m too smart and aware. But I think a lot of us feel psychologically incomplete at times. Adrift. In some form of peril. I know I do. And if someone charismatic comes along, welcomes you, seems to be able to help, how can you not listen?”Sarah's resources can be found at SarahEdmondson.com/Resources. Listen to the A Little Bit Culty podcast wherever pods are cast. Get your copy of Sarah's book Scarred wherever books are sold. Follow Sarah and Nippy on Instagram @sarahedmondson and @anthonyames11.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

41% of people are planning to quit their jobs in the next three months. 41%!We first tackled the topic of employee burnout a year ago and much has happened since then: a bunch of variants, restrictions being lifted and reset, and an event known as The Great Resignation, where more people have quit their jobs than ever before.And now we’re starting to see the effects of prolonged work-from-home jobs and from employers who are doing little or nothing to address burnout. We’re seeing a blurring of lines between job and life, an old work system we’re never going back to, and people who just can’t take it anymore. They’re quitting their jobs, often with no new job to go to, because they are flat out done.What about you? How can you detect burnout and what can you do to solve it? How much of it is even yours to solve and what should fall to your boss. And where do we go from here?Jennifer Moss is a burnout expert who fought burnout herself when writing her book, The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It. She tells us about innovative approaches that companies like HP are taking and how other employers are giving out football tickets and hoping for the best.Visit Jennifer Moss’ website here. Get your copy of her book, The Burnout Epidemic, wherever books are sold. Follow her on Twitter @JenLeighMoss.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

For people who have never lived with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the condition can be seen pretty simply. They might think it means the person can’t concentrate on anything, that they can’t focus on much of anything. But for the writer and podcast host Sarah Marshall - and for many like her - it’s not that simple. She grew up with the issue of being very focused on things she cared about and not caring so much about the aspects of school that didn’t intrigue her. Eventually she was diagnosed with what was then referred to as attention deficit disorder (ADD) and given what she refers to as “homework pills.”Later in life, she became intensely interested in researching and picking apart the case of Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding, who, like Marshall, was from the Portland area. On her hit show, You’re Wrong About, Marshall continues to do intense, highly concentrated analyses of historical events that other people, who don’t pay as much attention, might misunderstand.In the introduction of this episode, John talks about a college freshman whose ADHD manifested in a similar way. In his case, it meant typing just ridiculously fast, as you can see in the video below.Typing 220 WPM For 15 seconds (100% accuracy Fast Typing Sounds)Qualifying for a $1,000 typing tournament [200 WPM with Dvorak Keyboard]Listen to Sarah Marshall's podcasts, You're Wrong About and You Are Good, wherever pods are cast. Visit Sarah's website at RememberSarahMarshall.com. Follow Sarah on Twitter @Remember_Sarah.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Online comments sections have become synonymous with cruelty, hatred, bigotry, misogyny, homophobia, and the jerks who spew that kind of thing out. Most of us roll our eyes at that or, if at all possible, avoid even looking at that dispiriting part of the internet altogether. But Dylan Marron is not most of us. When his viral comedy videos led to strongly vitriolic comments aimed directly at Dylan, he started collecting those comments in what he called his Hate Folder. He wondered who these people were who were making them and what they were like in real life. This interest led to the podcast and book, Conversations With People Who Hate Me.Dylan was able to trace the haters, often through publicly available Facebook accounts, and get many of them to agree to talk on the record. In conversation, his subjects were often revealed to be, if not always apologetic, at least complicated people.In this episode, Dylan talks about what the comments and conversations have meant to his mental health and his view of the world.Get your copy of Dylan's book, Conversations With People Who Hate Me wherever books are sold. Listen to Conversations With People Who Hate Me wherever pods are casted. Follow Dylan Marron on Twitter @dylanmarron, Instagram @dylanmarron, and on his Youtube channel.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

First time author Liz Scheier’s book, Never Simple, is aptly named. Liz had always known that her mom suffered from depression and anxiety but she didn’t know until her early twenties that borderline personality disorder was also part of her mother’s mental framework. BPD, according to Mayo Clinic, “impacts the way you think and feel about yourself and others, causing problems functioning in everyday life. It includes self-image issues, difficulty managing emotions and behavior, and a pattern of unstable relationships.”In practice, that meant threatening to have Liz followed around New York City, tracking down what hotels she stayed in and calling them to check in on her, and protecting Liz from basic truths like who her father was and the fact that Liz never had a birth certificate. Later in life, with Liz married and with a family of her own, her mother’s health deteriorates and her life unravels. And at that point, Liz, like many people dealing with a family member’s mental illness, tries to help as best she can while being unsure how much help is even possible.Learn more about Borderline Personality Disorder here: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/borderline-personality-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20370237Get your copy of Liz Scheier's memoir Never Simple wherever books are sold. Visit Liz's website at lizscheier.com. Follow Liz on Twitter @LizScheier.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Human Resources, a spinoff of the Netflix show Big Mouth, is a very honest, truthful, and illuminating program about how mental and emotional health operate. It’s well-researched and displays depth and accuracy. And all of that might be surprising given that it’s full of extremely horny monsters, panicky mosquitoes, ambition gremlins and a ton of other cartoon creatures. And just so much extremely graphic talk about sex and bodily functions. So much, you guys. But the show is smart and anyone who has dealt with a mental health obstacle might spot something relatable in the show. We’re joined by Nick Kroll, co-creator of the show, and Brandon Kyle Goodman, a writer and consultant on it, both of whom also act in Human Resources. We find out how they took some fairly abstract mental health notions and turned them into cartoon characters.Watch Human Resources on Netflix on March 18th and watch Big Mouth now. Follow Nick Kroll and Brandon Kyle Goodman on Twitter @nickkroll and @brandonkgood. Follow Nick on Instagram @nickkroll and check out Brandon Kyle Goodman's Messy Mondays at his Instagram @brandonkylegoodman.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

It’s tempting to try to look for a reason why Joel Kim Booster, ordinarily a very funny and engaging person, feels dead inside, trapped in a persistent depressive state. His father recently died of COVID. The two hadn’t been very close (Joel’s dad was a conservative Christian, Joel is a gay Hollywood star) but were beginning to reconnect. You could point to the pandemic, which left Joel in an apartment he doesn’t like for extended periods. But it’s just as easy to point to things that aren’t especially depressing about Joel’s situation. He’s got movie and TV deals, he’s taping an hour-long Netflix special, he has recently fallen in love, and he’s doing well enough that he’s about to buy a house.The truth is that any of those factors might influence Joel’s mood and behavior but depression isn’t simple enough to be routinely caused or prevented by one’s fortune in the rest of life. Depresh Mode host John Moe says this interview is the strongest representation of what depression is like that he’s done in all his years of interviewing people on the subject.Visit Joel Kim Booster's website here. For tour dates, visit his Linktree. Follow Joel Kim Booster on Twitter @ihatejoelkim and on Instagram @ihatejoelkim. Watch his Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents special here.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Drummers have different styles. Patty Schemel’s drumming has always been tight and precise but she plays hard and heavy, big thick beats that powered songs like “Miss World” and “Violet”. Her substance use was also hard and heavy, keeping pace with or exceeding the consumption of her peers in the Seattle music scene of the 90’s and of her band’s leader and frontwoman, Courtney Love. It started with alcohol and worked up to heroin and crack. In our interview with Patty, she details her career ascent and her substance descent and she sheds light on substance dependency. Even though her band was headlining festivals, even though she had lost her close friend, Kurt Cobain, to drugs and suicide, even though her band’s bassist, Kristen Pfaff, died of an overdose, she just kept using. And she kept using after being fired from the band and having 22 attempts at sobriety. But the 23rd time was the charm. Patty is sober, the author of the memoir Hit So Hard and subject of a documentary of the same name, and telling her story.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

It used to be a lot easier to keep family secrets about issues of paternity. That was before companies like Ancestry.com and 23 & Me came along and offered genetic testing for a small fee and some spit in a cup. Now, what might have started out as some fun, idle curiosity is often turning into something more earth-shattering, more of an existential crisis. It can result in strained family relationships, negative mental health consequences, and sometimes fun and friendly meetings. It’s a lot and it’s high stakes. We talk with Eve Sturges, an LA-based therapist and creator/host of the Everything's Relative podcast, which is about these revelations and their aftermaths. Eve, who has been through this experience herself, shares stories of people learning that they aren’t who they thought they were and what they did about it.Listen to Everything's Relative with Eve Sturges on the podcatcher of your choice. Visit Eve's website at www.evesturges.la. Follow Eve on Twitter @evesturges and on Instagram @evesturges. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Dissociative identity disorder (DID), a condition formerly referred to as multiple personality disorder, is very rare almost everywhere in the world except for one place: Hollywood. Not among actual people there but among characters in movies that are often very over the top. So while you and I might know people with depression or anxiety, the only reference we have for people with DID are fictional characters.We change that today. Dr. Shelley Kolton is an OB/GYN in Manhattan and the author of the book Brain Storm: A Life in Pieces. She tells us about how she came to finally get diagnosed later in life and how the condition developed as a means of coping with childhood trauma.We also talk with Dr. Richard Schwartz, a family therapist behind the notion of internal family systems (IFS). He argues that we all have multiple personalities inside us, even if we don’t dissociate when they are active. Listening to those voices and communicating with them about what they want and what they’re trying to tell you, he says, can be extremely beneficial to your mental health.Visit Dr. Shelley Kolton's website at ShelleyKoltonMD.com. Get your copy of Brain Storm: A Life in Pieces wherever books are sold. Learn more about Dr. Richard Schwartz, his books, and Internal Family Systems by visiting the IFS website at ifs-institute.com. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

As if sustaining a traumatic brain injury and being in a coma for a few weeks wasn’t bad enough - and it certainly was - Drew Magary had the added complication of becoming a real asshole. Which was unexpected. You’d think that surviving an ordeal like that would make one glad to be alive, more conscious of appreciating one’s family and all that life had to offer. And it did to some extent but he also turned into a complete jerk.Drew is a co-founder and writer for Defector.com, a columnist for SF Gate, and author of the memoir The Night The Lights Went Out, which is all about his injury and recovery. He’s not an asshole anymore. So in the interview and in the book, he tells the story of how he came to understand his condition, how he worked with a therapist, and how he made some changes.By the way, I’m really glad to be working in podcasting because I think “asshole” is exactly the right word to use to describe him. Maybe “real piece of shit” would work but then you’d be up against the same cuss word problem.Follow Drew Magary on Twitter @drewmagary. Get your copy of The Night The Lights Went Out wherever books are sold. Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Anxiety has cost Jen Kirkman several things over the course of her life, including, as she explains in our conversation, a study abroad program in Amsterdam, an effective outcome of a fear of flying class, and a pleasant time on a Ferris wheel. She doesn’t even remember that trip on the Ferris wheel but she knows it happened from an old photo where she looks absolutely haunted. Among the other problems anxiety has caused is confusion in kindergarten about whether she actually had parents. Along the way, Jen has become a successful comedian, comedy writer, and best-selling author, known for her candid and often hilarious stories of her life and the situations she’s found herself in.Jen is managing her anxiety now. She’s recognizing the cognitive distortions and relying on her own accumulated skills and experience to get through the moments and events that anxiety is intent on messing up.Visit Jen Kirkman's website at www.jenkirkman.com. Subscribe and listen to the Anxiety Bites podcast and the No Fun podcast on the podcatcher of your choice. Follow Jen on Twitter @JenKirkman and on Instagram @jenkirkman.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

NOTE: Not a great episode to listen to with your kids in the room. Everyone would be uncomfortable.Sexual health is part of health. Mental health is also part of health. This week, we talk about the relationship between the two and some ideas to take care of both.This is a topic that emerged from our Preshies listener discussion group on Facebook. A lot of people find that the depression or anxiety or other mental disorders they’ve been dealing with have made it a lot more difficult to enjoy the kind of sex life they want to have. Could be a lack of energy, could be a self-image issue. It could be side effects from the antidepressant medication they’re taking, forcing them into a tough decision about whether to alleviate their mood and hurt their sex life or help their sex life and endanger their mental health. So what to do? Well, we don’t know so we asked people who do.Visit Renee Segal's website at EvolveTherapyMN.com. Visit Cindy Meston's website at MestonLab.com.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

You can find plenty of articles online about Amanda Knox and her Italian court case, some from more reputable publications than others. Amanda was convicted twice and cleared twice of murdering her roommate, Meredith Kercher, while the two were studying abroad in the Italian city of Perugia. She spent four years incarcerated in Italy before her name was finally cleared. Our interview picks up, for the most part, after that exoneration and it’s about how to manage one’s mental health after going through all that. We hear about some disastrous therapy sessions, a Matt Damon movie that co-opted her trauma, and her struggle to imagine how she’ll tell her newborn daughter about all this some day.Listen to Labyrinths: Getting Lost with Amanda Knox on the podcatcher of your choice. Follow Amanda Knox on Twitter @amandaknox. Support Knox Robinson on their Patreon.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Most people have pictures of themselves at a younger age, maybe even a couple moderately embarrassing home videos kicking around. In Connor Franta’s case, he has a vast library of often deeply personal videos on YouTube spanning half his life that are regularly watched by over five million subscribers. And yes, plenty of those videos, especially when he was a lot younger, make him cringe a lot today.But these records also trace the path of a young man growing up, facing then sharing the truth about his homosexuality, and eventually confronting some long-standing mental health issues having to do with depression and anxiety. The Connor that appears in recent videos, now almost 30 years old, is wiser and more mature and very honest about the mental health journey he’s still on. And he’s branched out from YouTube into best-selling books, entrepreneurial projects, and public speaking.Visit Connor Franta's Youtube page. Get your copy of Connor's latest book House Fires wherever books are sold. Follow Connor on Twitter @connorfranta and on Instagram @connorfranta.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder can wreak havoc in a person’s life, especially when you don’t know you have it and especially when you have to deal with a lot of people who don’t understand it. We hear stories of those struggles this week but we also hear about victories that were earned through hard work and wisdom. For writer and comedian Dave Holmes, the best part of getting his ADHD diagnosed, treated, and under control is the experience of drying the last dish when he does the dishes. Before he made his improvement, that simply never happened because he was drawn away by other tasks that became crucially important (and that he never finished either). Comedian Carolina Hidalgo has been dealing with ADHD for most of her life and now has it tamed enough that she can take on a task that seems pretty intimidating for someone in her position: she hosts a music history podcast that requires massive amounts of research, book after book after book on the same topics. She gets it done. Carolina's Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2DTloiK4aOEVmJCqcuqii4?si=e2c093f905674b63Carolina also recommends this playlist for reading: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ByzdKSKWgv9M18IEUScfQ?si=7f05b873e4da4fb5Listen to No Dogs In Space and Troubled Waters on the podcatcher of your choice. Follow Carolina Hidalgo and Dave Holmes on Twitter @CarolinaDoesOk and @DaveHolmes.Carolina also recommends this playlist for reading: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1ByzdKSKWgv9M18IEUScfQ?si=7f05b873e4da4fb5Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

There is plenty of information coming out of the CDC about COVID that has nothing to do with actual viruses in droplets. America’s mental health condition is not really good right now, with rates of anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation measuring way, way above how they were before the pandemic. Once the virus is contained and the worst of the threat has passed, we won’t be out of the woods. We’ll just be entering a different kind of woods. In this week’s episode, a talk about how complex trauma from a period such as this is likely to affect us in the long term. Short answer: it’s going to get nasty. At the same time, we are well positioned to talk to each other, share sympathy, and share kindness because of modern technology and because of a growing openness in society to talk about mental health challenges.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Sure, we know Santa Claus flies around the world delivering presents, but doesn’t that seem awfully compulsive? And what’s with the meticulous list of judgments he keeps? And why is he fixated on everyone believing in him? Like, ultimately, what’s Santa’s deal, mental health wise?John is joined by Broti Gupta, Carolina Hidalgo, and Hal Lublin to analyze (without being at all qualified to do so) a variety of Christmas figures who seem prone to rather odd behaviors. We have familiar characters like the Grinch, Scrooge, and the Little Drummer Boy but we also dive deep with Jack Skellington, the Gremlins, and Det. Martin Riggs from Lethal Weapon. It’s all very tongue-in-cheek. Please note, if you are an actual gremlin or reindeer with a glowing nose and you’re having a tough time, please consult an actual therapist.Listen to Tights and Fights and No Dogs in Space on the podcatcher of your choice. Subscribe to Broti's Patreon to listen to the Lecture Hall podcast. Follow Broti Gupta, Carolina Hidalgo, and Hal Lublin on Twitter @BrotiGupta, @CarolinaDoesOk, and @hallublin.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

It’s not really the most direct route to comedy success: grow up in conservative Mormon Utah, be closeted about your sexuality even to yourself, try to live up to what is expected of you, ditch it all for show biz, come out of the closet, and then make it big. But we know it’s worked for at least one person: Bridger Winegar. The host of the I Said No Gifts podcasts walks us through his effort to figure out who he was, which included a long stretch of figuring he’d have to keep his homosexuality shielded for the rest of his life. We hear about a Mormon mission to Malaysia that ended very prematurely with a nervous breakdown, an offer to get treatment in a Singapore mental hospital, and a return to Utah. And we hear about the extraordinary support and kindness he received from his boss when his boss happened to be Jimmy Kimmel.Listen to I Said No Gifts on the podcatcher of your choice.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Aimee Mann has a brilliant new album out called Queens of the Summer Hotel with songs about mental illness and identity, all inspired by the book Girl, Interrupted. The album is new but the songs are not, mostly written and recorded before Aimee had a career-threatening health scare. About a year ago, she lost part of her hearing, leaving her unable to pick up on certain frequencies. What had been music before became what she describes as a fuzzy, distorted electronic sound. This presented a significant problem for Aimee as a musician and songwriter. It was like having broken instruments and gear but much more significant because you can’t just swap out your own head at a music store. Eventually, Aimee found that the problem was coming from her brain in the form of stress and trauma. With that knowledge, she set about addressing those issues and began to make progress. She says she’s about 80% recovered.Turns out sometimes it helpful to not think of “mental health” as something separate from “physical health”. There’s just health.Get your copy of Queens of the Summer Hotel wherever albums are sold. Follow Aimee Mann on Twitter @aimeemann.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected] is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here.Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.