Depresh Mode with John Moe

It’s a question we ask a lot on this show: do you have a mental health problem or is the problem actually rooted in the world you live in? Psychologist Dr. Jonathan Mathias Lassiter says contemporary society lives under three different assumptions: there’s not enough to go around, kill or be killed, and us versus them or divide and conquer and this results in people valuing individualism, competition, and materialism. This way of living, he says, is a result of white dominance or whiteness and it is a distortion of the way humans are meant to live and...

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the Secretary of Health and Human Services, clearly does not like SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), the most popular form of antidepressant on the market. They’re used by millions of Americans on a daily basis. He has tried to tie SSRIs to school shooters despite a lack of evidence to that effect. He has suggested that it’s harder to go off SSRIs than it is to quit heroin. It’s not. Molly Olmstead, a reporter for Slate who has been covering this story closely, says that this does not mean that the government is abo...

During the violent Charlottesville protests of 2017, journalist and author P.E. Moskowitz was only a few feet away when Heather Heyer was killed by an attacking motorist. 16 years earlier, P.E. was in middle school Spanish class a couple blocks from the World Trade Center during the 9/11 attacks. The trauma contributed to panic attacks and, finally, a mental breakdown. As they got their life back together, P.E. began to question a lot of conventional wisdom. Were they mentally ill to have such a breakdown or were they responding appropriately to enormous trauma in a difficult world? Are we...

If you are one of the many subscribers to the Peloton exercise/media network, you may already be familiar with Kendall Toole. For many years, she was one of the stars of Peloton, exhorting users to push themselves harder, sweat more, and pursue their goals. In those cases, Kendall was positive, cheerful, always with a smile and kind words. But people are complicated and the truth is that Kendall has faced many mental health issues over the course of her life, including depression, anxiety, OCD, and suicidality. She’s in a better place now (she considers her conditions to be...

At age 59, Anne Abel had never been to a concert. Ever. Music wasn’t part of her upbringing, although emotional abuse and belittlement from her parents absolutely were. Reluctantly agreeing to join her son and daughter-in-law to see Bruce Springsteen, Anne’s mind was absolutely blown by the energy and generosity of the musicians and the crowd. Bruce shined a light on a better possible world and allowed her to have fun for the first time in her life. Something awakened. Soon, Anne booked a solo trip to Australia, following Bruce to eight concerts. In her book chronicling the trip...

While the acclaimed musician Emma Swift had experienced painful periods of depression in the past, fed by grief or the first Trump presidency, her psychotic break and mental breakdown in 2023 was new territory. She lost touch with reality, believing that her electronic devices had been hacked, that she was being followed, images of heaven and hell emerging. Emma actually had a sense that she was losing her mind and went to the hospital, reporting as much, but she was turned away because she wasn’t deemed sick enough. Finally, she flew back to her native Australia and went directly fr...

Are ChatGPT and other AI chatbots inducing psychosis? Or exacerbating it? Are people being hospitalized or even killed because the bots seem too human, too understanding, too lifelike? To be clear, the bots are not human. They are software. But they are so convincingly programmed to speak like people that users, especially ones who may already be having trouble discerning reality, begin to sense that the bot is alive and that the user somehow unlocked its sentience. Since the bots are also set up to be flattering, even sycophantic to the user, the connection is made even stronger. Maggie...

Alex Edelman loves going to concerts but admits that he usually goes solo. That’s because his ADHD leads Alex to show up pretty late to the show and he often spends part of it on the stairs writing something, occasionally darting into the main room for a song he likes. He can’t make it through most movies either. Alex stars in the new Peacock series The Paper, a sort of descendant of The Office. His one-man show, Just For Us, about his semi-anonymous visit to a Queens white nationalist meeting, was a Broadway hit and adapted into an H...

If you’re looking for a calm mind, do you love a room with little or nothing in it? Or do you need to be wall-to-ceiling with mementos and objects and stuff to give you a sense of peace? We take a look at how the layout of your living space may have an effect on your mental well being with Dr. Beverly Walpole. She’s a clinical psychologist and the founder of Haven | Wellness By Design, a consulting service based around the psychology of design. We talk about the idea of attachment to objects and whether getting rid of t...

When she was growing up in conservative, evangelical rural Minnesota, she knew. When she was excelling at sports, giving and receiving body slams and folding chair hits as a pro wrestler, she knew. Even when she married a woman while still living as a man, Denise knew that she was female. Denise figured it was either suicide or take action to live her truth and fully transition. With her debut special, Bougie on a Budget, now streaming on Apple TV Plus and Amazon Prime, Denise opens up her gender journey and the joys and challenges she faced along the...

There are plenty of places online to get very serious information on mental health, delivered in tones that are somber, sober, or very dry. Ashly Burch goes a different route on her new YouTube show, I’m Happy You’re Here, employing loads of comedy, puppets, foul language, and mature subject matter to teach what’s going on in complex matters such as anxiety. Ashly is known for her work in the games Fortnite, Life is Strange, and The Last of Us Part II, as well as television series like Mythic Quest and Adventure Time. We talk with Ashly about...

Because she racks up millions and millions of views for her viral comedy videos on social media, because she’s written two books including the new best-seller A Clean Mess: A Memoir of Sobriety After a Lifetime of Being Numb, because she’s famous and successful, Tiffany Jenkins and her family were invited to travel to California and visit Lego Land. They paid her to have a wonderful vacation. On the ground at Lego Land, the first thing Tiffany did was have a complete anxiety-related panic attack. That’s because Tiffany has an anxiety disorder. And mental health is tricky...

If you’ve dealt with depression, you know that it’s a disorder that speaks to you, firing off insults and terrible idea, often right in the middle of a conversation. Barges in to tear you down. We all must contend with this rude presence. Aaron Foster is a very funny comedian who is still fairly new to the full-time comedy life but, now in his fifties, he’s done a lot of living to inform his comic material. Much of his recent act is centered on a fairly recent diagnosis of major depressive disorder, a condition that he has li...

To blow off steam from an incredibly stressful profession, professional nurse Blake Lynch started putting together little comedy videos on social media as “Nurse Blake”. The clips went viral and he started making live comedy appearances to packed audiences, many of whom were nurses themselves. His celebrity status gave him a chance to lobby for better pay and working conditions for nurses. As Nurse Blake prepares for a 68-city tour, he talks about the conversion therapy his parents sent him to in order to switch him from gay to straight (it didn’t work), his eye-opening experiences with panic attack...

Bush lead singer Gavin Rossdale has a lot of memories from growing up as a kid who excelled at sports but also treasured his Lou Reed records. He is also keenly aware of who left during those years: his mother disappearing after divorcing his dad, a beloved aunt passing away, and a revered older sister striking out on her own. Those losses informed his mental health for the rest of his life but so did the understanding of his emotional makeup left in the wake. Gavin tells us about that, the prescription pill dependency he contended with, and the...

Jen slept fine the night before she couldn’t. Just short of 29 years old and after years of excellent sleep, insomnia entered her life leading her down a years-long search for cures, treatments, or even just an explanation of why her life had been turned upside down. Jen Senior is the author of an article, “Why Can’t Americans Sleep?” in the Atlantic and she joins us to talk about the intersection of sleep, depression, anxiety, shame, and so much more. We also discuss sleeping pills, antidepressants, and CBT-I, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia.

Thank you to all our...

Brandon Stickney remembers booze being everywhere growing up in Lockport, New York and he definitely remembers getting a taste for it growing up. Over time, he developed bipolar disorder and his substance use disorder added cocaine and opioids as favorite drugs. Brandon’s love of getting high would cost him his marriage, his successful career as a journalist and author, and his freedom, after getting busted selling drugs and being sentenced to two years in prison. He tells us about what it’s like to live with mental health issues behind bars, how both prescription drugs and illicit narcotics work...

When the comedian, actor, and author Maria Bamford has something to say about mental health, it’s a pretty good idea to give a listen. For one reason, she’s hilarious. Also, she comes at the issue not just as an observer. Maria has a long history with mental health conditions. SHe has spent a good bit of time in in-patient facilities, has dealt with problematic intrusive thoughts, and has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, type 2. Maria talks about the issue of access to mental health treatment and how it’s a different story for those who have money and th...

Hollywood doesn’t exactly have a stellar track record when it comes to portraying mental illness in a sensitive, honest, and appropriately complex way (think Psycho or the notorious caffeine pill episode of Saved by the Bell). But the top show on Netflix right now, Ginny & Georgia went to great lengths to show mental health conditions honestly. The series tells the story of Georgia, a mother with a traumatic background, Ginny, her daughter with a habit of self-harming, and it includes characters such as a neighbor boy and Ginny’s love interest, Marcus, with a persistent major depressive disorder. Show...

"Beneath the Lilypad" is singer-songwriter Alexandra Savior's third album, but her first in five years. Several years ago, she was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, type 1. That’s a condition marked with manic highs that can last for weeks or months as well as crushing lows of depression, she’s had both, you’ll hear about that. She’s also dealt with psychosis, and has spent time in an in-patient facility. That mental health journey has informed her work as a songwriter and a musician and inspired the songs on the new album. She just turned 30 but she’s been performing...

As temperatures and sea levels rise, the effects of climate change are being felt in weather patterns, natural disasters, and in both public and personal mental health. We talk with Dr. Caroline Carney, President of Behavioral Health and Chief Medical Officer at Magellan Health in Phoenix about the connection between your mind and the dire conditions Earth is facing. She says the damage is being done by the traumatic effects of fires, floods, and other severe weather incidents but also by the gnawing anxiety that the future holds more extreme and changing conditions that we’ll have to deal wi...

Rep. Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.) is one of four chairs of the bipartisan Mental Health Caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives, a 93-member group of Republicans and Democrats pledging to fight stigma, improve accessibility, and generally make the country’s mental health better. But as the Trump administration floats huge cuts to Medicaid and other social services and as the tone of politics in America gets more divided and vitriolic, does a well-intentioned group like that really have a chance to overcome all that is standing in the way of progress? We talk to Rep. Salinas about her wo...

Ethan Sacks is a veteran comics writer, having created stories for Marvel, DC, and numerous Star Wars comics. In the comic A Haunted Girl, Ethan enlisted his daughter Naomi as co-writer to tell a story much more personal than anything involving Star Wars or the Avengers. A Haunted Girl tells the story of Cleo, a character inspired by Naomi’s real life experiences in her teens dealing with depression, anxiety, and suicidality. She spent time in in-patient facilities and now, at 21, is doing better. Ethan and Naomi join us to talk comics, art, mental health, and family collaboration.

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It would take an entire section of show notes here to list all the things Felicia Day has accomplished in her career. Here’s an attempt at making that brief: acted in a bunch of TV shows you know, created and starred in web series, made just so very many online videos, and is now the author and star of an audiobook called Third Eye about someone who is supposed to save the world but fails. In our interview, Felicia talks about doing all those things while dealing with mental disorders like depression and anxiety as well as mental he...

Aperture is the sixth studio album by the indie-folk band The Head And The Heart and it’s kind of a return to the more grounded, collaborative sound of their earliest work. It’s less polished, less highly produced, not as poppy. That’s not an accident. The band has been putting in the work to be more of a cohesive unit by sharing songwriting and singing duties, going to therapy together, and trying to closely protect the health of both the individual members and the group itself. Kenny Hensley joins us to talk about the shoulder injuries he incurr...

There have been ten million contacts, via phone calls, texts, and chats, with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline since it first launched in July of 2022. As its third anniversary approaches, we check in to see how the system is holding up, what the funding and capacity issues are, and what the future might look like with our guest, Hannah Wesolowski, Chief Advocacy Officer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). We also examine the potential threat to the LGBTQ specialized services line after a leaked document from the Trump administration proposed cutting funding for it. And we debunk an...

Would you open your heart to a bot? Tell it all your problems? Look to a piece of code, a computer program, for high-quality mental healthcare? Some people have said yes and the results are hard to ignore. Dartmouth University test subjects who sought help from Therabot, a generative AI chatbot, showed a 51% reduction in depression symptoms, 31% for anxiety, 19% for eating disorders. Dr. Nicholas Jacobson, who led the study, says people really bonded with Therabot, called it Thera for short, and would check in with it frequently. But can a bot really provide meaningful advice and therapy if it’s...

If you were brought up in a family or a culture that never recognized, discussed, or processed things like depression and trauma, you may have learned to simply hide those difficult feelings away and simply act as if everything’s great. You can be a high achiever, striving perfection, all to keep away demons that you’ve never really faced. Your act can be so good that it even fools you. For a while, anyway. Until it doesn’t. And then things can get very ugly. Psychologist Dr. Margaret Rutherford coined the term Perfectly Hidden Depression several years ago in a b...

Cameron Esposito has many titles: hugely successful standup comedian, actor in television and film, writer, podcast host. After a recent rehab stay led to a mental health diagnosis, she has realized that she’s also a person with bipolar disorder, type II. Cameron has a new special, Four Pills, that’s part stand-up comedy and part reflection on the circumstances that led to this discovery as well as thoughts on what life as a treated person for bipolar will mean going forward. Cameron Esposito joins us for a very funny and deeply personal conversation about mental health, medication, comedy, and...

Statistics say that 23% of Americans are currently living with some form of mental illness. For most people, that calls for reaching out for help and receiving treatment and advice on management. But if you’re an FAA-approved airline pilot, disclosing that you have something like a depressive disorder or an anxiety problem can mean a temporary pause or permanent end to your entire career. Of course, having a mental illness, not disclosing or getting treatment, and flying anyway presents a variety of problems as well. Dr. Helen Ouyang wrote about this in a recent New York Times Magazine article an...

Hanif Abdurraqib is a MacArthur Fellow, accomplished poet, and critically lauded author of numerous books, including There’s Always This Year: On Basketball and Ascension, which is now out in paperback. He’s also a person who deals with major depressive disorder and numerous anxiety disorders. In a revealing, positive, and practical interview, Hanif talks about the numerous ways he cares for his mental health issues by both taking care of himself and building a strong community of other people around him to lean on.

Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly memb...

Things are scary in this country these days for a lot of people. There is turmoil in the government, shakiness in the economy, and a deep divide over what America even means anymore. In times of upheaval, it’s a good idea to reach out to friends, see how they’re holding up, help carry their burdens and sorrows, and see what wise advice they can share about perseverance. We do this on our show from time to time. In this mini-episode, we check in on a good friend of the show Open Mike Eagle. He’s a very popula...

We’ve been seeing an influx of new listeners recently. It’s very exciting. Thank you for that and we’re delighted that you’ve joined us. So we thought we’d take a moment and explain what the show is all about and who it’s for. Spoiler alert: it’s for everyone, including you, regardless of your mental health history.

It's the final week of the 2025 Max Fun Drive! Check out the fun thank you gifts and become a member of Max Fun!

Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merch...

“I’m very kind to Jim, I’m trying to take good care of Jim, I’m trying to love Jim,” says musician Jim James of the band My Morning Jacket. The kindness he’s showing Jim, himself, is a relatively new thing, he says, after a long time spent kind of beating up on the guy. As My Morning Jacket releases its new album, is, Jim reflects back on issues such as a need for validation through achievement, alcoholism, and depression. And he shares what he’s learned through intense therapy, meditation, EMDR, gratitude, and family systems therapy.

It's the...

In this bonus content edition of Depresh Mode, We’re joined by some Maximum Fun all-stars for some very light-hearted and delightfully competitive games that are as informative as they are silly.
 

Our competitors:

Who will win the game Antidepressant, Pokemon, or State Fair Food? Who will emerge victorious in Google Scholar or Member of Parliament/Funkadelic? Can our panel tell the difference bet...

It’s not MaxFunDrive without a wild kickoff spectacular! Former real-life VJ and host of MTV's Spring Break 1999, Dave Holmes, takes your favorite MaxFun hosts through some wacky ‘90s- and Spring Break-themed mini games!!

Featuring: Dave Holmes, Jeremy Bent, Oscar Montoya, Dimitry Pompée, Tom Lum, Ellen Weatherford, Alex Schmidt, Brenda Snell, Drea Clark, Alonso Duralde, Dan McCoy, Jordan Morris, Manolo Moreno, Ella Hubber, Caroline Roper, Ella McLeod, John-Luke Roberts, Justin McElroy, Clint McElroy, Mike Cabellon, Sierra Katow, Hal Lublin, Danielle Radford, John Moe, Christian Dueñas, Christian Duguay.

The alcohol, says J. Kenji Lopez-Alt, came about in young adulthood, when it solved persistent social anxiety and made him the life of the party. As Kenji found tremendous success in food writing and restaurateuring, he found that he couldn’t really make it through the day without downing between two and five drinks. This wasn’t hard to pull off in the food business, surrounded by booze and a culture that heartily encouraged its consumption. Kenji found that, as is so often the case with mental health, that the reality of the condition didn’t match the drunken messy...

Maybe you’re one of those people who dreads even looking at the news these days, with stories of layoffs, tariffs, upheaval in foreign policy, and a lack of knowledge as to where this is all going and what it might mean for the future of America and the world. It’s a tumultuous time. When things are chaotic, it can be good to check in with one’s friends and that’s what Depresh Mode does this week. We have conversations of commiseration, of humor, and of hope with comedian and actor Paul F. Tompkins, pundit and writer Ana Mari...

Lamb of God is a very popular heavy metal band with Grammy nominations, gold records, and a huge headbanging following. Randy Blythe, front man for the band and author of a new book, Just Beyond the Light, is in recovery from drugs and alcohol and tells stories of finding sobriety, including how it was pretty easy to stay sober while on an Australian vacation surrounded by koalas but a lot harder once he returned to the States and the old patterns and routines of his life. Randy also talks about surviving a panic attack and finding better health through...

Microdosing involves taking very small amounts of psychedelic substances such as LSD or psilocybin, maybe seven to twelve percent of a regular dose. It’s not enough to “trip out” but enough, proponents say, to yield very positive results, especially in terms of treating depression that hasn’t responded well to other methods. The catalog of extensive clinical, scientific trials about the practice of microdosing is pretty limited but James Fadiman and Jordan Gruber have collected what scientific material there is plus a great number of anecdotal reports in their new book, Microdosing for Health, Healing, and Enhanced Performance. They tel...

Ophira Eisenberg once believed that everyone had a trauma quota, a maximum amount of hardship that a person would face in life and once that mark was hit, nothing bad would ever happen again. It was a way of comforting herself after a car accident at age eight that seriously injured Ophira and killed her friend. Turns out that’s not how life works and Ophira still had cancer and a miscarriage to deal with later on. Ophira joins us for a wise and actually very funny conversation about trauma, being an “awful patient”, and healing.

Thank you to...

Would you get a device the size of a Nilla wafer implanted in your body if it meant relief from treatment-resistant depression? There are big advances being made in vagal nerve stimulation therapy, a process by which electrical impulses are fed into a patient’s vagus nerve to alleviate depression that hasn’t responded to more common treatments. We take a look at the science, the breakthroughs, and why your insurance might be more likely to cover it.

Then we have an interview with actor and writer Kit Williamson, creator of the new series Unconventional, about living with...

The cover of Neko Case’s memoir features a young Neko in a swimsuit she says she wore for six months straight and she’s accompanied by a drawing of a big spiky-toothed monster who she says is there to protect her. The invention of such monsters can feel necessary when one’s parents are unavailable, simply not physically present, or, in the case of her mother, faking their own death only to reappear a year and a half later. Neko talks about the trauma of her childhood, what music meant then and as she grew up, and how she’s...

Sex is not always an easy topic to discuss. Issues like how to get what you want, how to make sure your partner is getting what they want, these are delicate conversations and often intimidating ones as well. Add in issues like depression and anxiety for one or more of the people involved and it becomes more complex still. Fortunately, we have Dr. Emily Nagoski with us who is an expert on sex and how to talk about it. She’s the author of the new book, Come Together: The Science (and Art!) of Creating Lasting Sexual Connections and sh...

Hari Kondabolu has never been afraid to talk about sensitive topics on stage. The veteran comedian, who has appeared on Conan, Kimmel, Letterman, and NPR’s Wait Wait... Don’t Tell Me mined material about race, immigration, and other societal hot button issues. But unlike some comedians, he was hesitant to discuss himself and in particular the depression that has followed him for years. He goes there in this interview that also includes exploration of panic attacks, the ups and downs of therapy, and how Seattle helped him become who he wanted to be.

Thank you to all...

On the podcast Hyperfixed, host Alex Goldman sets out to solve mysteries and conundrums that listeners submit. But he’s found himself having to do some figuring out for himself. Alex finally got diagnosed with ADHD just a few years ago, when he was around 42 years old. Which was a big relief after years of struggling with things like attention and task completion. The problem was that the meds they gave him triggered hypomania followed by big depressive crashes, resulting in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder type II. So now Alex has to manage depression, ADHD, and hypomania. It’s tr...

There are sad movies that nonetheless offer some sort of hope and optimism. And then there are the ones that offer no hope at all, just bleakness and despair and the cinematic versions of major depressive disorder. Those are our focus on this episode as a trio of film critics and pundits offer their picks for the most depressing films and offer analysis on whether there is value in watching works that present worlds with zero hope. Films discussed include:
Grave of the Fireflies
Aftersun
Amour
Dancer in the Dark
Pan’s Labyrinth
Ro...

Trauma and comedy wouldn’t seem to have a lot in common but they do have one thing: Paul Scheer. You may know Paul from TV shows like the comedy The League or from his podcasts like How Did This Get Made. In this deeply personal, vulnerable, and – yes – funny interview and in his new memoir, Joyful Recollections of Trauma, Paul Scheer recounts tales of the repeated physical and mental abuse he and his mom received from his stepfather. He also recounts how he has learned to process these and other traumatic events, draw strength from them, and become a bett...

Writing is not what Cory Richards is best known for. No, that would be feats like being the first American to climb one of the 14 peaks in the world measuring over 8000 meters. He’s also known for his photography, which includes National Geographic covers. But Cory’s new book, The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within, isn’t just about his accomplishments, it’s about his struggles too. He tells us about the violence in his home growing up, his bipolar II diagnosis and depression, and about cheating on his wife and being held accountable for inap...

Lead was added to car fuel back in the twenties and wasn’t phased out in America until 1996. By then, according to neuropsychologist and researcher Dr Aaron Reuben, the damage had very much been done. He’s one of the authors of a new study pointing to 151 million cases of mental illness that correlate with the presence of lead in gas tanks. The people damaged the most were those born during the highest usage of lead, the mid to late sixties through the early eighties. Dr. Reuben says that while circumstances and individual cases vary widely, the average Gen X-er...

Home for Richard Sarvate wasn’t anything like the home lives of his friends. Unlike his friends, his mom was convinced Richard was trying to kill her and that Bill Clinton was sending her secret messages because they had the same birthday. Richard shares stories of growing up with an abusive mom who had schizophrenia, what that meant for the development of his social skills and sense of self, and how the food was always somehow great. He also tells of how a scary situation in Puerto Rico led to a career in comedy.

Thank you to al...

Twin Cities comic Ellie Hino was wondering if her young son might have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or ADHD, so she looked into the symptoms. What she found was a pretty good rundown on problems that she had been wrestling with for many years, especially since becoming a mom. After extensive testing, her diagnosis was confirmed, which opened up the possibilities of treatment and led to a more manageable mind and life. She shares with us her understanding of the condition, what it’s meant in her comedy and other work, and how it has also meant mourning the li...

David Shaw’s anxiety was more than just a feeling in his mind, it was in his ears as well. The frontman of the popular rock band The Revivalists found himself dealing with hyperacusis, a condition of extreme hypersensitivity to sounds that would ordinarily be considered tolerable, which was a hindrance in his job as lead singer of a rock band. David talks about managing his anxiety through a variety of approaches and coming to a place of honesty about who he was and who he wants to be. He also discusses “heart mode”, the wisest and most caring place...

During a decades long career in the United States Army, Gregg Martin just kept on succeeding. Star cadet at West Point, getting promoted up to two-start General, earning PhD degrees along the way, and receiving glowing evaluations all the while for his boundless energy and enthusiasm. He now knows that he was operating under a condition called hyperthymia, being in a constant state of near mania. After a deployment to Iraq, Gregg’s mania kicked into high gear and was accompanied by bouts of deep depression. It would take many years of further promotion and misdiagnosis before Gregg’s beha...

Youngmi Mayer says she hates doing research but, in our conversation and in her new memoir I’m Laughing Because I’m Crying, she does a lot of digging into the events of her life and what they all meant. Youngmi grew up in Saipan and Korea, the daughter of a Korean mother and a White American father, and had to deal with discrimination, harassment, and abuse. Later on, she moved to America with $700 in her pocket and no real plan in order to escape an abusive relationship and had to find a path that included a place of prom...

This episode of our show is premiering the day before Election Day in the U.S. and loads of people are just a mess with worry and anxiety. We don’t know the future and we’re not a politics show but we can provide you with a list of 13 stories that might make you feel that we’re getting somewhere as a society with mental health. Learn about the improving mental state of young people, advancements in treating ADHD, OCD, and anorexia, new government actions that will make a difference, and even grandmothers on benches in Zimbabwe. We think...

Imagine serving your country in the military, incurring some trauma and some mental health difficulties, and then finding that your appointments to get mental health treatment keep getting canceled without explanation. And in many cases, it’s you, the patient, being unfairly blamed for canceling or not showing up to the appointments. That’s happening now in America’s veteran healthcare system, according to Military.com reporter Patricia Kime. She joins us to talk about the political pressure against the V.A. that might be influencing this issue and she shares what the veterans are reaching out to tell her.<...

Imagine serving your country in the military, incurring some trauma and some mental health difficulties, and then finding that your appointments to get mental health treatment keep getting canceled without explanation. And in many cases, it’s you, the patient, being unfairly blamed for canceling or not showing up to the appointments. That’s happening now in America’s veteran healthcare system, according to Military.com reporter Patricia Kime. She joins us to talk about the political pressure against the V.A. that might be influencing this issue and she shares what the veterans are reaching out to tell her.<...

If you’ve ever tried to treat major depressive disorder, you know that it can be absolutely exhausting. That’s because for a long time the approach has been one of trial and error, taking a certain med, it doesn’t work, try a different one, try therapy, try something else, try, try, try. Stanford University researcher Dr. Leanne Williams is attempting a methodology with a better batting average: taking functional MRI of the brain (think video instead of still shots) and matching brain types with treatments much more likely to be effective. The research is showing great promise and co...

Singer/songwriter Bishop Briggs lost her sister, her best friend, her roommate, and her manager all on one day in January 2021. They were all the same person. After Kate’s death, swiftly following her diagnosis of ovarian cancer, Bishop plunged into a dark place, not eating, not really engaging with the world, and being increasingly haunted by thoughts of suicide. Ultimately, she found a path toward a better place with the assistance of a shockingly blunt pronouncement by her partner, the birth of her baby, and an openness to medication.

Thank you to all our listeners who su...

How Do You Feel? is the title of Dr. Jessi Gold’s new memoir about her life as a psychiatrist dealing with her own mental health and the health of other medical providers during the first wave of the covid pandemic. The answer to the question the title poses would be, “Not very good at all.” Dr. Gold profiles composites of several patients in the medical profession who felt the need to be perfect, to be superhuman, to not let anything get to them, only to find that everyone has limits and vulnerabilities, including Jessi herself. 

Thank you to...

Xiu Xiu, the highly experimental avant-garde rock band from California has just released their 14th album, 13" Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips. It refers to a type of switchblade, which Jamie Stewart from the band collects. In this interview, Jamie tells us of the multi-generational cycle of abuse within their family and of the suicide of their father. Jamie also discusses their healing, their therapy, and how they, along with their siblings, are breaking the cycle that haunts them.

Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.<...

Zac Carper, lead singer and guitarist for the garage punk bad FIDLAR, is very familiar with one kind of drugs: the street substances of meth, heroin, and crack that he engaged in heavily when he was younger. Now, at 37, he’s grappling with a different sort: medications prescribed for his newly diagnosed bipolar disorder. Zac has found that, while he needs some help managing the intense hypomanic episodes and depressive crashes, the meds he’s been given lead to some new problems that interfere with his life as a touring musician putting on very intense, high-energy shows where he does...

Yes, we don’t have to wear masks in the grocery store and yes, vaccines have been very effective in reducing the spread and severity of covid-19. But the mental health ramifications of the whole pandemic experience are only now beginning to be understood. Dr. Royce Lee from the University of Chicago joins us to talk about how it made serious mental illnesses much worse due to the virus and the stress. We also explore the connection between infection, inflammation, and anger. Then research scientist Dr. Neva Corrigan explains her findings on how the covid experience prematurely aged adolescent br...

The U.S. election is weeks away and a lot of people are kind of a mess right now. It can feel like the whole world is on the line and you have no real power over what happens. This can result in election stress disorder, the overwhelm of panic and anxiety that can interfere with your life functions and peace of mind. We’re joined by Theresa Nguyen, Chief Research Officer for Mental Health America and a person who lives with anxiety and depression. It’s a lively and personal talk about election stress, including how it works and...

For much of the world, Moon Unit Zappa is famous for two things: the unusual name given her by her father, iconic musician Frank Zappa, and the 1982 song “Valley Girl” where she appeared with Frank when she was 14. The full, complex portrait of life in this unconventional family isn’t all that funny as told by Moon today. She tells of a lifetime of neglect, of witnessing Frank’s serial infidelity within the family home, of a mother prone to severe narcissism, and of a great deal of alienation between Moon and her three siblings. You can’t control the world...

It’s a supply and demand issue. With increasing numbers of people seeking help, it’s harder to get in to see a human counselor. At the same time, artificial intelligence technology is booming, leading to growing availability of computer programs that say similar things to what humans say while not being human at all. Dr. Jodi Halpern, Chancellor’s Chair and Professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities at UC Berkeley, says the technology has moved faster than our ability to regulate it or fully consider the ethical implications and consequences of non-human diagnosis and treatment.

Thank you to...

During the covid pandemic, Ela Melo of the acclaimed band Rainbow Kitten Surprise was staying with her parents and went out one night to look at the stars. And the stars, she felt quite certain, were communicating with her. Trying to tell her things. This was to be the beginning of a journey that involved a bipolar disorder diagnosis, psychotic breaks, multiple stints at in-patient psychiatric hospitals, and canceled tours for her band. Now, Ela is feeling stronger, making new music, getting ready to tour, is well supported, and is still allowing for the possibility that the stars really...

Introverts around the world celebrated, quietly, when Susan Cain’s book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, became a #1 best-seller back in 2012. Her next book, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, also went to #1. Now Cain is back with an audio series, A Quiet Life in Seven Steps, about how to reach a quieter mindset. In this interview, we talk through some of those steps and the challenges one might face in trying to get there.

Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly memb...

The gut microbiome, that little ecosystems of bacteria and microorganisms in your body, and your mental health are more closely related than we may have thought. Dr. Aparna Church led a study that points out the connection between a person’s stress resilience and the composition of their gut microbiome. She joins us and offers advice on how to eat best for your own stress management. Then host John Moe thoroughly unpacks and demystified TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) therapy. He explains what it is, what the different types of it are, what actually happens when you go, how it wo...

It was two years into a vicious cycle of depression and Mike Doughty was falling apart. He was taking more Ambien than he had been prescribed, importing huge boxes of the stuff from India, waking up to find packs of cigarettes, candy wrappers, and pizza boxes with no memory of leaving his Memphis home to make such purchases. He was convinced something was deeply wrong with his heart even though every doctor said there wasn’t. Finally, he checked into an in-patient facility that turned out to be wonderful and productive. Then he checked out. Then Mike, a recovering ad...

Memories are like the radiant light and heat of the sun. They’re always coming at us, inescapable. But like that radiant light and heat, memories can be harnessed and converted into a fuel that can provide power. That’s the thinking behind cognitive reminiscence therapy (CRT), the practice of revisiting, reexamining, and reframing your memories to get to a better place psychologically. Dr. David Hallford of Deakin University in Australia joins us to share his research into CRT and his findings that issues like depression, self-esteem, and optimism improve considerably when therapeutic practices are put in place. He also...

One South: Portrait of a Psych Unit is an HBO documentary about life inside an in-patient facility in Queens that specializes in helping people of college age who are in acute crisis. The filmmakers, Alexandra Shiva and Lindsay Megrue, introduce a variety of patients who have been through experiences such as suicide attempts or drug overdoses and they spotlight the unique care being administered. In-patient care has certainly been depicted often in movies and TV but this is one of few documentary approaches. Then, we’re joined by Sarah Souder Johnson, a clinician at Sentier Psychotherapy in Saint Paul, Mi...

In terms of achievement, Gracie Gold had it all: Olympic medal, world championships, beloved celebrity at the pinnacle of an incredibly competitive and difficult field. She even became friends with Taylor Swift. Unfortunately, in terms of mental health problems, she also had it all: eating disorders, body dysmorphia, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, ADHD, and OCD. Despite those challenges, her career required dressing up in glamorous outfits and perfect hair and makeup and going out to skate under the spotlights and be judged. It all got to be too much and Gracie fell apart, finally got treatment, and began a...

The Decemberists have been making memorable, popular, and critically acclaimed music for over twenty years and for that entire time, lead singer and songwriter Colin Meloy has battled the feeling that he’s secretly a fraud. And the more success he’s had with his career, the more he’s been at the head of a large organization upon which people earn their livelihood, the more that feeling grew. Colin hasn’t gone into much detail about this interviews over the years but he does so in this honest and vulnerable conversation that also touches on his long-standing issues with anx...

Trauma and comedy wouldn’t seem to have a lot in common but they do have one thing: Paul Scheer. You may know Paul from TV shows like the comedy The League or from his podcasts like How Did This Get Made. In this deeply personal, vulnerable, and - yes - funny interview and in his new memoir, Joyful Recollections of Trauma, Paul Scheer recounts tales of the repeated physical and mental abuse he and his mom received from his stepfather. He also recounts how he has learned to process these and other traumatic events, draw strength from them, an...

Liz Miele has headlined on comedy stages around the world and produced numerous stand-up specials. It’s an impressive career that began at Manhattan open mics when she was 16 years old. We have a wide-ranging conversation with Liz about her recent depressive episode, the panic attacks that have been going on for years including in the middle of her sets, and her family history. Both of Liz’s grandmothers died by suicide before she was born and her home growing up featured a lot of stress, intensity, and some violence. Liz’s latest special, available on YouTube, is titled Murder...

Just because someone’s depressed, doesn’t mean they can’t achieve great things. Just because someone can achieve great things, doesn’t mean they aren’t depressed. You may already know these facts, especially if you’ve been listening to our show doe a while, but they bear repeating because they can be easy to forget. Sierra Katow has a new standup special, her first, called Funt (referring to the Fun Aunt she hopes to be) and she joins us to talk about the depression that has been there since she was a kid and which she’s had to work to...

When you’ve had an HBO comedy special, starred in an off-Broadway show, made a million TV appearances, and headlined comedy clubs all over the country, the next move is not generally to apply to grad school to become a therapist or social worker. But that’s what Chris Gethard found himself doing after his incredibly stressful career hit some hard stumbling blocks and he was faced with the issue of how best to take care of his young family (including himself) and provide things like health insurance. Before he could enroll, Chris got an opportunity to work with a no...

Ernesto Londoño, a veteran journalist with the New York Times, was suicidally depressed, living in Brazil, and curious. He had heard from a psychiatrist at a party about the remarkable and barely studied benefits of ayahuasca, a psychedelic herbal brew that has been popular among tribes in South America for a long time. Being a reporter, he wanted to learn more. Being an incredibly depressed person, he wanted to try it. His experience led to a dramatic change in his mental health and an interest in studying psychedelic treatments in many locations and an interest in studying the o...

Judah & the Lion’s new album, The Process, is divided into five different stages, one for each stage of grief as described by Swiss psychiatrist Elizabeth Kübler-Ross. So there are songs about denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Judah Akers was moved to create the album after a series of incidents in his life, including suicides in his family, the collapse of his marriage, and the development of an unwelcome alcohol habit. We talk with Judah about his recording but also about positive experiences with talk therapy, with neurofeedback therapy, and his relationship with God.

Thank you...

Shannon Shaw was on her way to check out an alternate venue for her upcoming wedding and then to her bachelorette party one August day in 2022 when she got word that Joe Haener, Shannon’s fiancé, had been killed. His pickup had collided with another pickup and he died right outside the fields of his family farm. Shannon joins us to talk about the pain, the loss, the grief.and the joy of knowing and loving Joe in the first place. One of the ways she processed all this was to do what she does best: create music. We hea...

As a big player in the recording industry, Shanti Das provided a lot of help in bringing artists like Usher, OutKast, and TLC to national audiences. Ultimately, she needed a lot of help herself and left her high profile career behind to work on her own mental health. Shanti went through a dark time in the early to mid-2010s, with the loss of her sister and the death by suicide of her best friend, and she was considering suicide. Then some things went her way, including a chance encounter with a friend at home goods store, some sage...

Gary Gulman is a very successful comedian. He’s released several specials, plays to packed rooms, and is incredibly highly regarded among his peers. But for his first book, Misfits: Growing Up Awkward in the ‘80s, Gary didn’t want to just rehash his act into book form. Gary, an avid reader, has read books like that and felt ripped off by them. Instead, he dove into his formative years to take a close look at the stories and experienced that shaped him and his complex state of mental health. We talk with Gary about those memories, the public life o...

The hierarchies, politics, and constant stress of the average job situation can be a lot to manage for anyone. If you add a mental health issue to contend with on top of all that, it can get downright fraught. Megan Delp is a therapist and the Director of Workplace Mental Health for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI).  She’s here to field some questions, including several from listeners, about your rights, how to spot your allies, and how to take care of yourself at your job.

Thank you to all our listeners who support the sho...

Lindy West is many things: an author of best-selling books like Shrill, a comedian, a podcast host, and a former opinion columnist for The New York Times and The Guardian. She’s also an easy target for trolls online because she does have strong opinions, because she shares parts of her own personal story in her work, and because she - and this is a word she’s comfortable with and uses freely - is fat. In this interview, Lindy talks about her evolving approach to dealing with online venom, her relatively recent diagnoses of depression, and ADHD, and why...

Todd Glass has been in the comedy game for a long time, dating back to the eighties, so he’s had time to figure out how he wants his life and his work to go. Todd makes sure the right music is playing in the club as people come in, sees to it that no TVs are on in the bar, and generally tries to make his world tidy. Does this make him obsessive? Compulsive? Disordered? Well, Todd doesn’t really go for the OCD label because he thinks it’s more complicated and nuanced than that and because he’s a...

Leah Rudick is playing to sold out theaters on her comedy tours and stars in her own special, Spiraling, on Amazon Prime, thanks in large part to her massive following on TikTok and other social media platforms. So does that success help her lifelong struggle with anxiety? Well, kind of, yeah! It feels good. But achievement isn’t a cure for anxiety and it’s still something that Leah has to manage on an ongoing basis. Part of that is being aware of her people pleasing tendencies and learning how to tell other people what she needs from them. It’s...

In this special edition of Depresh Mode, host John Moe gets up and moves to the other chair, becoming the ones answering the questions for once. He's joined by actual listeners who volunteered as guest hosts in a probing and thoughtful conversation. John has been hosting mental health podcasts for many years, has written a book (The Hilarious World of Depression) on the subject, and has traveled the country speaking to groups about issues like depression, trauma, anxiety, and more. Learn what goes into making the show and what John has learned about the human mind after hundreds of po...

What’s it really like to get ketamine treatment? The brilliant writer Jenny Lawson (Broken, Furiously Happy) walks us through her experiences with the drug, how it made her feel when she was in the thick of it, why she sometimes felt like an atom floating in the endless void of space, and whether it’s been effective for her ongoing treatment-resistant depression. She also talks about being a bookstore owner and how, despite ADHD, OCD, and that same depression, she’s been able to read entire books in one sitting.

Thank you to all our listeners who su...

It's the Max Fun Drive and we are so glad to have your support! In this special mini-episode, host John Moe talks about how important you are to the show we make and the work we do. Hear about the events that led to John's deeper understanding of how exactly mental health works and why mutual support matters so very much.

Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.

Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch webs...

This special network wide event is a celebration of The MaxFunDrive! If you’d like to support podcasts you love for just $5 a month and get bonus gifts in the process, go to maximumfun.org/join. 

We’re kicking off the most exciting time of the year for the MaxFun Network with a trivia game show featuring hosts from tons of great podcasts.

J. Keith van Straaten and Helen Hong from “Go Fact Yourself” are joined by:

Jackie Kashian -“The Jackie and Laurie Show” 

Jeremy Bent -“Eurovangelists” 

John Moe - “Depresh...

Our 2021 interview with Joel Kim Booster was easily one of our most talked about episodes we’ve ever made. Joel was deeply depressed at the time of the interview and was brutally honest about it, sharing his belief that his creativity was dead forever and that this was just who he was now, forever. A lot of people expressed great concern for Joel and his mental health and well being when that episode aired. Now, a few years later, Joel returns to Depresh Mode and offers insight into where he was then, the self-care decisions that led to that po...

In terms of achievement, Gracie Gold had it all: Olympic medal, world championships, beloved celebrity at the pinnacle of an incredibly competitive and difficult field. She even became friends with Taylor Swift. Unfortunately, in terms of mental health problems, she also had it all: eating disorders, body dysmorphia, depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, ADHD, and OCD. Despite those challenges, her career required dressing up in glamorous outfits and perfect hair and makeup and going out to skate under the spotlights and be judged. It all got to be too much and Gracie fell apart, finally got treatment, and began a...

Kari Faux is an acclaimed rapper originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, which is a place she returned to after several years of not loving life in Los Angeles. She later judged her situation and decided things would be better living in Houston so she moved there. These decisions are examples of the thoughtful approach she takes to a lot of issues in her life, including how to deal with a family member at the center of a problematic relationship. Kari details the boundaries she has set and the efforts she has put in to create and maintain a good...

It was 2003 and Paul Gilmartin, one time host of TV’s Dinner and a Movie, was presented with an ultimatum by his psychiatrist: either do something to address your alcohol and drug addiction or I can’t really work with you anymore. Besides substance use issues, Paul had been dealing with intense suicidal ideation, major depressive disorder and the trauma of an alcoholic father and a mother engaged in covert incest. He was a mess. Finally, he reached out to support groups for his issues and broke down crying for the entire first meeting he attended. What followed was a jo...

The issue of money is packed with shame, anxiety, and a lot of psychological mess that you might have to unpack in order to get to a comfortable place. Fortunately, there’s therapy for that. Celia Roberts Hughes is a Nashville, Tennessee professional financial therapist, merging the overlapping world of personal psychology and money to try to strike some peace and harmony between the two. Celia says a lot of the work that she does tries to get at how the client has been programmed to think about money from family experiences or cultural attachments. She gives us a gl...

During a decades long career in the United States Army, Gregg Martin just kept on succeeding. Star cadet at West Point, getting promoted up to two-start General, earning PhD degrees along the way, and receiving glowing evaluations all the while for his boundless energy and enthusiasm. He now knows that he was operating under a condition called hyperthymia, being in a constant state of near mania. After a deployment to Iraq, Gregg’s mania kicked into high gear and was accompanied by bouts of deep depression. It would take many years of further promotion and misdiagnosis before Gregg’s beha...

The numbers are daunting. 60% of college students meet the criteria for a mental health disorder. 44% report depression symptoms, 37% for anxiety, and 15% in a recent survey were considering suicide. Dr. Jessi Gold, Chief Wellness Officer for the University of Tennessee System, says these bleak figures come at a time when there is more awareness and openness about mental health than ever before, especially among young people. So is this particular mental health crisis getting worse or is it getting better? Or are we just now becoming aware of how bad it’s been all along? And what can be done?

There is a lot to grieve in the world right now. We can look to the horrific events in the Middle East. We can look to other hot spots around the world where there is no shortage of death and suffering. We can look closer to home at the pandemic that took over a million American lives. Do we take it on with full deep empathy? Do we get overwhelmed by the magnitude and tune out entirely? Megan Devine, a therapist, author, and podcast host, says the human mind wasn’t designed to deal with all that our modern wo...