Depresh Mode with John Moe

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 d...

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...

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 clo...

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 violen...

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”...

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 j...

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...

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...

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 eve...

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 extreme...

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 apar...

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 wit...

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 relation...

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 fiction...

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 a...

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 pro...

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 anxi...

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...

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 tod...

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 d...

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....

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...

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 f...

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...

It wasn’t supposed to be like this for Broti Gupta. This comedy thing. It wasn’t supposed to be happening at all. She grew up the daughter of a doctor and there was an expectation she’d follow the same path. But as a college student, she just couldn’t shake the strong interest in comedy that led her down a different path entirely, away from med school and toward places like the New Yorker, McSween...