Depresh Mode with John Moe

The things that happened when you were young, especially the really painful things, can easily and often carry into adulthood. For documentarian, former high-powered executive, and actual Mister Rogers neighbor Benjamin Wagner, an adult life of terrible stress and substance use issues wasn’t really going to be solved until he understood more about the ripple effects of his parents’ divorce and a s...

You have to eat. We know this. But when depression is flaring, it’s really hard to even get to the kitchen, let alone make something tasty and good for you. Don’t worry. Our Depresh Meals episode has expert ideas for just that situation from Food & Wine’s Kat Kinsman and The Sporkful podcast host Dan Pashman. To hear the full episode, become a member of Maximum Fun for as little as $5 a month. You...

You have to call your friends once in a while and see how they’re doing, especially if they’re undergoing big changes and their city has been rocked with upheaval. Twin Cities-based actor and writer Bill Corbett will always be associated with Crow T. Robot, the wisecracking robotic commentator on bad films on Mystery Science Theater 3000. It’s a part he played for many years and a part he’ll be pl...

Hi, everyone, John Moe here. “Can I read you what Sunny just posted on Facebook?” asked my wife, Jill. I figured it was something about Tom Petty or her dogs but it was, in fact, a very funny and skillful micro-essay on why she listens to Depresh Mode and why, after years of listening, she became a member. Her argument was one that I would never dare make but enjoyed: if you’re not paying, it’s th...

It's MaxFunDrive. And here, for the first time, we give you an exclusive look (well, listen) at the craft of podcasting: presenting  Casters on Casters . In this episode, John Moe ( Sleeping with Celebrities  &  Depresh Mode with John Moe ) talks about his double life, as a person who speaks in a normal voice, and the host he becomes for  Sleeping with Celebrities . And Brenda Snell ( Secret Histo...

When our host, John Moe, started doing podcasts about mental health ten years ago, one of his first guests was his friend Andy Richter. Andy, who you know from various Conan shows and tons of other TV shows and movies, talked about having his depression pretty well managed at the time. Since then, his marriage ended in divorce and the Conan show on television ended as well. He returns to talk abou...

We’re delighted to welcome the actor, writer, web celebrity (celwebrity?) Felicia Day back to the program as part of our ongoing effort to reach out to friends and just ask how they’re doing. You might know her from The Guild, the web series she created, or from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Felicia has a new graphic novel, Lost Daughter of Sparta , and says she always...

There is actual science that says listening to sad songs - about heartache, heartbreak, grief, worry, whatever it is - can make you feel better. The brain seeks that kind of stuff out and you feel less alone, more understood. It’s a paradox but there it is. We asked some friends of the show what worked for them and you’ll hear from Neko Case, Gavin Rossdale, Rhett Miller, Open Mike Eagle, Emma Swi...

When Jimmy Pardo joined us for a hilarious and revealing interview, he had just conducted a Never Not Funny anniversary show that exceeded nine hours in length. Not all that shocking if you’ve been listening to the show, which routinely exceeds two hours of jokes, interviews, and rapid-fire conversation. All those years of talking (and Jimmy talks fast) have meant a lot of self-reflection on a lif...

Covid hit everybody, either personally or as members of society, and our mental health was damaged. It was trauma and it largely hasn’t been processed. When Joshua Roman became the principal cellist at the prestigious Seattle Symphony at age 22, it wasn’t really a surprise. As he explains, he had been training since the age of 3, desperate to get better, intent on overtaking Yo-Yo Ma and Pablo Cas...

Today, I want to share an episode from a podcast I think you’ll enjoy called Proxy . It’s hosted by Yowei Shaw, who you might know from the NPR show Invisibilia. After getting laid off in 2023, she found herself stuck with a question she couldn’t shake: why did she feel so ashamed… like it was her fault… even when she knew it wasn’t?   The question became the seed of her new show. Proxy is built o...

Covid was already rough for the very funny and personable Annabelle Gurwitch, as it was for everyone, and that was before her car broke down on an LA freeway just as she was getting a call with a terminal cancer diagnosis. Stage four. Annabelle has dealt with anxiety and depression for a long time and the cancer news certainly didn’t help, especially as Annabelle found strong connections between m...

At age 24, Eric Zimmer was in rough shape. He was addicted to heroin, weighed maybe a hundred pounds, and was facing the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence. So he gave rehab another try and he had some success and started getting his life back together, diving into just about any book or teaching he could find that could help him get healthy and stay healthy. This led to conversations, the podc...

We are proud to present a very special episode of In This Family as a bonus for Depresh Mode with John Moe listeners. In This Family is produced by John Moe in conjunction with Nexus Family Healing and it’s about the connection between family and mental health. It’s a fascinating and moving look at the Hmong culture, their relocation to the United States, and the generational trauma that has been...

When Emily’s twin, Amelia, ended up in the hospital twice, she knew that stress wasn’t something to be dismissed as “all in your head”. First of all, the head is connected to the body (by the neck), so stress is a physical issue that you can feel and be hurt by in all sorts of ways. Too much stress, at work, at home, in life, and you can run up against a real burnout situation. And it can wreak ha...

The patients in the therapy sessions in the new film GROUP: The Schopenhauer Effect are actors, but it’s not a scripted film. The actors were given characters and circumstances and then they improvised dialogue with each other and with the group leader, who is also acting. Kind of. Dr. Elliott Zeisel is one of the most important figures in group therapy in America since the 1970s. With all that kn...

Although he has a huge following on social media now, Jonathan Edward Durham’s life as a writer used to be a lot more low tech. It involved locking himself in a room in Los Angeles, pounding away on screenplays that almost no one ever read, sucking back smokes and liquor, barely sleeping, and finding himself to actually be pretty miserable. He did manage to write and self-publish a novel, Winterse...

You might remember Alexandra Paul as one of the stars of Baywatch or the Tom Hanks-Dan Aykroyd Dragnet film. You may not have realized that as a child and on to her long trip through the worlds of modeling and Hollywood, she was bingeing and purging and dealing with severe eating disorders. She tells us about her relationship with sugar and what food meant emotionally. Then we’re joined by Dr. Cyn...

Dating apps and websites are booming right now as people look for ways to leverage to find love or even just companionship. Liesel Sharabi of Arizona State University compiled a meta-analysis of a huge number of studies about the connection between online dating and mental health and the results? Kind of bad news. People who use the apps compulsively, swiping all day long, are much more likely to...

Niko Stratis knew a couple of things growing up in the Yukon in Canada: that she was, in truth, a woman, despite being regarded by the world as male, and that being trans or different in any way was absolutely not okay. It wasn’t just a matter of identity, it was a matter of safety too, as she worked with guys who vowed that if their child was gay or trans, they would kill that child. Niko discove...

The ICE surge in Minnesota has meant a huge number of arrests, protests, confrontations, deportations, children and adults sent to detention facilities, and deaths. It’s also meant massive anxiety, fear, and trauma around the state. Marcus Schmit of NAMI Minnesota says this is being felt acutely among people already struggling with severe mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, a...

In 2007, Amanda Knox, an American studying abroad in Italy, was arrested, tried, and convicted of the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher. After years in an Italian jail, she was ultimately freed, reconvicted, and finally exonerated in 2015. Since then, she has married, become a mother, and she has returned to Italy, even meeting with the prosector who concocted outrageous stories that led to...

Suicide is a problem. It’s perpetually a top cause of death around the world but society shames it, stigmatizes it, and is reluctant to discuss it even when talking about it would save lives. Well guess what, we’re talking about it. We’re offering insight, sympathy, and practical ideas to help yourself and others. Clancy Martin first thought about suicide when he was two years old and he has attem...

It was several years into her talk therapy sessions that Stephanie Foo was offered a diagnosis: complex post-traumatic stress disorder, or C-PTSD. Regular PTSD stems from a single traumatic event like a car crash or a mugging. C-PTSD comes from a long series of traumas from which there seems like no escape. Like child abuse. The problems Stephanie was having with her relationships and rage and all...

A.J. Daulerio exists as a caricature to a lot of people because he was the guy who published a clip from a Hulk Hogan sex tape on Gawker, got sued by Hogan, and he and Gawker lost to the tune of a $140 million payout. The enmity and shame of that was a lot to carry around, as was a lifelong battle with depression and bipolar disorder type II, as was a pretty profound problem with drug and alcohol...