Depresh Mode with John Moe

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...

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...

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 a...

“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, a...

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: Justin McElroy of My Brother, My Brother, and Me , Adventure Zone , and Sawbones Hal Lublin of Tights & Fights and We Got This Laura Swisher, senior producer overseeing about a million...

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,...

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 cult...

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....

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...

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 o...

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 d...

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...

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 reappea...

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...

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 the...

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 th...

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...

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 a...

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 struggl...

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 hi...

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...

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...

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 varie...

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....

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 $7...