Depresh Mode with John Moe

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 i...

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, acc...

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: t...

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 towa...

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,...

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 t...

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 e...

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 str...

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...

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...

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 Human...

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 hos...

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 throug...

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 Joh...

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 ev...

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 H...

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 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,...

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...

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...

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 grand...

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 F...

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...

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 perso...

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...