Depresh Mode with John Moe

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...

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 an...

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,...

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 c...

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 listener...

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...

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...

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...

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 t...

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 bo...