Madness Radio

Is “schizophrenia” a broken brain — or shamanic journeying to ancestral dimensions? Is being “out of touch with reality” actually visions of deeper truth and racial healing? Dick Russell – author of 17 books including on the JFK assassination and a biography of Jungian James Hillman – followed doctors’ advice when his son Franklin was diagnosed psychotic. But Franklin, who is of mixed race, only got worse — until Russell and Franklin’s mother Etta Russell-Scott joined West African traditional healer Malidoma Somé on a spiritual quest. Franklin’s creative flourishing helped repair the relationship between father and son, and with Franklin’s support, Russell wrote My Mysterious Son: A Life-Changing Passage between Schizophrenia and Shamanism to bring crucial lessons for all of us. (transcript here) https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781629144870/my-mysterious-son/ https://dickrussell.substack.com/ https://dickrussell.org/ www.madinamerica.com/2014/12/mysterious-son/ malidoma.com/about/ https://dickrussell.substack.com/The post Schizophrenia Shamanism and Family | Dick Russell | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

Will Hall greets community FM station Valley Free Radio for its 20 years anniversary celebration! Founders Will and Ed Russell sparked the volunteer-run station in Northampton, Massachusetts, dedicated to peace, ecology, and social justice — and home to Madness Radio. Congrats on 20 years of amazing volunteer run community programming and an antidote to our corporate drive media! Video here: https://youtu.be/yz2ZI2LXQMo https://valleyfreeradio.org/ https://www.northamptonchamber.com/blog/investor-spotlight-valley-free-radio https://www.instagram.com/reel/DNDnCWBx0Nb/ https://valleyadvocate.com/…/20-hours-to-celebrate-20…/ Low Power To The People | Valley AdvocateThe post Valley Free Radio Anniversary | Will Hall | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

Mad Camp is an annual summer camp for mad people in Northern California – with people joining from all over the world! What’s it all about? Madness Radio producer and co-host Jessica Gallinger attended Mad Camp 2024 and interviewed Mad Campers about their experience, she’s joined by Mad Camp co-founders Dina Tyler and Will Hall to talk about the crazy wild vision they are unfolding to shift the timeline. Original music – Sarah Harper – Soundcloud & Instagram: @SarahHarperRock. https://www.madinamerica.com/2023/02/mad-camp/ www.madcamp.net www.madcampeurope.netThe post Mad Camp 2024 | Jessica Gallinger | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

How do decriminalizing drug use and sex work advance mad liberation? What lessons can psychiatric survivors learn from the harm reduction movement? Caty Simon’s activist leadership spans the low-income rights, psychiatric survivors, sex worker, and drug users union movements, and she was a key organizer at Freedom Center in Western Massachusetts. Caty is on the leadership team of National Survivors Union (NSU), the US drug users union; is a founding co-organizer of Whose Corner Is It Anyway, a mutual aid group by and for low-income, street, and survival sex workers who use opioids and/or stimulants and/or experience housing insecurity; and leads Narcofeminism Storyshare, a collaborative autobiographical story development and key publics training stigma reduction project at NC Survivors Union, the flagship affiliate group of NSU. Caty is currently a research assistant at the Yale School of Medicine, and in 2023 received the International Drug Policy Reform Conference’s Alfred R. Lindesmith Award. Caty reunites with longtime colleagues and Madness Radio co-hosts Jacks McNamara and Will Hall to talk about psychiatric incarceration and her 20 years experience in the harm reduction movement for drug user, sex worker, and mad people liberation. (Transcript) 58 min version To contact Caty: caty@urbansurvivorsunion.org The principles of harm reduction, as defined by the National Harm Reduction Coalition: https://harmreduction.org/about-us/principles-of-harm-reduction/ Whose Corner Is It Anyway crowdfund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/whose-corner-is-it-anyway Caty’s research publications on Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bMlmEE4AAAAJ&hl=en A Contemporary Drug Problems journal article on the Narcofeminism Storyshare project: https://bit.ly/3OMVdRz NC Survivors Union website: https://www.ncsurvivorsunion.org Caty Simon chapter in Outside Mental Health: Voices and Visions of Madness https://bit.ly/42mRWQL A series of interviews with late Arise for Social Justice Executive Director Michaelann Bewsee, discussed in the interview, from the Smith College Collection:  https://smith.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?pid=5afb0a04-510f-45d3-ac09-ae2201473430 Two key corrections by Caty: The national reduction in overdoses this year was 14.5%, not 10% or less, as I erroneously said in the interview. Also, to clarify further on my statement that the DSM-V’s diagnostic criteria for mild opioid use disorder could easily apply to someone who is prescribed opioids for pain, this is why they must specify in the DSM-V entry on opioid use disorder that “These criteria [are] not considered to be met for those individuals taking opioids solely under appropriate medical supervision.”The post Sex Drugs Harm Reduction | Caty Simon | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

Legendary psychiatric survivor activist Irit Shimrat escaped psychiatric incarceration to become a leading anti-psychiatry organizer. Co-founder of the Ontario Psychiatric Survivors’ Alliance, Irit edited the Canadian magazine Phoenix Rising: The Voice of the Psychiatrized and wrote Call Me Crazy: Stories from the Mad Movement, bringing together the stories of many leading activists. Irit shares her experiences from the inside of locked wards, and from the outside – organizing to abolish them. (Transcript) 58 min version Call me Crazy: Stories from the Mad Movement by Irit Shimrat Spotlight on Institutional Psychiatry Edited by Irit Shimrat Phoenix Rising: The Voice of the Psychiatrized Don Weitz Legacy Project Lunatics Liberation Front web archive Go Nuts!The post Escaped Lunatic | Irit Shimrat | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

Do grieving goats lick psychedelic lichen? Altered states are part of nature, used by plants and animals for survival(!). How does ecology reveal the evolutionary – and spiritual – purpose of psychosis? Steven Morgan, psychiatric survivor and trainer in Intentional Peer Support, led the Another Way sanctuary and was project director for Soteria Vermont. Today he journeys in the wilderness to find healing and spiritual renewal, and with host Will Hall discusses psychosis as part of evolution, psychedelics in natural ecology, personal visions of Christianity, and communicating with bacteria through expanded consciousness. (Transcript) 58 min version stevenmorganjr.com www.madnessradio.net/madness-radio-reinventing-bipolar-steven-morgan/ Music by Steven Morgan The World We Used to Live In by Vine Deloria Jr. Intentional Peer Support Soteria VermontThe post Visionary Ecology | Steven Morgan | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

Will Hall’s June 2024 Grand Rounds talk at University of California San Francisco Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences – where he was locked up as a young man! – titled “New Visions of Psychosis: Abolition as Clinical Best Practice.” Revenge is a dish best served cold. Video here: https://youtu.be/adYrzmJ2w50?si=nwAQBM2F6oYmbShe transcript here. 58 min versionThe post Grand Rounds UCSF Psychiatry – Will Hall – Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

Justin Garson, a philosophy professor at Hunter College and author of *Madness: A Philosophical Exploration*, dives deep into the idea of madness as an evolutionary strategy rather than mere dysfunction. He critiques modern psychiatric narratives, advocating for a historical perspective that recognizes madness as adaptive. The discussion highlights how community support can transform mental health experiences and urges a more inclusive approach that values personal meaning and cultural traditions in healing.

What can R.D. Laing, madness, and Star Trek teach us about the end of the world – and saving it? Will Hall reads “Can Madness Save the World? Where R.D. Laing—and Star Trek—Meet,” published on Mad In America March 14, 2024. The essay draws on the original series Star Trek episode City on the Edge of Forever and on The Obvious, Laing’s speech at the 1967 Dialectics Of Liberation Congress. (Trust us, this all does makes sense!) www.madinamerica.com/2024/03/can-madness-save-the-world-where-r-d-laing-and-star-trek-meet/The post The End of the World | Will Hall | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.

Does hearing God’s voice make you mentally ill? Will psychiatry help you cope with grief and rejection – or make things worse? After a distressing romantic breakup Alison Smith went to her college clinic for help – and was locked up, drugged, and labeled psychotic. Positive and mysterious voices – including visions of Jesus – suddenly turned dark and persecutory, and Alison was driven into psychiatry-induced madness. Co-hosts Will Hall and Jacks McNamara join Alison to discuss religious voices – and psychiatric violence to suppress them. Alison’s writing has appeared in Granta, Real Simple, and PBS’s Stories from the Stage, and her acclaimed memoir Name All the Animals was named a ten best books of the year by People magazine (yes, that People magazine). A coming of age story, Name All the Animals opens on the day Alison’s brother died in a car crash and explores themes of grief, faith and sexuality. Alison lives in Northampton, MA and is working on a new memoir about hearing voices. www.namealltheanimals.com Transcript 58 min versionThe post Crazy or Religious? | Alison Smith | Madness Radio first appeared on Madness Radio.