Depresh Mode with John Moe

It would take an entire section of show notes here to list all the things Felicia Day has accomplished in her career. Here’s an attempt at making that brief: acted in a bunch of TV shows you know, created and starred in web series, made just so very many online videos, and is now the author and star of an audiobook called Third Eye about someone who is supposed to save the world but fails. In our interview, Felicia talks about doing all those things while dealing with mental disorders like depression and anxiety as well as mental health phenomena like perfectionism and impostor syndrome. We hear about her life as a 20-year-old college graduate/violin prodigy/mathematician trying to make it in Hollywood, about hitting a burnout wall, and about how covid and parenthood slowed her life down.Pre-order your copy of Third Eye, out October 5,2023, at Audible.com. Join Felicia's streams on Twitch by following her at www.twitch.tv/feliciaday.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Check out our I'm Glad You're Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.Help is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John’s acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepressionFind the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Aparna Nancherla’s new book, Unreliable Narrator: Me, Myself, and Impostor Syndrome, covers a lot of mental health territory, much of which she talks about in this interview. Despite being an accomplished comedian and actor, thus having no reason to suffer from impostor syndrome, she still does, because that particular phenomena is impervious to logic. Nor does her success keep away perfectionism, dysthymic depression, or anxiety. In her book and in conversation, Aparna doesn’t go for the easy laugh, instead finding a deeper sort of humor brought about by insight into what it’s like to live with mental health conditions on an ongoing basis. She also talks about her decision to step away from standup comedy for several years and why she has returned.Unreliable Narratordrops tomorrow, September 19th, 2023! Get your copy wherever books are sold. Learn more about Aparna, her work, and her coming tour dates by visiting her website, www.AparnaComedy.com.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Check out our I'm Glad You're Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.Help is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John’s acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepressionFind the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Investigative reporter and Columbia University journalism professor Meg Kissinger has, for many years, specialized in uncovering the catastrophic state of mental health care in America, particularly in Milwaukee, where she has lived for many years. Recently, she used that reporter’s tenacity in learning and telling the story of her own family of origin in her book While You Were Out: An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence.Meg grew up in a suburban Chicago Catholic family with two parents, seven siblings, and a number of mental health issues that were never acknowledged or discussed. Through her investigation, Meg learned new information about family suicides, psychiatric hospitalizations, and more of the things that never got talked about when they were happening. She offers some tips if you want to do some investigating of your own.Get your copy of While You Were Out wherever books are sold. Learn more about Meg Kissinger and her work by visiting her website, www.MegKissinger.com.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Check out our I'm Glad You're Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.Help is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John’s acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepressionFind the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

“Every time I’m on the sidewalk, I want to step into the road,” sings Lydia Loveless on her new song “Runaway.”“Let this Kia flatten me cause I don’t want to come home.”It’s a set of lyrics that packs a wallop but one that she laughs about in our interview. Lydia is in a pretty good place right now, anticipating the release of her new album, Nothing’s Gonna Stand In My Way Again and with her depression under pretty good control at the moment. But she says that depression and thoughts of suicide have been with her since childhood and throughout some tough times with relationships and a record label.Pre-order your copy of Nothing's Gonna Stand In My Way Again, out September 22nd, 2023, wherever records are sold. For more information about Lydia Loveless, tour dates, music, and merch, visit her website, www.LydiaLoveless.com.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Check out our I'm Glad You're Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.Help is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John’s acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepressionFind the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

When the comedian, actor, and author Maria Bamford has something to say about mental health, it’s a pretty good idea to give a listen. For one reason, she’s hilarious. Also, she comes at the issue not just as an observer. Maria has a long history with mental health conditions. SHe has spent a good bit of time in in-patient facilities, has dealt with problematic intrusive thoughts, and has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, type 2. Maria talks about the issue of access to mental health treatment and how it’s a different story for those who have money and those who don’t. Following the lead of her new book, Sure, I’ll Join Your Cult, Maria talks about cults she’s belonged to such as Target shopping, Suzuki violin training, and the Episcopalians.Pre-order your copy of Maria's new book, Sure, I'll Join Your Cult, out September 5, 2023, wherever books are sold. Listen to Maria's latest comedy album, Crowd Pleaser, on the streaming platform of your choice. Learn more about Maria by visiting her website, www.MariaBamford.com.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Check out our I'm Glad You're Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.Help is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John’s acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepressionFind the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Patrick Page has earned a reputation as one of the top classical actors in America today and one of the best at playing villains. He’s played Iago in Othello, the Grinch, Marc Antony and Brutus in Julius Caesar, Scar in The Lion King, King Lear, and Hades in Hadestown to name very few of his roles in a decades long career. But Patrick has faced off against a classical villain off stage as well, having battled a depressive disorder ever since he was five years old. He talks about his experiences with bipolar depression and substance use disorder and his own efforts to get and remain healthy. He also discusses the emotional toll of taking on very heavy roles and playing them on stage while dealing with his mental health. It’s a revealing conversation about mental health and about art.Learn more about Patrick by visiting his website, www.PatrickPageOnline.com. Get tickets to Patrick's newest play, All the Devils Are Here, previews beginning September 29th at the DR2 Theater, by going to www.AllTheDevilsPlay.com.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Check out our I'm Glad You're Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.Help is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John’s acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepressionFind the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Have you ever felt like an impostor? Some of you, the listeners, wrote in to answer this question. According to Dr. Valerie Young from the Impostor Syndrome Institute, about 70% of you will answer that question with a “yes.” Dr. Young joins us to discuss both the internal and external factors that cause impostor syndrome, as well as what individuals and organizations can do to lessen it. Dr. Ken Duckworth, the chief medical officer of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, also talks to us about why impostor syndrome is not considered a mental health condition but shares how the feeling might be addressed.Learn more about Dr. Valerie Young, her book, The Secret Thoughts of Successful Women, and her work by visiting www.ImpostorSyndrome.com. Learn more about Dr. Ken Duckworth, his book, You Are Not Alone: The NAMI Guide to Navigating Mental Health, and his work by visiting www.NAMI.org.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Check out our I'm Glad You're Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.Help is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John’s acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepressionFind the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

This episode originally aired on August 1, 2022.Getting Jamie Lee Curtis to open about her many years spent addicted to Vicodin is, frankly, not very difficult. She wants to talk about it. And that’s for a couple of reasons. One, she wants to make it clear that she’s no different from any other addict in any other walk of life. That’s why she calls herself a dope fiend. She just happens to have had success in an industry she derisively calls “show off business”. Two, because she committed to sobriety after reading someone else’s story of addiction so maybe her story can help someone too.We talk to Jamie about how she got hooked, how she sustained the habit, and how she carried on a perfectly successful movie star life without anyone catching on. Until they did catch on.Listen to Letters from Camp, now on its third and final season, at Audible.com. Follow Jamie Lee Curtis on Twitter @jamieleecurtis and on Instagram @curtisleejamie.Jamie's Gifts to John:"At such a time, it seems natural and good to me to ask myself these questions. What do I believe in? What must I fight for and what must I fight against? Our species is the only creative species and it has only one creative instrument: the individual mind and spirit of a man. Nothing was ever created by two men. There are no good collaborations whether in music, in art, in poetry, in mathematics, in philosophy. Once the miracle of creation has taken place, the group can build and extend it, but the group never invents anything. The preciousness lies in the lonely mind of a man. And now the forces marshalled around the concept of the group have declared a war of extermination on the preciousness, the mind of man. By disparagement, by starvation, by repressions, forced direction, and the stunning hammer blows of conditioning. The free roving mind is being pursued, roped, blunted, and drugged. It is a sad, suicidal course our species seems to have taken. And this I believe that the free exploring mind of the exploring human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for. The freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes undirected. And this I must fight against: any idea, religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I'm about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind for this is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. Surely I can understand this. And I hate it. And I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost." - John Steinbeck, East of Eden"When things go unexamined for a long enough time, certain things happen. They become very very powerful. They create conformity. They intimidate." - E.L. Doctorow"Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something." - The Dread Pirate Roberts, The Princess BrideThank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun. Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.Help is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Before she was a cast member on Saturday Night Live, Sasheer Zamata was a cast member at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, where she would climb inside the character costumes and mingle with guests at the park. One particular costume, Buzz Lightyear from Toy Story, was particularly cumbersome and uncomfortable and that’s where Sasheer had her first ever, full-blown panic attack. She shares that story in this interview as well as her experiences with an irregular heartbeat, a wise life coach, and a strategic approach to navigating the intensity and stress of SNL. Pre-order and watch Sasheer Zamata's upcoming stand-up special,The First Woman, out Tuesday, August 15th at 800poundgorillamedia.com. Learn more about Sasheer, her podcast, Best Friends, with Nicole Byer, and her comedy specials by visiting her website, www.Sasheer.com.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Check out our I'm Glad You're Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.Help is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John’s acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepressionFind the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Bethany Cosentino describes her new album as “a coming-of-age story about a 36-year-old woman reclaiming her life and what matters against the landscape of the world ending.” That last bit of that description is hard to miss and indeed climate anxiety figures heavily in the record but let’s not look past the middle part of the description, the part with the reclaiming life and what matters. In this fun and insightful interview, Bethany talks about recently being diagnosed with ADHD just a few weeks ago and how it’s helping her gain insight on many elements of her life. She also discusses the photo she keeps of herself as a young child, back when she was a child actor in commercials, and how it serves as a reminder that taking care of herself today means also taking care of that same kid.Bethany's new album, Natural Disaster, is out July 28, 2023. Watch the music video for "It's Fine", the first single from Natural Disaster, on Youtube. For tour dates, her music, and more about Bethany, visit her website, www.BethanyCosentino.com. Follow Bethany on Instagram @bethany_cosentino.Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.Check out our I'm Glad You're Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.Help is available right away.The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALKCrisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlinesThe Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/John’s acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is now available in paperback. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250209566/thehilariousworldofdepressionFind the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.John is on Twitter @johnmoe.