A Chat with Uma

On episode 56 of A Chat with Uma, I’m here for a solo episode to kick off Mental Illness Awareness Week 2025 with a bold claim: that the most powerful way to raise awareness for mental illness — & to change how it’s perceived, treated, & supported — is to reconceptualize it as what it actually is: a brain disorder — a physical illness.

For generations, “mental illness” has been misunderstood as something of the "mind&qu...

On Episode 55 of A Chat with Uma, I'm here with a deeply personal, long-requested solo episode for Suicide Prevention Month. For years, I've woven pieces of my story into different episodes-OCD, PTSD, depression, advocacy, research-but I've never dedicated an entire conversation to suicidality itself: what it's been like to live with it chronically, what the terms we use really mean, and the realities of growing up ...

On episode 54 of A Chat with Uma, we dive into Part 2 of my conversation with Dr. Rachel Wurzman—a neuroscientist, neuroethicist, therapist, entrepreneur, and lived-experience advocate who has walked through the fire of academia, identity, and survival while holding onto her nonlinear truth.

In this second half, Rachel takes us deep into her professional journey: navigating graduate school dysfunction, fighting stigma in the very la...

On episode 53 of A Chat with Uma, I sit down with Dr. Rachel Wurzman—a neuroscientist, neuroethicist, therapist, and lived-experience advocate whose story is as nonlinear and multidimensional as the brain itself. Growing up with Tourette’s, OCD, ADHD, and dyscalculia, Rachel learned early what it meant to be brilliant and struggling at the same time. She survived by embracing creativity and theater, channeling her tics and differen...

On episode 52 of A Chat with Uma, I sit down with my dear friend & role model, Brandon Staglin—co-founder & Chief Advocacy & Engagement Officer of One Mind, the world’s leading brain health nonprofit. For nearly three decades, Brandon has transformed lived experience into leadership: co-creating a global organization, raising hundreds of millions for brain health research, & pushing society toward a future where men...

On episode 51 of A Chat with Uma, I sit down with Dr. Boris Heifets, MD, PhD—associate professor at Stanford, anesthesiologist, neuroscientist, & one of the most extraordinary scientists & clinicians who is truly revolutionizing mental health! He pushes the boundaries of how we approach consciousness, mental health, & pharmacology—asking questions most people are too afraid to traverse: Do we need to be awake for drugs ...

On episode 50 of A Chat with Uma, we flip the script: my husband, Zac, takes the host chair and interviews me—for our first-ever in-person recording! To celebrate 50 episodes, we go wide and deep; and what he pulls out surprised even me. We trace how I went from barely hanging on to betting my life on the brain; the awe (and pressure) of studying the most complex thing in the universe; what I’d do with myself if science vanished to...

On episode 49 of A Chat with Uma, I’m back for a solo heart-to-heart with you about the painful circumstances I've been navigating recently. The show has been growing fast (hi, Ologies friends!), & I’ve been prioritizing platforming other voices. But I never want that to crowd out the core of this show: honest conversation about the realities living with serious mental illness, even while building a life in recovery. Today,...

On episode 48 of A Chat with Uma, I sit down with psychiatrist–neuroscientist Dr. Martijn Figee, MD., PhD—director of Mount Sinai’s Interventional Psychiatry Program & a groundbreaking pioneer in neurostimulation (e.g. DBS, TMS) for psychiatric disorders, especially OCD & depression—for a clear, grounded tour of circuit‑based psychiatry. This is the science companion to last week’s episode with Jon Nelson (ep. 47): today...

On episode 47 of A Chat with Uma, I sit down with my dear friend Jon Nelson—lived-experience mental health expert & longtime healthcare comms exec—whose decade of treatment-resistant depression nearly killed him before an experimental deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery flipped the circuit & brought instant remission in 2022. Jon shares the unfiltered, brutal reality of suicidal depression & how anger became fuel for a...

On episode 46 of A Chat with Uma, I speak with Dr. Ya’el Courtney—a neuroscientist whose life traverses extreme circumstances that most only read about. Removed from an abusive, violent, fundamentalist household at 15, she spent her teen years couch-surfing, battling eating disorders & self-harm, working night shifts, & finishing high school coursework as her own teacher. She forged a transcript to escape poverty, later con...

On episode 45 of A Chat with Uma, I sit down with Scott Kelsey—mental health advocate, former pro-hockey player, fellow One Mind Lived Experience Council member, and founder + CEO of Shareapy, a platform dedicated to transforming mental health support through peer-driven connections. Scott opens up about his decades-long journey with anxiety & depression, unfolding during & after his five-season run in professional hockey d...

On episode 44 of A Chat with Uma, I'm here for an (unexpected) solo episode to give you a full-length, 360° “State-of-the-Union” of my life for 2025. 2.5 years have flown by since my original intro episodes, and new listeners are still meeting a 2023 snapshot that’s quite outdated. Today I lay out—clearly and in one place—everything I’m doing now and why it matters: my neuroscience research, science communication, lived experie...

On episode 43 of A Chat with Uma, you have me for a solo episode where I share a huge life update that I'm living through in real time: after two solid years of showing me that recovery is actually possible, my therapist is moving across the world. Cue the whiplash of shock, grief, fear, and every intrusive “I-told-you-so” thought my OCD could cook up. In this episode, I walk you through the journey to and through here:

• the ...

On episode 42, I sit down with my dear friend, Alie Bernard Garza, LCSW—a therapist, advocate, & survivor whose life reads like an impossible novel: childhood autoimmune disease, undiagnosed OCD & ADHD, a high-control evangelical cult, multiple psychiatric hospitalizations, near-death medical crises, & eventually, a 38/40 Y-BOCS spiral that forced her into residential ERP. That would be more than enough for most lifetim...

On episode 41 of A Chat with Uma, we pick up right where we left off with Dr. Maya Schumer—a psychiatric neuroscientist who studies bipolar disorder, the very illness she lives with. In Part 2, Maya walks us through her PhD and Postdoc research thus far: the largest functional-MRI meta-analysis ever published at the time, 3 independent risk-cohort replications, and analyzing first-episode mania datasets. We dig into the honest real...

On episode 40 of A Chat with Uma, I sit down with my dear friend Dr. Maya Schumer—a psychiatric neuroscientist who studies bipolar disorder, the very illness she lives with. She shares her full experience across 3 decades: growing up with a father with bipolar 1 disorder, how her own bipolar 2 diagnosis morphed into bipolar 1, several hospitalizations, her relationship with lithium, chronic suicidality, metabolic psychiatry, IV ket...

On episode 39 of A Chat with Uma, I invite my dear friend Tracie Ibrahim, LMFT, CST to tell her full survivorship story of 29 psychiatric hospitalizations, misdiagnoses of schizophrenia & homicidality, childhood abuse, & a mental-health system that nearly killed her—until she learned the name of the monster (OCD) & fought back with exposure & response prevention. Tracie’s journey, like her, is messy, punk-rock, &...

On episode 38 of A Chat with Uma, I reflect on both my 29th birthday & 6th anniversary of my cancer diagnosis. I share a live, raw, completely unedited account of everything rising to the surface as I turn 29. I speak at length about the awe and gratitude I feel for still being here + alive, and remember how staying on this planet for this long once felt utterly impossible. I talk through the rapid transformation of life that h...