Depresh Mode with John Moe

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 the development of an unwelcome alco...

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 and loving Joe in the first place. On...

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, and she was considering suicide. Th...

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 close look at the stories and experie...

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 listeners, about your rights, how to spot y...

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 fat. In this interview, Lindy talks...

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 for the OCD label because he think...

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 on an ongoing basis. Part of that i...

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 the country speaking to groups about...

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 bookstore owner and how, despite ADHD, O...

It's the Max Fun Drive and we are so glad to have your support! In this special mini-episode, host John Moe talks about how important you are to the show we make and the work we do. Hear about the events that led to John's deeper understanding of how exactly mental health works and why mutual support matters so very much.

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We’re kicking off the most exciting time of the year for the MaxFun Network with a trivia game show featuring hosts from tons of great podcasts.

J. Keith van Straaten and Helen Hong from “Go Fact Yourself” are joined by:

Jackie Kashian -“The ...

Our 2021 interview with Joel Kim Booster was easily one of our most talked about episodes we’ve ever made. Joel was deeply depressed at the time of the interview and was brutally honest about it, sharing his belief that his creativity was dead forever and that this was just who he was now, forever. A lot of people expressed great concern for Joel and his mental health and well being when that episode aired. Now, a few years later, ...

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, her career required dressing up in ...

Kari Faux is an acclaimed rapper originally from Little Rock, Arkansas, which is a place she returned to after several years of not loving life in Los Angeles. She later judged her situation and decided things would be better living in Houston so she moved there. These decisions are examples of the thoughtful approach she takes to a lot of issues in her life, including how to deal with a family member at the center of a problematic...

It was 2003 and Paul Gilmartin, one time host of TV’s Dinner and a Movie, was presented with an ultimatum by his psychiatrist: either do something to address your alcohol and drug addiction or I can’t really work with you anymore. Besides substance use issues, Paul had been dealing with intense suicidal ideation, major depressive disorder and the trauma of an alcoholic father and a mother engaged in covert incest. He was a mess. Fi...

The issue of money is packed with shame, anxiety, and a lot of psychological mess that you might have to unpack in order to get to a comfortable place. Fortunately, there’s therapy for that. Celia Roberts Hughes is a Nashville, Tennessee professional financial therapist, merging the overlapping world of personal psychology and money to try to strike some peace and harmony between the two. Celia says a lot of the work that she does ...

During a decades long career in the United States Army, Gregg Martin just kept on succeeding. Star cadet at West Point, getting promoted up to two-start General, earning PhD degrees along the way, and receiving glowing evaluations all the while for his boundless energy and enthusiasm. He now knows that he was operating under a condition called hyperthymia, being in a constant state of near mania. After a deployment to Iraq, Gregg’s...

The numbers are daunting. 60% of college students meet the criteria for a mental health disorder. 44% report depression symptoms, 37% for anxiety, and 15% in a recent survey were considering suicide. Dr. Jessi Gold, Chief Wellness Officer for the University of Tennessee System, says these bleak figures come at a time when there is more awareness and openness about mental health than ever before, especially among young people. So is...