Puppies.
Also Tim Heidecker, George Harrison, and companies hated by their employees . But again: puppies.
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Here are the puppies promised in the headline above
When we had our annual Max Fun Drive to support Depresh Mode, we had to set some goals for number of new members. I promised that if we reached our goal, I would interview puppies about mental health. Target was met, puppies were gathered.
Sarah Bhimani and Astrid Roed at Animal Humane Society of Minnesota were incredibly helpful in making this happen. I met with Hermes and Demeter, just two and a half months old, and had one of the more delightful interviews I’ve ever conducted. Even though the puppies couldn’t talk. Because they’re puppies.
Would you like to see some pictures from the taping?
Hermes and Demeter both found forever homes on Sunday. It wasn’t with me and I’m a little sad about that.
Tim Heidecker is not a puppy but is on Depresh Mode this week
I used to be a little scared of Tim Heidecker’s comedy, back when he was making Tim and Eric Awesome Show Great Job! That’s because there was never any wink from the guys that said, oh, we’re just messing around but we’re regular nice guys. The comedy was often anarchic and deeply strange. Funny, yes, of course, extremely funny, but certainly more dangerous than most comedy because you had no idea where it was going.
Shit, Spagett still scares the hell out of me.
Anyway, Tim is on the podcast this week and he’s a very normal reasonable guy.
We talked about comedy but also about his music. Tim’s a singer-songwriter with kind of a seventies vibe going on. His latest album is called High School and it comes out this coming Friday.
Tim has never been diagnosed with depression but man alive does he sing about it with tremendous accuracy.
T-Mobile, ironically, really sucks at communicating and facilitating dialogue
Maybe they should try to use a different mobile network to reach out to their employees about mental health because those employees aren’t getting a good message. That’s according to a new survey:
T-Mobile topped the list with 97% of employees saying the company doesn’t try to help ease anxiety, stress and other mental health issues. The firm was followed by Tesla Motors (85%), Amazon (82%), Menlo Park, CA-based Robinhood (81%) and Goldman Sachs (81%). HRD reached out to these companies for comment, but hasn’t heard back as of publication.
Also sucking real bad and to the surprise of not a single human on this or any other planet: Amazon and Tesla.
California companies scored high in the survey: San Francisco-based Salesforce topped the list with 73% of employees believing the company supports their mental health. The firm was followed by San Francisco-based Splunk (70%), McLean, VA-based Capital One (67%), Mountain View, CA-based Google (66%) and Sunnyvale, CA-based LinkedIn (65%).
Here’s a sentence I’ve never said before: Way to go, Splunk!
George Harrison insight on Abbey Road track by track
Here’s a podcast episode you’ll love to hear, even though it significantly predates any concept of podcasts. George Harrison in an audio-only breakdown of Abbey Road, the final Beatles album to be recorded.
Quality recording? Nah. Analysis that will reshape your understanding of familiar music? Yes. Semi-masked disdain for “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”? Yep.
George really sticks up for “Octopus’s Garden”, which, I love George but… Yeah.