Being True to Oneself, Hope and Despair, Banana Pasta
I really got to get better at writing headlines. Antlers in here too. Trailers not to watch.
We have now concluded the 2022 Max Fun Drive. Hundreds of new people joined the show as members and we hit our goal for the drive, which means we’ll be releasing our episode with Justin McElroy of My Brother, My Brother, and Me AND making a video of me interviewing puppies about mental health.
THANK YOU ALL. If you missed the chance to contribute during the drive, you can always contribute anyway at https://maximumfun.org/join.
What we talk about when we talk about Shamir
I have been interviewing people professionally for many years and I’ve learned to pay attention to what happens after the interview. I’ve learned to notice how the dialogue has formed into a story that I want to tell my listeners.
Because here’s what happens: you make some kind of plan (for me, usually just in my head) about what you want to learn from the person, then you talk to them and allow the discoveries and detours and re-routing to occur, then you say goodbye, and then you think. For me, the thinking is sometimes followed by talking to someone else about what just happened. Often, that’s with my producer(s) but sometimes it’s with my wife and/or kids.
I tell people what stood out for me in the interview because that’s what informs the editing and the script around the interview. That’s usually the story to tell about the person, intertwined with what they say about themselves.
On this week’s podcast, I talk to the artist Shamir, seen here in a photo from his new album, Heterosexuality, and with antlers.
Shamir is non-binary and uses he/him pronouns.
Reflecting on the interview, I told my daughter some things that stood out:
Shamir started making music because he was surrounded by it growing up and wanted to please his mother. And he found out he was good at it and his songs became popular.
His first effort blew up and became very popular. He was on his way to stardom. But the music didn’t feel like who he felt he was. He looked into dropping music entirely and going back to work in retail in Las Vegas.
He had a psychotic break a few years later and has learned a lot about taking care of himself as a result.
Shamir has a very clear concept of an inner compass. He still evaluates what he makes in terms of how true it is to himself. He works hard and has to make a living like everyone else but he has a basic fundamental idea that if he makes something honest, that will be what matters most. Everything else will follow.
Like a lot of interviews I do, the interview with Shamir isn’t so much about mental illnesses he’s experienced but about how to live with a mind in the world.
He explains the antlers in the interview.
Not the one who plays Professor McGonigall
I’m a little over two hours from my interview with Maggie Smith, the poet. Not the actor. This one lives in Columbus, Ohio, and if you want to have a good soak in poems, here you go, go here.
Maggie became pretty well-known - not just for a poet but among writers in general - for her 2016 poem Good Bones. It’s about observing the horrors of the world, knowing the potential and hope that also lives in the world, and wondering what to tell children about all this.
As I write this, I don’t know Maggie’s relationship with mental health troubles and I’m experimenting with keeping it that way in the prep phase. I’ll ask her about any history with disorders, probably, but I don’t think that’s the thrust of the interview. Given that she’s written so eloquently about the horror, the horror, the horror, and knowing she’s had bumps in her own life, the story for me is how to deal with the world and continue on.
I sent her an email about this:
One thing that I wanted to talk about was the idea of hope in the
world today when so many people are in such despair. The complex
trauma of covid has done a lot of damage and then the recent psychic
trauma of Ukraine, SCOTUS, and so many other things. Depression rates
are just off the chart lately. I feel like a lot of your work examines
the issue of hope and despair. Certainly Good Bones does but a lot of
other stuff as well.
She wrote back and said she has some poems that fit this quite well. I’m excited. I’ll let you know how it goes.
Here’s a video someone made of/about Good Bones:
Gen Z is sensible and wants to be treated fairly
That’s what I take from a story that reports that 82% of people in the generation roughly characterized as being born in the mid-90’s through 2010 want mental health days from their employers.
Consistent with the desire for mental health days, survey respondents listed “burnout/lack of work-life balance” as the #2 reason why Gen Zers would quit their job—surpassed only by the top response “unsatisfactory salary.” Another stressor could be the lack of face to face interaction during this extended time of pandemic-induce remote working. “When it comes to the workplace, 7 in 10 Gen Zs find it important to have in-person socialization with their colleagues, while 59% feel the same for virtual socialization,” the report concludes.
I’m a Gen X guy myself and it never would have occurred to me to want this from an employer.
The young people are right and I was wrong.
Gen X grew up in the Reagan-era fetishization of overwork as virtue. We had consumerism shoved down our throats and told that all the spoils of wealth could be had if we went to work to enrich others and we would then become rich ourselves. Through trickle-down economics. Or something.
Gen Z has more savvy than we did. I think it’s because they just have a lot more access to the marketplace of ideas than we did. They seem less likely to fall for the exploitation inherent in a capitalist society.
Here’s what I hope: I hope they hold onto this belief and don’t get hornswoggled over time.
Everything Everywhere All at Once
For the recent Max Fun Drive (perhaps you heard me talk about it? fucking endlessly?), the company offered an activity deck as a thank you gift. It was a set of cards written by Max Fun folks offering ideas of things to do. I offered one of my favorite ideas: go see a movie knowing nothing about it.
It’s rare that you can do such a thing since most movie theaters are showing Spiderman on any given day but I find it’s a great way to surprise and engage your brain.
In that spirit, the wife and I went to see Everything Everywhere All at Once on Saturday and boy oh boy was that a good idea. Just delightful, fascinating, moving, and often hilarious. AND the kid from Indiana Jones & the Temple of Doom, now a full-grown man of course, is one of the stars, after being out of acting for a long time.
Here’s where I would ordinarily post a trailer but I DON’T WANT YOU TO SEE THE TRAILER. I want you to see the movie.
It is enriching. Learn nothing else just GO. It will be good for your mental health.
My mind bent in a similar way to when I first saw Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared:
I’m rarely called upon to explain Norwegians
But when I am, I just point to the work of Jan-Hakon Erichsen.