Finding Hope Under the Stairs

Or possibly out in the treehouse or in the root cellar

Apr 15, 2021

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Ollie Ollie Income Free, Hope

My friend Ana sometimes says that hope is a necessity. You need it to live and function in what can be a pretty rough world, especially when there’s a pandemic going on. And hope isn’t something you idly sit by and wait for it to arrive. I mean, if it shows up on its own, cool, great. But a lot of times you need to chase the thing down. You’re playing hide-and-seek, hope is hiding and you are It. Look under the stairs, in the attic, everywhere you need to.

I was being interviewed the other day about the show and about the state of mental health in American society. And I got on my regular thing about the coming tsunami of mental health needs among all of who have been through the shared trauma of covid. How there aren’t enough providers, how the experience of this hell is too much to process. And it’s all true. But then I got around to what we had going for us in this fight and that’s where I found the hope.

We are more aware than any other generation, any other group of people, who have been through anything like this. We’re more plugged in to what trauma is, what mental healthcare is, what the reality of this situation actually is than the people who went through the Spanish Flu, the great depression, World War 2, any of them. That’s the gradual enlightenment of society. It’s the social progress we have earned and made. Those people didn’t know how messed up they were going to be. We do. And we can prepare for it.

Another thing we have going for us, which is nice, is that it’s a squillion times easier for us to talk to each other than it has been for anyone else ever. I mean, sure, Facebook is objectively awful (a smelly kid I knew in 5th grade and haven’t seen since recently attacked my daughter’s choice of college [?!] and then promptly disappeared from Facebook altogether) but the fundamental ability to connect to other humans and share comfort, experiences, and solutions? That’s a cool thing.

We are our only saviors, after all.

So we have a huge tsunami of trauma ahead. A trommy tsunami? A tromminami? And it’s going to suck. But I’m more hopeful because I believe in our ability as the people going into this fight.

I was on Scott Simon’s web show last weekend and while I don’t specifically remember saying this, turns out I did

Scott Simon @nprscottsimon

I deeply regret that tonight's Open Book w/ @johnmoe (HILARIOUS WORLD OF DEPRESSION, DEPRECHE MODE, etc.) was not save to RT and wish @TwitterVideo @TwitterSupport could tell us why. But let me share a vital thing John told us: "If your heart breaks, it's because it's working."

Pretty good one, Moe!

Yonder rides the MFD

Coming up in May is the Max Fund Drive, the fundraising event of my partner company Maximum Fun. The company was started by Jesse Thorn, whose show Bullseye is also carried by NPR and Jesse has been a public radio guy for a long time. That’s how we know each other and kind of how come he invited me over to the current alliance. So the basic funding model is one of membership.

This means that soon you’ll hear some fundraising messages from me where I explain that the donations are going to make this show viable for me to make. That is an article of faith on my part.

So my mission for the next little while here is careful phrasing and actions to maximize what Depresh Mode is all about and why I would like people to support it.

Here’s the difference between supporting a show like mine and donating to a large media organization with hundreds of employees: when you donate to Depresh Mode, a very small amount goes to Max Fun to continue its support efforts and the rest goes to…. Depresh Mode. It doesn’t disappear into a huge organization that then decides whether to let the show continue, it goes to the show so it can continue. This is why I’m always talking about the team aspect of Depresh Mode.

My belief is that we can be a team together. We’re making a show together. Me, Gabe, Laura, and Max Fun on the production end, the rest of the world on the support end, and then all of us together living in a better, kinder, more informed world as a result. I think it’s a plan.

Anyway, more thoughts to this effect and the unveiling of OUR FIRST MERCH coming soon.