New shows! New sonnet! New decency!
New shows! New sonnet! New decency!
And Neal Brennan tries just about everything under the sun to feel better
A new, sleepyheaded member of the Depresh Mode family
Coming this Wednesday, the 22nd to the Maximum Fun network, a new podcast hosted by me. Sleeping with Celebrities features my conversations with famous people where we talk at length about things that are not especially fascinating, with the intention of putting you to sleep. The conversations are interesting enough to get your attention away from your swirling thoughts and anxieties but not so interesting that they keep you up.
The show also operates on the level of pretty funny anti-comedy. I mean, you get people like Maria Bamford on there and there will be laughs no matter what you do. And we’re booking a whole lot of deeply funny people. So even if you’re wide awake, you can enjoy them still.
So coming up:
Andy Daly, comedian and actor, talks about how he tends his yard and what it would take to kill someone with a lawnmower
Lulu Miller, host of RadioLab, in a discussion of bats
Scott Thompson from Kids in the Hall discusses his favorite hot cereals and the current availability thereof
Justin McElroy of My Brother, My Brother, and Me details the right way to travel to Walt Disney World
We first made Sleeping with Celebrities last spring as our Depresh Mode bonus content for the Max Fun Drive. That entry was a four+ hour mega-special with lots of guests. When we taped those interviews, the consensus quickly emerged that this was a fun enough and helpful enough idea that we needed to make it into a weekly program. It was originally inspired by my all-through-covid sleep aid of the audio book of Warren Zanes’ excellent Tom Petty biography, a book I had already read in print. The stories were always interesting but never thrilling, never dramatic, and the book came out before Petty died.
There are other sleep aid podcasts out there and there are plenty of celebrity interview shows but there is only one celebrity interview sleep aid show and that’s Sleeping with Celebrities.
I’ve started calling our mascot Sleepy Sheepy.
So listen to our trailer now and then tune in and drift off on Wednesday!
Neal Brennan tried everything for his depression
Well, nearly everything. He tried more than most people try, that’s for sure. He’s my guest of Depresh Mode this week.
Neal is a veteran standup comedian and comedy writer. He co-created Chappelle’s Show with Dave Chappelle (we don’t get into anything about Chappelle and his recent statements in our interview). And Neal’s depression goes way back to his childhood as the youngest of ten children by a father who confessed on his death bed that he never really loved his kids.
In this episode, Neal talks about trying Freudian analysis, meds, human growth hormone(!), ketamine, ayahuesca, TMS or transcranial magnetic stimulation, another version of TMS in China, 5 MEO DMT which is a psychedelic, and his upcoming experience with IFS or internal family systems, another type of therapy.
Keep in mind, nothing works for everyone when it comes to mental health treatment so there always needs to be something of a trial and error process to go through. It’s just that Neal’s process is longer than most. Some of the things were a waste of time, some were fantastic and pretty much cured his depression, and then there was one that kind of blew his mind apart and just about killed him. Tune in to find out which was which.
Chat GPT prompt: “Donate to Depresh Mode in a sonnet”
Oh, why should one donate to Depresh Mode, A podcast that speaks of mental health?
For those who listen, it's a guiding ode, A source of comfort, wisdom, and wealth.
The hosts, John and Dorian, speak with heart, Of struggles and triumphs, both big and small.
Their words offer solace and impart A sense of hope that's available to all.
Depression is a battle we all may face, And hearing stories from those who've been there
Can give us strength to keep up with the pace, And show us that we're not alone in despair.
So let us donate to Depresh Mode,
And support the work that they do unfold.
You can dismiss AI’s power and potential if you want but it created an entire co-host for me. Still, gotta say, Dorian hasn’t been pulling his weight.
The John Fetterman situation matters because of what didn’t happen
When Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman checked into Walter Reed last week, I was really glad, before anything else, that someone with a depressive disorder was getting help for the problem they were having. I was also grateful that Fetterman disclosed what was happening to the general public because he doesn’t fit the stereotypical profile. Despite a recent stroke, he’s a big strong-looking guy and he’s someone who has had a lot of recent success. What, goes the antiquated way of thinking, does he have to be depressed about? And of course, that’s not how depression works. Depression doesn’t care if you won an election, it goes after you anyway.
Still, I braced myself for Fetterman’s political opponents to go after him as weak or flawed or even unfit for public office. I know that we’ve come a long way in this country regarding our approach to openness about mental health but, given the animosity in today’s political climate, I figured we were due for some cheap shots coming Fetterman’s way from politicians on the Republican side.
And I’m sure there were some. But it wasn’t unanimous. There was also some humanity.
What I find most noteworthy is that, even if some of Fetterman’s political opponents said nothing, that is also a victory in the fight against ignorance and stigma. It’s not okay to tear someone down for having a mental health problem. That establishment of decency is now stronger than the urge to score political points off someone’s suffering. And that’s progress.
Here. Look at this tiny zebra finch get hatched and raised.
Everything turns out okay but man, the feeding sequence had me very anxious