"You Suck," Observe Cruel But Convincing Inner Voices
Also sucking: watching news, Kansas mental health. Not sucking: Samuel Whittemore
Hrishikesh Hirway does not suck but Hrishikesh Hirway told him he did
Hrishikesh Hirway is my guest on the podcast this week.
Song Exploder is a podcast and a Netflix series. It’s all about how musicians put a song together. Hrishi explodes the song by separating out the different elements and has the guest walk us through what’s in each part and why it sounds the way it does. As the show goes on, we hear each element and then at the end, the whole song.
It’s a celebration of the music-making process.
And Hrishi is a musician himself. What may surprise a fan of the show - and there are many - is that Hrishi found himself unable to make new music for many years, even while he was making Song Exploder. His anxiety reached a point where voices of self-doubt in his head were way too convincing for him to write new songs. Every time he’d start to write one, he told himself that it was garbage, that he was garbage, that he was simply out of ideas. And the thing about those voices, for all of us, is that they don’t sound stupid or mean. They sound very convincing, like they’re trying to spare you from some horrible fate if you deign to create.
Song Exploder is an inspiration to song writers everywhere, me included. Each episode inspires creative people to go out and create. But deep into the run of the show, Hrishi himself would not, could not get inspired.
He’s better now. He explains in our interview how a friend reached out to have him help her write a song for a podcast about, of all things, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And her belief in Hrishi, combined with the low pressure atmosphere, helped him return to the act of creating.
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Latest news: Don’t read the latest news
NBC News reports on a new study, presumably conducted by the Duh Institute for Advanced Obvious Studies, about how taking a break from the news can be really good for your mental health.
"The best predictor for having lower anxiety and depressive symptoms," said lead study author Dr. Joaquim Radua, a psychiatrist in Barcelona, was to "avoid watching too much news." Radua is also affiliated with King's College London and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden.
Okay, how much is too much?
The study found that those who avoided "too much stressful news" had fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression.
Also key to feeling better? Maintaining a healthy diet.
"Taking care of our body is something we can control," McKernan said. "That develops a sense of what's predictable and can help with stress."
Wait, how much is too much?
Friends. My brothers and sisters and non-binary siblings. THEY NEVER SAY.
KIDS! DON’T PLAY WITH TOO MANY KNIVES!
My memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is on sale in paperback now. It’s about mental health and has plenty of jokes and people seem to like it.
Iowans line up for semicolon tattoos
Admittedly, not a sentence I expected to type when I woke up this morning. But here we are.
Dozens of people in eastern Iowa have new tattoos after a recent fundraiser for Foundation 2, KCRG reports.
People were waiting in a line out the door of Art by Lin in downtown Marion for the tattoos, which all incorporated semicolons. It’s a symbol of strength through mental health struggles and thoughts of suicide.
They raised $1500 for a mental health non-profit in the Cedar Rapids area. Great!
Punctuation jokes:
Not lining up for tattoos: Strunk, White.
Tattoos are always in style! The Chicago Manual of Style, that is!
I’ll stop.
States ranked by how good they are for mental health
Where is my state, John?
Hold on, I’m getting to that.
This is an article about research by Mental Health America, who considered a long list of factors (in the article) to determine which states are doing well - so we can examine what they’re doing right - and which states are doing poorly - so that can be analyzed and hopefully addressed.
NOW can you show me the list, John?
Yes, yes.
Ranked best to worst:
Wisconsin.
Pennsylvania.
Massachusetts.
Delaware.
Connecticut.
New Jersey.
District of Colombia.
New York.
Illinois.
Maryland.
Kentucky.
Vermont.
Rhode Island.
New Hampshire.
South Carolina.
North Carolina.
Michigan.
Hawaii.
California.
Iowa.
North Dakota.
New Mexico.
Oklahoma.
Georgia.
Mississippi.
Maine.
Tennessee.
Minnesota.
Nevada.
Colorado.
Montana.
Washington.
Ohio.
Alaska.
Florida.
Louisiana.
South Dakota.
Virginia.
Indiana.
Missouri.
Utah.
West Virginia.
Arkansas.
Nebraska.
Wyoming.
Texas.
Idaho.
Alabama.
Arizona.
Oregon.
Kansas.
Old badass of the American Revolution
Via kottke.org, where Jason Kottke is emerging from a well-deserved sabbatical, an archived piece about the ages of founding fathers as of July 4, 1776. James Monroe was 18 flipping years old! Burr was 20 and Hamilton 21! Lil babies!
But not all were quite so young. Jason quotes Wikipedia about Samuel Whittemore, who fought in a battle at age 80:
Whittemore was in his fields when he spotted an approaching British relief brigade under Earl Percy, sent to assist the retreat. Whittemore loaded his musket and ambushed the British from behind a nearby stone wall, killing one soldier. He then drew his dueling pistols and killed a grenadier and mortally wounded a second. By the time Whittemore had fired his third shot, a British detachment reached his position; Whittemore drew his sword and attacked. He was shot in the face, bayoneted thirteen times, and left for dead in a pool of blood. He was found alive, trying to load his musket to fight again. He was taken to Dr. Cotton Tufts of Medford, who perceived no hope for his survival. However, Whittemore lived another 18 years until dying of natural causes at the age of 98.