There is no Tom behind TOMS Shoes. It’s short for “Tomorrow’s.” There is a Blake, however. Blake Mycoskie founded the company in 2006 under the model that for every pair sold, a second pair would be donated to children in the developing world. TOMS took off, which meant years of constant work for Blake, traveling the world telling the TOMS story, and ultimately getting burned out and selling the company. Despite all the snowboarding he could now do, Blake found himself without purpose and lonely...
Jun 01, 2026•58 min•Ep. 262
Yes, the episode is about a rock singer but it’s also about any of us who grind away for the benefit of our work and the detriment of ourselves. The sudden cancellation of the band Sweet Pill’s extensive tour promoting their sophomore album Still There’s a Glow came as a shock to fans and the press. But it makes total sense given that singer Zayna Youssef had been working herself into the ground with writing, recording, designing merch and album covers and backstage passes, and everything else s...
May 25, 2026•54 min•Ep. 261
This episode of the show is about America, ultimately. We’re joined by Cristina Jimínez, author of the memoir Dreaming of Home: How We Turn Fear into Pride, Power, and Real Change and MacArthur genius grant recipient for a discussion of mental health in the immigrant and undocumented immigrant communities in light of events like the ICE surge, 9/11, and January 6th. Cristina fled Ecuador with her family when she was 13, landed in Queens, and, despite a lot of complicating factors having to do wi...
May 18, 2026•45 min•Ep. 260
I’m pretty sure you’ve been in this situation: you’re in a group setting of consequence and importance. Maybe it’s at work, maybe in school, but something is on the line. In that place are people different from you. They’re of a different race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, and you begin to worry about how you are being perceived. Are you an individual in everyone’s eyes or are they seeing you for the group you represent? Does your behavior match the stereotype that exists for people li...
May 11, 2026•56 min•Ep. 259
The things that happened when you were young, especially the really painful things, can easily and often carry into adulthood. For documentarian, former high-powered executive, and actual Mister Rogers neighbor Benjamin Wagner, an adult life of terrible stress and substance use issues wasn’t really going to be solved until he understood more about the ripple effects of his parents’ divorce and a severe assault that occurred at an early age. To learn more about that connection and similar issues ...
May 04, 2026•52 min•Ep. 258
You have to eat. We know this. But when depression is flaring, it’s really hard to even get to the kitchen, let alone make something tasty and good for you. Don’t worry. Our Depresh Meals episode has expert ideas for just that situation from Food & Wine’s Kat Kinsman and The Sporkful podcast host Dan Pashman. To hear the full episode, become a member of Maximum Fun for as little as $5 a month. You get access to all the bonus content by all Max Fun shows ever! maximumfun.org/join Thank you to...
May 01, 2026•7 min
You have to call your friends once in a while and see how they’re doing, especially if they’re undergoing big changes and their city has been rocked with upheaval. Twin Cities-based actor and writer Bill Corbett will always be associated with Crow T. Robot, the wisecracking robotic commentator on bad films on Mystery Science Theater 3000. It’s a part he played for many years and a part he’ll be playing all over again as MST3K is in the process of a reuniting or sort of merger with Rifftrax , the...
Apr 30, 2026•18 min
Hi, everyone, John Moe here. “Can I read you what Sunny just posted on Facebook?” asked my wife, Jill. I figured it was something about Tom Petty or her dogs but it was, in fact, a very funny and skillful micro-essay on why she listens to Depresh Mode and why, after years of listening, she became a member. Her argument was one that I would never dare make but enjoyed: if you’re not paying, it’s theft. I passed her post around to Max Fun folks and they got excited. When creative people get excite...
Apr 29, 2026•19 min
It's MaxFunDrive. And here, for the first time, we give you an exclusive look (well, listen) at the craft of podcasting: presenting Casters on Casters . In this episode, John Moe ( Sleeping with Celebrities & Depresh Mode with John Moe ) talks about his double life, as a person who speaks in a normal voice, and the host he becomes for Sleeping with Celebrities . And Brenda Snell ( Secret Histories of Nerd Mysteries ) tells us about what she's learned from her listeners, including what actor/...
Apr 28, 2026•17 min•Ep. 258
When our host, John Moe, started doing podcasts about mental health ten years ago, one of his first guests was his friend Andy Richter. Andy, who you know from various Conan shows and tons of other TV shows and movies, talked about having his depression pretty well managed at the time. Since then, his marriage ended in divorce and the Conan show on television ended as well. He returns to talk about the odd experience of dating after 27 years off the market, the joy of remarrying, and the unexpec...
Apr 27, 2026•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 257
We’re delighted to welcome the actor, writer, web celebrity (celwebrity?) Felicia Day back to the program as part of our ongoing effort to reach out to friends and just ask how they’re doing. You might know her from The Guild, the web series she created, or from Buffy the Vampire Slayer or Mystery Science Theater 3000 . Felicia has a new graphic novel, Lost Daughter of Sparta , and says she always does a little better when she can break out of the Hollywood idea of how she should be used and ste...
Apr 23, 2026•26 min
There is actual science that says listening to sad songs - about heartache, heartbreak, grief, worry, whatever it is - can make you feel better. The brain seeks that kind of stuff out and you feel less alone, more understood. It’s a paradox but there it is. We asked some friends of the show what worked for them and you’ll hear from Neko Case, Gavin Rossdale, Rhett Miller, Open Mike Eagle, Emma Swift, Jeremy Messersmith, Niko Stratis, Craig Jenkins, Ted Leo, and Josh Ritter. It all makes for a ve...
Apr 21, 2026•8 min
When Jimmy Pardo joined us for a hilarious and revealing interview, he had just conducted a Never Not Funny anniversary show that exceeded nine hours in length. Not all that shocking if you’ve been listening to the show, which routinely exceeds two hours of jokes, interviews, and rapid-fire conversation. All those years of talking (and Jimmy talks fast) have meant a lot of self-reflection on a life that has had some ups and downs in terms of mental health. He tells us about the foundational jolt...
Apr 20, 2026•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 256
Covid hit everybody, either personally or as members of society, and our mental health was damaged. It was trauma and it largely hasn’t been processed. When Joshua Roman became the principal cellist at the prestigious Seattle Symphony at age 22, it wasn’t really a surprise. As he explains, he had been training since the age of 3, desperate to get better, intent on overtaking Yo-Yo Ma and Pablo Casals. He didn’t just run for fun, he targeted a sub-six minute mile. After Seattle, Joshua was a worl...
Apr 13, 2026•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 255
Today, I want to share an episode from a podcast I think you’ll enjoy called Proxy . It’s hosted by Yowei Shaw, who you might know from the NPR show Invisibilia. After getting laid off in 2023, she found herself stuck with a question she couldn’t shake: why did she feel so ashamed… like it was her fault… even when she knew it wasn’t? The question became the seed of her new show. Proxy is built on a simple idea: no one is ever completely alone with their problem. Because somewhere out there is so...
Apr 06, 2026•52 min
Covid was already rough for the very funny and personable Annabelle Gurwitch, as it was for everyone, and that was before her car broke down on an LA freeway just as she was getting a call with a terminal cancer diagnosis. Stage four. Annabelle has dealt with anxiety and depression for a long time and the cancer news certainly didn’t help, especially as Annabelle found strong connections between mental and physical health, culminating, perhaps, in Annabelle crab-walking down the sidewalk. It’s a...
Mar 30, 2026•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 254
At age 24, Eric Zimmer was in rough shape. He was addicted to heroin, weighed maybe a hundred pounds, and was facing the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence. So he gave rehab another try and he had some success and started getting his life back together, diving into just about any book or teaching he could find that could help him get healthy and stay healthy. This led to conversations, the podcast The One You Feed, a career as a personal coach, and his new book, How a Little Becomes a Lot. Er...
Mar 23, 2026•45 min•Ep. 253
We are proud to present a very special episode of In This Family as a bonus for Depresh Mode with John Moe listeners. In This Family is produced by John Moe in conjunction with Nexus Family Healing and it’s about the connection between family and mental health. It’s a fascinating and moving look at the Hmong culture, their relocation to the United States, and the generational trauma that has been activated by recent events involving ICE. It’s a story you haven’t heard told by a member of communi...
Mar 18, 2026•59 min
When Emily’s twin, Amelia, ended up in the hospital twice, she knew that stress wasn’t something to be dismissed as “all in your head”. First of all, the head is connected to the body (by the neck), so stress is a physical issue that you can feel and be hurt by in all sorts of ways. Too much stress, at work, at home, in life, and you can run up against a real burnout situation. And it can wreak havoc on you mental health and physical health. The Nagoski twins are the authors of Burnout: The Secr...
Mar 16, 2026•57 min•Ep. 252
The patients in the therapy sessions in the new film GROUP: The Schopenhauer Effect are actors, but it’s not a scripted film. The actors were given characters and circumstances and then they improvised dialogue with each other and with the group leader, who is also acting. Kind of. Dr. Elliott Zeisel is one of the most important figures in group therapy in America since the 1970s. With all that knowledge and experience powering him along, he also improvised his dialogue, based on what he was bei...
Mar 09, 2026•43 min•Ep. 251
Although he has a huge following on social media now, Jonathan Edward Durham’s life as a writer used to be a lot more low tech. It involved locking himself in a room in Los Angeles, pounding away on screenplays that almost no one ever read, sucking back smokes and liquor, barely sleeping, and finding himself to actually be pretty miserable. He did manage to write and self-publish a novel, Winterset Hollow, that found an audience, which led to getting online to promote it. He started to write mor...
Mar 02, 2026•51 min•Ep. 250
You might remember Alexandra Paul as one of the stars of Baywatch or the Tom Hanks-Dan Aykroyd Dragnet film. You may not have realized that as a child and on to her long trip through the worlds of modeling and Hollywood, she was bingeing and purging and dealing with severe eating disorders. She tells us about her relationship with sugar and what food meant emotionally. Then we’re joined by Dr. Cynthia Bulik, one of the top experts on eating disorders in the world today, to talk about remarkable ...
Feb 23, 2026•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 249
Dating apps and websites are booming right now as people look for ways to leverage to find love or even just companionship. Liesel Sharabi of Arizona State University compiled a meta-analysis of a huge number of studies about the connection between online dating and mental health and the results? Kind of bad news. People who use the apps compulsively, swiping all day long, are much more likely to be depressed and anxious. But were they depressed because they used the apps or did the use the apps...
Feb 16, 2026•51 min•Ep. 248
Niko Stratis knew a couple of things growing up in the Yukon in Canada: that she was, in truth, a woman, despite being regarded by the world as male, and that being trans or different in any way was absolutely not okay. It wasn’t just a matter of identity, it was a matter of safety too, as she worked with guys who vowed that if their child was gay or trans, they would kill that child. Niko discovered some other things, too: the trade of industrial glassworking, the numbing effects of the alcohol...
Feb 09, 2026•58 min•Ep. 247
The ICE surge in Minnesota has meant a huge number of arrests, protests, confrontations, deportations, children and adults sent to detention facilities, and deaths. It’s also meant massive anxiety, fear, and trauma around the state. Marcus Schmit of NAMI Minnesota says this is being felt acutely among people already struggling with severe mental illnesses such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and severe anxiety and depression. His organization has received overwhelming demand for help that th...
Feb 06, 2026•23 min
In 2007, Amanda Knox, an American studying abroad in Italy, was arrested, tried, and convicted of the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher. After years in an Italian jail, she was ultimately freed, reconvicted, and finally exonerated in 2015. Since then, she has married, become a mother, and she has returned to Italy, even meeting with the prosector who concocted outrageous stories that led to her imprisonment. Their meeting is featured in Mouth of the Wolf: Amanda Knox Returns to Italy, a n...
Feb 02, 2026•55 min•Ep. 246
Suicide is a problem. It’s perpetually a top cause of death around the world but society shames it, stigmatizes it, and is reluctant to discuss it even when talking about it would save lives. Well guess what, we’re talking about it. We’re offering insight, sympathy, and practical ideas to help yourself and others. Clancy Martin first thought about suicide when he was two years old and he has attempted suicide many times over the years. “I’m extremely bad at it,” he says. Clancy is a philosophy p...
Jan 26, 2026•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 245
It was several years into her talk therapy sessions that Stephanie Foo was offered a diagnosis: complex post-traumatic stress disorder, or C-PTSD. Regular PTSD stems from a single traumatic event like a car crash or a mugging. C-PTSD comes from a long series of traumas from which there seems like no escape. Like child abuse. The problems Stephanie was having with her relationships and rage and all sorts of other issues stemmed, said the therapist, from the severe abuse she encountered during her...
Jan 19, 2026•52 min•Ep. 244
A.J. Daulerio exists as a caricature to a lot of people because he was the guy who published a clip from a Hulk Hogan sex tape on Gawker, got sued by Hogan, and he and Gawker lost to the tune of a $140 million payout. The enmity and shame of that was a lot to carry around, as was a lifelong battle with depression and bipolar disorder type II, as was a pretty profound problem with drug and alcohol abuse. But A.J. sobered up, got treatment, got therapy, and began to devote his energy to stories of...
Jan 12, 2026•58 min•Ep. 243
We live in complicated times and, for a whole lot of us, we do so with complicated minds. A billion people worldwide are living with some form of mental illness and 20% of the U.S. population has experienced a mental health crisis in the past year. Circumstances in our shared world are surely contributing to the problem: climate change and natural disasters, affordability and employment problems domestically, and people living in fear of sudden arrest and deportation. Meanwhile, tremendous strid...
Jan 05, 2026•42 min•Ep. 242
