Depresh Mode with John Moe

“Me no cry because cookie is finished,” Cookie Monster once said. “Me smile because cookie happened.” Eels has been a band for 35 years and just dropped their 16th studio album, with the Cookie Monster-inspired title Cookie Happened. In that time, Mark Oliver Everett (aka E) has been the only constant, writing and perform songs that can be, at times, deeply moving, sly funny, and just about everything in between. E joins us to talk about the mental health component of his life and of his music. Along those lines, it doesn’t take long to arrive at Electro-Shock Blues, Eels’ 1998 album informed by the death by suicide of his sister, the sudden death of his father some years before, and the terminal cancer diagnosis of his mom. He tells us that while depression has been a constant visitor over the years, the hard times have taught him a kind of determined persistence. E also mentions that despite Cookie Monster inspiring the album title, the cover has a green skeleton dunking a basketball. He offers no explanation, nor did we seek one.
Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.
Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!
Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.
Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group.
Help is available right away.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.
International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joindepresh

Audiences know Murray Hill as the hilarious pencil-mustachioed guy who looks like a Catskills comedian. Much of that identity was deliberately formed after an abusive childhood where he was raised as a girl and sure didn’t feel like one. He grew up, broke hard with the past, named himself for the Manhattan neighborhood he landed in, and became a cabaret star. Which is great! But that trauma also meant alcoholism, a mental breakdown, and ultimately effective treatment.
Murray Hill’s new memoir is Showbiz!: My Life as a Middle-Aged Man.
Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.
Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!
Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.
Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group.
Help is available right away.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.
International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joindepresh

Andy Frasco has been hard at work since the age of 13. As an adolescent that meant booking shows, helping out at record labels, running a flag football business. When he was 19, he took his carefully saved Bar Mitzvah money, bought a van, skipped college, and went on tour with his band. Now 38, he’s basically been on that tour ever since, using big energy and charisma to provide the funk and fun with Andy Frasco & The U.N. for big audiences all over. But the Andy we meet in this interview is at a crossroads. His best friend recently passed, he has a new EP of emotionally vulnerable songs written to his younger self, and he’s taking six months off to try to get a grip on his depression, his grief, and his identity off the concert stage. It’s a wonderful conversation for anyone who has wondered whether that’s really you at work or just a character you’re playing.
hank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.
Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!
Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.
Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group.
Help is available right away.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.
International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joindepresh

Midlife doesn’t need to be a point of crisis, says author Gabrielle Moss. You don’t need to make dangerous choices, blow things up, take a spiritual trek through Nepal, or buy a red convertible. Her new book, Mid-Life Plot Twist, co-written with Lindsay Goldwert, explores how to set boundaries, re-evaluate relationships with work and money and love, and get on a better track. Gaby arrived at this wisdom through personal experience and she tells us of a childhood spent in that one scary house on the block, parents who got in screaming fights with waiters, and generally living in both chaos and depression. Healing from an alcohol dependency and an ADHD diagnosis helped Gaby understand both her past and her habits and with the help of therapy she got things turned around. Gaby has mended things with her father, who has undergone his own journey of self-improvement, but she has cut off contact with her mother, whose toxicity still boils.
Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.
Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!
Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.
Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group.
Help is available right away.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.
International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joindepresh

There has been a great deal of press coverage of the Lindsay Clancy case lately. What the world needs more of is first-hand experiences of severe mental health problems both before and after a baby is born. Dr. Kara Zivin is a researcher and professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan. While pregnant with her son 15 years ago, she experienced a profound depression that turned suicidal. The severity of her illness and the electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) she ultimately received to address it has meant that memories around the new baby (now in high school and doing great) are spotty at best. Dr. Zivin’s story, detailed in her book, Persevered: A Memoir of Maternal Mental Health, points at the complexity of trying to identify, treat, and manage a mental health crisis for women in America. She also tells us how she’s been taking in the news about other maternal mental health situations.
Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.
Check out our I’m Glad You’re Here and Depresh Mode merchandise at the brand new merch website MaxFunStore.com!
Hey, remember, you’re part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at depreshmode@maximumfun.org.
Depresh Mode is on BlueSky, Instagram, Substack, and you can join our Preshies Facebook group.
Help is available right away.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988 or 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK
Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.
International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

Help support this show and unlock bonus content! Become a member at https://maximumfun.org/joindepresh