Content Warning: This episode discusses depression, anxiety, mood disorders, and suicide.

Long before she was an acclaimed rapper, singer, and author, Dessa was a scared adolescent, facing big feelings that she didn’t know what to do with and running away from home. She eventually found peace with her parents and returned to them and the younger brother who needed her and loved her very much. Dessa tells us how family support and a curiosity about health and medicine have served her well, including when as a young adult she checked into an in-patient facility and received a diagnosis of cyclothymia, which she describes as a sort of “low-carb bipolar disorder”. She fills us in on how she’s managed that, how her family of origin has continued to lean on each other for support, and how she’s bringing her wisdom to a new relationship.

Content Warning: This episode discusses anxiety, addiction and suicide.

Fans of the beloved cult TV hit Mystery Science Theater 3000 have enjoyed many laughs from actor and writer Bill Corbett, who played the acerbic robot Crow on the show. Bill’s off-screen life hasn’t always been quite so hilarious. In this candid interview, he talks about growing up in an era where mental health was never discussed, even though his father had all the hallmarks of an anxiety problem and there were massive alcohol problems on his mom’s side. Bill inherited both, thumbing through self-help books at age 14, desperate to shake off an anxiety that would hold on for decades. He shares the story of having a breakdown in New York City, convinced that earthquakes were imminent. He also tells of his heavy use of alcohol and cocaine and his path to a conscientious sobriety. And Bill discusses how he’s raising his own kids, meeting their mental health issues with openness and transparency and love.

Content Warning: This episode discusses suicide, depression and schizophrenia.

Families can be loving, they can be problematic, and, above all, they can be complicated. Author and professor Clancy Martin’s family of origin was very complicated indeed, featuring a dashing, charismatic father who founded his own religion and also dealt with schizophrenia. The family was also faced with suicidality, including Clancy’s own wish to die at age three and multiple suicide attempts spanning most of his life. He tells host Dr. Michelle K. Murray about what a lifetime of trying to die feels like, about his own complex family, which features five children over the course of three marriages, and how just in the last few years he has managed to finally lose that urge to make the worst decision one can make. Talking about frightening mental health topics, as he did in his memoir, How Not To Kill Yourself, led him to not just shake that feeling but also led to helping others who are in danger, which helped Clancy even more. It’s an eye-opening episode, an episode that lets in a lot of sunlight, featuring a guest who once saw only darkness.