John Moe

Today we're going to talk about depression, not anxiety.

But as my guest John Moe says, depression and anxiety, well, they're like Hall & Oates.

You rarely see one without the other and neither manage to have a successful solo career.

Sorry for the '80s pop music reference.

But depression and anxiety definitely share at least two characteristics that we'll talk about today, both of which can really mess with your head and your career, magical thinking and unreliable narrators.

You know them.

John Moe calls magical thinking the if onlys.

"If only I could achieve X, have Y, do this, then I'd be happy." And then there are the tapes of negative self-talk that can run on repeat in your head, "I'm a failure and I don't deserve anything." And we'll talk about managing disruptive and uncomfortable change when you struggle with these kinds of mental health issues because John Moe hosted one of the most popular and well-loved public radio podcasts, The Hilarious World of Depression.

Hello, sleepyheads, and welcome to Sleeping with Celebrities.

I'm John Moe.

I'm glad you're here.

On this program, on Sleeping with Celebrities, our aim is this.

No, no.

Happy doesn't demand any cash out of you.

And you know, honestly, uh, John, it didn't occur to me until we started recording the wonderful symmetry between me promoting this lovely documentary and confessing to my, uh, addiction [laughs]

Yeah.

What's this?

It's John Moe, your old pal from KUOW in Seattle from Public Radio Days.

John, what a surprise.

So great to be here for you.

I wanted you to hear what it was like on the inside of that.

Oh, and it's Depressed Mode.

I'm John Moe.

I'm glad you're here, and I'm glad you're real.

Thank you, Candace Lim.

So from 2016 to 2020, the great and good John Moe ... hosted an essential podcast called The Hilarious World of Depression.

Uh, he wrote a memoir with that same title, and for about three and a half years, that podcast featured interviews with comedians, other entertainers, in which they spoke frankly about depression and mental health in general.

That show won awards.

It helped a lot of people.

It was absolutely, as I said, essential, but it ended more than five years ago, and John Moe went on to start other shows, like Depresh Mode, the sleep aid podcast Sleeping with Celebrities, which I also highly recommend if you ever struggle to sleep.

Both Glenn Weldon and Linda Holmes have appeared on that show, and I'm bitterly jealous of that fact.

[laughs]

Hello, sleepyheads, and welcome to Sleeping With Celebrities Super Bowl Edition.

I'm John Moe.

I'm glad you're here.

On this audio program, we invite our guests to step out of the limelight and step into the nightlight.

Now, lest you think Chris is just some run-of-the-mill author slash punter, he also plays bass and released his own tabletop game.

Chris, welcome to the program.

Thanks, John.

I'm really happy to be here, and I'm sure my voice is not in at

Hey, it's John Moe.

This week, we're very happy to bring back one of our favorite episodes recently.

It's with the comedian and actor Cameron Esposito.

That's one of the reasons that we gather here.

It's Depressed Mode.

I'm John Moe.

I'm glad you're here.

Cameron Esposito, welcome to Depressed Mode.

Hello, sleepyheads, and welcome to Sleeping With Celebrities.

I'm John Moe.

I'm glad you're here.

On this audio program, we invite our guests to, for a brief moment, step out of the limelight and step into the nightlight.

He's an author now, a podcaster, a comedy icon, a legend.

Michael Ian Black, welcome to Sleeping With Celebrities.

Hi, John.

It's so great to be here.

Depression Mode is a production of Maximum Fun and Papuchik.

I'm John Moe.

Bye now.

I'm always falling off of cliffs now.

Hello, sleepyheads, and welcome to Sleeping with Celebrities.

I'm John Moe.

I'm glad you're here.

On this audio program, we invite our guests to step out of the limelight and step into the nightlight.

He is now a producer of the program, and crucially, he appeared as a guest on Maximum Fun's own The Flophouse to talk about Madame Web, which is an awesome responsibility.

Shubin Parang, welcome to Sleeping with Celebrities.

Thank you very much for having me, John.

I appreciate being here.