A note to our listeners, this episode contains mention of suicidal ideation and rape.

Gracie Gold, the 18-year-old, who broke through at the national championships last season.

That silver medal turned into a gold one in Boston recently.

Here she is at the Olympics for the first time.

Thank you. in recently, here she is at the Olympics for the first time. In a sense, maybe we're all in a figure skating competition.

Really, it's depression.

I'm John Moe.

I'm glad you're here.

Music I'm John Moe. I'm glad you're here. No, we don't have to actually lace up real skates and zip around on actual ice.

But think about it. Don't we all have to go out there in life, in front of everybody, and perform?

Regardless of how we're feeling, no matter how we're holding up, we just got to go out there

anyway, don't we all have to put on some form of costume when we go out there, an outfit,

clothes, an appearance that we wouldn't ordinarily wear but have to wear in front of those

watching us? We need to make sure our hair and maybe our makeup looks just right. Do we all not have to

face some kind of judges who evaluate us? Perhaps there are flowers thrown at us afterwards. Maybe not. Perhaps there is a room

that has been designated for crying. I think there's something to this. And look, we all know that the

ongoing challenge of daily life is made more difficult when you're dealing with a mind that is

not quite working the way you want it to?

It's all the judgment, the degree of difficulty, the skating, really, that the normies have to deal with, plus the obstacles thrown out by what's happening in our complicated brains.

Okay. Now, imagine that you have those obstacles, plus the metaphorical skating competition that I talked about, that is life, plus add this actual figure skating.

Now, that is a lot. And for Olympic figure skater Gracie Gold, it was a lot.

Gracie was a medalist in the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, two-time U.S. national champion,

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