A note to our listeners. This episode contains discussion of suicide and abuse.

I used to think that where you acquired a mental health issue from was basically a 50-50

proposition. Half the time it was because of traumatic events, likely in childhood, causing a nasty

echo that kept resounding until and unless some good

treatment got under control. Then the other half of the time, I thought, it was just a spin of the

wheel and you landed on depression. You landed on an anxiety disorder. You landed on bipolar. It just

happened. I don't think that way anymore.

I don't think it's 50-50 anymore. I don't know what the math is. I don't think we can know.

But the past eight years I've been interviewing people about mental health have put me very much in the

nurture column, environmental conditions,

traumatic events. And the thing about trauma is that those echoes can span generations. It's not

just one lifetime. It can be many. And that's a lot to manage. So, of course, you're, you know, fucked up. But it's not hopeless.

You can unpack that. You can figure out how it's working on you, what you can do about it.

You can watch subsequent generations, watch out for them and care for them. It's hard. It's possible.

Sometimes you can even sing.

Let's listen to a little music together.

It's Depression Mode.

I'm John Moe.

I'm glad you're here.

I'm glad you're here. I want to be different. I am. I am. That's the band Shushu, with a song called Common Loon off their new album, 13-inch Frank Beltrame Italian Stiletto with Bison Horn Grips.

It's a long title for an album.

The voice you heard was Jamie Stewart, lead singer and founder of Shushu,

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