I wanted to share with you a new podcast created by my friend Mike Edward called Living with Chronic Mental Illness. It’s about his own journey with chronic schizoaffective disorder. As the host says, “It’s the story of challenging moments, of failures, of successes, of love, of loss, and of hope. This is the story of how ignorance lost its bliss.”
It seems like sometimes people try to portray a sanitized picture of mental illness in an attempt to make it more socially acceptable.The downside of this is that there are a lot of us who don’t have a neat and tidy experience of mental illness, and I like that this podcast captures the reality that life with a chronic mental illness is hard. The host is honest and open about the challenges he’s faced and the fact that he continues to face challenges on an ongoing basis due to his illness.
I tend to have a hard time concentrating on auditory information, so I liked that the episodes are on the shorter side, each lasting about 5-10 minutes.
The podcast is embedded below, and you can get to it via Linktree. New episodes are posted weekly on Mondays at 12am. I encourage you to check it out!
Podcasting has certainly been growing in popularity. An article on Buzzsprout from earlier this month offers the following statistics pulled from various sources:
- In 2022, 62% of Americans age 12+ have listened to a podcast
- 38% of Americans age 12+ listen to podcasts at least monthly, and 26% listen weekly
- The number of podcast listeners in the US has grown from 46.1 million in 2017 to 82.7 million in 2021
Here are some Buzzsprout platform stats from August 2022:
- 118.8 million downloads
- 170.5K new episodes
- 114.3K active podcasts
Personally, I’ve never thought about doing a podcast or being a guest on one; I’m a writer, not a talker. Aside from podcasts created by friends, I’m not a podcast listener, either; the written word is a better medium for me than the spoken word. However, there are probably a lot of people for whom the written word is not an ideal medium, and venturing out into things like podcasting is a way to reach different audiences. And when it comes to getting the word out about the reality of mental illness, the more different audiences that can be reached the better.
Besides Living with Chronic Mental Illness, another podcast I would recommend is Perfectly Imperfect by my friend Johnzelle Anderson. It focuses on Black mental health and social justice issue. If there are any mental health-related podcasts you’d like to recommend, feel free to drop the links in the comments below.
Are you a regular podcast listener? Do you have any thoughts on whether the rise in popularity of podcasting will impact the popularity of blogging?
I don’t absorb information via listening either. How did you put it – auditory information. It was a real problem in college where classes are all lecture and no discussion. I was all “Just give me the reading list, I’ll just come in for tests”. I took copious notes because that’s the only way I was going to retain information. I don’t do audio books for the same reason – I like to go at my own pace. I could DO a podcast because I’d rather talk than type but I also like timely feedback and discussion…so I’ll stick with blogs. On occasion I have done a vlog – some folks like it because – the read vs listen thing.
I don’t do audio books either. I was also a copious note-taker, because that was how I got information to stick in my head.
I am not a regular podcast listener. I tend to read more than listen –just my mode of responding to the world around me. Which I think answers your second question. In my mind, blogging’s popularity will continue.
I agree, there will always be people who like to communicate through reading and writing.
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Happy Friday! Happy Autumn!!
Thank you! Happy fall Friday!
Thank you🍂
I like podcasts when I’m in the bath or exercising. They don’t work for multitasking for me (just like audio books). One I’m currently listening to (I do one at a time lol) is “We can do hard things” by Glennon Doyle.
Those sound like good podcast occasions, although I would almost certainly drop my phone in the bath if it came anywhere near it.
True story. I keep it on the counter away from my ridiculous impulses.
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“How ignorance lost its bliss” – very clever.
I like podcasts only occasionally, and probably have to listen to something several times for it to sink in. Looks to be the same for many others – I wonder why!
Yeah, I liked the “how ignorance lost its bliss” too.
I am somewhat old school and get most of my information through the written word. I did however check out the podcast here and was very impressed. It is definitely a new and good way for me to get mental health educational information. Thanks.
I’m quite old school too.
“It sucks. It sucks bad” – I like it already! Just giving it a listen now. I’m not a Podcast person either, I only listen to odd bits if a blogging friend has done one. I can’t concentrate on someone speaking anymore. I can’t always read and actually digest the words either with poor focus but it’s far easier for me than a Podcast usually. It’s great there are different platforms now and ways to be involved depending on what suits you, be it talking, reading, photos, videos.
Thanks for sharing this, and Johnzelle’s podcast. You phrased it really well with how there can be a tendency to sanitize mental health to make it more socially acceptable. I find the same with illness, especially in mainstream publications. We want to hear the reality, the truth, the ugly, the stuff we can relate to, the truth. xx
My concentration with reading is bad too, but it’s much easier to go back and reread something 10 times for it to start to sink in than it is to do the same with audio.
It’s easier to listen to podcast than read in the shower! There are benefits to both written and aural, and for me, it depends a lot on the day, time of day, environment, etc.
I find the best way to pay attention to podcasts (or anything else) is to take notes. Podcasts do have a more causal feel to them, at least to me, though this is far from a casual topic. I’m not at home writing this because it’s a casual topic . . .
That’s a good idea to take notes. I do that when I’m reading books.
We don’t listen to podcasts. We used to do books on tape (what we called them back then!) when we drove long distances (ie hundreds of miles or more). We did that with the kids, too, when they were young and on family roadtrips. No one in our family listens to podcasts
My dad finds noise distracting when he drives, so we did long cross-country road trips in silence (except for probably the occasionally “are we there yet?” from me or my brother). 🤫
Were you bored? Older Child loves looking out the window. Younger Child can read in the car. We used to burn mixed CDs. Now we blast a family road trip play list
I think I was generally able to keep myself amused looking out the window, although probably less so driving across the prairies when there’s nothing to look at but wheat, wheat, and more wheat.
I prefer text to podcasts but I try to listen to short podcasts once in a while
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I appreciate how they provide a safe space for listeners to share their own stories and offer practical tips for self-care and seeking professional help. This podcast is a wonderful example of how storytelling and community can help reduce the stigma around mental illness and promote empathy and understanding. Thanks for posting this article; It’s really helpful. However, I also found this article on acute illnesses, which I think can be helpful to many people.