How antidepressants got political

Today, Explained

Vox

Daily News, Politics, News

4.4 • 9.5K Ratings

🗓️ 20 November 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

More young people are taking antidepressants. And there's a brewing backlash to the meds on the right. This episode was produced by Avishay Artsy, edited by Jolie Myers, fact-checked by Melissa Hirsch and Hady Mawajdeh, engineered by Patrick Boyd, and hosted by Noel King. Image credit Mahsun YILDIZ/Getty. Listen to Today, Explained ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. New Vox members get $20 off their membership right now. Transcript at ⁠vox.com/today-explained-podcast.⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Online, it's easy to find the antidepressant influencers.
0:04.9	The Lexapro girlies, the Lexa-Hose, the Zoloft gang.
0:09.0	Girl, take your crazy pills. You know you're mentally ill.
0:14.4	Just go ahead. Take your crazy pills.
0:17.7	So I got the prescription for this lexapro and...
0:21.4	I have so much mental bandwidth 24-7 now and I'm just like locked in, geeked up.
0:26.3	That's my PSA about my mental health and taking antidepressants for today.
0:32.7	More young people than ever before are taking a class of antidepressants called SSRIs, and this fact
0:39.0	has drawn the attention of the public health establishment. Mr. Kennedy, do you think that people
0:44.8	who take antidepressants are dangerous?
0:48.5	I think, listen, I'm not going on. Coming on today, explained how antidepressants got political.
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	...

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