Hi, I'm Anna Marie Cox and welcome to With Friends Like These.

You're probably tired of hearing about how these are unprecedented times because things

have been unprecedented and terrible for a long time.

I don't even ask, what fresh hell is this?

Because it's been fresh hell season for over a year.

And that's why I wanted to talk to Kelly Williams Brown.

In her first book, a New York Times bestseller, she coined the term adulting.

She had a lot of success.

And then, Brown, about the time Trump came on the scene, Kelly endured what she calls 700

bad days in a row.

Some of those days were full of personal struggle.

Others were national and global disasters that we all experienced together, watching

our TVs and our phones.

How did she come out on the other side?

Well, she discovered simple things that gave her joy and little projects that made her

feel like a person in the world.

She's written about her experience in a new book called Easy Crafts for the Insane,

a mostly funny memoir of mental illness and making things.

I'm also talking to Kelly because she is a fellow suicide attempt survivor.

And it is National Suicide Prevention Week.

I don't think either of us are making light of our experiences when we tell you that

this book about crafting will teach you a lot about preventing suicide.

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