Introducing Depresh Mode with John Moe: Joel Kim Booster Is In A Pit

The Hilarious World of Depression

American Public Media

Comedy Interviews, Comedy

4.8 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 August 2021

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

It's tempting to try to look for a reason why Joel Kim Booster, ordinarily a very funny and engaging person, feels dead inside, trapped in a persistent depressive state. His father recently died of COVID. The two hadn't been very close (Joel's dad was a conservative Christian, Joel is a gay Hollywood star) but were beginning to reconnect. You could point to the pandemic, which left Joel in an apartment he doesn't like for extended periods.

But it's just as easy to point to things that aren't especially depressing about Joel's situation. He's got movie and TV deals, he's taping an hour-long Netflix special, he has recently fallen in love, and he's doing well enough that he's about to buy a house.

The truth is that any of those factors might influence Joel's mood and behavior but depression isn't simple enough to be routinely caused or prevented by one's fortune in the rest of life.

Depresh Mode host John Moe says this interview is the strongest representation of what depression is like that he's done in all his years of interviewing people on the subject.

Visit Joel Kim Booster's website at www.ihatejoelkim.com. For tour dates, visit his Linktree at linktr.ee/ihatejoelkim. Follow Joel Kim Booster on Twitter @ihatejoelkim and on Instagram @ihatejoelkim. Watch his Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents special here.

Thank you to all our listeners who support the show as monthly members of Maximum Fun.

Hey, remember, you're part of Depresh Mode and we want to hear what you want to hear about. What guests and issues would you like to have covered in a future episode? Write us at [email protected].

Help is available right away.

The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-8255, 1-800-273-TALK

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741.

International suicide hotline numbers available here: https://www.opencounseling.com/suicide-hotlines

The Depresh Mode newsletter is available twice a week. Subscribe for free and stay up to date on the show and mental health issues. https://johnmoe.substack.com/

John's acclaimed memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression, is available here. https://read.macmillan.com/lp/the-hilarious-world-of-depression/

Find the show on Twitter @depreshpod and Instagram @depreshpod.

John is on Twitter @johnmoe.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, it's John Moe.
0:03.6	The host of the hilarious world of depression, you might be confused, maybe delighted, to
0:08.8	find a new episode in the feed here, because it has been a while, right?
0:14.8	Yeah, hey, how have you been?
0:17.1	As you may know, the show, known as the hilarious world of depression, ended over a year ago.
0:23.0	But the work of that show, the reason it existed, that continues under a different name.
0:29.3	The effort to normalize conversations about mental health continues.
0:33.5	The task of telling anyone living with a mental illness that they are not alone and telling
0:39.3	a few jokes and even having a bit of fun along the way, yeah, I have not stopped doing that.
0:45.2	I'm just doing it somewhere else.
0:47.1	I am the creator of a new weekly show called Depresh Mode with John Moe.
0:53.1	It's part of the maximum fun network.
0:55.6	Depresh Mode is not the exact same show as hilarious world.
0:59.8	It's about more than just depression.
1:01.7	For one thing, it's about all kinds of mental obstacles, anxiety, OCD, traumatic stress,
1:08.1	eating disorders.
1:09.5	And it's a new show every week.
1:11.8	We don't really have seasons.
1:13.6	There's just a new episode for you every Monday.
1:17.4	But you will recognize the tone and the warmth and the humor from hilarious world.
1:23.0	And we have some familiar names on Depresh Mode, people that you first heard on hilarious
1:28.6	world.
	...

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