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Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

Jim Flannery - Sorry It's Not Funny – Comedy, Hip-Hop and Activism

Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

Mad in America

Anxiety, Mental Health, Benzo, Science, Hearingvoices, Psychology, Antipsychotic, Mentalhealth, Depression, Panicattack, Psychosis, Medicine, Health, Health & Fitness, Psychiatry, Ssri, Antidepressant

4.8201 Ratings

🗓️ 12 October 2022

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on the Mad in America podcast, we are joined by activist and artist Jim Flannery.

Born and raised in suburban Weathersfield, Connecticut, Jim was committed at four mental hospitals across the United States. There he received the best care available in the modern world… torture, which included seclusion, restraints, forced drugging, coercion, and a psychiatric diagnosis.

Later, he turned to the arts to speak out publicly about his experiences with the mental health system through performing stand-up comedy under the pseudonym Flim Jannery and now through music with his new album, "Sorry, It's Not Funny," which will be released on Friday, October 14.

In 2020, Jim began hearing voices, which opened his eyes to what he terms a genocide against neurodiverse people. He shifted his creative efforts towards hip-hop, believing the genre was the best medium to communicate his perspective.

You can hear the new album on the website jim-flannery.com. It’s also on Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Pandora, SoundCloud, and Tidal

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to the Madden America podcast, your source for science, psychiatry, and social justice.

0:13.2

So hello everybody. This is Karin Gerbert from Madden America. I'm the arts editor here,

0:19.7

and I'm here with Jim Flannery, who just came out with a new

0:25.1

album that we're going to talk a bit about today called Sorry It's Not Funny. Born and

0:31.8

Raised in Suburban Weathersfield, Connecticut, Jim was committed at four mental hospitals across the United States.

0:39.3

There he received the best care available in the modern world, torture, which included seclusion,

0:45.3

restraints, forced drugging, coercion, and a psychiatric diagnosis. Later, he turned to the arts to speak out publicly about his experiences with the mental health system

0:56.0

through forming stand-up comedy under the pseudonym Flim Janery.

1:01.0

And now through music with his new album, Sorry It's Not Funny, which we'll be talking about today.

1:07.0

In 2020, Jim began hearing voices which opened his eyes to what he terms a genocide against neurodiverse people.

1:15.1

He shifted his creative efforts towards hip-hop.

1:18.6

Believing the genre was the best medium to communicate his perspective.

1:22.8

Thanks so much for being here, Jim.

1:24.6

Thank you for talking to me.

1:26.4

Having me here.

1:27.1

Appreciate it. As I said before, I'm also a voice here, so I Thank you for talking to me and having me here. Appreciate it.

1:27.9

As I said before, I'm also a voice here, so I feel like this will be a really interesting,

1:32.3

wonderful conversation between two peers around this topic. And I'm an artist, so we both

1:38.6

sort of have used the arts in our work and in our lives. So I'm excited to talk to you about that.

1:45.8

To start with, I wanted to ask you about your experience as Flim Janory, the comedian.

1:53.4

So how did that come about?

1:55.3

And what was your experience as a comedian in the space?

...

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