It's Depression Mode. I'm John Moe. I'm glad you're here. I say that every week. I want to repeat the last part today. I'm glad you're here. I said that line. I'm glad you're here when we started making the show.

And the first time it was almost spontaneously, just felt like an extra sentence was needed for the

rhythm of the whole thing. It's depressmode. Duh, da, da, da, da. And so that one just showed up.

But I've learned to trust instincts like that. Once I said it out loud,

I knew it meant a lot of different things. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're listening to this

particular show here on Maximum Fun. I had another mental health podcast before. I'm glad you

made the journey over to the new one. I'm glad you're here because

with you here and more people coming to join you and me, we can make something together that can

help folks and be sustainable. We're in our annual Max Fund drive right now, by the way, more

about that later in the show. I'm glad you're here also means that I'm glad you're alive

and able to be here. Not everyone is. Depression and other mental disorders can be fatal.

I mourn the people we have lost. I vow to fight on for the people who are here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here

because with the pronouns in that sentence, I and you, we make it us, we're together. And that's good.

The world is rough sometimes. And if you have interesting minds, like many of us do,

it can be very difficult and confusing. In a world that sometimes gives us the fight of our lives,

when we're just trying to go about our day, we are we. We are together. It is the value proposition of depression mode, of all the work that I do,

that if people can connect and hear about each other's mental health journeys, it will help.

We will recognize ourselves in the words of others, and a greater we can be formed, and we shall all be healed,

maybe not cured, but healed, and we can enjoy beautiful things together, like music and laughs.

One of the voices that speaks most directly to my soul is John Darniel. John is the lead singer, songwriter, main guy in

The Mountain Goats. He's been making music as the Mountain Goats for over 25 years.

In the early years, the Mountain Goats was usually just John. He'd take the stage for shows and say,

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