On Depression Mode this week, a conversation with rapper, podcast maker, podcast host, and comedy

guy, Open Mike Eagle.

This episode originally ran last year, and it's one of our favorites.

I'm going to say that I am in this moment, okay, but I'm dealing with a large store of big, bad emotions underneath the surface.

It's Depression Mode. I'm John Moe. I'm glad you're here.

Open Mike Eagle has been a popular and critically praised hip-hop artist for many years.

Seven solo albums, rave reviews from critics and indie rap fans who love his introspective, complex, and often cerebral writing.

The last time I interviewed Mike, he and his wife had moved into a new home with their son, Asa.

Mike is indie rap royalty, but he had recently made the leap to the mainstream, co-hosting

The New Negroes, a show on Comedy Central with Baron Vaughn.

He was touring the world with his music. When I talked to him in February

of this year, things were different. We were coming up on a year of COVID and we had just seen

riots at the Capitol, Trump fighting the election results, and that whole weird GameStop

stock market thing that comes up in the interview. And by this point, here was Mike's life.

The TV show, canceled. The touring canceled. The marriage over, leaving a tough custody situation

in its wake. The house, well, I spoke to Mike from the apartment where he now lives. Sometimes

with Asa, sometimes not. That's a lot

of pain to deal with, especially considering he has a history with anxiety and depression.

But Mike did something with the pain. He used it as art supplies. Open Mike Eagle wrote about

what he was going through and turned what he had written into an album

called anime trauma divorce. In that album, you hear a guy struggling. You hear his education and

background in psychology, and you hear someone taking a hard look at himself to try to figure stuff out.

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