Here's what I'm thinking after listening to this week's show, the show you're about to hear.

I think nobody chooses to have a mental health problem. No one opts into depression, PTSD,

OCD, substance use disorder, because who would? But everybody with one of those issues does have to decide what to do about it.

Therapy, meds, denial, nothing.

That's a choice that gets made one way or another.

I also think the people around that person always need to decide what they're going to do to support them and protect themselves. This happens

in couples, in families, in friend groups, in workplaces, and it happens in bands. Mental illness

can potentially rip any of those units apart. Sometimes all the treatments and therapies and boundaries aren't enough to keep

those units together. But sometimes they are. And then your band puts out a cool new album.

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

When you least expected When you've reached the end

There's a door that opens up

After every sudden sun

And then you step through nothing left to look

even only memories up all the days you feel with love.

That's After the Setting Sun by The Head and the Heart, first track off their new album, Aperture.

The Head and the Heart have been together since 2009, originally coming together at open mic nights at the Connor Burn Pub in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood.

They've had gold and platinum selling records, 4 million monthly listeners on Spotify. You've probably heard their song Rivers and

Roads. It's been on TV shows and in movies. Kids sing it at summer camps. The head and the

heart are popular. They're a big deal. Followers of the band might note that

aperture is more of a return to their earlier sound, more rootsy, less highly produced,

not as poppy as some other recent records. And making it was a pretty collaborative process.

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