0:00

WNYC Studios is supported by Carnegie

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Hall, which presents So Percussion, joined

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by and performing premieres by Vijay

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Iyer, Olivier Tarpaga, Angelica Negron, and

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more. December 2nd. Tickets

0:12

and information at carnegiehall.org. Hey,

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it's Anna. Just a quick note before we get

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to our new episode. Earlier

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this year, we did a series of

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live national call-in shows centered around our

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mental health. The series was

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called Hold On, and it came about

0:28

largely because of how often we hear

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from mental health providers in our community

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of listeners. Counselors, social

0:34

workers, therapists, and more. They've

0:37

told us through the years that our podcast

0:39

has been a useful addition to the work

0:41

they do. We take

0:43

this as an enormous compliment, and

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we wanted to make it even easier

0:49

for mental health professionals to share our

0:51

show with clients and patients. That's

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why we created a new episode resource

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guide called The Things We Need to

0:58

Talk About More. It's organized

1:00

around the recurring themes in

1:03

our interviews. Death, sex and

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relationships, money, family relationships,

1:07

addiction, mental health, and

1:10

moving through life stages. You

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can find this new episode

1:14

guide on our website at

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deathsexmoney.org/guide, and you can also download

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the guide as a PDF to make it easier to

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share. Let us know what you think. We'd

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love to hear from you at deathsexmoney

1:26

at wnyc.org. And

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now, my conversation with one of my favorite

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people to talk about mental health with, comedian

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Maria Bamford. They'd

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be like, we're just here to have a

1:38

good time. I am

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not a good time. I

1:45

am an assignment from a therapist. I'm

1:49

some comedian some other comedians come

1:51

to see and go, huh? And

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I can sell out a room in Portland

1:59

on a Tuesday. Maria

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Bamford is

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a comedian and actress. You

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may know her from her many stand-up specials

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or her Netflix show, Lady Dynamite.

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I first interviewed Maria on the show back in

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2020 and she has an

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excellent new book out called Sure, I'll

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Join Your Cult, a memoir of mental

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illness and the quest to belong anywhere.

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The book is honest, very

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funny, and genuinely helpful. And

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I got to talk to Maria all about it in

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front of a live audience at City Arts

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and Lectures in San Francisco earlier this

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fall. Something you

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say in this book is how full

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disclosure you have found is

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a cash cow. Yes, yes.

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And then you... And a

3:09

compulsion. Compulsion. And you ask,

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is this radical honesty or

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narcissistic showboating? What

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do you think? I think, well,

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I would love to say

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that it's a

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real happy medium. But

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yeah, I think it's

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very... I've always liked

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attention. I think... Oh

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my gosh, who's the comedian? I

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just saw John Mulaney in

3:41

one of his last premises. He says

3:43

his most recent specials. And

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now if I can just get enough

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attention, I'll be fine. I was like,

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hmm. But I'd say,

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yeah. So I think there's

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something there. But

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it's okay. It's okay. Well,

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I want... It

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is... I

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think it is both ends, because it

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is... because the gift of being able to hear what you're

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disclosing is for

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somebody who's secretly holding some shame. They

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have somebody to look at and think

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it's not just me. Yeah, like I

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love... I love... um,

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autobiographies, biographies, memoirs,

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where it's like you get to hear all

4:28

the horrifying things that people have done.

4:30

I mean, it's just... When

4:33

I was trying to write this,

4:35

I kept reading biographies

4:37

of alcoholic depressive poets

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going, they're

4:42

a monster. Like, just

4:45

monstrous. I

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wonder how you can talk about it at this point in your

4:50

life. You must have different

4:53

coping mechanisms, but as

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somebody who's inclined

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to share, can

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you just talk about, like, over the course of

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your life what you've learned about how

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it feels when you disclose something and

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then you are not met with understanding?