Monday Motivation: How Podcasts Saved My Life (with recommendations)

Feb 27

*TW/CW: Mention of suicidal ideation, depression, and anxiety.

“It’s this show about bad advice, and they read weird Yahoo Answers posts and talk about fast food press releases.”

It was October 2017 and I was making yet another futile attempt to get comfortable in an office chair that had seen better days. I was 38 weeks pregnant and about a month into my new job as a call center representative. My friend Bret, who’d helped land me the job, was recommending a podcast called My Brother, My Brother and Me while he was walking me through a typical day in the role. grimaced through contractions and wondered what exactly I’d gotten myself into. I was an introvert with an anxiety problem and a mild case of misanthropy, and I’d agreed to take a job that not only required me to initiate phone calls with strangers all day, but also try to sell them things they arguably didn’t want or need. But the pay was better than what I’d been getting at the last place, which had been barely above minimum wage, and my husband and I were about to have one more mouth to feed, so I was doing what I had to do.

I wasn’t really a podcast person, which feels weird to type out because now, almost 6 years later, I am most certainly a podcast person. The show sounded dumb, and I didn’t have time for anything dumb in my life. I was about to have a baby. I politely filed away the suggestion and assumed I’d never listen to it.

649 episodes later, I can safely say that I wildly underestimated myself and what I needed. I can also say, with very little to no exaggeration, that this recommendation may have inadvertently saved my life.

My Brother, My Brother and Me (or MBMBAM, pronounced muh-BIM-bam, for those of us who are fans) is hosted by brothers Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy, and Bret’s original assessment of the show is pretty spot-on. They give bad (aka, comedic) advice to fan-submitted questions. Before Yahoo Answers went the way of the dodo, Griffin brought posts from there and the brothers gave advice to those poor souls, too. (This segment has been replaced by Quora and other type site posts, to great effect.) And yes, they talk about fast food press releases, and haunted doll inventory listings on eBay, and Minion quotes harvested from baby boomer-heavy Facebook groups, and yes it is exactly as confusing and ridiculous as it sounds. And I haven’t even mentioned to part where they curse like sailors the entire time and tell crude, inappropriate jokes.

So maybe you’re wondering why, exactly, I’m claiming that a show like this saved my life. The answer is severe postpartum anxiety and depression, with a dash of loneliness and isolation kicked in. My firstborn often kept me up most of the night, screaming if she wasn’t constantly being held, and I hadn’t yet learned the difference between a cry that meant “I’m cranky” and a cry that meant “I’m dying,” so I was pretty much continuously having a panic attack. On top of that, the depression (which I did not recognize at the time as such) was dark and heavy, and there were several times that I . . . well, I didn’t want to die. I cannot stress that part enough. But I maybe, just a little bit, also didn’t want to live anymore. The act of being alive was crushing me into the ground. I didn’t feel like a person anymore. I felt lost in the murky swamp that used to be my own mind, and I couldn’t find a way out. During this, one of the hardest times in my life, I remembered Bret’s recommendation and I started listening to My Brother, My Brother and Me, and the strangest thing happened.

I laughed.

And when I laughed, it made me think that maybe living wouldn’t always hurt this much. It allowed me an outlet to laugh long and hard, laugh inappropriately long, laugh until tears streamed down my face and emotions released from deep inside me and I felt refreshed.

There was just something about the wholesome nature of the show’s premise (three brothers, living in different states and wanting to have a reason to have regular communication with each other, started a podcast) and the joyful embrace of childishness, profanity, and whimsy, that reached down into the deepest parts of me and helped me find a way out. I still feel this way about the show and why I love it so much, because truly on paper it’s hardly something I’d ever consider listening to. And yet it’s my favorite.

If you are looking for something new to listen to, or if you haven’t ever listened to podcasts before and are looking to start, here are my suggestions. I can’t promise that they’ll do something as dramatic as save your life, but they may make you smile or help you learn something, and I don’t think either of those are worth sneezing at. This is far from an exhaustive list, but these are definitely the ones I try to listen to each and every week.

#1: My Brother, My Brother and Me

Listen

My Brother, My Brother and Me is an advicecast for the modern era featuring three real-life brothers: Justin, Travis, and Griffin McElroy. For roughly five-sixths of an hour each week, with new episodes dropping every Monday, the brothers McElroy will answer any query sent our way, each fielding questions falling into our respective areas of expertise. We operate like a streamlined, advice-generating machine. It’s both terrifying and humbling to behold.

#2: Armchair Expert

Hi, I’m Dax Shepard, and I love talking to people. I am endlessly fascinated by the messiness of being human, and I find people who are vulnerable and honest about their struggles and shortcomings to be incredibly sexy. I invite you to join me as I explore other people’s stories. We will celebrate, above all, the challenges and setbacks that ultimately lead to growth and betterment. What qualifies me for such an endeavor? More than a decade of sobriety, a degree in Anthropology and four years of improv training. I will attempt to discover human “truths” without any laboratory work, clinical trials or data collection. I will be, in the great tradition of 16th-century scientists, an Armchair Expert.

Listen

#3: I Weigh with Jameela Jamil

Listen

On I Weigh, Jameela Jamil challenges societal norms through conversations with thought-leaders, performers, activists, influencers, and friends about their own experiences and stories with their mental health. With hilarious and vulnerable conversations, I WEIGH amplifies and empowers diverse voices in an accessible way to celebrate progress, not perfection.

#4: LeVar Burton Reads

In every episode, LeVar Burton (Roots, Reading Rainbow, Star Tre) invites you to take a break from your daily life, and dive into a great story. LeVar’s narration blends with gorgeous soundscapes to bring stories by Neil Gaiman, Haruki Murakami, Octavia Butler, Ray Bradbury and more to life. So, if you’re ready, let’s take a deep breath . . .