I started a podcast

Introducing Self Conscious: a podcast about living with our brains.

For a few years now, I’ve been thinking about starting a podcast about mental illness and neuroscience. Now I’m doing it!

Introducing Self Conscious: a podcast about living with our brains.

I’ve always been deeply fascinated by neuroscience and psychology. As I’ve gotten older, and dealt with my own mental health issues (as documented on this Substack), these topics feel more and more central to understanding both myself and the world we live in. I’m particularly drawn to looking at illnesses that are not yet “normalized”—schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, etc. People living with these conditions are finding new ways of living in this world and sharing their experiences publicly, and I want to highlight their voices.

I also will dive into the incredibly murky conversations that are currently taking place around fundamental aspects of both psychiatry and psychology. More than ever, people are challenging what diagnosis really means, how mental illness actually works in the brain, and why we don’t have more effective treatments. I want to speak to the artists, writers, psychiatrists and researchers who are debating these important questions and making sense of their experiences on their own terms.

The brain is unique in that we are all experts in our own experiences. There are elements of consciousness that can never be quantified or falsified, and we’ll probably never know exactly how someone else feels. But maybe, if we try, we can get a little closer to understanding ourselves and each other. I hope you’ll join me.

The first three episodes are out now, featuring conversations with the artist Chris Grant, the author Geoffrey Mak and the psychiatrist and Substack author Awais Aftab. Follow the show on Instagram at @selfconsciouspod. You can subscribe in all the usual places like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Let me know what you think!

Art and theme music by Tom Hawking.