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Madness Radio: Voices And Visions from Outside Mental Health brings you personal experiences of 'madness' from beyond conventional perspectives and mainstream treatments, and features survivors, authors, advocates, professionals, and artists.
Hosted by Will Hall, a survivor of schizophrenia diagnosis, Madness Radio was launched in 2005 on Valley Free Radio in Massachusetts and aired more than 125 shows since then. Today we're also heard regularly on KBOO in Portland Oregon and other stations, and syndicated through Pacifica. Our podcast can be found on iTunes. Check our About page to learn more.
Listen and download recent shows below, subscribe to our podcast on the right, browse by topics, or search for a guest or topic by keyword.
Click here to see all our 125+ shows as a list, by broadcast date and topic.
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Madness Radio: Transgender Spirituality Machete Mendias
Is madness part of a deeper calling? How is being transgender -- transitioning from one gender to another -- a spiritual process? Machete Mendias, female-to-male transgender activist and artist, discusses his life beyond the borders of gender identity, normality, and conventional definitions. Machete describes his childhood experiences with visions, ritual self-harm and hair-pulling (trichotillomania), and medications, as well as the role of transgendered people as healers, mystics, and shamans.
Madness Radio: Alcohol Alternatives Anne Fletcher
How can people recover from serious drinking problems? Are 12-step and Alcoholics Anonymous programs right for everyone? Anne Fletcher, author of Sober for Good: New Solutions for Drinking Problems, discusses how people successfully overcome alcohol abuse and regain control of their lives. www.annemfletcher.com/ http://www.parl.gc.ca/Content/SEN/Commit...
Madness Radio: Sane Medication Policy Robert Whitaker
Has society's embrace of psychiatric medications led to recovery -- or chronic disability? What would honest medical policy and treatment standards be if they were free of pharmaceutical company corruption? Pulitzer Prize finalist Robert Whitaker, author of Mad In America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill, discusses medications as a failed paradigm of care, and imagines what a sane alternative would look like. www.madinamerica.com.
Madness Radio: Is Shyness a Disease? Christopher Lane
Do pharmaceutical companies control the social definition of normal? Can advertising and public relations campaigns turn acceptable personality differences into unacceptable disorders? British-American literary critic and historian Christopher Lane discusses his book Shyness: How Normal Behavior Became a Sickness, including the way politics and profits drive the bible of mental health treatment, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. www.christopherlane.org/ http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/blog/si...
Madness Radio: Beyond Meds Gianna Kali
Blogger and former social worker Gianna Kali discusses her experience going into the mental health system after taking psychedelic drugs, spiritual emergence, decades of treatment with more than 30 different psychiatric medications, and the difficult process of coming off meds, drug withdrawal, and regaining her life. Gianna is the creator of the Beyond Meds blog about mental health and coming off medications. http://www.beyondmeds.com
Madness Radio: Mad Movement Strategies Gabriella Coleman
Psychiatric survivor activism is a vital force changing American mental health care, leading the way in human rights reforms and challenging pharmaceutical company corruption long before the scandals of today's headlines. What is this history of the movement, what challenges does it face today, and are there dangers of cooptation and reformism? Join cultural anthropologist Gabriella Coleman to explore the lessons of the Mad Movement. http://www.gabriellacoleman.org/
Madness Radio: Schizophrenia Recovery Rufus May
UK clinical psychologist Rufus May descended into madness -- convinced he was on a spy mission and that animals were robots, he even walked into a family gathering naked. How did Rufus find meaning in these experiences, learn to live without medication, and become a successful psychologist and mental health advocate? Rufus was recently featured in the Channel 4 feature film The Doctor Who Hears Voices. www.rufusmay.com
Madness Radio: Depression And Oppression Alisha Ali
Is depression a result of poverty? How can community development and economic empowerment affect mental health? Psychology professor Alisha Ali discusses the dangers of turning social problems into medical disorders, including bias in diagnosis, limits of "cultural competency" and "anti-stigma" initiatives, and the experiences of immigrant women. http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/faculty_bios/v...
Madness Radio: Birth Trauma w/ Annie Robinson
Labor doula and Icarus Project student organizer Annie Robinson talks about her experience in the mental health system as an adolescent, and how it led to her interest in changing medical birthing procedures and becoming a doula. Annie discusses the trauma caused by doctor interventions in childbirth and its lasting effects on both children and mothers. Anniewrobinson(at)gmail(dot)com; http://www.dona.org/ http://www.motherfriendly.org/
Madness Radio: Homelessness And Mental Health w/ Marykate Connor
Marykate Connor, founder of Caduceus Outreach Services in San Francisco, talks about her innovative work helping homeless people with mental health problems. She discusses the criminal justice system, the decline of services since the 1970s, medication policies, poverty, and what led her to create one of the most innovative and effective homelessness programs in the country. www.caduceusoutreachservices.org marykate_caduceus (at) sbcglobal (dot) net
Madness Radio: Holistic Drug Alternatives Gracelyn Guyol
Grace Guyol, diagnosed with bipolar disorder and author of Healing Depression and Bipolar Disorder Without Drugs: Inspiring Stories of Restoring Mental Health Through Natural Therapies, discusses nutrition, supplements, and holistic health care for helping people diagnosed with severe mental illnesses. GGuyol (at) aol.com
Madness Radio: Hoarding Stuff w/ Randy Frost
Psychology professor Randy Frost, author of Buried In Treasures, discusses his work on hoarding, people who collect so much stuff excessively that it disrupts their lives or creates a health or fire hazard, including how to help people without risking adding to the problem through intrusive or drastic intervention. rfrost@smith.edu.
Madness Radio: Live Through This Anthology Sabrina Chapadjiev
Editor Sabrina Chapadjiev discusses the new Seven Stories Press anthology Live Through This: On Creativity and Self Destruction, a rich collection of women artists sharing intimate accounts of cutting, alcoholism, suicide, abuse, madness and other self harm and how it relates to their creativity. Authors include bell hooks, Bonfire Madigan Shive, Patricia Smith, Annie Sprinkle, Inga Muscio, Kate Bornstein, and Nicole Blackman. http://sabrinachap.com/LTT
Madness Radio: Madness and Technology Jeffrey Goins
Long time Icarus Project organizer, open source computer software architect, and graduate doctoral student Jeffrey Goins discusses his psychiatric experiences and insights from the world of technology applied to the world of madness. Topics include the Eli Lilly Zyprexa memos scandal and intellectual property rights; freedom in a surveillance society; prophecy and ancient wisdom, and the "end of forgetting."
Madness Radio: Reinventing Bipolar Steven Morgan
Advocate and bipolar survivor Steven Morgan talks about his experiences with spirituality and meditation, including healing through dream work. Listen to the recent profile the New York Times did of Steven at http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2008/... and check out Steven's writing at www.vermontrecovery.com.
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