Something rather tremendous is happening. I believe that everyone - people who've dealt with depression but everyone - has an obligation to soak in the positivity when it comes around. Because that's a resource a human mind needs. So I'm not going to waste it.
I'll explain...

We're at 385 donors to @depreshpod as of early this morning. I've set a goal of 500 and while we still have a ways to go, I believe we can hit that number. At that point, we'll talk stretch goals and a rather absurd idea I have along those lines...

Last year, I lost my job and my previous podcast about mental health. The company I worked for was hit hard by the economy and didn't see a future for them in the work I was doing. This stuff happens. They have that right.
It was a relief in some ways but also rough.

I had realized by then that my future was in talking about the touchy mental health subjects that society itself was mostly afraid to talk about. I knew that people DID want to talk about it and to do so was healing.

As many of you may know, I lost my brother to suicide after his long struggle with addiction and depression and, worst of all, his belief that these things weren't illnesses but flaws in his character. That if he'd been braver or stronger they wouldn't have happened.

He felt shame and he died alone.
I knew he didn't have to and I knew other people didn't have to and eventually it became clear that fighting that shame and secrecy is what I had to do. I can write and I can speak so those are the ways I had to go about it.

For most of the past year, I didn't have a show. And even as I started building a new one with the lovely champions of @MaxFunHQ, part of me thought, "Well, maybe people *don't* want this. Maybe you just want people to want this. Maybe the old employer was right to end it."

I KNEW that our @depreshpod shows were good. A lot of people said so and I agreed. But even on Monday morning of this week, the first day of #MaxFunDrive, I thought, "But maybe there will be no support. Maybe it's just a nice show but not worth people's commitment."

The waves of support pouring in to @depreshpod and @MaxFunHQ have told me, resoundingly, that my worries were wrong. People want to get better about mental health and most of all people want to help each other get better.

We're trying to change the world with @depreshpod. We're trying to help people save lives. It's as grand and as simple as that. It's not hyperbole. This week, people have stepped up and joined in that effort. And I thank you for that. Also....

If you join through http://maximumfun.org/join , you can get access to a commentary track where @hodgman and I make a bunch of wisecracks during a monster movie and that's pretty cool too. So thanks! (/brain dumped, /end, /whew)