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I'm not saying hide the samaritans number ffs. But there is never any word on the causes, never any responsibility.

suicide happens on an individual level

I don't know if there are heaps of mental health walk-in clinics where you are, but around here there are very few and they are massively underfunded

xp if you didn't understand please re-read

let's them them the number to call" maybe works on an individual level if that's how you view things

well yeah that's how I view things: the idea is to pehaps prevent an individual from committing suicide

xp I live in Massachusetts and help abounds, and a lot of people are not aware this is the case.

If you re-read you might find out that I am not in any way opposed to "perhaps stopping an individual committing suicide" - but that simply isn't enough.
There is fuck all help for people in the uk, what there is is being cut by the day, millions are desperate with no real help available. There is near zero public outcry about this. Posting glib messages about helplines in such a society is not going to do any good.

could we consider neither one of you is proposing a zero sum game scenario here, like...you could communicate...both....messages

I think I quite clearly said exactly that

Agreed, two seperate issues, and the suicide rate and underfunded mental health programs are underreported issues, anything to engender public outcry is good.

Yes, but also. Suicide and depression are not simply issues of curable illness, they are symptomatic of the shitty way our society treats people in general.

Depression is a mystery. It is biochemical but not to the exclusion of trauma, family history, financial hardship, societal problems. It can't simply be laid at the feet of late capitalism or whatever. People kill themselves for an array of complex reasons.

not to mention walk-in mental health clinics

At first I thought you must be from, like, Finland but then I saw Mass, which is more like Finland than the rest of the USofA when it comes to social services.

I am a social worker in the capitol of the USofA and I know of no such thing as a "walk in mental health clinic" unless you are counting the emergency room?

Suicide hotlines are a good thing, yes, but I agree that throwing that out there in a FB post is pretty weak when it comes to mental health advocacy.

http://www.namidc.org/find-support

I'm not gonna argue that social services are up to snuff in general

I think in general people feel helpless when they lose loved ones to suicide and want to take whatever steps to prevent others in their life from going down that rabbit hole. I can't blame them for wanting to contribute the best way they know how.

I don't know about MA, but in DC,"24 hour emergency psychiatric care" equals emergency room at a hospital with an inpatient psych ward. I *wish* we had walk in mental health clinics!

I am a social worker in the capitol of the USofA and I know of no such thing as a "walk in mental health clinic" unless you are counting the emergency room?

we've got walk-in mental health clinics (non-ED) at the VA -- I work in one (sorta)!

24/7???

Walk-in is extended business hours, evening/overnight is ED

People who listen to talk radio, or podcasts with a talk-radio-like format, are evil soulless monsters.

Or

OR

And (I hope it goes without saying) people who actually make talk radio and talk-radio-like podcasts are literally satan

sweet

Hail Satan.

Or rather Hail, Satan.

Making a talk-format program is like doing stand-up comedy in that the mere fact that someone would want to do it is strong evidence that there's something deeply wrong with them

You either die a Rhea or live long enough to be Ouranos

Hesiod iirc.

To all the people clinging to or striking at other’s identities: FUCK IDENTITY “FEELINGS” FOR NOW AND FOREVER YOU ARE LYING TO YOURSELF ABOUT OTHERS AND/OR YOURSELF 98+% OF THE TIME AND IF YOU USE IT TO EXCLUDE OR ESPECIALLY x1000 FOR A REASON TO HARM OTHERS FUCK YOU x 1000.

Kate Bush kinda nails my enjoyment of some sports talk radio in "dream of sheep": "I'll listen to some friendly voices/talking bout stupid things". It's hard to explain. It's somewhat soothing. I don't have many friends btw. Also I hate angry hosts and "personalities" ugh

sports podcasts are brilliant dozing off material

otm

and late night talk radio can be magical. compelling, soothing, comforting, stimulating... sometimes it's a friend you need in those wee hours when otherwise your own thoughts would be making you crazy.

When I was a kid I would always be up til about 3 am on the weekends, and a local radio station out of Chicago had this older dude DJing overnight, playing mostly vocal and small combo postwar jazz, with some big band mixed in. Total pro, and every set he’d play “One For My Baby” by Sinatra at 2:45, which would put me to sleep. He did a lot of talking too, the guy was like an old version of Donald Fagen’s Nightfly character, monologuing about his memories and the music.

aw, I didn't mean cool stuff like that!

I'm all over the 'sports podcasts as vaguely contentless, friendly voices to fall asleep to' thing. I'd be kind of stuffed without them.

I can't remember if I saw it on ilx too but supposedly hotels and new apartment buildings are putting in studios for podcasters because every single mf'er has a podcast now.

I just don't understand where people find the time to listen to episode after episode of two comedians horsing around for 90 minutes. It's all I can do to keep up with listening to albums I buy. I'm sure there are many podcasts I would find enjoyable and interesting, but I don't commute to work and if I have free time to listen to something, I want to hear music, not chatter

completely agreed but i've accepted that i'm on the wrong side of history here

I have never enjoyed a single episode of just people bullshitting. Like, I've enjoyed Molly Lambert's stuff on the internet, for Grantland etc, so I gave her new podcast Nightcall(?) a listen, and just noooo

they're also all 2-3 fucking hours long now

it's infuriating to me that ppl routinely put out long-ass podcasts that no one edits properly. madness

i feel like a lot of the appeal of making a podcast is that you can get away with not editing. probably very useful for overbooked and underpaid upstart comedian types. i think about this a lot 'cause back in 2010-2011 i had this comics blog with my buddy, covering old chris claremont and grant morrison comics, about which some folks here spoke very kindly. it kinda died because it was just so much work to take our AIM conversation and edit it down to something someone might conceivably want to read, plus formatting and adding images and stuff. in hindsight if we'd just done it as a "hit record, talk a while, hit stop" kind of podcast, we probably would have 500 episodes and 2,500 patreon subscribers right now, just from being early enough to the game. oops.

where it gets annoying is when a podcast gets 'big,' and clearly has the resources, but are now high on their own fame and their awful dumb injokey fanbase, who will eat up every last crumb of would-be-hilarious chatter. but when it's somebody's hobby i can't really fault it too much. i post thousands of architectural photos into the void on flickr with god knows how many words of commentary underneath, seen and read by roughly five people. sometimes the texts are horribly-edited, longwinded and blinkered to important context i've failed to do my homework on. notwithstanding the little side money i've made licensing photos for publication here and there, which is nice, it's a personal project.

obviously really good talk podcasts are more like really good public radio - - - paid producers working the levels, trimming out junk and dead air, even working from a script, etc.

I find podcasts convenient for when I'm doing household chores. I can spend hours cleaning my house while completely absorbed by some podcast (even if it's just two people bullshitting, as long as they're good at it) in way that I am never able to do while just listening to music. Music is good for when I'm at work and need to actually think (something I am completely unable to do when listening to people talk).

luv2build extremely healthy parasocial relationships with all the hosts of my favourite longform podcasts, the only people who really understand and value me

Blank Check is the only long podcast I listen to on the reg and even that's become self-indulgent in the last few months. TBF they have made a point of retiring a lot of bits, I think they've twigged its on the verge of turning (even more) into a wankathon.

I just don't understand where people find the time to listen to episode after episode of two comedians horsing around for 90 minutes. It's all I can do to keep up with listening to albums I buy. I'm sure there are many podcasts I would find enjoyable and interesting, but I don't commute to work and if I have free time to listen to something, I want to hear music, not chatter

― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, March 21, 2019 7:09 AM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i don't really get excited by new music anymore. i listen to podcasts when doing tasks - dishes, walking to grocery store, cleaning. my gf puts them on at bedtime sometimes also, they help me fall asleep.

i feel like i expect more from music, which it can no longer deliver to me, whereas with a podcast i am accepting that it's just going to be some people talking, and that's ok.

and here’s why

Never listened to one tbh.