"Seen: Living With The Schizophrenias" - Embodied: Episode (34 mins)

“I’m breathing. I’m here. I’m eating pizza…People need me.”

Recommendation Type: Episode

Length: 34 minutes

Format/Style: Narrative Feature

Release Date: October 13, 2023

Publication: WUNC

This episode from WUNC’s Embodied podcast features first person stories from folks experiencing schizoaffective disorder and making art with it. The tasteful feature blends together three first-person interviews about mental health and illness, art and life. The structure of this one is creative, unfolding its material carefully over the episode’s thirty or so minutes. I was captivated all the way through the end and especially loved how two of the guests were able to hear tape from one another (not a spoiler I promise!). Community through journalism <3. I don’t think I’ve never heard anything like this before. There should be more of it.

P.S. Esmé’s book is so special and I highly recommend it. She’s also got a lovely Substack. More about her work here.

P.P.S. If you’re looking to listen more from Embodied, their recent multi-part series on AI called Simulated turned my brain upside down and inside out. All of their recent episodes are here: https://www.wunc.org/podcast/embodied-podcast

Episode Transcript: https://www.wunc.org/2023-10-12/seen-podcast-transcript

Episode Webpage: https://www.wunc.org/podcast/embodied-podcast/2023-10-13/schizophrenia-mental-health-stigma-writing-art

Credits (from the episode website and transcript):

Host: Anita Rao

Executive Producer: Amanda Magnus

This episode was produced by Kaia Findlay and edited by Amanda Magnus. Paige Miranda and Gabriella Glueck also produce for our show. Skylar Chadwick is our intern and Jenni Lawson is our sound engineer. Quilla wrote our theme music.