PSY 375: Spring of 2020
In the spring of 2020, I offered a seminar at Bard College using podcasts to explore mental illness. The course, “The Talking Cure: Podcasts as Exploration of Disordered Experiences” (PSY 375), took advantage of the many creative individuals who have recorded their own experiences or those of others, and shared them online. (An updated version of this class can be found at https://faculty.bard.edu/~jdainerbest/podcasts/.)
Anyone interested in learning about the Spring 2020 course can find the syllabus here and can find links to the podcasts we used as primary sources below (or at the schedule at the end of the syllabus). Readings in the syllabus are all linked to their doi URLs. (As an aside: putting this list together definitely made clear how strange the APA’s style guide is to citing podcasts.)
During the course of the semester, most of the students left Bard’s campus due to the novel coronavirus pandemic of 2019–2020. Students were still able to divide into four groups and create the podcasts described below.
All student names are listed in reverse alphabetical order.
Winings, Griffin, and Gehr asked questions about racial disparities in diagnosis, treatment, and practitioner makeup. They were interested in the (lack of) diversity in medical and mental health professions. They explored these complex topics with several lenses, including historical and psychological, through a conversation that continues throughout the episode, and through an interview with a pre-med student.
Richards, Niles, and Kisselev focused their podcast on the relationship between psychology and neuroscience. They interviewed a psychologist using the tools of neuroscience and a neurologist, and asked meta-scientific questions about both fields.
O’Reardon, Shamro, and Bossard were interested in the concept of “mainstreaming”—how educational systems designed for children with autism differ from traditional education and public schools. They interviewed two individuals with experience in the education system working with students on the Autism Spectrum, and explored potential differences in the experience, ideas of when and how to use classroom aids, and how others may perceive those on the spectrum.
Moerschel, Matos, and Cseh asked questions about the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E) program, based on a meta-analysis of its effectiveness. They interviewed a student about that student’s experiences and reflected on the genesis of the program, research about it, and its future.
Feb 3: This American Life: Ten Sessions (Lowe & Glass, 2019)
Feb 10: Invisibilia: The Secret History of Thoughts (Rosin & Spiegel, 2015)
Feb 17: The Read (Fury & West, 2016); With Friends Like These with Bassey Ikpi (Cox, 2019)
Feb 24: Here Be Monsters (Emtman & Denton, 2016); Reply All: Making friends (Vogt et al., 2016)
March 2: This American Life: Esther Perel (Glass, 2017); Fresh Air interview (Gross, 2017)
March 9: In Therapy: Jo (Orbach, 2016)
March 16: Here Be Monsters: Deep Stealth Mode (Mack, 2015)
March 30: This American Life: 81 words (Glass, 2002)
April 6: Throughline: America’s opioid epidemic (Abdelfatah & Arablouei, 2019)
April 13: Latinx Therapy: When La Chancla crosses the line (Alejandre, 2018)
April 20: Reply All: What it looks like (Vogt & Goldman, 2015)
May 11: Radiotopia Showcase: The Great God of Depression (Chapters 1–3; Brown & Kennedy, 2018)