In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, KOSU is featuring several hours of special radio programs in May and early June.
Thursday, May 4, May 11 and May 18 at 7 p.m.
Hold On: A Series of Call-Ins About Mental Health from WNYC
KOSU will join three national live call-in radio shows to convene a conversation about the state of our nation’s mental health crisis. Are we getting the help we need? Do we know how to access it? Would we take it if we could?
Over the course of three Thursday evenings, Anna Sale, host of Death, Sex & Money and author of Let’s Talk About Hard Things, will bring her unflinching ability to lead candid discussions to traverse the landscape of mental health today. Sale will bring together experts with listeners to ask questions, break through stigma, and offer a space to share what’s helped during mental health downturns.
We'll dive into the life cycle of therapy, including how to find a therapist, and will take calls from therapists around the country for their views on the mental health crisis in America. We'll also focus on mental health treatments, from diagnosis to psychiatric medication, and the profound challenges that accompany them.
Additional topics of discussion include teen mental health, mental health crisis interventions and navigating insurance plans that can often be a barrier to treatment.
Sunday, May 7 at 3 p.m.
Delivered - The Postpartum Body
Expecting parents are told to prepare for the highest highs, but how about the lowest lows? Or the moments of uncertainty in between? The postpartum period is filled with mental and physical challenges that are sidelined in many public conversations about parenthood. The two-episode special Delivered opens up conversations about the under-discussed parts of pregnancy and childbirth, from the stigma around postpartum bodies to the mental health challenges experienced by non-birthing parents.
In this episode, host Anita Rao interviews folks about the physicality of birth and meeting their new postpartum bodies. Doula Lydia-Carlie Tilus talks about her trauma-informed approach to postpartum care; photographer ash luna shares how they’ve used the 4th Trimester Bodies Project to diversify the images people associate with postpartum bodies; and former active duty Marine Letticia Solomon talks about navigating the pressures of a highly physical job postpartum.
Sunday, May 14 at 3 p.m.
Delivered - Postpartum Mental Health
In this episode, host Anita Rao explores the cultural silence around postpartum mental health. She talks with A’Driane Nieves, an artist whose postpartum depression catalyzed a mental health journey and Bipolar II diagnosis, and married couple Shannon Purdy Jones and Darren Jones. The Joneses share how they’ve navigated their sex life and relationship postpartum, and why they firmly believe that the mental health of non-birthing partners should be a more prominent part of the postpartum conversation.
Sunday, June 4 at 3 p.m.
Queer Youth Resilience & Mental Health
Every day, queer teens and young adults are challenged by the politicization of gender identity and sexual orientation and the rise in anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination. And the mental health consequences are alarming. A staggering 45 percent of LGBTQ+ youth 13 through 24 report to have seriously considered suicide, and 14 percent have tried to hurt themselves, according to a 2022 report from The Trevor Project. Considering LGBTQ+ youth face continued fights around their identity, what are mental health concerns specific to queer youth? And what support is necessary for LGBTQ+ teens and young adults to best take care of their well-being amid a national political climate that’s working against them?
