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Mad in America: Rethinking Mental Health

The Mad in America podcast, hosted by James Moore, examines mental health with a critical eye by speaking with psychologists, psychiatrists and people with lived experience.

When you hear such conversations, you realise that much of what is believed to be settled in mental health is actually up for debate. Is mental health a matter of faulty biology or is there more to it? Are the treatments used in psychiatry helpful or harmful in the long term? Are psychiatric diagnoses reliable? With the help of our guests, we examine these questions and so much more. 

This podcast is part of Mad in America’s mission to serve as a catalyst for rethinking psychiatric care and mental health. We believe that the current drug-based paradigm of care has failed our society and that scientific research, as well as the lived experience of those who have been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder, calls for profound change. 

On the podcast over the coming weeks, we will have interviews with experts and those with lived experience of the psychiatric system. Thank you for joining us as we discuss the many issues around rethinking mental health around the world.

For more information visit madinamerica.com

 

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  2. Therapy in the Age of Abandonment: A Conversation with Psychological Anthropologist Talia Weiner

Therapy in the Age of Abandonment: A Conversation with Psychological Anthropologist Talia Weiner

Sep 3, 2025

Talia Weiner is a psychological anthropologist, licensed professional counselor, and assistant professor of psychology at the University of West Georgia.

As a medical and psychological anthropologist, her work focuses on the intersection of social-structural forces and how those forces show up in lived experience, particularly in relation to mental health care. Weiner studies these and other topics with students in the Clinical Ethnography Lab within the University of West Georgia’s psychology program.

Weiner has an upcoming book titled Therapeutic Inequalities: Mood Disorder Self-Management in Chicago, scheduled for release Jan. 6, 2026, through NYU Press’s Anthropologies of American Medicine: Culture, Power, and Practice series.

In this interview, Weiner discusses how conservative sociopolitical trends influence psychology and mental health care—how, for example, people with bipolar disorder are expected to monitor and manage themselves in ways that are not only unrealistic but also blur the lines between self and disease.

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Thank you for being with us to listen to the podcast and read our articles this year. MIA is funded entirely by reader donations. If you value MIA, please help us continue to survive and grow. https://www.madinamerica.com/donate/

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© Mad in America 2025. Produced by James Moore https://www.jmaudio.org