Recorded at the 2025 Brattleboro Literary Festival, Kurt White speaks with author, designer, and Creative Director of The Atlantic, Peter Mendelsund. Their conversation centers on Mendelsund’s book Exhibitionist: 1 Journal, 1 Depression, 100 Paintings, an unconventional work that pairs personal journal entries with paintings created during a period of severe depression. Through vivid, abstract imagery and unfiltered reflection, Mendelsund explores the lived experience of depression, including its loneliness, alienation, shame, and the difficulty of sharing suffering with loved ones. He speaks candidly about bipolar depression, suicidal ideation, the limits of creativity as a coping mechanism, and the life-saving roles of therapy, medication, and human connection. The conversation reflects on the slow work of getting through each day, the courage it takes to ask for help, and the possibility of greater openness and compassion on the other side of despair.

Links:
Peter Mendelsund's website
Paintings by Peter Mendelsund
Exhibitionist and other books by Peter Mendelsund
Brattleboro Literary Festival

If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available. Dial or text 988 in the US and Canada to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

In this episode of Unravelling, recorded at the 2025 Brattleboro Literary Festival, Mary Wilson sits down with author and literary agent Betsy Lerner for an intimate conversation about writing, mental illness, and family dynamics.
Betsy shares how she began keeping diaries as a child after reading Anne Frank, using journaling to process secret feelings and a sense of being different within her family. She discusses her early diagnosis of bipolar disorder at 15, years of ineffective treatment, and how finally finding the right care in her 30s allowed her to live stably and write clearly for decades.

The conversation centers on Betsy’s novel Shred Sisters, which blends fiction with emotional truth to explore bipolar disorder, sibling rivalry, and shame. Betsy speaks about her mission to destigmatize bipolar disorder, challenge sensationalized portrayals, and validate both those living with bipolar disorder and their loved ones, while emphasizing the importance of boundaries and self-preservation.

She also discusses her popular TikTok diary project! Her social media account encourages young people to prioritize mental health, keep handwritten journals, and seek help.

Links -
Visit Betsy Lerner's website
Buy Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner
Follow Betsy Lerner on TikTok
Brattleboro Literary Festival

This episode explores how the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. continues to shape conversations about mental health. Mary speaks with Kurt and special guest Dr. Nnamdi Pole, who for the past five years have collaborated on annual MLK Day presentations at the Brattleboro Retreat, a mental health hospital in Vermont. The live events draw directly from King’s speeches and writings to examine racism as a central mental health issue. From King’s 1967 APA keynote, where he challenged psychologists to stop pathologizing Black communities and instead confront the psychological damage of racism itself, to his framing of racism as a societal “poison,” the conversation traces how King’s ideas remain urgently relevant amid contemporary racial conflict and political polarization.

They preview an upcoming MLK Day presentation focused on derogatory speech in inpatient settings, using King’s own words as a guide for naming harm, supporting staff, and shaping compassionate but clear institutional responses. Throughout, the discussion returns to King’s enduring challenge-- a commitment to love and hope, even, and especially, in difficult times.

Links:
MLK's speech at the APA's 1967 Convention in Washington, D.C.
I Have a Dream Speech
Where Do We Go From Here?