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Sandy Allen (they/he) is an author who writes and speaks about normalcy, especially to do with gender and madness. Their debut book, A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise: A True Story about Schizophrenia, was first published by Scribner in 2018. A critically acclaimed and innovative work, AKOMP was called one of the best nonfiction books of that year by Esquire. In 2020, it was nominated as one of the top works of journalism of the decade by NYU’s journalism school. Sandy’s words have been featured on This American Life, 99% Invisible, BuzzFeed News, Gay Magazine, Pop-Up Magazine, among many others, and they write a column about being nonbinary for them. Sandy lives in the Catskills with their husband, dog, cats, sourdough starter, and many plants. They also host the online sourdough baking series Breb Class. Sandy can be found (infrequently) on Twitter @sealln. Learn way more about them at hellosandyallen.com

Mad Chat logo and other graphic design by Chris Ritter
http://www.chrisritterdesign.com/

Episodes

Check out each episode page for more on the guest, relevant resources/recommendations from Sandy and full transcriptions (episodes transcribed by Alex Cornacchia).

Guests

Episode 1 (May 2) - Hannah Giorgis

Hannah Giorgis (she/her) is a staff writer at The Atlantic, and her work has appeared in publications including New York Times magazine, Pitchfork, Bon Appétit, and The Guardian.

Episode 2 (May 23) - Meredith Talusan

Meredith Talusan (she/they) is an award-winning author and journalist who has written for The Guardian, The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Nation, WIRED, SELF, Condé Nast Traveler among many other publications, and has contributed to several essay collections. She has received awards from GLAAD, The Society of Professional Journalists, and the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. She is also the founding executive editor of them., Condé Nast’s LGBTQ+ digital platform, where she is currently contributing editor. Her debut memoir, Fairest, is forthcoming from Viking / Penguin Random House.

Episode 3 (June 13) - Caroline Mazel-Carlton

Caroline Mazel-Carlton (she/her) has laid her head in a number of places, from Indiana jail cells to Texas psychiatric units, but now enjoys a freer existence as Director of Training for the Western Mass Recovery Learning Community.  She has been re-defining peer roles in diverse mental health settings and parts of the world for over a decade.  Her work with “Alternatives to Suicide” and the Hearing Voices Network has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Foreign Policy and O Magazine.  She is passionate about re-claiming cultural and spiritual wisdom traditions for navigating extreme states and is studying to become a rabbi.

Episode 4 (July 3) - Amanda Chicago Lewis

Amanda Chicago Lewis (she/her) mostly reports on the marijuana industry and the war on drugs. She's written for Rolling Stone, GQ, WIRED, and the Wall Street Journal.

Episode 5 (July 25) - Esmé Weijun Wang

Esmé Weijun Wang (she/her) is a novelist and essayist. She is the author of the New York Times-bestselling essay collection, The Collected Schizophrenias (2019), for which she won the Graywolf Nonfiction Prize. Her debut novel, The Border of Paradise, was called a Best Book of 2016 by NPR and one of the 25 Best Novels of 2016 by Electric Literature. She was named by Granta as one of the “Best of Young American Novelists” in 2017 and won the Whiting Award in 2018. Born in the Midwest to Taiwanese parents, she lives in San Francisco, and can be found at esmewang.com and on Twitter @esmewang.

Episode 6 (august 15) - Sarah kay

Sarah Kay (she/her) is a New Yorker. a poetry writer and reader. an educator. the founder and co-director of Project VOICE. a witty banter enthusiast. a postcard lover. a foodie. a playwright. a singer. a songwriter. a photographer. a best-selling author of four books of poetry including B, No Matter the Wreckage, The Type, and All Our Wild Wonder. a celebrated performer in over 25 countries. an editor for Write Bloody Publishing. a Gemini. a mediocre driver at best. a musical theater geek. a smoothie expert. the daughter of a Taoist mother and a Brooklynese father. a hapa. less cool than her little brother. an alum of the United Nations International School and a graduate of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. an alum of Brown University. an alum of Brown University Graduate School’s Masters Program in the Art of Teaching Secondary English. a recipient of an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Grinnell College. on twitter here. on facebook here.

Episode 7 (September 5) - NICHOLE PERKINS

Nichole Perkins is a writer from Nashville, Tennessee, currently based in Brooklyn. Around the internet, Nichole writes about the intersections of pop culture, race, sex, gender, and relationships. Her memoir Sometimes I Trip On How Happy We Could Be will be coming soon from Grand Central Publishing. It will cover black womanhood and sexuality, online messageboard communities, and the effects of pop culture on female desire. Nichole is a 2017 Audre Lorde Fellow at the inaugural Jack Jones Literary Arts Retreat and a 2017 BuzzFeed Emerging Writers Fellow. She is also 2016 Callaloo Creative Writing Fellow for poetry. She has participated in the Napa Valley Writers' Conference (2010, 2013). She co-hosts Thirst Aid Kit, a podcast about pop culture and desire, with Bim Adewunmi. She is also one of the hosts of The Waves, a podcast that examines news and culture through a feminist lens. Both podcasts are at Slate. Her first collection of poetry, Lilith, but Dark, was published by Publishing Genius in July 2018. Although her first writing love is poetry, Nichole also writes personal essays, cultural criticism, short stories, and screenplays. She loves Prince, romance novels, and the television show Frasier.

Episode 8 (september 26) - yassir lester

Yassir Lester (he/him) is a stand up comedian, writer and actor on the Showtime series Black Monday, and co-host of the podcast My Brother’s Sneaker. He has previously worked on Making History, Champions, The Carmichael Show, Girls, and Black Dynamite.

Episode 9 (october 17) - JONAH BOSSEWITCH

Jonah Bossewitch, PhD (he/him) is an educator, technologist and journalist who lives and works in New York City. He currently works at Vibrant Emotional Health as the Director of Software Architecture and is on the faculty of the Institute for the Development of Human Arts. Jonah studied Communications at Columbia University and in 2016 defended his doctoral dissertation, Dangerous Gifts: Towards a New Wave of Psychiatric Resistance, which examines significant shifts in the politics of psychiatric resistance and mental health activism. He earned a masters in Communication and Education at Teachers College (’07) and graduated from Princeton University (’97) with a BA Cum Laude in Philosophy, and certificates in Computer Science and Cognitive Studies. He blogs at http://alchemicalmustings.org.

Episode 10 (october 31) - tracy clayton

Tracy Clayton (she/her) is a writer, humorist, podcaster, and media personality from Louisville, Kentucky. She is co-owner and co-host of the groundbreaking podcast Another Round with Heben and Tracy and is currently the host of Netflix’s Strong Black Legends podcast. Tracy is also a mental health advocate, speaking, writing, and Instagramming regularly about her experiences with anxiety, depression, and the struggle to make it out of the fog. She loves penguins, is suspicious of mooses, and is probably somewhere waiting for Tom Hanks to tweet her back.

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