Content Warning: This episode discusses grief, loss, suicide, and bipolar disorder.

As a kid, Marisa Renee Lee, author of the best-selling books, Grief is Love: Living with Loss and Waiting for Dawn: Living with Uncertainty, sat in the front row in class. She was driven to achieve, got straight A’s, and worked hard. Then Marisa’s mom got sick with multiple sclerosis and that, combined with her sister’s bipolar disorder, meant taking on the very stressful role of caregiver at age 13. She ended up at Harvard, traveling between campus and the family home in upstate New York to provide care. After her mom died, when Marisa was 26, she experienced the full weight of grief and carried that with her through work on Wall Street and as an adviser to President Obama. Later, Marisa and her husband had a long struggle with fertility and Marisa contracted long covid, which she still must manage today. Mere determination can’t fix these situations and denial, of course, is no help either. Marisa explains the lessons of grief and uncertainty and of giving yourself grace and patience.

Content Warning: This episode discusses suicide, depression, and substance use disorder.

Behind the scenes at In This Family, is our program’s producer, John Moe. Outside of the show, John hosts his own mental health podcast, Depresh Mode with John Moe, and is the author of the best-selling memoir, The Hilarious World of Depression. John shares his earliest experiences with major depressive disorder, years before he understood that this condition was actually very common and had a name. Mental health wasn’t talked about much in the culture in general when John was growing up or in his household in particular, where John connects his late father’s substance use disorder with alcohol to a traumatic childhood, spent under Nazi occupation in Norway. John also talks about the still echoing effects of his older brother’s death by suicide and the approach he takes to the subject of mental health with his own children.

Content Warning: This episode discusses racism, depression, and sexual abuse.

At a young age, author Maud Newton was warned by her grandmother about the mental illness that ran through her family history. She was also told wild stories: an ancestor tried for being a witch, a Marxist in 1900s Texas, a grandfather married 13 times. The stories she uncovered in her best-selling book Ancestor Trouble shed some light on those tales and revealed plenty of complexity and surprises. Meanwhile, Maud has had to deal with her own mental health problems as well as issues among the living: a virulently racist and authoritarian father, a stepfather who molested her, and a mother who persistently looked the other way. She has found a loving and supportive family later in life with a loving husband, his extended family, and a step-sister and step-daughter to whom she is extremely close. It’s a testimony to the power of looking for answers, understanding your roots, and knowing yourself.

Content Warning: This episode discusses violence, rape, and hate crimes. Long before he won the Kirkus and Pushcart Prizes for his memoir writing, before he started teaching creative writing at Harvard Medical School and hosting the popular podcast Vibe Check, Saeed Jones was a kid growing up in Texas and realizing he was different than most people around him. He was raised Buddhist, for one thing, and when the other boys were lusting after a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, Saeed just thought she looked nice. His mom loved him very much and was pretty progressive but really struggled to accept that part of him, leaving Saeed pretty much alone to understand his identity and chart his own course. Which he did.

Content Warning: This episode discusses homelessness, child abuse, neglect, and sexual assault.

David Ambroz does not remember a time before being homeless with his mom and two siblings in New York City, cobbling together sleeps in train stations and emergency room lobbies, grabbing pizza crusts out of trash cans. It was an exciting life but not an easy one, especially given his mother’s schizoaffective disorder and physically abusive behavior. Eventually, he helped get himself and his siblings into foster care, which was often traumatic and abusive as well, especially when the state diagnosed his homosexuality as a disorder and tried to cure it. David learned from all of it, became resourceful, worked hard to make a better life for himself and even forgive his mother. Today, David is the author of the memoir A Place Called Home, a top executive at Amazon, recognized as an American Champion of Change by President Obama, a father, and a tireless advocate for kids in the foster care system.

Content Warning: This episode discusses substance abuse, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and sexual assault.

Book club members who knock back a few bottles of wine are in for some soul searching if Jessica Guerrieri’s novels are picked for the group discussion. That’s because her books, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea and the newly released Both Can Be True, both feature characters struggling with alcoholism. It’s a topic Jessica has done her research on. She’s been sober for 12 years and tells us about the drinking, the family intervention that she didn’t even understand was an intervention, and the frank discussion her husband had with her about their future and the idea of having kids. Jessica also talks about her struggles with obsessive-compulsive disorder, her multiple experiences as a victim of sexual assault (no graphic language included), and a relapse with THC. It’s an honest discussion of the inter-connectedness of mental health conditions and how clear-eyed determination and honesty can go a long way.

Content Warning: This episode discusses suicide, grief, depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

Adam and Lydia weren’t just siblings, they were comedy collaborators and best friends as well. While Adam had experienced some mental health issues over the years, Lydia’s took a very severe turn in her twenties, just as Adam’s career as a comedian, television show maker, and actor was getting off the ground. Just when he got his big break, Lydia died by suicide, Adam finding her afterwards. Adam’s life with Lydia, his grief, and a subsequent spiral of his own is now a film, See You When I See You, and he joins Dr. Michelle K. Murray about his efforts to promote mental health, dispel myths about suicide, and talk about the funny, caring, and wonderful person his sister was and how she lives on in the work he does.

Content Warning: This episode discusses substance use, depression, anxiety, and death by suicide.

Award-winning veteran journalist Meg Kissinger grew up as part of a close-knit family in a noisy and active house. That happens in a home with eight kids. Yet there was nothing but silence when it came to the pervasive bipolar disorder, substance use disorder, depression, and anxiety that heavily impacted the Kissingers. Meg, author of the moving memoir While You Were Out, tells how she persevered, found answers that were hard to come by, and got to a healthier place. It’s an inspiring conversation about mental illness, loss, healing, and hope.

This is an encore presentation first aired in October 2025.