Auntie’s Bookstore celebrates release of writer and podcaster John Moe’s memoir

Writer and Webby Award-winning “The Hilarious World of Depression” podcast host John Moe’s recently released memoir of the same name turns years of experience interviewing guests inward to systematically explore his own clinical depression, or “Clinny D,” as he prefers to call it. On Friday night, Auntie’s Bookstore will host a Zoom book event with Moe to discuss the memoir.

Assuming there was nothing about him readers would want to know, Moe was convinced that he would never write a memoir. But after “The Hilarious World of Depression” podcast won a Webby Award for best comedy podcast in 2017, Moe’s literary agent finally got through to him.

“I was sort of dragged into it,” Moe said. His agent suggested that telling his story could help readers with similar experiences. “I’ve been with her for 18 years or so, and she knew how to get to me. I’m really glad she did.”

Over the next few years, the book became a major catalyst for introspection, forcing Moe to learn about himself as he wrote. “I’d been hired to write a book about this person, about me, so I needed to learn as much about them as I could,” he said. “That got me back into therapy and approaching therapy in a much more active way.”

He started writing the book hoping to help others and ended up helping himself along the way. “That’s why I recommend everyone write an extensive memoir,” he said, joking about the hundreds of hours he’d spent revising and rewriting.

After years of podcasting about depression, Moe explained that writing “The Hilarious World of Depression” forced him to see different aspects of the subject with new eyes, most notably his understanding of the kinds of trauma that can lead to depression.

“I used to believe that sometimes depression came about because of a trauma, and sometimes it just materialized,” he said. “What I learned through the process of writing the book was the role of complex trauma as opposed to simple trauma.”

Examples of simple trauma, he explained, might include witnessing a death or a major car accident, while “complex” might refer to the steady, continuous trauma of having an alcoholic parent or a psychologically abusive romantic partner.

“I’ve talked to people who have extremely challenging and traumatic lives who aren’t depressed, and I’ve talked to people who’ve had it all and still kind of got wrecked. But by and large, I’ve come to believe that a lot of times the problem happens when there’s trauma and there’s an understandable but unhealthy response to it that just festers and starts to warp a lot of things down the line.”

Moe’s hope in sharing his experiences is that reading them will spark fruitful conversations and provide new understandings for other depressed individuals as well as their family and friends – sprinkling in bits of medicinal laughter along the way. “For you and someone you know,” the introduction reads.

For information on the Zoom event and to buy “The Hilarious World of Depression,” visit auntiesbooks.com. The event begins at 7 p.m. Friday. No ticket required.