Gabor Maté is a doctor and expert in addiction, stress and childhood development. But he's also something of a revolutionary, challenging all our assumptions about what it is to be well. His book, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, was a great comfort to Bryony when she had to get sober, and you've probably heard her talk about it with other guests here on Mad World. His new book, The Myth of Normal, looks at trauma, illness and healing in a toxic culture.

Gabor joins Bryony to talk about why he would ban the word 'addict' and how he thinks that in 150 years we'll look back in horror that we've been separating the mind and the body in healthcare.

The Myth of Normal, by Gabor Maté

This bonus episode was recorded to mark Addiction Awareness Week by Action on Addiction and the Forward Trust. Find our more here about their campaign for #SupportNotStigma.

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This episode contains discussion of suicide.

Joe Tracini is an actor, comedian and champion magician. He's also frequently suicidal. Joe suffers from borderline personality disorder and since speaking publicly about it, he's not shied away from talking about the 'unfashionable' side of mental illness. He's now written a book called '10 Things I Hate About Me: how to stay alive with a brain that's trying to kill you', which he says he wrote to save his life.

Joe joins Bryony to talk about the worst thing he's ever done and why he decided to commit it to paper, introduces Bryony to 'Mick', his name for his BPD, and asks listeners to always remember one phrase: wait for a bit.

10 Things I Hate About Me: how to stay alive with a brain that's trying to kill you, by Joe Tracini

Find out more about National Suicide Prevention Day

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James Purefoy is one of Britain's most prolific actors, appearing in everything from the Royal Shakespeare Company to Netflix's Sex Education. But his latest film, Fisherman’s Friends: One and For All, while ostensibly about a bunch of Cornish blokes who sing sea shanties, is really about the fragile issue that is male mental health.

James joins Bryony to talk about dealing with the grief of his father, while playing a character grieving their father, boarding schools as a place to 'cauterise people’s emotions' and the power of articulating your pain.

Fisherman’s Friends: One and For All is in cinemas across the UK and Irelands from Friday 19th August |

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Charmain Bynoe is one of our favourite guests here at Mad World, an unsung hero making a difference in our communities. She's a housing officer for Southwark, in London, and you may have seen in the Channel 4 TV series, Council House Britain. The work she does in helping vulnerable people is vitally important, but often overlooked. Now she's written a book, The Estate, which lays bare the challenges so many are facing in the midst of the UK's housing crisis.

Charmain joins Bryony to talk about helping those dealing with hoarding, how the community spirit on estates is so important, plus how she dealt with her own burnout and important of 'letting the TV watch you'.

The Estate: My Life Working on the Front Line of Britain's Housing Crisis, by Charmain Bynoe |

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Salma El-Wardany has been described as a half Egyptian, half Irish Muslim writer, travelling the world, eating cake and dismantling the patriarchy - but even that doesn't quite sum up the unapologetic brilliance of her. Now, she's released her first novel, These Impossible Things, which charts the friendship of three British Muslim women and what life throws at them.

Salma joins Bryony to talk about the hurt of not finding yourself in the pages of the books you love, the impact of growing up Muslim in the wake of 9/11, and why she wants all women to have the pleasure of the soft things in life.

These Impossible Things, by Salma El-Wardany |

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Abi Morgan is the BAFTA and Emmy award-winning screenwriter of films like Suffragette, Shame and The Iron Lady, as well as creating the impossibly brilliant BBC drama The Split. But all the screenwriting expertise in the world could not have prepared her for the series of cataclysmic events that shattered her life three years ago. Now she's written a book about those events, 'This is Not a Pity Memoir.' It's a love story, but not as you know it.

Abi joins Bryony to talk about the 'quiet drama' of a loved one in a coma, continuing to find joy in the darkness, and the terrifying realisation that she couldn't hide behind actors and directors in her own life.

This is not a Pity Memoir, by Abi Morgan |

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Right now, 332 million people across the globe are suffering from depression. You might be one of them. And yet despite the prevalence of this illness, it is still barely understood, with precious few treatment options available. The science writer Alex Riley - this week’s guest on Mad World - has now produced the most comprehensive history of depression ever written, with the hope of changing this.

In A Cure For Darkness, Riley busts a whole host of myths about depression. It is not a modern illness - in fact, it is as old as humans - and it is certainly not a western illness, with people all around the world experiencing it. He also explores the treatment options available, and why there are so few of them - plus, he goes into some of the exciting new options for depression on the horizon, and some of the awful practices that have been used in the past, including the ice pick lobotomy. 

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Self Esteem AKA Rebecca Taylor is a multi-award winning and Brit Award nominated artist, touring the globe and supporting Adele. And yet, during her 20s, she was crippled by shame and feeling like she was never accepted as herself. She found time to come on Mad World and talk openly and honestly about mental health and the role it's played in her life, including shaking off the shackles of patriarchy and getting out of self destruct mode.

Listen to Self Esteem |

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In 2018, Rebecca Humphries was thrust into the spotlight when her boyfriend cheated on her very publicly with his Strictly dance partner. Seeing your partner snogging someone else on the front page of a tabloid might not be the ideal way to discover you've been cheated on, but Humphries has come to realise it was the best thing that could ever have happened to her. Set free from an emotionally abusive relationship, she was able to finally live the life she wanted to... with amazing results.

Rebecca joins Bryony to discuss her book about the painful but valuable lessons she learnt through the very public disintegration of her long term relationship, from the impact of Little Mo in Eastenders and Disney, to learning your own worth.

Why Did You Stay? by Rebecca Humphries |

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To his millions of fans, he was Avicii - music producer and DJ extraordinaire who created some of the most anthemic dance music of recent years. But behind the global superstar DJ was Tim Bergling, an anxious boy from Sweden who first saw a therapist at the age of 14, and years later tragically took his own life.

Swedish journalist Måns Mossesson was given extraordinary access by Tim’s parents to the artist’s friends, family and colleagues, as well as his texts and emails to write 'Tim', the biography of a man whose battles with mental health will resonate with many. Måns joins Bryony to talk about how he hopes the book lets us meet Tim, rather than Avicii, and how Tim's story is so much more nuanced than a tale of the evils of fame, money and the music industry.

Please note that this episode contains discussion about suicide and suicidal thoughts.

The Tim Bergling Foundation: https://www.timberglingfoundation.org/ |

Tim: The Official Biography of Avicii, by Måns Mosesson

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