In 1994, Dave Mowry was driving down the freeway when he heard something like a twig snapping in his mind. His face went slack, his voice went monotone, and a deep sense of dread moved in that wouldn’t leave for 14 years. He lost his businesses, his home, spent 18 months homeless with his family. At the bottom, he sat on a park bench with a gun in his hand. What pulled him back wasn’t a single breakthrough. It was a small notice in a newspaper about a stand-up comedy class put on by a local NAMI affiliate. His wife urged him to go. Four weeks in, he had his first real belly laugh in years.

Dave is a comedian, author, and mental health advocate whose books — including Healing with Humor and OMG, That’s Me — have reached over a million readers. He’s taught stand-up comedy at the Oregon State Hospital for the Criminally Insane. This conversation covers what bipolar disorder, severe anxiety, and depression actually feel like from the inside — and why finding the punchline in your darkest material might be the most powerful thing you can do with it.

Shownotes with Chapters:

04:13 — The Day His Mind Snapped: 1994, driving down the freeway — a sound like a twig breaking. Face slack, voice monotone, a wave of dread that became 14 years of his life.

06:38 — What Depression Actually Feels Like: Not sadness. Nothingness. Going to the mailbox at midnight. Panic attacks from a ringing phone. Just holding on to breathe.

08:05 — Bipolar, Anxiety, and the Anxiety Bucket: His bucket was already three-quarters full before the day started. Any additional stress tipped it into a panic attack.

09:30 — Drinking to Reach Calm: Not drinking to get drunk — drinking until the anxiety subsided, then sipping to maintain it. When medication helped with anxiety, he just stopped.

11:18 — A Small Notice in the Newspaper: A NAMI affiliate brought a comedian in to teach stand-up to people with mental illness. Heather saw the notice and urged him to go.

12:10 — How Comedy Reframed Everything: As few words as possible. Set up, move forward, find the punchline. When a song triggered a panic attack, he’d ask: where’s the funny here?

14:15 — The Suicide Joke: Where it came from, how it works, and what happened when Dave told it to a suicidal man whose parents had brought him in. Belly laugh. He kept coming back.

19:26 — The Treadmill Joke: Medication weight gain, 24-hour fitness, and the guy next to him on the treadmill. ‘That’s okay, my mind’s racing.’

21:16 — Four Weeks In — Heather Notices: The first real laugh in years. The shift from just holding on to actively hunting for the next punchline.

22:32 — Why He Wasn’t Nervous Onstage: Sweating through clothes talking to one person. No sweat at all in front of a full room. The difference: complete honesty. No pretending.

25:29 — Teaching at the Oregon State Hospital for the Criminally Insane: A man with relentless suicidal ideation. They built him a joke about the Golden Gate Bridge and a floatie. He started getting better.

27:58 — OMG, That’s Me: Blog posts read by over a million people. The most common reaction: OMG, that’s me. You’re telling my story. I don’t feel so alone.

32:16 — I Never Resigned Myself to This Being Forever: Homeless for 18 months, hundreds of thousands in debt. He still sat in a different chair on the bad days. Little victories. He kept trying.

38:07 — The $10,000 Christmas Tree: Manic and freshly liquid, he decorated the Christmas tree with hundred-dollar bills and called the family in. They looked at him like he was crazy. He was.

41:52 — Who Has the Hardest Time Laughing: Not the people with mental illness — they get it right away. It’s the helpers, who see their clients as fragile, who take the longest.

45:37 — The Word Crazy: Censoring ordinary language is more stigmatizing than the word itself. Protecting people from it says they can’t handle it.

49:32 — Don’t Get Stuck: Sit in a different spot. Pick up a different book. Do something nice for somebody. Just don’t get stuck.

Resources Mentioned:

Website: https://davemowry.wpcomstaging.com/

Healing with Humor by Dave Mowry — https://www.amazon.com/Healing-Humor-Mental-Illness-Inspiring-ebook/dp/B0GXY4NT9J?ref_=kfw_samples_getbook_card

TJ Baird joined the U.S. Army at 17, turned 18 three days before graduating basic training, and spent the next 32 years in uniform — nine deployments, multiple combat tours. He came home each time carrying more than he showed. The armor held, until his six-year-old daughter told him he was too scary to be around. That moment sent him on what he calls the Reforge Journey — years of hard work, a ten-week stay at a traumatic brain injury clinic, and the slow, nonlinear path back to himself. Along the way, the same tool he used to lead soldiers through combat — storytelling — became the thing that helped him heal, reconnect with his daughter, and reach other veterans and families carrying weight they don’t know how to put down.

TJ is the founder of Warrior Dad Stories and the author of a debut poetry collection rooted in his deployments, his daughter, and a stuffed bear named Cool Bear. This conversation covers the mechanics of great storytelling, the Reforge Journey, and why every hardship you’ve survived is already a story someone else needs to hear.

Shownotes with Chapters:

01:54 — Why Stories Stick When Information Doesn’t: TJ traces storytelling back to a 1989 school publication and a career-long discovery: wrap a lesson in a story and it travels. Just list the facts and it disappears.

05:22 — The Toolbox Full of Stories: How TJ uses lived experience as raw material — finding the right story for the right question and weaving the lesson through the telling rather than tacking it on at the end.

08:23 — Leading with Stories in the Army: Why passion matters as much as the story itself. You can’t be the Ferris Bueller teacher. People have to feel you mean it.

10:15 — The NCO Course Moment: The first time TJ used a combat story to unlock a classroom — and the instructor who said, keep doing that.

12:16 — Geopolitics on a Rooftop in Afghanistan: How TJ got his team to understand a complex political situation by turning a one-page briefing into a nightly storytelling session. No rote memorization. Just stories.

16:29 — Joining at 17 — and the Father Figures Who Showed Up: TJ’s parents weren’t around. Older Army leaders filled the gap. And then a random Special Forces soldier on a road march changed his life with one piece of advice.

17:28 — The Rucksack Waistband Story: A stranger in the back 40s at Fort Bragg tells him to clip in the waistband he’d never used. He did. His whole platoon did Monday morning. The lesson: use the tools you already have.

24:35 — Coaching Someone Into Their Own Story: TJ’s method for helping people who say they can’t public speak: get them talking, then point out they just told a story. You already did it.

27:24 — The Minefield of I Can’t: Every time you tell yourself you can’t do something, you lay another rock on the path. It’s not one big boulder. It’s a minefield you built yourself.

30:24 — Stories Predate Everything: From cave walls to podcasts — every technology is just a new delivery system for the oldest human act. The story doesn’t change. The reach does.

35:26 — Warrior Dad Stories — and Cool Bear: His daughter gave him a stuffed bear before his last deployment. He took it everywhere, wrote haikus about every photo, and eventually turned it into a book and a conversation with his daughter he didn’t know how to start any other way.

43:34 — Tension Is the Story: Why hardship isn’t something to edit out. The Empire Strikes Back wasn’t the fun one — but it made Return of the Jedi matter.

44:42 — The Reforge Journey — Armored and Breaking: TJ’s award-winning three-part poem: the armor cracking, ten weeks at a TBI clinic in Tampa, and the long walk home with shadows of everyone who walked the path with him.

46:26 — The Bottom of the Well: The moment TJ thought his options were gone. What brought him back — and why he’s only comfortable talking about it now.

49:00 — The Path Is Not Linear: Healing isn’t a destination. You step off and back on. The goal is learning to spot it when you’ve wandered too far

Resources Mentioned:

Warrior Dad Stories (book) https://www.warriordadstories.com/

TJ’s debut poetry collection tracing his deployments and his journey back to his daughter. Publishing imminently at time of recording.

Nicholas Adkins spent his career as a healthcare executive — COO, 37 states, custom suits, cufflinks. Then his father was diagnosed with cancer, and in 2010, while sitting in a boardroom deciding the company’s future, Nick told them he’d have an answer after Burning Man. He came back in blue jeans, told them to sell, and moved to Portland to become a hippie. The kilts he started wearing required fun socks. The ones that got the most attention were pink knee-highs with black handlebar mustaches. In 2015, he packed 100 pairs into two backpacks, walked into a healthcare IT conference of 42,000 people in suits — and accidentally started a global movement. Pink Socks has since gifted over 300,000 pairs worldwide, earned a TED Talk, landed in 34 schools across nine states as part of social emotional learning curriculum, and inspired a book. But Nick will tell you it was never about the socks. It’s about the moment someone notices them — and real connection happens.

Shownotes with Chapters:

00:22 — Who Is Nicholas Adkins?: Healthcare executive turned kilt-wearing hippie. The origin story of a global movement that started with a pair of pink socks and a Burning Man epiphany.

01:29 — The Perfect Storm of 2010: His dad’s cancer diagnosis, three years bearing witness to mortality, and a boardroom decision that sent him to the Nevada desert. He came back with one answer: sell the company.

05:36 — I’m Going to Move to Portland and Become a Hippie: What he told the boardroom, in blue jeans, unshaved. And exactly what he did.

06:04 — What Burning Man Actually Taught Him: Life isn’t a series of if-then equations. You’re one phone call from cancer, one nanosecond from an 18-wheeler. The question Burning Man forced him to answer: what are you waiting for?

09:28 — The Kilt, the Socks, and the Mustache: June 2012 — the last time he wore pants. Why kilts require fun socks, and why the pink ones with handlebar mustaches always got the most attention.

11:51 — The Conference in Chicago: Two backpacks, 100 pairs of socks, 42,000 healthcare IT pros in suits. How a hashtag, a kilt, and Dr. Eric Topol’s retweet launched what became a global movement.

16:25 — The Moment It Went Organic: Two DMs arrive simultaneously — Netherlands, Wales. Strangers had sourced their own socks and were already gifting them. Nick’s response: get a bigger bag.

17:29 — The TED Talk He Didn’t Think He Deserved: Nick said it wasn’t a movement — just happy people gifting socks on Twitter. They put him on the TEDx stage anyway.

20:13 — 300,000 Pairs and the Ripple Effect: What happens when 300,000 people each have one real human connection today. The exponential math of kindness.

21:43 — The Book: Ten years in the making because it took that long for the stories to accumulate. QR codes let characters tell their own side of each story.

22:34 — Connectivity vs. Connection: Your phone gives you connectivity. Pink Socks is about connection — and why authentic human moments matter more as AI accelerates.

29:11 — John at Stanford: A lung transplant recipient approaches after a talk, tears running down his blue surgical mask. The story that became chapter two — and Nick’s answer for what the movement was truly for.

36:25 — Gratitude and Patience: The two words Nick returns to every day. What his father’s death taught him about stop waiting and trusting the universe to provide.

46:53 — It’s Good to See You: Why Nick never says ‘nice to meet you.’ The three words that carry a different energy — and that too many people never hear in their lifetime.

52:47 — True Gifting Has No Quid Pro Quo: Accepting someone’s gift is the gift you give the giver. The Burning Man principle that underlies the whole movement.

54:14 — How to Gift the Socks: Don’t go first. Carry a dozen, wait for someone to comment, and that’s your person. The instructions are on the back of the label.

Resources Mentioned:

https://pinksocks.life/book/s://pinksocks.life/ : How a Pair of Socks Became a Symbol of Love and Connection by Nicholas Adkins — Available at https://pinksocks.life/. All proceeds go to the nonprofit.