10 Powerful Podcasts for Depression

Depression often comes with a feeling of isolation – and with an inability to put into words what someone is feeling. So it can be very comforting and connecting when we listen to people who speak openly about their experiences with depression. If we understand it better, this life-threatening and still underestimated common illness may become a little less frightening. Because it is actually well treatable if it is detected. [1] [1] Figures and facts about depression: German Depression Aid Foundation (2018): Fact sheet We have put together 10 strong podcasts against depression for you. They can help you as someone affected feel understood and less alone. And for all relatives of ill people, they offer sound information and personal insights into something that is otherwise difficult to grasp.

Now is the time to understand more, so that we fear less. – Marie Curie

Before we start, one more trigger warning: This blog and the podcasts sometimes deal with very dark thoughts. If you do not feel emotionally stable right now, do not read and listen to our recommendations, or at least not alone. Although text and tone are intended to help, the content could also be distressing. At the end of the article, you will find a selection of counselling and support services that can offer you or your relatives free help.

1. Kopfsalat – the “Friends for Life” podcast

We all get depressed at times. But what is the difference between being depressed and having depression? Who suffers more often from depression, women or men? Does depression beat me or do I beat depression? Journalists Sara Steinert and Sonja Koppitz answer questions like these with the help of experts. Both women know what they are talking about: they both suffer from recurrent depression. Since December 2021, the well-known podcaster Frank Joung has also joined. If you want to start easily, we recommend first the episode with poetry slammer and author Tobi Katze on the topic “Can you make jokes about depression?” The answer is fortunately: “Yes, you can!” 

This podcast is for you if:

• you want to learn more about what depression feels like and where it comes from
• you feel overwhelmed as a relative of a depressed person
• you no longer want to consider the topic a taboo

Listen here: Spotify, Apple, Website

2. Raus aus der Depression

There is probably no comedian in German television as quirky and controversial as the entertainer and chief cynic Harald Schmidt. But he can also be compassionate. What many may not know: Schmidt has been the patron of the German Depression Aid Foundation since 2008. Schmidt speaks in this still fairly young podcast from the NDR with celebrities and entrepreneurs about topics such as work and depression, drug use, suicide in the family and the heritability of depression. The catch: In the second half of every episode, Prof. Ulrich Hegerl, psychiatrist and chairman of the Depression Foundation, summarises what was said in an easy-to-understand professional way – like a little consultation with a professional :-)

This podcast is for you if:

• you want to experience Harald Schmidt on a truly heartfelt matter
• you want to have the causes, triggers and treatments of depression explained by an expert
  
• you want to experience that one of Germany's greatest comedians makes very few jokes

Listen here: Spotify, Apple, Website

3. Danke, gut – the podcast about pop and psyche

More than five million Germans suffer from depression. That it also affects people from music, sports, politics and the online world is shown in this podcast from the WDR. The former rapper and editor-in-chief of splash! Mag Miriam Davoudvandi speaks with artists and celebrities about depression and other mental illnesses. This series is mainly about personal experiences. But the goal of the podcast is also to clear up half-knowledge. A good approach, because we at the 6-Minuten-Verlag also always prefer complete knowledge to half-knowledge :-)

This podcast is for you if:

• you want to learn more about the connections of musicians and artists with depression
  
• you want to listen to one of the Top 30 Society & Culture Podcasts on Shopify and Apple
• you want to listen to people who are not necessarily experts and go their own path in life

Listen here: Spotify, Apple, Website

4. Spinnst du? – Out of psychiatry, into life

We simply cannot get around her: Sonja Koppitz, host of one of Germany's best radio stations (Radio Eins), is represented twice in our list. And that is because she really contributes a lot to awareness work on depression. Season one of this series consists of short, highly interesting reports for which she spent a week in psychiatry. In season two, she then addresses the question of how it can be successful to get back on your feet after a psychiatric stay – and that gives quite a lot of hope.

This podcast is for you if:

• you want to hear what doctors and staff in a psychiatric hospital do and think
• you want to know more about the experiences of patients from a psychiatric hospital
• you want to reduce your fear of a hospital stay and life afterwards

Listen here: Spotify, Apple, Website

5. Dark Mind – The easy podcast about depression

This podcast is another absolute insider tip – and it is pretty well made. The speakers Conny and Daniel both suffer from depression. Daniel's diagnosis is still relatively fresh, Conny has already learned to live with it for a few years. What is so special about it: Both tell that depressed people often also lead a completely normal life – and how they manage it. In doing so, they answer questions like: What does the Christmas season do to you? How does the job search feel? How do home office or partnerships affect you? And so they show: Sometimes despite depression, you can still master a lot of life.

This podcast is for you if:

• you want to hear the experiences of completely normal people with depression firsthand
• you would like to learn more about stress cycles, dealing with social pressure and therapies
  
• you want to understand how depressed people feel in everyday daily routines

Listen here: Spotify, Apple, Website

6. Please disturb me!

Strictly speaking, this recommendation is not a podcast. But because it is so well made, we still want to recommend this valuable campaign from the Ministry of Health and Care in Bavaria to you. In many videos, affected people and psychologists report on their experiences with depression during the Corona time. Because isolation, fears about the future and breaking structures make the pandemic extra hard for depressed people. So if you want to close your eyes and just listen, you can simply make a podcast out of it yourself ;-)

This campaign is for you if:

• you are looking for concrete tips from affected people for the Corona time
• you want to see a really well made “promotional video” that encourages you to take care of depressed people
• if you also want to use your eyes and not just your ears

Listen here: Website

Bonus:

Do you feel overwhelmed by a whole podcast series at first or want to highlight the topic as a relative? Then we definitely want to recommend a few especially good individual episodes from other podcasts on the topic of depression to you.

7. Am I depressed? – Guided Feeling

Depression has rarely been explained so correctly and understandably for laypeople as in this episode of the “Guided Feeling” podcast. In this series, the great psychologist Dr. Leon Windscheid and the comedy legend Atze Schröder follow up on the questions of life. The duo even dedicates a special episode to the topic of depression after they had reached a million subscribers. They want to show that depression is indeed a very serious illness – but also that it can be well managed with the right treatment. This happy circumstance cannot be emphasised enough :-)

This podcast episode is for you if:

• you want to have explained to the point what you recognise as depression
• you want to know within one episode what you should do as a relative
• you are looking for a lot of answers at once – and want to find them without having to scour half the internet

Listen here: Spotify, Apple, Website

8. Ways out of depression (with Nora Tschirner) – Stahl aber herzlich 

Depression does not stop for successful people either: Nora Tschirner, one of Germany's best-known actresses, is one of those who speaks very openly about her illness. In this episode of the wonderful „Stahl aber herzlich” podcast, she talks very openly with the undisputed self-help expert Stefanie Stahl about the pressure she felt exposed to in our performance-oriented society and how she was able to free herself from her depression little by little. 

This podcast episode is for you if:

• you want to know why success practically fuels depression
• you need tips on what parent-child relationships can have to do with depression
• you would like to learn about Nora Tschirner's ideas for an alternative society that would reduce mental health problems

Listen here: Spotify, Apple

9. When your partner takes their own life (with Teresa Enke) – In extremen Köpfen

Depression is also such a dangerous illness because some people no longer see a way out and take their own lives – even though they could be helped. A prominent example of this is football Bundesliga professional Robert Enke. In this episode, his wife Teresa Enke tells how such an act of despair affects relatives. She is a guest of an old acquaintance from the podcast world, who also appeared in this blog post: It is Dr. Leon Windscheid with his other podcast „In extremen Köpfen”.

This podcast episode is for you if:

• you want to hear firsthand what shockwaves are triggered not only publicly but also in private circles by a suicide
• you are interested in why depression is still a taboo in a milieu like competitive sports
  
• you would like to know something about the important work of the Robert Enke Foundation

Listen here: Apple, Website

10. Why do we misunderstand depression?

Our last recommendation takes the perspective of all the people who do not know very much about depression or have wrong ideas about the illness. In the episode of the series „Deep Talk” by Deutschlandfunk Nova, psychotherapist Thorsten Padberg vividly explains why the common illness of depression is so particularly difficult to grasp. Many know Padberg as a journalist for the ZEIT or Psychologie Heute. Here he addresses the question of why many people still think that one could find a simple clue as to who gets depressed when and why.

This podcast episode is for you if:

• you would like to permanently change your view of depression
• you are looking for arguments against stigmatization
• you want to learn details about the topic of depression where experts do not agree

Listen here: Spotify, Apple, Website

We hope it worked and you feel less isolated when you notice how many people suffer from depression. And how many find a way to somehow live with it. Feel free to recommend this blog or write to us in the comments which recommendations helped you. If you or someone you know has depressive symptoms or is in crisis, be sure to seek professional help. Here you can find it:

Depressionsliga

SeeleFon: 01805 950951

Email counselling: seelefon@psychiatrie.de

German Depression Aid Foundation

Info phone: 0800 / 33 44 533

Regional offers: Map

Depression Discussion Forum

Exchange with affected people: Online forum

Pastoral care

General pastoral care and suicide prevention: Email, chat, phone and in person

Selfapy (paid)

Online courses and counselling

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This post is by Daniel Dzienian, former journalist and word juggler. Instead of working under time pressure as a reporter for a daily newspaper, he now writes with great effort about serenity.

Sources:

[1] Numbers and facts about depression: German Depression Aid Foundation (2018): Fact sheet