Madness Radio

How do decriminalizing drug use and sex work advance mad liberation? What lessons can psychiatric survivors learn from the harm reduction movement? Caty Simon’s activist leadership spans the low-income rights, psychiatric survivors, sex worker, and drug users union movements, and she was a key organizer at Freedom Center in Western Massachusetts. Caty is on the leadership team of National Survivors Union (NSU), the US drug users union; is a founding co-organizer of Whose Corner Is It Anyway, a mutual aid group by and for low-income, street, and survival sex workers who use opioids and/or stimulants and/or experience housing insecurity; and leads Narcofeminism Storyshare, a collaborative autobiographical story development and key publics training stigma reduction project at NC Survivors Union, the flagship affiliate group of NSU. Caty is currently a research assistant at the Yale School of Medicine, and in 2023 received the International Drug Policy Reform Conference’s Alfred R. Lindesmith Award. Caty reunites with longtime colleagues and Madness Radio co-hosts Jacks McNamara and Will Hall to talk about psychiatric incarceration and her 20 years experience in the harm reduction movement for drug user, sex worker, and mad people liberation. (Transcript [https://www.madnessradio.net/audio-transcripts/MadnessRadio2025-01-01SexDrugsHarmReductionCatySimonTRANSCRIPT.txt]) 58 min version [https://www.madnessradio.net/audio/MadnessRadio2025-01-01SexDrugsHarmReductionCatySimon58MIN.mp3] To contact Caty: caty@urbansurvivorsunion.org [caty@urbansurvivorsunion.org] The principles of harm reduction, as defined by the National Harm Reduction Coalition: https://harmreduction.org/about-us/principles-of-harm-reduction/ [https://harmreduction.org/about-us/principles-of-harm-reduction/] Whose Corner Is It Anyway crowdfund: https://www.gofundme.com/f/whose-corner-is-it-anyway [https://www.gofundme.com/f/whose-corner-is-it-anyway] Caty’s research publications on Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bMlmEE4AAAAJ&hl=en [https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=bMlmEE4AAAAJ&hl=en] A Contemporary Drug Problems journal article on the Narcofeminism Storyshare project: https://bit.ly/3OMVdRz [https://bit.ly/3OMVdRz] NC Survivors Union website: https://www.ncsurvivorsunion.org [https://www.ncsurvivorsunion.org/] Caty Simon chapter in Outside Mental Health: Voices and Visions of Madness https://bit.ly/42mRWQL [https://bit.ly/42mRWQL] A series of interviews with late Arise for Social Justice Executive Director Michaelann Bewsee, discussed in the interview, from the Smith College Collection:  https://smith.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?pid=5afb0a04-510f-45d3-ac09-ae2201473430 [https://smith.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?pid=5afb0a04-510f-45d3-ac09-ae2201473430] Two key corrections by Caty: The national reduction in overdoses this year was 14.5%, not 10% or less, as I erroneously said in the interview. Also, to clarify further on my statement that the DSM-V’s diagnostic criteria for mild opioid use disorder could easily apply to someone who is prescribed opioids for pain, this is why they must specify in the DSM-V entry on opioid use disorder that “These criteria [are] not considered to be met for those individuals taking opioids solely under appropriate medical supervision.” The post Sex Drugs Harm Reduction | Caty Simon | Madness Radio [https://www.madnessradio.net/sex-drugs-harm-reduction-caty-simon/] first appeared on Madness Radio [https://www.madnessradio.net].

Legendary psychiatric survivor activist Irit Shimrat escaped psychiatric incarceration to become a leading anti-psychiatry organizer. Co-founder of the Ontario Psychiatric Survivors’ Alliance, Irit edited the Canadian magazine Phoenix Rising: The Voice of the Psychiatrized and wrote Call Me Crazy: Stories from the Mad Movement, bringing together the stories of many leading activists. Irit shares her experiences from the inside of locked wards, and from the outside – organizing to abolish them. (Transcript [https://www.madnessradio.net/audio-transcripts/MadnessRadio2024-11-05EscapedLunaticIritShimratTRANSCRIPT.txt]) 58 min version [https://www.madnessradio.net/audio/MadnessRadio2024-11-05EscapedLunaticIritShimrat58MIN.mp3] Call me Crazy: Stories from the Mad Movement [https://madnesscanada.com/resources/voices/irit-shimrat-call-me-crazy/] by Irit Shimrat Spotlight on Institutional Psychiatry [https://mycanadianshield.ca/spotlight/spotlight-on-institutional-psychiatry.pdf] Edited by Irit Shimrat Phoenix Rising: The Voice of the Psychiatrized [https://www.donweitzlegacypro.org/phoenix-rising] Don Weitz Legacy Project [https://www.donweitzlegacypro.org/] Lunatics Liberation Front web archive [https://web.archive.org/web/20010424105330/www.walnet.org/llf/] Go Nuts! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJa1m1zkErE] The post Escaped Lunatic | Irit Shimrat | Madness Radio [https://www.madnessradio.net/escaped-lunatic-irit-shimrat-madness-radio/] first appeared on Madness Radio [https://www.madnessradio.net].

Do grieving goats lick psychedelic lichen? Altered states are part of nature, used by plants and animals for survival(!). How does ecology reveal the evolutionary – and spiritual – purpose of psychosis? Steven Morgan, psychiatric survivor and trainer in Intentional Peer Support, led the Another Way sanctuary and was project director for Soteria Vermont. Today he journeys in the wilderness to find healing and spiritual renewal, and with host Will Hall discusses psychosis as part of evolution, psychedelics in natural ecology, personal visions of Christianity, and communicating with bacteria through expanded consciousness. (Transcript [https://www.madnessradio.net/audio-transcripts/MadnessRadio2024-08-02VisionaryEcologyStevenMorganTRANSCRIPT.txt]) 58 min version [https://www.madnessradio.net/audio/MadnessRadio2024-08-02VisionaryEcologyStevenMorgan58MIN.mp3] stevenmorganjr.com [http://www.stevenmorganjr.com/] www.madnessradio.net/madness-radio-reinventing-bipolar-steven-morgan/ [https://www.madnessradio.net/madness-radio-reinventing-bipolar-steven-morgan/] Music by Steven Morgan [https://www.stevenmorganjr.com/listen/] The World We Used to Live In [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/279093.The_World_We_Used_to_Live_In] by Vine Deloria Jr. Intentional Peer Support [https://www.intentionalpeersupport.org/] Soteria Vermont [https://www.pathwaysvermont.org/programs/soteria-house/] The post Visionary Ecology | Steven Morgan | Madness Radio [https://www.madnessradio.net/visionary-ecology-steven-morgan-madness-radio/] first appeared on Madness Radio [https://www.madnessradio.net].

Please share widely! Survey on electroconvulsive therapy – electroshock therapy – for patients, family, and friends. John Read, survey researcher and professor at University of East London, is interviewed by Jessica Gallinger. www.ectsurvey.com [http://www.ectsurvey.com] www.electroshocksurvey.com [http://www.electroshocksurvey.com] The post Electroconvulsive Therapy Survey | John Read | Madness Radio [https://www.madnessradio.net/electroconvulsive-therapy-survey-john-read-madness-radio/] first appeared on Madness Radio [https://www.madnessradio.net].

Will Hall’s June 2024 Grand Rounds talk at University of California San Francisco Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences – where he was locked up as a young man! – titled “New Visions of Psychosis: Abolition as Clinical Best Practice.” Revenge is a dish best served cold. Video here: https://youtu.be/adYrzmJ2w50?si=nwAQBM2F6oYmbShe [https://youtu.be/adYrzmJ2w50?si=nwAQBM2F6oYmbShe] transcript here [https://www.madnessradio.net/audio-transcripts/MadnessRadio2024-07-01WillHallUCSFGrandRounds-AbolitionAsClinicalBestPracticeTRANSCRIPT.txt]. 58 min version [https://www.madnessradio.net/audio/MadnessRadio2024-07-01WillHallUCSFGrandRounds-AbolitionAsClinicalBestPractice58MIN.mp3] The post Grand Rounds UCSF Psychiatry – Will Hall – Madness Radio [https://www.madnessradio.net/grand-rounds-ucsf-psychiatry-will-hall-madness-radio/] first appeared on Madness Radio [https://www.madnessradio.net].