Huge “No Feeling Is Final” News
Lacrimose Listeners! Honor here.
We have some absolutely WILD news to share about No Feeling Is Final, the mental health memoir podcast we made with the ABC seven years ago.
I feel I should say upfront that the wild news is not that we’re making a season two. (This feels important to get out of the way, in the same way that as a mid-30s woman any time I say “I have big news” to my family I now have to preface it with “I’m not pregnant”.)
But I think you will be just as excited by this news as me and Graham are, because it means heaps more people will be able to find No Feeling Is Final, a show that so many of you have told us was a huge part of showing you you’re not the only ones on this messy long-term mental health path.
First, speaking of paths, a quick trip down memory lane…
Seven years ago, I was in a dark place... a VERY dark place…
So I did what any self-respecting art school graduate would do. I decided to pitch a podcast about it to the national broadcaster.
I had all these audio diaries on my phone from years of trying to navigate my Big Mental Health Experiences. Voice memos I’d recorded inside psych hospitals, on hold during 3am crisis calls, and crying by the Western Freeway.
I pitched the show to ABC as part of their big callout for new podcasting talent back in 2018, and it was honestly TERRIFYING. At that point, I didn’t actually want to talk about myself on such a public scale, or have anyone see what was going on.
But I also wanted to turn these weird, confusing, crazy-making, fucked-up, strangely beautiful experiences into something. Hopefully something good, but honestly just something... as a way of getting out of my head just how morbidly confusing the whole experience of dealing with these dark periods had been (and still was!)
So, even though I was still actively in Doom Town at the time, I pitched this weird mental health show. A show that didn’t sound like anything else I was seeing out there on this topic, because none of that really spoke to me and my experience.
The scene I wrote for the pitch was a cold open about whether I should bring my vibrator to a psych hospital.
(Start as you mean to go on I guess?)
And I was clear in the pitch about my vision for the show, that there wouldn’t be some nice neat message with a bow on it (“Just ask for help!”), because I knew first-hand that real life was way more complicated than that...
I assumed the ABC would dismiss it out of hand, as too weird, too dark, too risky.
To my surprise (and honestly, slight horror at the prospect of actually having to make the show) it ended up being one of a small handful of shows greenlit by ABC as part of that podcasting fund.
Oh dear…
It’s such a weird thing, making a show about your own life. Especially when the big themes of the story (repetitive spirals into suicidality) are still actually happening.
I took ages going back and forth on the contract before committing – specifically, the IP bit, where we worked out who held the rights to my life story, and the ‘characters’ in it (aka me, Graham, and my family – told you this was a weird process!)
But on the other side of all that (very understandable) hesitancy was an amazing little team of collaborators at the ABC. A little crew who were all-in on bringing my weird version of this story to life, and who totally understood the delicateness of what me and Graham wanted to say with this show.
Joel (aka Pod Dad), Alice, Me and Graham - the core lil creative crew. Not pictured: sound wizard Russell, who worked his magic later! (And all the other amazing people at ABC who were part of it).
Making the show involved all kinds of out-of-my-comfort-zone stuff - like handing over 30 hours of those voice memos I’d made over the course of a decade to our producer Alice, who whilst completely lovely, I had only recently met. And wrangling in various ABC staff (again, all lovely) to play the roles of the various psychologists, clinicians, and receptionists I’d come across over the years.
In the end, it was one of the most beautiful and rewarding work experiences I’ve ever had. For a while there I could even forget it was going to go out into the big wide world…
When the show came out, what happened next was honestly wild.
Not only did people listen, but I started getting so many heartfelt, tear-jerking messages from all over this giant rock we call earth.
Messages about where you’ve listened to the show and cried (on a tram, whilst harvesting potatoes, whilst in psych hospital yourself).
Messages about how many times you’ve listened - and how you listen again whenever you go back to Doom Town, or feel yourself on the way there.
And messages about what the show has meant to you, or how it’s helped you understand that your loved one isn’t weak or foolish but caught in a very real and existential human struggle.
(To see just a few of those messages, click here.)
Then the weirdness really started...
This tiny, very idiosyncratic memoir about an intense topic went on to get global recognition—it made best-of lists from The Atlantic, TIME Magazine, The New York Times, and even The Financial Times (who had THAT on their bingo card?).
We flew to Chicago to pick up the podcasting equivalent of an Oscar. (Which we of course dubbed a “Poscar”).
We started calling No Feeling Is Final “The Little Podcast That Could.”
For years, this little show from Australia kept getting attention like this. Even in January of this year, I got a google alert for an article from AV Club:
“No Feeling Is Final stands out as a remarkable achievement in the world of artistic audio-making.”
For a show that’s 7 years old!
Which brings us to the huge news…
(That’s not a season 2)
(Or a baby - sorry Mum)
Apple in the US has now named No Feeling Is Final a Series Essential.
A what now? What's that mean??
This means that the global home of podcasting considers it one of podcasting’s “greatest series ever”, and one of “the medium’s greatest achievements”.
Well gosh.
This is the first Aussie podcast to earn this distinction.
In fact, if you have Apple Podcasts on your phone, you can fire up the app right now and head to the 'Browse' tab to see No Feeling as the number one show being promoted on the browse page, all around the world.
Eek!
I’ll be honest—I’ve been a bit shit at handling the attention this show has gotten over the years, especially when things haven’t been, let’s say, top-notch in ye ol’ brain cave over here.
But I want to say, I’ve truly appreciated every message, every thoughtful email (even if I didn’t reply—I’m an anxious cat if you haven’t pegged it yet) and every conversation with a stranger in public.
So as part of this Apple feature, I thought it’d be a good time to finally answer the question most people want to know after listening to No Feeling Is Final...
“How is Honor really doing? How’s her mental health these days?”
We've set up a whole little 'No Feeling hub' where I've posted a big 'ol article answering that very question, as well as a whole bunch of FAQs I’ve received over the years - questions like “what’s your diagnosis?” And “where can I listen to your songs from the show?”
It's set up for people who've just found the show and don't know about Big Feels yet, like a little trail of breadcrumbs for them to find the good stuff. But we reckon longtime Big Feelers may want to have a noodle around there too!
Graham and I are also doing a very special (and FREE) webinar at the end of this month, going behind-the-scenes and telling stories about how we made this little show, this little podcast that could.
It’ll be a bunch of fun! You should come!!!
Sign up for the free webinar here on the No Feeling hub page.
(And if someone sent you the podcast years ago or you have shared it with friends, send them to this webpage too and tell them they can join us at the webinar!)
Meanwhile, let me know what you think of this wild news? Hit reply and let me know! I’d so love to hear from ya :)
– Honor x
p.s. We also have some OTHER cool news (still not a baby). A cool Big Feels-adjacent announcement Graham has. Stay tuned for that next week.
