Deuzevlog

As part of a series of conversations with professionals and scholars in the field of mental health and well-being in media industries and professions, in this episode I sit down with Johanna Weststar, Associate Professor at the DAN Department of Management & Organization Studies of Western University in Ontario, Canada.

In our interview, we focus on her decades long research on and among professionals in the global games industry, working closely with the International Game Developers Association on its benchmark Developer Satisfaction and quality of life surveys. All this work culminated in the open access book Not All Fun and Games: Videogame Labour, Project-based Workplaces, and the New Citizenship at Work (out with Concordia University Press in 2024), co-authored with Marie-Josée Legault.
Applying the notion of citizenship at work, the book covers different ways in which professionals experience, navigate and resist such structural issues in the workplace such as precarity, lack of diversity, unpredictable schedules, unpaid overtime, low unionization rates, stress and burnout, and significant pay inequality.
These interviews in part support the publication of my book (titled: Well-Being and Creative Careers: What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick, out now with Intellect Books) on health, well-being and happiness in media work, and to showcase and celebrate the work so many people around the world are doing to advocate and promote these issues in media workplaces.

For more information and context, including many more interviews, please check markdeuze.substack.com.

As part of a series of conversations with professionals and scholars in the field of mental health and well-being in media industries and professions, in this episode I sit down with Jeordie Shenton, programmes lead of UK-based Tonic Music for Mental Health, and PhD reseacher on Substance Use Amongst Working Musicians at the University of Portsmouth.

In our interview, we focus on musicians and music workers as people with agency and occupational resilience, rather than as victims of either their own passion or the exploitative nature of the cultural and creative industries. We discuss the ‘stress bucket’ of professionals in the music industry, managing your public and private self, and the perfect storm that the industry faces between rising costs, the role of streamers and AI, closing down of (smaller) venues and record stores, and so on. Still, we end on a positive note! And we’re geeking out on (our) research...

FYI: all the interviews in this ongoing series are also available as a YouTube playlist. Please have a look, leave a comment, and get in touch!

These interviews in part support the publication of my book (titled: Well-Being and Creative Careers: What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick, out now with Intellect Books) on health, well-being and happiness in media work, and to showcase and celebrate the work so many people around the world are doing to advocate and promote these issues in media workplaces.

FYI: all the interviews in this ongoing series are also available as a YouTube playlist. Please have a look, leave a comment, and get in touch!

As part of a series of conversations with professionals and scholars in the field of mental health and well-being in media industries and professions, in this episode I sit down with Marcus Ryder (CEO) and Rupert Jones-Lee (Head of Research/Impact) of the UK-based Film & TV Charity, known for the regular Looking Glass surveys, special reports and deep dives documenting the health and well-being of behind the scenes workers in TV, cinema, and documentary film.

In our interview, we discuss the results and impact of the various Looking Glass surveys among professionals in the TV, documentary and cinema industry, and about the value of reframing systemic issues in these industries as health concerns (and thereby broadening the ways in which we can tackle such problems).

We address the particular phenomenon of ‘synthetic proximity’ whereby creative practitioners working together often expect this to be (and feel like) a family, while at the same time often feeling inauthentic, lonely and lost in the otherwise quite competitive nature of the business.

We also focus on the industry’s ‘3C’ problem: challenging and often damaging working conditions (C1), a workplace culture (C2) of bullying and stigma around mental health as well as an industry- wide lack of capabilities (C3) to provide support for those who need it.
These interviews in part support the publication of my book (titled: Well-Being and Creative Careers: What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick, out September 2025 with Intellect) on health, well-being and happiness in media work, and to showcase and celebrate the work so many people around the world are doing to advocate and promote these issues in media workplaces.

As part of a series of conversations with professionals and scholars in the field of mental health and well-being in media industries and professions, in this episode I sit down with Mar Cabra, Spanish journalist and co-founder of the mental health charity The Self Investigation.The Self Investigation is a nonprofit, starting mid-2020 as a direct response to the rise in mental health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a foundation that provides a variety of services aimed at improving media professionals’ wellbeing globally, in English and Spanish. Mar Cabra is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, digital wellness educator and Acumen Fellow. She writes a column in the Spanish newspaper El Confidencial, and also promotes the responsible use of artificial intelligence through the Spanish nonprofit OdiseIA.Since 2024, The Self Investigation organises a Mental Health in Journalism Summit online - the 2025 conference runs from October 8-10 (for more info and registration please visit http://mhjournalismsummit.org/).In this conversation, we talk about the history of The Self Investigation and how personal experiences with depression and burnout led Mar to invest so much of her time in helping colleagues - for example in dealing with 'digital overwhelm', precarity, and working in the media while its business model is in decline. We discuss how the discussion around mental health and well-being in the media is 'out of the closet' but still not part of the professional apparatus in most companies, and about the 'dark side' of passion. Finally, we briefly discuss the forthcoming report 'Stronger Minds, Stronger Media' for the European Federation of Journalists, documenting the state of affairs regarding mental health in newsrooms internationally.These interviews in part support the publication of my book (titled: Well-Being and Creative Careers: What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick, out September 2025 with Intellect) on health, well-being and happiness in media work, and to showcase and celebrate the work so many people around the world are doing to advocate and promote these issues in media workplaces.Please follow, leave a comment, and check more updates on my Substack (markdeuze.substack.com).

As part of a series of conversations with professionals and scholars in the field of mental health and well-being in media industries and professions, in this episode I sit down with Sue Todd, CEO of the National Advertising Benefit Society (in the UK).

Sue has worked 25+ years on the commercial/marketing side of media, including executive positions at the social enterprise The Big Issue, Magnetic Media, Wonder Worldwide and Exterion Media. Sue is chair of the 'All In' mental health committee, and an active member of both the #timeTo steering committee and Women in Advertising and Communications Leadership (WACL).

In our interview, we discuss the observation, that the support and resilience programs and services NABS provides increase in demand year-on-year, indicating a volatile industry where, as Sue states, "we're being asked to be different" all the time.

Other issues touched upon in the conversation include the role of the pandemic (as shaking up everything), the challenge of balancing exciting innovation with careful implementation, and how the erstwhile bravado about overwork fades with growing health and well-being awareness.

These interviews in part support the publication of my book (titled: Well-Being and Creative Careers: What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick, out September 2025 with Intellect) on health, well-being and happiness in media work, and to showcase and celebrate the work so many people around the world are doing to advocate and promote these issues in media workplaces.More info on the book:https://www.intellectbooks.com/well-being-and-creative-careersFor the US publication:https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/W/bo257335467.htmlPlease follow, leave a comment, and check more updates on my Substack (markdeuze.substack.com).

As part of a series of conversations with professionals and scholars in the field of mental health, well-being and creative careers, in this episode I sit down with Laurie Oliva, director of research and services of British organization Help Musicians.

Since 2023 Laurie leads research, innovation, service design and delivery at Help Musicians. Past employers and clients include Big Issue, National Institute of Health Research, Department of Health and other government bodies, Stonewall and other national not-for-profits.

In our conversation, we touch upon the need to think about creative work as being part of a larger ecosystem, and that change has to come from building networks and alliances across the industry. Laurie discusses the 'double whammy' of struggling in music work, as musicians for example have to deal with the emotional impact of not being able to do what they love, next to dealing with the loss of work such struggles entail.

We also address the 'double stigma' around mental health in creative fields, and the 'cost-of-working' crisis the research by Help Musicians documents.

These interviews in part support the publication of my book (titled: Well-Being and Creative Careers: What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick, out September 2025 with Intellect) on health, well-being and happiness in media work, and to showcase and celebrate the work so many people around the world are doing to advocate and promote these issues in media workplaces.

Please follow, and check out all the other interviews on my Substack, Spotify, and the entire playlist of interviews on YouTube.

As part of a series of conversations with professionals and scholars in the field of media, in this episode I sit down with Andy Wright, founder of Never Not Creative (dedicated to health and well-being in the media, marketing and advertising industry), CEO of Streamtime, and co-chair of Mentally Healthy (Australia).

Key issues in our conversation include the wakeup call so many in the creative sector experience at some point in their careers that propels them to take action regarding healthier work, the difference between coping mechanisms and (the need for) systemic change, the gap between leader intentions and employee perspectives when it comes to health and safety work policies, and the profound insight that the higher you get up the industry ladder, the less it is about you...For more information about Never Not Creative: nevernotcreative.orgThese interviews in part support the publication of my book (titled: Well-Being and Creative Careers: What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick, out September 2025 with Intellect) on health, well-being and happiness in media work, and to showcase and celebrate the work so many people around the world are doing to advocate and promote these issues in media workplaces.Please follow, leave a comment, and check more updates on my Substack (markdeuze.substack.com).

As part of a series of conversations with professionals and scholars in the field of mental health and well-being in media industries and professions, in this episode I sit down with Ben Steel, Company Director and Founding Partner of Screen Well, dedicated to the health of the Australian screen industry.Key issues in our conversation include Ben's 2019 documentary The Show Must Go On, making a difference in the industry when it comes to health and well-being of its professionals by having skin in the game, appreciating the difficulties of being in a leadership/management position, and the link between well-being and diversity of the creative workforce.For more information about Screen Well: screenwell.com.auDocumentary The Show Must Go On: theshowmustgoon.com.au(clips in this vlog used with permission courtesy of Film Art Media)These interviews in part support the publication of my book (titled: Well-Being and Creative Careers: What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick, out in September 2025 with Intellect) on health, well-being and happiness in media work, and to showcase and celebrate the work so many people around the world are doing to advocate and promote these issues in media workplaces.Please follow, leave a comment, and check more interviews, discussion and updates on my Substack (markdeuze.substack.com).

As part of a series of conversations with professionals and scholars in the field of mental health and well-being in media industries and professions, in this episode I sit down with Dave Seglins, a Canadian investigative journalist and industry mental health educator and advocate.

At the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Dave works as a "Well-being Champion" focused on research, training and innovation to support the mental health of news professionals. In 2022, he and Matthew Pearson (Carleton University) published the powerful Taking Care report on mental health, trauma and wellbeing among Canadian media workers. Seglins is also a fellow of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma and a member of the Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence in Trauma.

Our conversation focuses on the significance of normalizing the conversation about health and well-being in the newsroom, the paradox of bringing your 'whole self' to the job of being a journalist - while reporters are not supposed to feel when doing that job.

We talk about 'truth as passion' for reporters and editors, the link between well-being and diversity, and in the end talk through the four steps of shaping a healthier working environment in the media: creating space for conversation, collectively identify key stressors, educate yourself (and others) about the issues, and determine which practices indeed need to change to make people feel safe and included.

These interviews in part support the publication of my book (titled: Well-Being and Creative Careers: What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick, out late 2025 with Intellect) on health, well-being and happiness in media work, and to showcase and celebrate the work so many people around the world are doing to advocate and promote these issues in media workplaces.

Please follow, leave a comment, and check more updates on my Substack (markdeuze.substack.com).

As part of a series of conversations with professionals and scholars in the field of media, creativity, mental health and well-being, in this episode I sit down with Susan Raeburn, psychologist and part of the Music Industry Therapist Collective (MITC)Susan is a pioneer in the field of health and well-being in the music industry, receiving her PhD in 1984 for her work on occupational Stress and coping of professional rock musicians, and publishing follow-up work in the late 1990s and early 2000s in the clinical journal Medical Problems of Performing Artists.For more information about Susan's practice:https://www.musicindustrytherapists.com/therapist/susan-raeburn/These interviews in part support the publication of my book (titled: Well-Being and Creative Careers: What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick, out late 2025 with Intellect) on health, well-being and happiness in media work, and to showcase and celebrate the work so many people around the world are doing to advocate and promote these issues in media workplaces.Please follow, leave a comment, and check more updates on my Substack (markdeuze.substack.com).

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