This week on Unorthodox: a Jewish writer and an Episcopal priest walk into a podcast. Our Jewish guest is writer and essayist Daphne Merkin, whose latest book is This Close to Happy: A Reckoning With Depression. She tells us what it was like to write such a personal book—Tablet literary critic Adam Kirsch called it “a hybrid of memoir, case study, and confession”—and discusses the stigma that continues to surround depression in the Jewish community and beyond. Our Gentile of the Week is Father Ed Bacon, a retired Episcopal priest legendary for his work with All Saints Church in Pasadena, California, which he turned into an activist, multi-ethnic congregation in a mostly white and wealthy town. He is also an Oprah regular and author of the book 8 Habits of Love.

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Music Credits:

"Mikveh Bath" by Golem

"Don't Hang Up" by The Orlons

"where the sunshine goes" by Yshwa

"No Rain" by Blind Melon

"A Perceptible Shift" by Andy G. Cohen

"Once Upon a Time... Storybook Love" by Mark Knopfler, from the film A Princess Bride