The Man in the Brown Jacket Who Saved Him From Suicide with Advocate Mark Henick

Today's special guest, Mark Henick, never stopped thinking about the man who saved him from a suicide attempt as a teenager. Henick’s search for “the man in the brown jacket” and their remarkable reunion many years later was recently featured in PEOPLE Magazine.

Through Henick’s newly released book, So-Called Normal: A Memoir of Family, Depression and Resilience, he aims to break the relentless stigma of mental illness. He tells his candid, intensely personal account of his youth, the events that led to that fateful night on the bridge, and the experiences and transformation that followed. Mark takes readers inside the mind of a boy who had to deal with the breakdown of his parents’ marriage, an abusive stepfather, bullying and trauma — all while trying to navigate his progressively worsening mental health. In the backdrop is a community that didn’t talk about mental illness, one where silence and maintaining the comforts of “normal” was paramount.  

Mark Henick’s TEDx talk, Why We Choose Suicide, is one of the most watched in the world and has been viewed millions of times. Henick has been on television and radio and has written many articles on mental health. He has hosted more than 60 intimate conversations about mental health with notable public figures and celebrities on his podcast, So-Called Normal, and has executive produced and hosted the Living Well podcast for Morneau Shepell. Henick has served on the board of directors for the Mental Health Commission of Canada, and was the president of a provincial division of the Canadian Mental Health Association — the youngest person in either role. He has worked as a frontline clinician, a program manager and the national director of strategic initiatives for CMHA. Currently the CEO and principal strategist for Strategic Mental Health Consulting,