Shadow Minister for Mental Health, MP for Tooting and an NHS doctor working throughout the pandemic: it's safe to say Rosena Allin-Khan has had a busy year. She manages to find time to join Bryony to discuss why we need to treat ourselves as we would our best friends, how the country can best support healthcare workers after the year gone by, and which guilty pleasure TV show has been helping her switch off.

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Scarlett Moffatt and her infectious giggle burst onto our TV screens back in 2013 when her and her family featured on Channel 4's Gogglebox. But while she was becoming an on-screen favourite, she was also battling with her mental health, and eventually had to ring the Samaritans for help. She joins Bryony at the start of Mental Health Awareness Week to discuss why she's joining the organisation that helped her as an Ambassador, and why she wants to give her online trolls a hug.

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Being an addict is a difficult thing for anybody to navigate - but Hunter Biden’s struggles with addiction were put under worldwide scrutiny when his father, Joe Biden, was running for president. Now he’s taking control of his own narrative with the publication of a brutally honest memoir. In it, he opens up about the tragedy that has befallen the Biden family - from the car crash that killed Hunter’s mother and sister, to the loss of his brother, Beau to cancer in 2015. In this powerful interview, he tells Bryony Gordon why the pain saw him turn to alcohol and drugs, but how - despite his best efforts - his family simply wouldn’t let him “disappear”. Plus, he lays out why he’s adamant that addiction should be treated as a mental health issue rather than a matter of criminal justice.

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Bestselling author Vex King has made it his goal to make talking about trauma accessible to everyone. After a difficult start in life, he now uses his immensely popular Instagram account and self-help books to try to give others the tools that helped him on his own path to self-acceptance. He tells Bryony how Bruce Lee played a surprising role in his journey towards self love, why positive thinking isn't just "woo-woo", and the secret to collectively healing after Covid. 

Content Warning: This episode contains discussion of suicidal thoughts.

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Can anyone light up a room like Stacey Solomon? She's brought joy to millions by sharing her positivity and beautiful family on her incredibly popular Instagram account. So it might be a surprise to many that she, like a lot of us, has had her own battles with her mental health. Stacey joins Bryony just after a recording of Loose Women to discuss why she's come to terms with her anxiety, the lingering guilt she feels after postnatal depression, and how she uses crafting as meditation. Plus, she and Bryony celebrate Stacey's recent move into the now insta-famous Pickle Cottage.

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Winning the Booker Prize is a serious coup for any writer, but for author Douglas Stuart the achievement is personal as well as professional: successfully channeling childhood trauma into art. The result is his debut novel, Shuggie Bain, which follows the childhood of a young boy, Shuggie, and his alcoholic mother, Agnes, and was loosely based on Douglas' own life growing up in Glasgow. Douglas joins Bryony from his home in New York to discuss why representation drives his desire to write, and to explain why sometimes just getting by is the bravest thing you can do. Plus he gives listeners a cheeky glimpse into the subject of his next book.

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In a sea of beauty hacks, home inspo and brunch snaps, Bryony Gordon's first guest of this new series of Mad World might seem an unlikely Instagram star. But artist Charlie Mackesy’s poignant and heartfelt illustrations have taken the platform by storm - and have earned him over a million followers.

His debut book, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, is billed as a vehicle for ‘hope in uncertain times’, and after a year of true uncertainty, he tells The Telegraph's Bryony Gordon that giving that glimmer of hope to his readers is worth more than any plaudits.

Plus Charlie talks about how he’s struggling to feel connected to others, why he sees drawing as a form of therapy, and how grief for a lost friend reared its head in an unusual form as a teenager. And if the conversation doesn't leave you feeling just that little bit calmer, the soothing sounds of nature outside Charlie's barn certainly will.

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The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, by Charlie Mackesy: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1117718/the-boy--the-horse--the-fox-and-the-mole/9781529105100.html |

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Jane Gordon is a celebrated journalist and author, and she's also... Bryony's mum. 

She talks to Bryony about surviving lockdown on her own, why life drawing keeps her feeling young and the importance of making time to call your loved ones. And in proof that all parents are as embarrassing as each other, she manages to fit in a fair bit of that too.

Jane Gordon - The day I realised I was living a lie - and wasn't immune to the ageing process: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/day-realised-living-lie-wasnt-immune-ageing-process/

‘How Not To Get Old: One Woman's Quest to Take Control of the Ageing Process’ by Jane Gordon is out now (Trapeze, £16.99 in hardback; also available in audio and ebook)

Follow Jane on Instagram: @janegordon5100

Watch Bryony in 'Conspiracy theories, panic buying and scapegoats: What coronavirus tells us about human behaviour': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8KJlsVihI4&feature=emb_logo 

Check out the Telegraph's You Are Not Alone page for stories of support, optimism and social connectivity during the pandemic: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/you-are-not-alone/ 

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Getting to the end of some days in lockdown can feel like an Olympic effort, even for gold medallist Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill. She tells Bryony why the lockdown could help more people realise that even the smallest forms of exercise still count, why it's okay to live in lycra, and how even she struggles to get out of bed sometimes. 

Jessica's fitness app, @wearejennis, also posts short workouts on their Instagram page. 

Watch Bryony in Conspiracy theories, panic buying and scapegoats: what coronavirus tells us about human behaviour here. 

Check out the Telegraph's You Are Not Alone page for stories of support, optimism and social connectivity during the pandemic.

We're giving all of the wonderful staff on the NHS a free, six-month digital subscription to the Telegraph. Just email [email protected] from your NHS email address. 

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Therapist Donna Lancaster helps people come to terms with loss. She tells Bryony why it's okay to be mourning your old way of life and why she's running grief workshops to help people cope. Donna shares some of those tips with us, but says there's one battle she's yet to conquer - not eating a packet of Rolos in one sitting.

For information about Donna's grief events, follow @thebridgeretreat on Instagram.

If you have Amazon Prime, you can watch the documentary about the Bridge Retreat that Donna mentions by searching for 'Love(d)'.

Check out the Telegraph's You Are Not Alone page for stories of support, optimism and social connectivity during the pandemic.

We're giving all of the wonderful staff on the NHS a free, six-month digital subscription to the Telegraph. Just email [email protected] from your NHS email address. 

For everyone else, get 30 days' free here.

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