Unravelling

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This episode of Unravelling explores how horror goes beyond gore and jump scares to confront difficult psychological and social realities, including racism, injustice, loss, and the parts of ourselves and society that are hard to face. Through films like Get Out and the show, Lovecraft Country, it considers how horror can use fear, storytelling, and visual metaphor to make deeper truths impossible to ignore.

Our guest, creator Curtis Baxter, whose work spans comics, animation, television, and video games, shares how he uses psychological horror to explore social injustice and human experience. He discusses his creator-owned comic Eyes Are the Window, which explores emotional expression, cultural identity, empathy, grief, and the pressures of how we are perceived by others. The conversation also looks at how horror can open meaningful conversations without feeling like a lecture.

What makes horror such a powerful way to explore the world around us? Join us for a conversation about storytelling, confronting uncomfortable truths, and finding meaning in the things that frighten us!

Learn more about Curtis Baxter.

Why are we drawn to the things that frighten us? From zombies and horror films to the deeper fears they bring to the surface, horror can offer more than a good scare. It can help us explore our anxieties, make sense of the world around us, and better understand ourselves.

In this episode of Unravelling, Mary Wilson sits down with Dr. Steven Schlozman, a child psychiatrist, educator, and horror enthusiast, to explore the psychology behind our fascination with the macabre. Known for his expertise in the fictional neuroscience of zombies, Dr. Schlozman brings a clinician’s perspective to the monsters, fears, and unsettling stories that captivate us. Together, they explore what horror reveals about the human mind, why we seek out frightening experiences, and how the monsters on screen can sometimes help us confront what scares us in real life.

Buy Dr. Schlozman's book, The Zombie Autopsies: Secret Notebooks from the Apocalypse
Learn more about Dr. Steven Schlozman

Once upon a time, there was a story that helped a child feel safe. This episode of Unravelling kicks off an ongoing series exploring the stories we tell ourselves, one another, and the world. Our guest, Zheala Qayyum, MD, MMSc, Medical Director, Emergency Psychiatry Service at Boston Children’s Hospital, explores how fairy tales can help children make sense of difficult experiences, express big feelings, and imagine possibilities beyond what they can see.

Dr. Qayyum shares how stories shaped her own childhood, including a story her mother told her during the Iran-Iraq War when low-flying planes frightened her. The conversation explores how trusted adults can use storytelling and imaginative play to help children process fear, anger, sibling rivalry, trauma, and other complicated emotions. Through fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood and The Juniper Tree, they consider how stories change across cultures and generations, and how fantasy gives children a safe distance from which to explore difficult realities. They also discuss the role of pretend play in developing creativity, empathy, perspective-taking, problem-solving, and the ability to imagine different endings.

This conversation kicks off a broader Unravelling series on storytelling and mental health, with upcoming episodes exploring horror, zombies, and the ways film, comics, memoir, poetry, and fiction can help us understand ourselves and the world around us.

Links 

• Zheala Qayyum, MD, MMSc
• Fairy Tales and Psychiatry: a Psychiatry Residency’s Experience Using Fairy Tales and Related Literary Forms to Highlight Theoretical and Clinical Concepts in Childhood Development

In this episode of Unravelling, Kurt sits down with Tom Bodett, lifelong carpenter, broadcaster, and co-founder of HatchSpace, a community woodworking school and shop in Brattleboro, Vermont. Sober for 34 years, Tom reflects on what led him to recovery and the unexpected connection he eventually discovered between sobriety and woodworking.

Tom shares how making things may help repair some of the damage caused by addiction, engaging the brain through spatial reasoning and focused, absorbing work. As Tom puts it, "You're taking the medicine and you don't know it." He explores how those ideas led to HatchSpace and how what began as an idea for a place where woodworkers could share tools turned into a place for people who wanted to learn, make, and belong.

Along the way, Tom and Kurt consider how making things can help us connect with ourselves and each other. A conversation about recovery, creativity, community, and the many ways we keep recovering.

Links

HatchSpace
Book: Flow (mentioned in episode)
Turning Point of Windham County 

In this episode of Unravelling, we’re talking about circus arts and mental health with two people behind A Little Unwell, a circus variety show coming to Brattleboro, VT, this October through a partnership between the Brattleboro Retreat and the New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA). First, Mary talks with Caytha Jentis, director of the show, about how she turned a personal story about anxiety into a circus performance. Then, she talks with Hayley Brown, an aerialist and performer whose work explores anxiety, rumination and what it means to get out of your head and into your body.

The conversations explore what happens when personal experiences become movement, and why circus can be such a powerful way to tell stories that can sometimes be difficult to put into words. Caytha also talks about finding your flow, that moment when you stop overthinking and simply become immersed in what you’re doing. For both Caytha and Hayley, circus offers a way to connect with the body, express something personal and find a different way of understanding mental health.

Tickets to A Little Unwell (October 10-11, 2026): A Little Unwell - New England Center for Circus Arts

In this episode of Unravelling explores hoarding disorder through the lived experience of Marnie Cooper, an acting teacher, coach, wife, and mother who has openly shared her journey through her online project, A Hoarder Comes Clean. Building on a previous conversation with hoarding expert Dr. Randy Frost, Marnie shares how her relationship with “stuff” began in childhood and how painful wake-up calls eventually led her to seek help and connect with others who understood her experience.

Marnie discusses the psychology behind hoarding, including perfectionism, fear of making mistakes, and the deep emotional meaning objects can hold. She shares what she has learned about tolerating the discomfort of letting go, finding meaning beyond possessions, and “releasing with joy” by donating or giving things to others. She also reflects on the impact hoarding has had on her family and relationships and the importance of empathy, patience, and allowing people to make changes when they are ready. Her story offers hope while encouraging greater understanding and compassion for those living with hoarding disorder.

Links

Marnie's YouTube channel: A Hoarder Comes Clean - YouTube

Marnie's Facebook account: A Hoarder Comes Clean | Facebook

In this episode of Unravelling, Kurt interviews renowned psychologist Dr. Randy O. Frost, a pioneering researcher in hoarding disorder, who explains what clinically significant hoarding looks like and why it’s about far more than clutter or cleanliness. At the heart of hoarding, he explains, are powerful emotional attachments to possessions, and the anxiety, grief, and meaning tied to letting them go.

Dr. Frost explores how hoarding often begins in adolescence and can intensify over decades, affecting relationships, families, and daily life. He discusses the roles of trauma, anxiety sensitivity, and difficulty tolerating distress, as well as the many reasons people save things. The conversation also examines treatment, emphasizing that lasting change comes not from big clean-outs, but from reshaping the relationship with possessions and learning to tolerate the distress of discarding.

Throughout the episode, Dr. Frost shares clinical stories, including the story of Marnie Cooper, who documented her own struggle with hoarding and recovery. Her story sets the stage for the next episode of Unravelling, when Marnie joins Mary to speak candidly about her lived experience, what it took to confront her relationship with possessions, and what recovery continues to look like.

Buy Dr. Randy O. Frost's book, Stuff: Compulsive Hoarding and the Meaning of Things

More about Dr. Randy O. Frost

In this episode of Unravelling, Kurt White sits down with psychiatrist and bioethicist Dr. Anthony Peter Weiss, Chief Medical Officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, to explore how our brains navigate an increasingly complex world. From the brain's limited energy supply to its remarkable ability to build mental "maps" of reality, Dr. Weiss explains why relying on tools, technology, and other people isn't a weakness, but a fundamental part of being human.

The conversation explores how we naturally offload cognitive and emotional burdens through writing, relationships, group therapy, and even artificial intelligence. Dr. Weiss shares insights into why structured environments like inpatient psychiatric units can be so healing, how depression can emerge when the brain becomes overwhelmed, and why meaningful human connection remains one of our greatest resources for resilience.

Dr. Weiss encourages listeners to protect the brain's limited energy through healthy routines, intentional rest, and meaningful relationships, while embracing the tools and communities that help us thrive.

Dr. Antony Weiss's website

In this episode of Unravelling, Kurt White interviews Mercedes de Guardiola, historian and author of "Vermont for the Vermonters": The History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State, to examine the history of eugenics and its profound impact on mental health care. Together, they explore how the movement gained mainstream support, how pseudoscience was used to justify forced sterilization and lifelong institutionalization, and how people with mental illness, disabilities, and other marginalized groups became targets of policies rooted in fear, prejudice, and misinformation.

The conversation also explores the lasting legacy of eugenics, from the rise and fall of large institutions to the modern ethical questions surrounding genetic testing, artificial intelligence, and the collection of personal health data. The episode explores how some of these ideas still show up today, while recognizing the progress that has been made in reducing stigma and affirming that every person has inherent value and dignity.

Links

• Buy Mercedes de Guardiola's book, "Vermont for the Vermonters": The History of Eugenics in the Green Mountain State.
• Mercedes de Guardiola's professional website

Special day early episode drop for this, our third episode of our Pride Month series on conversion practices, we welcome Dr. Gerald (Jerry) Davison, a pioneering psychologist whose work helped change the mental health field's understanding of sexual orientation. Dr. Davison reflects on his early career in the 1960s, when homosexuality was still classified as a mental disorder and attempts to change sexual orientation were considered acceptable practice. He shares how experience and evidence led him to reject these approaches and become an early advocate for gay-affirmative therapy.
Dr. Davison recounts the pivotal moments that changed his thinking, including a landmark 1972 conference where conversations with LGBTQ+ activists challenged the ethics of conversion practices. He discusses the professional risks of publicly opposing efforts to change a person's sexual orientation, the resistance he encountered, and the heartfelt responses from LGBTQ+ clinicians and individuals who found hope in his message.
The conversation also examines the lasting harm caused by conversion practices and why they continue despite decades of evidence. Dr. Davison reflects on the responsibility of therapists to combine scientific evidence with ethical care and to always "do no harm." This episode offers an important historical perspective and a timely reminder of the need for affirming, compassionate mental health care for LGBTQIA+ people.

Links
"Conversion" (2022) documentary on Amazon Prime
More about Dr. Gerald Davison
Trevor Project (Affirming care resources)