In this episode of Warriors & Roses, host Michelle Rose talks with creative director, writer, and former colleague Morgan Love Thomas about what happens when a successful creative life collapses from the inside… and what it takes to rebuild from almost nothing.

Morgan and Michelle first knew each other at The North Face, where they both led creative teams and built a mutual respect through the work. Years later, they reconnected after Morgan shared a deeply personal post on LinkedIn about his mental health crisis, a moment he feared might be “career suicide,” but which instead opened the door to connection, honesty, and this conversation.

Morgan’s story moves through depression, undiagnosed bipolar disorder, misdiagnosis, mania, psychosis, psychiatric holds, incarceration, family rupture, and the failure of systems that were supposed to protect him. He speaks candidly about being unable to advocate for himself, being placed in unsafe environments, and discovering how quickly a person in crisis can be mislabeled, mishandled, and stripped of dignity.

But this episode is not only about what broke.

It is also about what returned.

Michelle and Morgan explore the deeper creative wound underneath the crisis: the lifelong feeling that his work.. especially work in graphics, apparel, and T-shirts… was somehow less serious or less valuable, even though it shaped culture, carried meaning, and connected people. When so much of his former life was stripped away, creativity became one of the few things Morgan could still recognize as his own.

They also talk about purpose-driven work, Morgan’s apparel project MAKELOVE™, his desire to give back to mental health advocacy, and the creative community in Leimert Park that helped him reconnect with art, humanity, and love. In that community, Morgan found not polish or prestige, but something more essential: real people, real creativity, and the kind of belonging that helps a person come back to themselves.

This is a conversation about mental health, creative value, family rupture, broken systems, midlife identity, and the kind of self-love that is not soft or sentimental but disciplined, hard-won, and necessary.

It is about what happens when everything familiar is taken away, and the only way forward is to rebuild from truth, purpose, creativity, and love.

A gentle note before listening: this episode touches on mental health crisis, suicidal ideation, psychiatric holds, incarceration, and family rupture, so please take care of yourself as you listen.

00:00 Welcome to Warriors & Roses01:47 The LinkedIn post that opened the conversation03:01 The North Face, creative work, and professional identity04:40 The hidden struggles midlife creatives carry08:32 Creativity, purpose, and Make Love10:48 Morgan begins his mental health story12:16 Misdiagnosis, mania, and psychiatric crisis25:56 What mania feels like from the inside29:04 Family rupture, sleeplessness, and psychosis37:36 Inside a broken psychiatric system50:49 The community that helped Morgan heal57:04 Creativity, belonging, and coming back to himself01:18:44 Learning to love yourself01:24:45 Closing the conversation

MORGAN LOVE THOMAS

Morgan Love Thomas is a Creative Director living in Portland, Oregon.

With over twenty five years of product, brand, and retail marketing experience, Morgan has the proven ability to lead design organizations across a variety of consumer segments, including cannabis (wellness), lifestyle, sport, and outdoor.

His work has been recognized and awarded by Communication Arts, The Type Directors Club, Print Magazine, Graphis, and the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA).

Morgan is currently writing a book about his experience. You can join the waitlist here.

ABOUT THE BOOK

What would you do if the doctors you sought help from actually poisoned you?

The mental health system in this country is broken. Not metaphorically. Literally. Broken.

This book is one man’s proof.

After a misdiagnosis triggered a full psychiatric crisis in his undiagnosed bipolar brain, Morgan Love Thomas entered a system that was supposed to save him. Instead- it imprisoned, demeaned and ridiculed him. And continued to poison him.

California’s public psychiatric facilities — overcrowded, underserved, and indifferent — are jails for the mentally ill dressed in clinical language. Inside, there is no treatment, no dignity, no path forward.

Only forced medication, confusion, humiliation, fear, and the slow erosion of self.

I Flew Into the Cuckoo’s Nest is a first-person account of institutional failure told without filtering and without apology. It follows one man’s descent from misdiagnosis through mania to full on psychosis — and his time locked inside the wards of some of California’s worst psychiatric facilities as well as the notorious LA County Jail... Places that call themselves treatment centers, but offer nothing resembling care.

It is raw. It is specific.

And it does not look away.

This is not just one man’s story, it is a case for change.

STRUKTUR SOCIETY

This episode has been brought to you by Struktur Society… a multimedia publishing and community platform tracking and translating how creativity, business, and technology shape culture in the age of AI, across design, art, and music. Through writing, podcasting, and live events, we share insights, prompts, and practices for modern creative leadership.

© StrukturSphere llc 2026. Original music by Greg Brace Music.

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