John Rattray

The Proper Mental Podcast

Welcome to episode 169 with John Rattray, who is a former professional skateboarder and the creator of Why So Sad?

Why So Sad? Is a skate and cycling focused campaign with the goal of driving awareness and education around mental wellbeing and suicide prevention.

In this episode I chat to John about getting in to skating and the importance of community and sub cultures.

We chat about his experiences with depression at different points in his life and where the idea for Why So Sad? came from and how Nike got involved to produce a WSS? Signature shoe.

And we chat about some of the themes and ideas that inform John’s work, the Adverse Childhood Experience study and how learning about what’s going on in our brains and our bodies can help us to understand mental distress and what to do about it.

You can watch Why So Sad? here: Nike SB | Why So Sad? Comic | Skateboarding and Our Mental Health (youtube.com)

And the Your Brain on Sport video is here: Your Brain on Sport (nikesb.com)

And you can follow John on social media @ratt_ray

The books that John mentions in the episode are: What Happened to You? by Dr Bruce Perry and Oprah Winfrey, Lost Connections by Johann Hari, Waking Up, Alive by Richard Heckler

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Thanks for listening!