#824 Best Of: Todd Glass

#824 Best Of: Todd Glass

Curious about how others navigate their sobriety journey? This "best of" conversation with comedian and author Todd Glass captures the fast-paced, messy, and genuinely funny side of living with mental health challenges while trying to be honest about who you are. You’ll hear Todd talk about growing up with dyslexia and being held back at school, bouncing between mainstream and special classrooms, and feeling like a "slow" kid in a brutally unforgiving environment.

He shares how visual order and a meticulously tidy house helped calm the chaos in his head, while OCD made things like dirty dishes and email clutter feel almost physically painful. A big thread is language. Todd and host Paul Gilmartin pull apart everyday phrases like "retarded", "gay" as an adjective, "man up" and "grow a pair", and how those casual words quietly tell entire groups of people that their very existence is wrong.

As Todd puts it, "If it's mentionable, it's manageable," and that includes questioning the words we toss around. Todd also reflects on coming out of the closet in his 40s, the terror of doing it publicly on Mark Maron’s podcast, and the surprising relief he felt afterwards. He talks about wanting to help young listeners breathe easier, while admitting that watching "It Gets Better" videos and a brave 13-year-old saying "I’m gay, I like dudes" helped him just as much.

Around their chat, Paul reads listener surveys about abuse, anxiety, asexuality, suicidal thoughts, age play, and recovery groups, all with dark humour and compassion, showing how many different ways people struggle and still keep going. If you’re dealing with shame, tangled feelings about identity, or the fear of being truly seen, this episode might leave you asking: what pain in your life could become more manageable if you finally talked about it?