top of page

Senior Capstone Project

Mental Health and The Struggling Artist: A Podcast Series

Overview

Mental Health and the Struggling Artist is a three-part podcast series designed as my interdisciplinary Senior Project for SP 492. Each episode explores how creatives navigate mental health through different lenses — performance, psychology, economics, and identity — with the goal of not only analyzing the phenomenon, but also working toward alleviating the problem.

EPISODE 1: Wicked Problem

Flagship Episode – Mental Health & the Struggling Artist

This opening episode sets the stage for the entire series by introducing a central question:
How can creatives sustain mental health in an industry defined by burnout, financial instability, and the growing pressure of AI and automation?

Through personal narrative, original music, and research across five disciplines — Psychology, Music & Performance, Economics, Media & Technology, and Education/Mentorship — this episode explores why mental health challenges in the arts are not just personal struggles but systemic issues rooted in how the modern creative economy is built.

Using the metaphor of a mixing console, each “fader” represents a force artists must learn to balance:

  • Pressure vs. Passion

  • Burnout vs. Breakthrough

  • Isolation vs. Community

  • Creativity vs. Survival

This episode serves as both a personal story and an academic inquiry — bridging memoir, mental health research, and interdisciplinary analysis to ask:
What does it really take to keep creating — and stay human — in today’s creative industry landscape?

EPISODE 2: Gigs, Grit, & Burnout

Featuring: Scott “Little” Bihlman – Musician, Actor, Emmy Award–Winning Songwriter

In this episode I sit down with Scott "Little" Bihlman and explore how working musicians and performers sustain their mental health while facing:

  • Economic precarity (gig life, instability, freelancing)

  • Creative pressure and self-worth tied to productivity

  • Burnout + identity and the threat of AI in the entertainment field. 

  • The role of community, mentorship, and collaboration as resilience tools

Scott's story highlights the victories, struggles, and sacrifices working artists must constantly endure, even when they are considered "successful" in the eyes of fans and contemporaries alike. 

EPISODE 3: Risk, Resilience & the Performing Body

Featuring: Justice Song – Actor, Stuntman, Martial Artist

In this episode, I sit down with Justice Song—actor, stuntman, and martial artist—to explore the physical and psychological toll that creative work can take on the human body. Through stories audition pressure, identity, and the unpredictability of the industry, we examine a central question:

What happens when your body becomes both your instrument and your livelihood?

Our conversation explores:

  • Performance and identity: how artists shape—and sometimes lose—themselves in pursuit of roles

  • How being a creative shapes identity 

  • Economic precarity: the instability of gig-based work in a competitive field

  • Mental health under pressure: navigating fear, burnout, and constant competition (including AI)

  • Mentorship and sustainability: tools for continuing without breaking down

Justice’s story reveals how creative careers often rely on discipline, sacrifice, and mental endurance just as much as talent—and why mental health must become part of artistic training rather than an afterthought.

Interdisciplinary Perspectives

These podcast episodes blend research, narrative structure, communication, and audio engineering—showing how I’ve integrated psychology, performance, and storytelling into one interdisciplinary piece. They represent the core theme of my capstone: exploring the pressures, stigma, and resilience of artists navigating mental health. The podcast combines lived experience with academic research and interview-style storytelling to create a personal yet informative narrative.

Creating these episodes challenged me to merge artistic expression with academic research in ways I had never done before. I learned how to conduct interviews with sensitivity, shape conversations into narrative form, and use audio engineering to support emotion and pacing. This process helped me grow as both a storyteller and a researcher—and it showed me how interdisciplinary tools can support mental health advocacy in creative industries. The project also clarified my own path forward: I want to continue developing narrative media and pursue graduate work that explores the connection between creativity, identity, and mental well-being.

Creative Process & Reflection

bottom of page