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As part of a series of conversations with professionals and scholars in the field of mental health and well-being in media industries and professions, in this episode I sit down with Mar Cabra, Spanish journalist and co-founder of the mental health charity The Self Investigation.The Self Investigation is a nonprofit, starting mid-2020 as a direct response to the rise in mental health challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a foundation that provides a variety of services aimed at improving media professionals’ wellbeing globally, in English and Spanish. Mar Cabra is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, digital wellness educator and Acumen Fellow. She writes a column in the Spanish newspaper El Confidencial, and also promotes the responsible use of artificial intelligence through the Spanish nonprofit OdiseIA.Since 2024, The Self Investigation organises a Mental Health in Journalism Summit online - the 2025 conference runs from October 8-10 (for more info and registration please visit http://mhjournalismsummit.org/).In this conversation, we talk about the history of The Self Investigation and how personal experiences with depression and burnout led Mar to invest so much of her time in helping colleagues - for example in dealing with 'digital overwhelm', precarity, and working in the media while its business model is in decline. We discuss how the discussion around mental health and well-being in the media is 'out of the closet' but still not part of the professional apparatus in most companies, and about the 'dark side' of passion. Finally, we briefly discuss the forthcoming report 'Stronger Minds, Stronger Media' for the European Federation of Journalists, documenting the state of affairs regarding mental health in newsrooms internationally.These interviews in part support the publication of my book (titled: Well-Being and Creative Careers: What Makes You Happy Can Also Make You Sick, out September 2025 with Intellect) on health, well-being and happiness in media work, and to showcase and celebrate the work so many people around the world are doing to advocate and promote these issues in media workplaces.Please follow, leave a comment, and check more updates on my Substack (markdeuze.substack.com).
