Podcast Summary:

All Of It with Alison Stewart

Episode Title: Two New Books from Peter Mendelsund Explore Human Emotion
Air Date: August 26, 2025
Guest: Peter Mendelsund
Books Discussed: Exhibitionist: One Journal, One Depression, 100 Paintings & Weepers

Episode Overview

In this episode of All Of It, host Alison Stewart sits down with acclaimed author, book jacket designer, and The Atlantic’s creative director Peter Mendelsund to discuss his two new releases: Exhibitionist, a deeply personal journal of depression accompanied by a hundred paintings, and Weepers, a novel set in a world where only a few people can feel emotions and are hired as professional mourners. The conversation delves into creativity’s relationship with depression, the origins of both books, and Mendelsund's reflections on emotion, art, and connection.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

Exhibitionist: Art, Depression, and Expression

The Genesis of the Paintings

• Mendelsund began painting during the pandemic, a time when he was dealing with a deep clinical depression. The act of painting became a new, unexplained impulse for him.
• “Something happened deep within me that was unavailable to my conscious mind...I just started to work on these canvases, and I kept it up until there were a hundred paintings.” (Peter Mendelsund, 07:11)

Alienation, Isolation, and Depression

• Mendelsund describes depression as fundamentally alienating, and the pandemic’s social isolation paralleled his internal state, at first offering solace, then making him feel even more left behind as others formed coping communities.
• “One of [depression's] most painful symptoms is alienation and loneliness… when the pandemic first hit, it felt like the world was kind of mirroring me, and I felt a little bit of solace. … And then I felt very left behind.” (Peter Mendelsund, 02:33)
• He candidly discusses the increasing severity of his depression, his struggles with substance abuse, and the moments he felt there was no way out. (03:26–04:18)

Creativity During Depression

• He found himself unable to read, an activity he has loved and built his career upon, because “anything that would invoke a strong emotion” would cause him to collapse emotionally.
• “I just had no bandwidth to take anything else in, so that's how I diagnose it now. I'm still not entirely back to reading, but little bits at a time.” (Peter Mendelsund, 05:53)

Painting as Subconscious Action

• The decision to paint wasn’t conscious. He bought supplies spontaneously at a Michael’s store without really knowing why. It took weeks for him to unpack the painting materials and start.
• “It was almost like I'd forgotten I'd done it. Like I'd bought the stuff in a dream state… and then one random day… I just walked out to the trunk, popped it, pulled it all out, threw it on the floor of the barn, and was off and running.” (Peter Mendelsund, 10:14)

The Art: Bright Colors, Destroyed Words

• Despite his internal darkness, the paintings were in unexpectedly bright colors—driven in part by the craft store’s supplies, but also creating a visual/textual tension with the dark journal texts.
• “When I was putting together the book… the journals, which are so dark, side by side with these bright works, that tension became so notable and interesting to me.” (Peter Mendelsund, 10:51)
• Mendelsund would often write words and then paint over them, paralleling the erasure and incommunicability he felt in depression.
• “I'd just write down things that I was feeling… so secret and so difficult to enunciate that I just wanted some erasure. And I think it parallels the fact that I wanted self-erasure also.” (Peter Mendelsund, 09:02)

Art, Authorship, and Exhibitionism

• The title “Exhibitionist” reflects his discomfort and shame in publishing such a personal book, as well as a playful nod to his mother’s dislike of memoirs: “they’re so exhibitionist.”
• “I still feel a huge amount of shame about it.… it is exhibitionist.… the second she said it, I was like, well, exhibit is in there. Shame is in there. I was like, that's the book.” (Peter Mendelsund, 12:58–13:55)

Reader Connections

• Mendelsund hopes readers experience recognition—of their own struggles—in the book’s combination of text and image: “There is a kind of fellowship there.”
• He references Melville: “Isolatos federated along one keel…everybody on the ship is isolated within themselves, and yet here they are as a community.” (Peter Mendelsund, 15:47)

Weepers: Emotion, Numbness, and the Role of Sensitivity

Origin of the Novel

• The concept grew from the experience of depression and the acute sensitivity that comes with it.
• Mendelsund noticed how difficult it is to remain emotionally open in a world filled with “anger and anesthesia.”
• “I just started to think, think about this sort of loose group of sensitives, whether they're just chemically or nature nurture or they belong to some cast of poets or artists… what are we? Who are we and…what are we for?” (Peter Mendelsund, 17:09)
• The book explores what it means to be sensitive and the important roles these people play: “maybe there is something that sensitive people could do: remind people and teach people even what it's like to feel… emotions and affects… we’ve lost of late.”

Professional Mourners: Myth and Reality

• The idea of “professional mourners” has historical basis—Mendelsund didn’t research for accuracy but did stumble on a modern professional mourner’s pricing chart ranging “from sniffles to Bahamanian wailing.”
• “One guy turned up who had a price list for how intense the crying would be… I didn't realize there was, like, gradations… which I did find informative, actually.” (Peter Mendelsund, 19:23)

Characterization and Themes

• The protagonist, Ed, is “exhausted” by the weight of being a mourner for others and reconnects with his own trauma as the narrative unfolds.
• “He is exhausted doing all of this heavy lifting for everybody. He's sad… that he has to do it more and more… there is a series of flashbacks… a trauma that he experienced as a boy at the hands of his father… the weeping for him becomes a kind of exorcism.” (Peter Mendelsund, 21:50–22:41)
• The arrival of the “kid,” a young stranger, serves a messianic role, unlocking emotion in the town, making the narrative an exploration of miracles and emotional reawakening.

Miracles and the Messianic Figure

• Mendelsund intentionally chose a young man as the transformative character because the power to elicit emotion is more “miraculous” coming from someone so young and unweathered.
• “It seemed wilder and more inexplicable to have a young person do it.” (Peter Mendelsund, 22:48)

On Not Designing His Own Covers

• He no longer designs book covers for his novels to avoid being typecast, preferring painting as his personal outlet. Design, he notes, is always ultimately commercial: “Design is, in its own way, an art form. But… it is a sales medium.” (Peter Mendelsund, 24:44–25:28)

Crossover Between the Two Books

• Alison Stewart asks about the link between Weepers and Exhibitionist; Mendelsund wryly says the only connection is himself—"it's just me"—and jokes about branding himself as “sad boy.”
• “Before I put out these books… I think my brand is gonna be sad, boy. Whatever I write next, it's gonna have to be really super jolly.” (Peter Mendelsund, 25:33–26:01)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “When I look back at the journal, I see that… Something happened deep within me that was unavailable to my conscious mind.” (Peter, 07:11)
• “Anything that would invoke a strong emotion… would just cause me to kind of collapse. I had no bandwidth to take anything else in.” (Peter, 05:53)
• “I'd just write down things that I was feeling… so secret and...difficult to enunciate...I just wanted some erasure. I think it parallels...I wanted self erasure also.” (Peter, 09:02)
• “There is a kind of fellowship… Melville has...‘Isolatos federated along one keel.’ This idea of everybody on the ship is isolated within themselves, and yet here they are as a community.” (Peter, 15:47)
• “People don’t want you to leave your lane.” (Peter, 24:44)
• “Before I put out these books… I think my brand is gonna be sad, boy.” (Peter, 25:33)
• “It’s just me...You nailed it.” (Peter, 25:36–26:01)

Important Timestamps

• 02:33 — Depression, isolation, and the pandemic
• 05:53 — Reading emotionally impossible during depression
• 07:11 — The instinctive turn to painting
• 09:02 — Destroying words on the canvas, the urge for erasure
• 10:14 — The days until he began to paint
• 10:51 — Tension between bright paintings and dark text
• 12:58 — Title “Exhibitionist” and family connection
• 15:47 — The power of recognition, Melville’s “isolatos”
• 17:09 — The origin of Weepers and the role of sensitive people
• 19:23 — “Professional mourner” research and modern price lists
• 21:50 — Ed’s exhaustion and trauma in Weepers
• 22:48 — The transformative “kid” and why he’s young
• 24:44 — Not designing his own covers and leaving his lane
• 25:33 — The “sad boy” brand, crossover between the books

Conclusion

This interview with Peter Mendelsund is a rich, layered exploration of the intersections between art, language, and emotion—both real and imagined. Through candid discussion of his own depression and creative impulses, Mendelsund reflects on how art (painting, writing) both expresses and redresses the alienation of mental illness. Both Exhibitionist and Weepers grapple with the loss and rediscovery of feeling—individually and communally—ultimately aiming to give readers and viewers a sense of recognition, connection, and hope.