John Moe Books In Order

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

John Moe
John Moe was born July 10, 1968 and is an American radio personality and writer. He graduated from Whitman College and grew up in Federal Way, Washington.

John is the creator and host of The Hilarious World of Depression, the award-winning hit podcast, and wrote the book of the same name.

His writing has appeared in many humor anthologies and McSweeney’s, The New York Times Magazine, The Seattle Times, and many others. He has written plays that have been performed on three continents. John’s been a longtime columnist and contributor to McSweeney’s.

He has hosted nationally distributed public radio programs like Weekend America, Wits, and Marketplace Tech. His radio work’s been featured on various national radio programs.

He is also the host of Conversation Parade, with Open Mike Eagle, which is a podcast focusing on “Adventure Time”, a Cartoon Network animate series. The podcast has featured members of the “Adventure Time” cast including Hynden Walch, John DiMaggio, Jeremy Shada, Jessica DiCicco, Olivia Olson, and Niki Yang.

John was originally hired at KUOW in the year 2001 as a staff writer for Rewind, a national news and satire program hosted by Weekend America’s Bill Radke. He hosted and produced The Works, a weekly interview program that focused on technology and business. Moe hosted The Power of Voice, a weekly listener call-in program on national and local issues. He had worked for two and a half years as a feature reporter and occasional host when he became the sometimes host and senior staff reporter with Weekend America.

In the year 2008, he became the host to replace Bill Radke, the founder of the show and Desiree Cooper (Radke’s co-host) on Weekend America.

At one time, he worked at Amazon.com in an editorial capacity as well as at a staffing agency where he provided legal placement services.

After finishing the first draft of “The Hilarious World of Depression”, his editor gave him two big notes: more humor. And more observation and analysis on how depression actually works. These notes spoke to one of his insecurities he had going in.

Since it’s a heavy topic and he felt the need to approach it from a sober vantage point, however what makes his show work and made his voice special is that he does believe it’s funny. Even his stories are funny, even scattering his brother’s ashes has its funny parts to it.

Writing the book’s affected the questions he asks now. It was once a theoretical topic, about the link between the entertainment (comedy particularly) and depression. When he talks to people now, he quickly gets to a question like ‘what happened to you when you were a child?’ sometimes the answer is that things went great. For a guy like Mark Duplass, things were working out great however depression came for him anyway.

His debut book, called “Conservatize Me”, was released in the year 2006 and he writes non-fiction.

“Conservatize Me: How I Tried to Become a Righty with the Help of Sean Hannity, Richard Nixon, Toby Keith, and Beef Jerky” is a non fiction book released in 2006. We hear all the time how everybody in America is planted firmly in either blue or red. They are irreversibly liberal or permanently conservative. Is everyone really that locked into either right or left? Could America still be a place where it is in fact possible to change somebody’s mind and get them to cross over to the other side of the so called ideological fence? Can you do it yourself?

In John Moe’s case, it wasn’t enough for him to read the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal a bit more often or buy himself a framed photo of Barry Goldwater. He went the whole way, drinking deep from every aspect of the conservative universe in order to see if he could end up becoming what he encountered.

Raised in a family of proud left-wingers, except for his deceased dad, whose fondness for Nixon that he’s forced to confront. Moe, who lived in deep liberal Seattle for the majority of his life, set out to determine if what we think and believe is based on actual conviction or environment. Could there really be a conservative trapped in him the whole time, just wanting to be set free?

Moe sets himself on a total strict conservative regimen. He changes the channel off of NPR and onto Limbaugh, and goes head to head with some of today’s influential conservative thinkers for some conversion sessions. He makes pilgrimages to the Richard M. Nixon and Reagan museums. Through all of it, he attempts to keep positive standing with his left wife and young yet liberal already children, which includes their four year old who joins the Sierra Club.

Readers found this to be humorous, reflective, and tongue and cheek examination at the conservative side of the fence without taking any cheap shots. Some found themselves laughing out loud at least a hundred times as they read the book.

“The Hilarious World of Depression” is a non fiction book released in 2020. John Moe struggled with depression; it had plagued his family and in 2007 even claimed the life of his brother.

While Moe came to grips with his own illness, he started seeing similar patterns of coping mechanisms and behavior that surfaced in conversations with some others, including some higher-profile comedians who had struggled with this disease. Moe saw there was tremendous community and comfort in dialogue about these experiences and how humor had a special power.

Moe, having been inspired by the immediate success of the podcast, has written a remarkable investigation of the disease, and is part treasure trove of laugh-out-loud stories and part memoir of his own journey. There are also insights pulled from many years worth of interviews with some of the most brilliant minds that face similar challenges.

The book illuminates depression in a wholly inspiring and fresh way. Readers appreciate just how honest John gets about his feelings growing up with depression, navigating through his career and dealing with his brother committing suicide. The hilarious bits of sarcastic wit help to make this more than just a total downer to read.