Shred Sisters: Understanding Bipolar Disorder through Literature and Lived Experience

Shred Sisters: Understanding Bipolar Disorder through Literature and Lived Experience

Author: Charts & Leisure January 28, 2026 Duration: 36:05

In this episode of Unravelling, recorded at the 2025 Brattleboro Literary Festival, Mary Wilson sits down with author and literary agent Betsy Lerner for an intimate conversation about writing, mental illness, and family dynamics.
Betsy shares how she began keeping diaries as a child after reading Anne Frank, using journaling to process secret feelings and a sense of being different within her family. She discusses her early diagnosis of bipolar disorder at 15, years of ineffective treatment, and how finally finding the right care in her 30s allowed her to live stably and write clearly for decades.

The conversation centers on Betsy’s novel Shred Sisters, which blends fiction with emotional truth to explore bipolar disorder, sibling rivalry, and shame. Betsy speaks about her mission to destigmatize bipolar disorder, challenge sensationalized portrayals, and validate both those living with bipolar disorder and their loved ones, while emphasizing the importance of boundaries and self-preservation.

She also discusses her popular TikTok diary project! Her social media account encourages young people to prioritize mental health, keep handwritten journals, and seek help.

Links -
Visit Betsy Lerner's website
Buy Shred Sisters by Betsy Lerner
Follow Betsy Lerner on TikTok
Brattleboro Literary Festival


There’s a thread that connects our inner lives to the culture we live in, and Unravelling pulls on it to see what emerges. This isn’t a lecture series, but a conversation guided by therapist Kurt White and journalist Mary Wilson, who bring their distinct perspectives to every discussion. They explore how mental health is woven into everything from our daily fitness routines and societal pressures to the art we consume and the relationships we keep. In each episode, you’ll hear from experts who study the mind alongside individuals sharing their personal, lived experiences, creating a dialogue that feels both intellectually rigorous and deeply human. The aim is to move beyond simple definitions, examining how anxiety, resilience, joy, and struggle shape our collective reality. Produced by Charts & Leisure, this podcast provides a space for nuance, challenging the idea that our psychological worlds exist in a vacuum. It’s for anyone who has ever felt the tension between their private thoughts and the public world, offering not easy answers but a more textured understanding. By listening, you become part of a broader exploration into how compassion, for ourselves and our society, can actually be built from a place of genuine curiosity.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

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