The Josh Innes Show - Seasonal Depression...

Episode Date: December 19, 2025

My plan was to break down the epic Rams/Seahawks game in this episode. But, plans changed when I decided to go off on a tangent about seasonal depression. After spending one month of winter in Detroit, I feel like this area has to suffer from a high percentage of seasonal depression. It's impossible to not want to jump out in front of a moving car. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Let's see here. All Up, Ennis podcast. Hello, friends. Glad you guys are with us today. A hell of a football game last night. It wasn't shaping up to be a hell of a football game, but it became a hell of a football game last night. What did we learn from that? Well, what we learned is Seattle's going to the playoffs, right?

They're currently the top team in the NFC. They're currently the top team in that division, which is currently the best division in the NFL. So Seattle will be, look, I don't know that they're going to hang on to that spot. And I don't believe Seattle's the best team in the NFL. I still believe the Rams are better. But let's do that. Let's talk about that ballgame and some of the stuff that went down in that ballgame and some other stuff as we look forward to the weekend.

Hell, we got college football playoff action, too. We got a lot of stuff we're going to get into. Anyway, let's get into that after these words. Also, I'm probably going to have my voice. breaking up a little bit because I continue to get hoarse because the weather changes a ton and I talk a lot. I don't know if you knew this, but I talk a lot. So like yesterday, it was in the 50s and the ice melted and the snow melted and it rained and it was glorious. And then today it's supposed to snow and be in the 20s again. Actually, I will start here. Here's somewhere that I'll go. And I enjoy Detroit. Detroit's a lovely place. The people are very nice. It's cool city. Summertime. It's incredible. It's just weather's immaculate. It's great. It's wonderful. In the wintertime in Detroit, I am shocked that more people don't just hang themselves in their closet because this place is depressing in the wintertime, man.

Like, you go downtown, it's very pretty, and there's all sorts of lights. Look, I'm not telling you that, like, the overall vibe of the place is depressing. What I'm telling you is that weather-wise, it is extremely depressing. Like, I have a dog, right? I'd like to take my dog out for walks and everything. There's nothing worse than snow and ice. And from what I've been told, the expectation is that this snow and ice is pretty much going nowhere for the next five months until April and May we're going to be sitting here trudging through snow. Now, fortunately, there hasn't been like giant snow so far, which I'm sure is coming in the more snowy months in January, February, where we're going to get a bunch of snow, probably.

But I despise it. The worst part is it's not that it's cold. Like, I can handle cold. Like, I think I'd rather be cold than hot. You know, like, I'm fine with it. My biggest issue that I run into is that it impacts your day-to-day life in a way that really sets you back. So, like, my dog likes to go for long-ass walks. And I'm totally down with that.

Like, during the summer and in the fall, we'll walk for two, three hours at a time and get, like, you know, 15,000, 20,000 steps. And I'm feeling fucking good. Life is great. Like, we're out. You know, it stays, you know, light out longer, obviously. It's stupid daylight savings time is the worst, all that shit. So we're enjoying ourselves. We'll go for long-ass walks.

Usually two of those a day. He and I would get like two, you know, two, three-hour walks in. It's great. We bond. It's wonderful. Problem I'm running into now is it gets so freaking cold here for stretches and snowy here and icy here that it's too cold for him, although he won't acknowledge that it's too cold for him.

Even though I know it's not good for him, because chat GPT tells me, and common sense tells me that it's not good for him. I sit there and I walk with him as much as I can. But then I have to cut our walk short because I don't want to save him from himself. Then you're worried about ice, right? And so my dog's walking like a maniac through ice. I'm worried that I'm going to slip. I'm taking baby steps throughout parking lots and shit. Like, it's not the cold and it's not the snow itself.

It's the giant impact that the cold and the snow have on your life. and my life is derailed now, and it will be derailed for the next four or five months because it's snow and ice and it's miserable. And I don't know if there's any data to back this up, but I would imagine that places like Detroit, Chicago, like Alaska, cold places like this that snow and it's dark all the time have to be like, let me see, states with the most seasonal depression. Let's see. Let's take a look. Alaska, least winter daylight and low sunshine. Like, it is depressing to walk out of a bill. So here's my life. I get up in the morning, it's dark.

The sun doesn't come up until like 8 o'clock, 8.30. I look out the window, 7.7.30, it's still dark and snowy and cold. New England, higher latitudes mean shorter days, increasing sad risk significantly. Pacific Northwest, low winter sunshine, and high humidity contribute to winter blues. Here's the thing. I think I would take Washington or Oregon because, like, yeah, like, I'm not, the sunshine part doesn't bother me. I'm not, like, I kind of like gray weather anyway, because I don't like to squint, right?

So, like, sunshine's never been my big deal. Like, I don't sit there and go, my God, we got to have some sunshine. Like, I don't obsess over sunshine. I'm fine with shade. I'm fine with cloud. cover. It's the miserably bitter cold that's 15 degrees, feels like temperature is negative 10. You can only walk for 15 to 20 minutes at a time before you're at risk of dying. It's miserably cold. You have to put on layers of clothing. It's dark early, like 445. It's dark. To me, that should be the main reason why we

should acknowledge that the whole daylight savings time thing is bullshit. There's no way that people are happy with it getting dark at 445. There's nobody that's out there like, well, the good news everybody is we lose four hours of daylight where we can be exercising and having fun and being outside because at 445 it's got to get dark. Then you mix in the fact that it's constantly snowing and it's constantly cold. This is just a depressing place. In the wintertime, this is a depressing place. And let me see. Does it say that Michigan is in them? Michigan, high rates of sad searches and low winter sunlight. What is a sad search? What does sad stand for? I'd like to know, like SAD. I'm sure it's an, okay, here we go. Seasonal effective disorder are generally northern

states with less winter sunlight like Alaska, Vermont, New Hampshire, Washington, Michigan. I did not know this before I moved here, and it wouldn't have impacted me moving here because It's not like I had a ton of options out there. People weren't beating down the door to get your boy in Tampa, Florida, or Miami, Florida, or Phoenix, Arizona. Nobody was beating down the door to have me in a place where, you know, in the wintertime, it's 70 degrees and sunny. So, look, I took what's there. I like the place. I like the people I work for.

This is not me complaining at all. This is not me being upset about the job. I like the job. I like the people I work with. I like the people I work for. This is me saying that this place is fucking depressing. And I'm shocked that more people aren't seized. Maybe they just don't acknowledge it.

Maybe like if you've lived here long enough, you just get used to it. And maybe that comes with the territory. Like if you live in Michigan long enough, you're like, well, this is just what life is. But like, I've lived in cold place. When I tell people this, they're like, well, I guess this is the first time you've ever really lived in a cold place. And you lived in Texas and you lived in Louisiana. No, I lived in Montana. I lived in St. Louis where it snowed.

I lived in Philadelphia where it snowed. This is, without question, the most depressing wintertime vibe ever. It's so depressing, in fact, that last night, when it was 47 degrees, it felt like it was 100. And I stood outside while it was raining just to watch the snow melt away because I had not seen grass in my yard for three weeks. Three weeks. And I mean this with all due respect, because, again, nice people. I like I like living here.

The first five, six months I was here, spectacular. I loved it. Weather was great. Fall is immaculate here. The fall with the leaves and the foliage and the colors and it's wonderful. But I'm surprised more people don't suck on a tailpipe this time of year here. Because like there's no hope. Like it feels hopeless.

Like it feels like you're in one of those areas where like you're like at Chernobyl. It just feels hopeless. You don't know what to do. You just sit there and you're like, what do I do? Because whether you like it or not, also the dickheads that don't shovel. So then you're at the mercy of the idiots in these neighborhoods that won't shovel. And even if they do shovel, some of them won't throw down ice melt. So if they don't throw down ice melt, what you end up with is like, oh, cool, there's no snow.

It's just a giant thick sheet of ice, like an inch thick of ice and you can't walk. And it's like your dog is miserable. And your dog looks like you're the biggest asshole. on the planet. Like, why aren't we walking, Dad? And I'm like, you know why we're not walking, pal? Because there's an inch of ice out there because dickheads don't shovel their sidewalks and put down ice melt. And then some will put down ice melt, but it's not dog-friendly ice melt. So then your dog's paws are on fire because he's stepping on this ice that hurts his paws. Then he's also stepping on the ice melt that's hurting the paws. Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, West Virginia,

Montana, Idaho. These states show high, sad risk due to low sunshine and high search volume for seasonal depression, which I have just searched, states with my, I don't know how you are not depressed in this. Like if you're a kid, you're not depressed because you go out, you build a fucking snowman, you go have a snowball fight and you go about your day. If you're a grown ass adult man and you're sitting here for the next five months with the sun going down at 4.45, and I'm going to guess that there is snow on the ground for the majority of the next five months. Let me look that up. How many days of the year is snow on the ground in Detroit?

Snow stays on the ground in Detroit for a significant part of winter, typically from late November to early April, covering about 4.4 months, roughly 132 to 135 days, with the deepest snow usually in January and February. However, it's not snow covered every single day as it depends on snowfall amounts and temperature. averaging around 3.6 days below zero, but many more with some snow cover. Super. The period with a sliding 31-day snowfall of at least one inch runs from around November 24th to April 7th. Average snowfall days. Detroit experiences days with snow peaking in winter months, but it's not a constant blanket, but it has been. And finally, it melted.

And life felt like I could live again. I could breathe again. We went for a long walk yesterday. Even in the rain, I'm like, I'll take the rain. Let's put on a raincoat, Ross, and let's fucking go. And today it's supposed to snow again. And then get into the teens. And then all this rain that came down is going to turn into ice.

And then I will fall. And my dog, then I'll be injured. And then my dog will go for no walks. And then he'll be super depressed. I'm not trying to bring you down on this Friday. But I'll tell you who I hate. The person I hate is the person who post videos of their nice outdoor kitchen or their outdoor patio area. They live in Houston or somewhere in Texas.

And they got a nice little overhang and nice little covered patio outside. And they've got a TV outside. And they've got a Trager or whatever brand of Pellate Grill, pit boss, rec tech. And they've got it sitting outside. And they've got a nice couch that's under this overhang. and they got a 65-inch TV for to watch the sporting events and a fridge outside that's got all their ice-cold beer in it. And they can sit in that bad boy basically 365 days a year.

And the only reason they couldn't do it is because it was too fucking hot in the summer. But for the winter months, generally speaking, it's going to be perfect for sitting outside. And if it's not perfect for sitting outside, guess what? You add a little heater out there and you sit out there and enjoy a fire pit out there. And then you go out and you throw some, some, uh, Throw a pork butt on the smoker. You throw a brisket on the smoker.

You throw chicken on the smoker. And you sit out and you drink an ice, cold, frothy, delicious domestic light beer with a 4.2 to 4.5-ish ABV. And you turn on a sporting event. And if there's no game on, you put on the Bluetooth speaker and you listen to Yacht Rock Radio and you play Yotsie. I hate those fucking people. and I hate them because they're living the life I'd like to be living as I sit here just watching out the window waiting for it to snow again. I'm like, just wait for it. It's coming. It's coming. The snow's coming.

And that's no knock on Detroit. Again, the people are lovely. I like the city a lot. I like the little area I live in. There's great little downtowns. There's great little restaurants. It's not a bad place. I do not know how you do not want to kill yourself every day. let's see here I feel like the Michigan has to have a high suicide rate states with highest suicide per

capa suicides with highest suicide rates is it Michigan Alaska Montana and Wyoming that makes sense hell we're not even in the top 10 but if you notice they're all places where it's snowy and cold

I understand now why all these old people that live in places like Chicago and Michigan and places like that, they spend their winters in Florida and Arizona. I get it. I understand it. But anyway, again, all that to say, Detroit is not a bad place. And the people are not bad people. And I understand that I was supposed to be talking about last night's football game in this

episode. And somehow I went 15 minutes explaining how I think I'm suffering from seasonal depression and will be for the next four fucking months. Then you throw in the fact, like, it's so cold. I just roll into work wearing sweats every day. So I look like a fucking bum. I haven't gotten a haircut in three fucking months because what's the fucking point? I'm wearing a goddamn winter hat the whole goddamn time.

So who needs a haircut? Josh, put on some pants and look presentable. Why? I'm at the radio station when no one else is here. And it's cold as shit. So I just put on long johns and a pair of sweats and go to work. Anyway, I know you have your own problems. Also, if you're the person I'm talking about that has a beautiful outdoor kitchen and set up

and a smoker and a TV outside and the Bluetooth playing yacht rock and the ice cold delicious bushlights I just know I do I love you but I also really fucking hate you and I hope you wake up with rattlesnakes in your bed