The Commons – Blistein talks with reporter Annie Landenberger about his work as a writer and co-producer of the interview-based PBS series Hiding in Plain Sight. He is also the author of the 2013 memoir David’s Inferno: My Journey through the Dark Wood of Depression.
Blistein, a “novelist, screenwriter, essayist, and former ad man” based in Brattleboro, Vt., works on the docuseries with “filmmaker Ken Burns, whom he first met when they were undergrads: Blistein at Amherst College and Burns at Hampshire College,” writes Landenberger. The first two episodes, released in June 2022, feature interviews with young people about such issues as mood disorders, bullying, addiction and gender identity.
Of his own memoir, which recounts his personal path through mental illness, Blistein says, “I hope the book made some contribution to ongoing efforts to de-stigmatize these experiences—to treat brain disorders with the same compassion (and insurance coverage) as we do physical disorders.”