Writer Naomi Jackson

Lola Flash/Naomi Jackson

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Lola Flash/Naomi Jackson

Writer Naomi Jackson

Lola Flash/Naomi Jackson

One morning, five years ago, Naomi Jackson “almost lost [herself.]” She left the house without shutting the front door. She faked a pregnancy to see if people would let her use their bathroom. She got into a screaming match with a kid she met on the street. Within hours, she was stripping her clothes in public. When the cops were called, she knew her life was in danger. She made it through that night alive and was able to seek treatment.

It turns out, Jackson has bipolar disorder. She wrote an essay for Harper’s Magazine about her experience with mental illness, including how she has had to decipher which of her fears stem from her illness and which are backed by the history of racism.

Robert Rodriguez engineered this episode.