Mental Health Matters - Fair Time
In this live‑stream episode, host Brooke Cheney, joined by co‑host/producer DJ, broadcasts from a county fair to promote mental‑health awareness and suicide‑prevention resources. Brooke shares a striking statistic that two‑thirds of gun deaths are suicides and distributes pamphlets from the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF), Walk the Talk America, and the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. She recounts her day at the fair, describing interactions with visitors from across New England, handing out materials, and noting the diverse crowd. Brooke interweaves light‑hearted fair commentary—favorite foods (corn dogs, cotton candy, fried Oreos), rides (Scrambler, Ferris wheel, Tilt‑A‑Whirl), and quirky observations about carts and kids—while also critiquing mental‑health policy, joking about Reagan’s asylum closures, and highlighting systemic gaps that leave the non‑violent mentally ill homeless and the violent mentally ill incarcerated. The stream features real‑time audience participation from usernames like Jamie, JH586, SorryFan93, Hillbilly Up, Crabby Turtle, Robert Starr, Fiona, Abigail Sorcha Finnegan, and Bubba Triclops Ballistic, who answer poll questions about favorite fair foods and rides, discuss carnival prizes, and share personal anecdotes. Technical challenges (poor internet, using a steering‑wheel tripod) are noted, and Brooke promises better pre‑recorded setups for future shows. The episode ends with a roll‑call, thanks to participants, and a reminder to comment for algorithmic reach.
Chapters
Ta-da! All right, so no fanfare, no DM Foss stuff, just me in the dark in the truck and using my steering wheel as a tripod. So hey everybody, welcome to Mental Health Matters. And what time is it? 9:05, so a whole 5 minutes earlier than— oh wait, it says I can add to stage. You added yourself to the stage. So voilà, there you are. Hello, DJ.
Hey.
Oh, I can hear you this time, everything. Very exciting. I wasn't sure if that was gonna work. So, um, so hi, DJ, how have you been?
I've been doing better than okay. I have that, uh, new phone-style device, and without its memory chock-full of all of my photos, when I decided to log on from that handset I had to either take a picture or move along. So rather than take a picture— yeah, this isn't about frightening people, it's about bringing people into community and, and offering, uh, words on weekends kind of thing. So I shifted back over to the other phone and, and grabbed a more familiar icon. And out there right now, we're joined by Jamie, JH586, Sorry Fan, 93 Hillbilly. I've just popped into the room. Crappy Turtle was here first. And that's the crew that we have right now.
Gotcha. My favorite pink hand waving. I haven't gotten to type that in a while. It seems like these last couple weekends have been a little bit on the nutty side. So, um, but maybe it'll calm down because I don't know about y'all, but you know, my kids going back to school kind of make it so that, uh, we'll get back to some form resemblance of a schedule, something along those lines. So we will see. But anyway, all right, so welcome to Mental Health Matters. Why are we here? Because we know that every 2— 2 out of every 3 gun deaths are actually suicides. And if we want to make the life of others better, we need to talk about mental health. I have been at the fair since 7:30 this morning, and I'm still at the fair because we just closed our thing. And so as far as mental health matters, I have been talking to folks and handing them mental health matters stuff. As far as NSSF has a lovely suicide prevention, firearms and suicide prevention, and also Walk the Talk America. If anybody is out there that's brand new, definitely go check out wtt.org/love. Because one of the things I've been talking about is our— the free screenings they have there. Because, uh, I— again, we're at a country fair, so there's people from all over the place. Apparently Goshen, Connecticut brings in folks from Pennsylvania a lot. There are a lot of people I talk to that are from Pennsylvania. Oh, oh, Mark Thomas! I need to get Mark Thomas, uh, I need to get his contact info because I have someone who wants a custom holster. So even though I was here for a great start shooting school, I think I might have sold a holster for Mark while I was there. So anywho, um, and I'm sure that I have it in my email because I'm pretty sure it's on Hillbilly's email. But so talking to people from all over the country— or sorry, all over the New England area and Connecticut and that sort of stuff, it's like I definitely made sure to talk about the mental health stuff, uh, handed them off the Talk America pamphlets, gave them the firearms and suicide prevention stuff from NSSF. And the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. And, uh, just, it's such a warm welcome, and everybody agrees. It's like, it's a great thing to talk about. And I even talked about the show tonight. I, I told him like, hey, it's Saturday night, and I will be doing 9 o'clock, uh, Mental Health Matters. By all means, hopefully y'all come. Maybe there's some new Viewers out there. So that has been my day, and it's just interesting how it's like when you take the time to talk about mental health, people agree that it should be talked about, but people disagree on what should be done about it. So it becomes my, my running joke is, well, you know, it's all Ronald Reagan's fault because back in the '80s he shut down all the asylums and now everybody's out running around free. So, which is tongue-in-cheek, but it's also— there are a lot of people who need care in the mental health space and there's nowhere for them to go. One of the things one of my doctors suggested was that the criminally insane and violent criminals are in our prison systems. The non-violent mental health patients are our homeless population. And I guess there's probably a relative chance of truth to all of that, and we need fixes, but one size never fits all. So it's cool to get to talk to folks about it. And DJ, I got nothing else. I'm like, whoo, I gotta love the country fair. Yes, Jamie. And can I make this? Does it work this time? It does! You got to love the country fair. It has been so much fun. We've got to talk to everybody from all over. We got a lot of axe throwing going on. Talked to some folks who were here showing their cows. And, you know, everybody's walking around with knives and just, you know, people from all walks of life. And I have to say, this is my first country fair I've worked, and there's lots of also screaming children. So, um, but oh yeah, and eating. All right, DJ, I gotta know, when you go to a fair, what is your favorite food to go look for?
Corn dog.
Corn dog. Oh, that's easy. That's actually— that is actually what I'm planning for lunch tomorrow, is going to be a corn dog. Because, um, yeah, um, today we— I— breakfast was actually an apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. I had that around 10 o'clock, so I guess it was brunch. And so then there was some cotton candy a little bit later in the afternoon for like a snack, and then there was chicken tots. Which is basically popcorn chicken, but you can get it with tater tots, so it's chicken tots. I didn't realize it was chicken and tots, but that's what it ended up being. So yeah, new foods that I hadn't tried before. DJ, what's your favorite thing about going to the fair?
Ferris wheel. My answers are really easy for these. They've been— it would be the same answer since I was roughly 4 or 5 years old. Corn dog, Ferris wheel, wheel, I'm set. Yeah, cotton candy. I always was a little bit confused by that. I mean, I am a relatively simple person and that's a simple thing, but I, I was always fascinated by it. Never liked to eat it, but I like to watch them make it, whether they would twist the cones, the handles in the web of stuff, and pull it out of the— seemingly pull it out of nowhere. Yeah, I love that one as a kid.
It is crazy. I'm like Fun sugar, who knew?
No doubt. So what's your favorite ride and/or attraction at a fair carnival?
Oh, so, um, the— I don't know the name of it, I just call it the whipper. It's, um, but it's not called a whipper. It's that— it's got 4 arms and you look like you're gonna smash into the person that's coming at you as you go away, and there's there's— they're spinning and you're spinning. And I can't think of the name because I did not go on the Fairway because I've literally been in my booth the entire time. So it is— I will look it up tomorrow. Maybe I'll walk that way.
I know the type of ride that you're talking about. Like, they call them scramblers or this or that, but I know exactly the kind you're talking about. Those things are a blast. Yeah, absolutely.
I think it's just Scrambler because you have the joy of the full, uh, centrifugal force. Oh, Robert Starr, nice! So Bob Starr here, he actually saw me live and in person at the fair today. Um, so yeah, the Scrambler, it's, uh, it's so fun because you're getting squished by the centrifugal force and you're getting the scare factor of looking like you're about to run into somebody. And so, and then just as soon as you're about to hit the, the fence, you get pulled back and you go back towards the center and I don't know, it's definitely fun. So, um, but yeah, I cannot wait to see, uh, my— I'm looking forward to my, my corn dog tomorrow. Um, oh my gosh, and then mustard on it. Hmm, maybe, maybe not. I'm not sure. I'm gonna make a big enough mess and I gotta be out in public all day tomorrow because tomorrow is the same thing. It's gonna be here at 7:30 AM. Until 9 o'clock tomorrow night again. Um, so yeah, and what else? What else? Um, so yeah, so the other thing about being at the fair is you've got people from all walks of life, and because you got folks from all walks of life, you get to see people, some of them in their best, some of them in not so best. It is Saturday night, so there's some drinking going on and that sort of stuff. But it's just interesting because you get to see all sorts of folks from all sorts of different walks of life in all, you know, different ways. So it's like you've got the family with kids, and I don't know, the kids these days, man, they have these big carts that they're getting pushed around in. And I'm like, I'm looking, I'm like, I want a big cart to get pushed around at the fair in. And the little kids are getting pushed around in their strollers and they're napping, or or they're screaming, and I'm just like, staying stationary at the fair? I'm like, there are a lot of screaming kids at the fair, without a doubt. Yeah.
Let me get this straight. There's a stroller-like device for children who are too big for a stroller now?
Ah, so no, no, no. It's just that, you know, the little carts, um, the collapsible carts you probably see at Walmart? It's like they've got those carts that you would normally just drag stuff from one place to another, and they've converted them into baby carry— carrying things. So it's literally just like a pop-up cart, and it's just, you know, I don't know. I see them on the beach when people are dragging their stuff around, um, but it's just like, yeah, so they're basically being dragged around in a little mini playpen. It's kind of like—
okay, so like an exaggerated little red wagon? Kind of thing?
Yes, yes. Okay, taller sides. So the taller sides make it look way fancier than a little red wagon, I think, is kind of what happens there.
Gotcha. But snap a picture just in case because I'm intrigued.
Okay. All right, I did try to get some pictures, and that's when I started finding out that the internet is not spectacular around here, uh, because it would take forever for a picture to upload. So that's— I'm like, we're gonna see how this goes.
So, well, you're adapting well, and I appreciate all the effort that it's taken for you to get to us tonight, including that test hit you did like an hour— more than an hour ago yet this evening. So we understand that the challenge is real, and, uh, I want to thank, as I'm sure everyone else on the— out in the crowd does as well, want to thank you for the extra effort it takes on a fair day to bring us a Saturday evening program. You rock!
Well, thank you very much for that. And like I said in my earlier, uh, live, I'm like, I think next year I will make sure I have a pre-recorded one for this. Not that it's not fun to give you all the play-by-play for the, the fair, but, um, it's, it's like, okay, the, the quality is interesting because now— so DJ's always on his phone, and so I'm always like a half inch tall. Now that I'm on my phone looking at me at a half inch tall, I'm like That's a different experience than me sitting in front of my computer, for sure.
Yes, ma'am.
Oh, so much fun. All right, so what else we got? Fair is fun. Fair thrillers are fun. All right, uh, question to the audience, all 10 of you that are supposedly out there. Two things, pick one or the other or give us both. Uh, what is your favorite fair food? And then what is your favorite ride. And the Scrambler is already taken, so you can't have that one. No, that's not true. You can absolutely have that one if you'd like. But Mr. DJ, while they are coming up with their answers of their favorite fair food or their favorite fair ride, I know a couple more folks have, uh, popped in. So would you like to do an actual full welcome into the room?
Absolutely. On the Facebook side— it's been a while since I've said— on the Facebook side, we have Robert Starr. Thanks for being out there and participating tonight. On the YouTube side, Abigail Sorcha Finnegan is out there, so is Fiona Rock. We got Hillbilly Up out there, so is Jamie JH586, Sorry Fan 93, and Crabby Turtle. And Sorry Fan was, uh, early in the responses, anticipating maybe, uh, their favorite ride is the Fireball. I'm not sure what that one is. See what else we got on here.
Well, so, so when, when she said— when he said fireball, my first thought is the cinnamon schnapps thing that everybody drinks. And then, um, then I'm like, the fireball— they're the Tilt-A-Whirl. Sometimes I know in around here the Tilt-A-Whirl will actually be called the fireball because the, the little buckets that you go in are painted like a fireball. I don't know if that's the same. Oh, it's a loop-to-loop drive.
Gotcha. Uh, sorry, his favorite fair food is out there early, uh, saying fried Oreos. So I don't know about fried Oreos, the Fireball cinnamon thing, and a real Fireball ride, that would be probably fair, like not good, not good. I'm just trying to think ahead of that. Let's see, uh, Hillbilly Up saying everything fried is great fair food. Uh, rides with loud classic rock are my favorite. Yeah, man, me too. See who else we have out there.
Oh yeah, the Himalaya around here, it's the Himalaya one. It's the one that you sit in and it goes up and down and around, and that one has the rock, rock and roll. Oh, and Jamie says the Himalayan.
Ah, and I'm pretty sure I know which one you're talking about. And sometimes they do have like an alpine theme or a downhill ski theme or whatever, and they always have the The extra flashy lights and rock and roll pumping from those speakers. Always a good idea to have extra rock and roll around. See, uh, sorry, just checking in with a double shot of fried goodness. Got the Twinkies and the Oreos on there.
And the funny thing is, where I'm sitting, we're actually kitty corner to where I could go get some fried Oreos. They do not seem to have any fried Twinkies, but I did see the fried Oreos thing. Sign. So maybe tomorrow I shall try that somewhere. Yeah, right on.
Uh, oh hey, we got, uh, Bubba Triclops Ballistics is out there in the crowd.
All right, so Bubba, I just want you to know, when I moved my son into CCSU, I was helping him clean his room before he was going, and I found the bomb alarm clock that originally I actually got for you. Because it vibrates the entire bed plus goes off and makes annoying sounds. So apparently he still wants to keep it, otherwise I would send it to you. But nice to see you guys all out there, and thanks everybody for coming out and being so understanding. Oh, Art's French fries. Oh, and my, and my pride scooter. Um, yeah, so Mr., Mr. Star, uh, does actually have to ride around everywhere on a scooter So it is, it is, it was fun to see him and his— I think it's his wife. I'm awful that way. But yeah, so Art's French Fries is also somewhat kitty-corner. So across from our booth it goes Art's Fries and then the fried Oreos. So I'm really, really close.
Well, it's stacking up. We have some, we have some more options out there from the crowd that are telling us what their favorites are. You might have a full menu of fair foods to tomorrow. Yeah, Fiona out there saying fried dough. Oh yeah, and when the kids were little, favorite ride was Dizzy Dragons. Yeah, yeah, I think any fried dough is good.
Yes, and that is also kitty-corner from where I am.
Everything seems to be at the appropriate angle for future calories. Let's see who else we have out there telling us what they like. Uh, Abigail Sorcha Finnegan checking in saying, yeah, probably anything fried. And that's fair food for sure right there.
Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Yeah, well, it's like as people come by the, the, the, the table, I was like, oh, so what's your favorite food? And one girl says, I don't like anything fried. I'm like, there's other food besides fried food. And I try to think, I'm like, where is there? But yes, we have, uh, there is, uh, a steak bomb. It's like sort of the opposite side. There is non-fried food, just not lots of it.
So, and there's a question out there for us from SorryFan93: What's your favorite carnival prize, Brooke?
Oh, let's see. I would have to say, um, I don't know, it's hard because sometimes I really like the little itty-bitty cheesy things. Like just having like the bounce balls or something, you know, when you go to one of those prizes like, oh yeah, so for me, if I go to somewhere that has the guess your weight thing, I can win that every time. Um, but it's just like, I, I like the snakes. It's like usually a big long, uh, uh, wraparound snake has been awesome. All right, Mr. Hillbilly, uh, you have a lovely night., and thanks for stopping in, and I'll see you next week because I am not staying up until your show. But y'all have fun. I got to see Jamie's show yesterday, so there was that. All right, DJ, if you thought about a favorite, uh, prize from the carnival, what would you have?
I was really— wow, okay, so circa '77, '78, um there were— there was a common fair prize of what mimicked a carved wood hand throwing up a peace sign, but there was a more adult version that dropped the pointer finger and left the middle one. And as a 7 or 8-year-old, I knew exactly what that was. I knew that it was naughty, and I knew that the high school kids thought it was funny, and so I really, really wanted one of those. Yeah, I, I never want— I, I wasn't ever able to win one, and I haven't found one since. But if anybody out there has a Carnival middle finger from the '70s, get a hold of me. I might be interested. Uh, Fiona's out there saying that their, uh, her favorite game was whack-a-mole, and I gotta say, that's one of my favorites too. That's a blast right there.
Oh, I can see Fiona whacking them all for sure.
And can you see it catty-cornered from where you are now?
No, no, no. So that, that's all in the fairway, that where all the games and the rides are all same place. So that is not near me. Although I will say one of my favorite things coming home from any carnival fair was always the sand bottles, you know. Oh yeah, I'm like, my, my kids all have sand bottles from when we would come to this fair when they were little. So yeah, I am sure that Fiona is very good at it. And I can— oh wait, oh DJ, oh my goodness, you're gonna be so Well, I don't know. So Fiona, uh, on Thursday had a very exciting event. She got to go see Metallica in a tent. It was like circus tent. Yeah, like she was one of like 300 people that got to see Metallica in this very exclusive little, thing. So being the concertgoer you are, I figured— I mean, yeah.
So anyway, oh yeah, hardcore jealousy on that one. That rocks.
That's fabulous. I haven't— I, I talked to her earlier this week and I knew she was going. I haven't talked to her since she got back, but it was, yeah, just like so amazing because she is like one of their number one fans. She's like, no, not really. I'm like, dude, you got on the invite list. Of course you are. But anyway, there is that reception tent. There we go.
There you go.
Cool. Yeah, invite only.
So, and, uh, check this out, bring them to your screen right now. Something from Sorry Fed 93 saying, uh, Baltus is their favorite and, uh, won an iguana at one once. Mom wouldn't let me have it though. I guess it's for, for the better since iguanas are invasive species. Yeah. And I also understand from a previous comment, and I'm gonna have to look up Do you know what an anole is? I have no idea.
Yeah, so it's a little guy. So it's like, imagine you super shrunk an iguana. Anoles are everywhere in Florida, but they're only like 3-ish inches, but they're little and they're green. And my sister had them when she was, I don't know, probably in middle school or so. So yeah, right on.
I never thought about winning an animal other than a goldfish at a fair or carnival before, but then we don't have a lot of lizards in Nebraska, so maybe that's something to do.
Yeah, it could be, it could be. Yeah, so, um, I don't know if there was a pit— oh wait, sorry. So I don't know, Fiona, you see Abigail's question? Oh, I hit the wrong thing.
Oh man, I can grab it. Uh, how was the pit coming from Abigail?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I don't know, maybe we'll just have to have, uh, Fiona on here next week, or I'll do a special YouTube for, hey, we're gonna interview Fiona on how was the Metallica show. So, all right, well, it is 9:30 and I still have to drive about half an hour home and then get myself to bed because I got to be back here in less than 12 hours. So I think I'm going to say thank you all for being flexible and understanding that things don't always go according to plan. And I look forward to seeing you all next Saturday. And DJ, if you'd be so kind, by all means, give us the final roll call. Oh, what, 15 feet off you? All right, you go, Fiona.
No doubt, don't mess around with Fiona. Don't do it. All right, right. Well, Brooke, thank you, thank you for going through the extra hoops, jumping through them, that is, to get to us this evening. And thanks everybody for joining us tonight. Next week, you know, come back, bring a friend. After this show, do me a favor, reload the page and leave a comment. That really helps out the algorithm. And I know you guys are out there trying to make sure that as many people as possible can get that good word. Joining this evening, first out of the gate was the Crabby Turtle. We also had Sorryfan93 in the crowd, Jamie JH586, Hillbilly Up, Fiona was out there rocking, Abigail Sorcha Finnegan, Bubba Triclops Ballistic, and Robert Starr on the Facebook side. If I can get it wedged in there, I'll give y'all a link to the Hillbilly Up live chat that comes up here in about an hour. Do give him some attention if you got the time. Otherwise, have a great Saturday night. Be safe, have fun, take care of yourself and your crew. And rock!
We're out.
