Editor’s note: The Maley Way podcast is available on Apple, Spotify and YouTube, among other platforms.
Growing up as a “stubborn Irishman,” Jim Maley let mental-health struggles take a backseat.
He has since opened up about battling depression and made it his mission to help others feel comfortable doing the same, starting the popular The Maley Way podcast.
Years ago, Maley was a Lyons graduate beginning his college basketball career at Northwestern. Everything seemed to be going well, but he began to feel irritable, have irrational thoughts and sleep a ton.
“I hope I tear my ACL so I never play basketball again,” Maley recalled saying during those times. “I wanted to quit.”
To Maley’s surprise, then-Wildcats coach Bill Carmody pulled him into his office to discuss depression.
“My stubbornness helped me be a good player, a student. … But that same stubbornness caused me not to listen to him,” Maley said. “I guess I was just a stubborn Irishman.”
Maley later transferred, but nothing changed. A discussion with his mother about her mental health began to reframe everything.
“It was the first thing that got me to finally recognize it and go get help,” Maley said.
It’s been an ongoing discussion. While teaching and coaching boys basketball at St. Laurence from 2014-17, Maley was having trouble thinking and making decisions, and was going to step away.
He wanted to simply say he was sick, but his mother advised him to be honest as she believed telling his story would help others.
“I emotionally told my story in the locker room to these kids,” Maley said. “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. And sure enough, I got a knock on my door from one of my players coming to me about his own struggles.”
At his mother’s funeral, Maley gave a eulogy that touched on mental health. The reception to the speech pushed him to speak more on the subject and paved the way for The Maley Way podcast.
What began as a way to tell his story soon turned into a family affair with everyone grabbing the mic. Jim’s wife, Katie, shared her experience of going through the mental-health journey with her husband.
“She is better at it than me,” Maley said. “It has snowballed into a marriage and parenting podcast.”
The Maleys have four kids under 10 and live in La Grange.
Their eldest son, Jimmy, and his friend, Henry Zotti, have taken the show to another level with a few “Hen-Dawg and Jimmy V Podcast” viral moments in recent months.
Now, Zotti said. “I want to do it every day. Podcasts are some of the funnest things to do and you can start one with your friends and talk about anything.”
Before the boys joined the show, Maley’s daughter, Meg, was a guest.
“I always like talking,” Meg said. “Also, I am interested in what others have to say. If I talk for 20 minutes, they should get a turn, too.”
Like his father, Jimmy has gone through his own experiences with mental health.
“We have been very open on a kid-friendly level so that people can experience things when they’re sad and when they are not sad,” Katie said.
“One thing I learned is if you see a friend having a rough time, just go by them and say, ‘How are you doing?’ and if it’s bad, then go tell a teacher,” Zotti said.
Bringing up mental health was not easy for Maley but it opened the doors for him, his family and those around him.
“I feel this is giving them the skill to communicate and express thoughts — something that took me 35 years,” Jim said.