# Introducing Kody — The Schizophrenic Hippie

- **Episode:** [153](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/153.md) (2024-12-12)
- **Type:** intro
- **Tags:** schizophrenia, mental-health, personal-story
- **Time:** 0:33–4:08 (start 33s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/153?t=33](https://truthliesandwork.com/153?t=33)

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[0:33] Kody Green: Nice
[0:33] Al Elliott: Check out hopspot.com, the agentic customer platform for growing businesses
[0:37] Leanne Elliott: Hello and welcome to Truth, Lies and Work, the award-winning psychology podcast Brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. My name is Leanne. I'm a chartered psychologist
[0:57] Al Elliott: My name is Al. I'm a business owner
[0:59] Leanne Elliott: And we are here to help you simplify the science of work and create amazing workplace cultures
[1:04] Al Elliott: Yes, we are. Well, hello, hello, hello, hello, welcome, welcome, and hello to you if you are a brand new listener. And if you listened before, then welcome back. You know the score, but just give me a couple of seconds to explain to the lovely newbies how this little pod works. Right, every Tuesday we bring you the weekly fix of workplace news, spicy takes from our expert panel, and our world-famous weekly workplace surgery where I put your questions to Leanne, who's sitting opposite there. And every Thursday, like today, we sit down with someone who is an expert in the workplace and ask them the questions that most podcasters are afraid to
[1:36] Leanne Elliott: Yes, and today we are continuing our series on mental illness following a call to action from Mind CEO Dr. Sarah Hughes for practitioners and business leaders to expand the mental health conversation. Our first episode in this series explored psychopathy with Dr. Abby Marsh. Go back to episode 131 if you want to listen to that. And today we're exploring another mental illness that is experienced by 21 million people worldwide— schizophrenia. To help us, we're very excited to welcome an incredible guest, Kody Green, a mental health advocate with almost 2 million followers across socials. Kody shares his experiences of living with schizophrenia and how, with the right support, people with this diagnosis can thrive in the workplace. USA Today and even Saturday Night Live did a joke about Kody's dog. Don't worry, Kody enjoyed it. And in this episode, we'll be answering 3 key questions
[2:35] Al Elliott: Number 1, what is schizophrenia? What symptoms do people experience? And what are we getting wrong about people living with this mental illness? Number 2, how did Kody go from being told by his doctor that he would never work again to successfully integrating in the workplace? And number 3, what can employers learn and do to make the workplace an easier place for people with schizophrenia and other mental illnesses? Kody has an incredible TikTok channel with millions of views which document his life living with schizophrenia and also has some really interesting hacks he's developed for identifying the difference between hallucinations and real life
[3:08] Leanne Elliott: It's a fascinating story, and Kody is so open about everything he has been through, bringing humor and honesty to every aspect of his story. And he's also got a book coming out in January called Mind Over Meetings. a personal perspective on wellness in the workplace. This is going to be essential reading for any leader or HR professional who wants to make their workplace as inclusive as possible
[3:33] Al Elliott: So let's join the interview where we meet Kody, hear his story, and learn what it was like to return to work after such a difficult time
[3:39] Kody Green: My name is Kody Green. I am a schizophrenia advocate, mental health advocate, uh, and most recently I've been, uh, trying to really advocate for mental health and mental illness in the workforce. Um, but I, I've tried to use my voice and my lived experiences to share, um, about what my life has been like navigating these different challenges through recovery, uh, addiction, mental illness, uh, and then trying to rebuild my life after all of these setbacks