GRAMMY winners Alessia Cara, Linkin Park's Mike Shinoda, Halestorms' Lzzy Hale and Pearl Jams' Mike McCready will join the second-annual "I'm Listening," suicide prevention campaign organized by radio network Entercom. The campaign will feature a two-hour live broadcast special across all Entercom stations on Sunday, Sept. 9 in which the artists will join discussions and share their personal stories around suicide prevention and mental health.
30 Seconds To Mars' Jared Leto, Charlie Puth, Bebe Rexha, Third Eye Blind's Stephan Jenkins, Nothing But Thieves' Conor Mason and GRAMMY winners Stone Temple Pilots are other artists that will participate in the special. Mental health specialists, athletes and radio personalities will also join the discussion.
The broadcast will make space for conversations to take place on how to discuss mental health with loved ones, what can be done to prevent suicide, how to help someone struggling with depression, and how to get more involved with suicide prevention locally.
Cara believes in the importance of talking about mental health and is joining the campaign to spread the conversation. "I definitely want to reach as many people as I can whether they’re dealing with mental illness or even if they’re just dealing with a weird period in their life," she told the campaign.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">How has mental health & suicide impacted your life? Share your story to be a part of our <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ImListening?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ImListening</a> special September 9th! <a href="https://t.co/LFIE6GftsI">https://t.co/LFIE6GftsI</a> <a href="https://t.co/bnwAVVQZTG">pic.twitter.com/bnwAVVQZTG</a></p>— ImListening (@imlistening_org) <a href="https://twitter.com/imlistening_org/status/1034175972210290690?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 27, 2018</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Mike Shinoda, whose bandmate Chester Bennington took his own life in 2017, hopes he can help bring more awareness about mental health. “In most parts of the world, suicide claims more lives than war, murder and natural disasters combined,” he told Rolling Stone.
He released his debut solo LP Post Traumatic after Bennington's death. In the album, Shinoda grieves Bennington's death. He has been open about the sexual abuse he experienced in the past.
“I hope that sharing my personal story, in music and conversation, helps open up the door to new discussions and awareness about mental health,” Shinoda continued.
The "I'm Listening" campaign is a year-long movement that features a website with mental illness information and resources, suicide prevention PSAs and on-air promos.
The Center for Disease Control (CDC) states that suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S. and can affect anyone regardless of culture, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender.
Catch the full broadcast on Sept. 9 at 7 a.m. via live stream or via your local Entercom station at its respective time zone.
