Award-winning filmmaker, media entrepreneur, and host of the widely watched talk show #WithChude, Chude Jideonwo recently sat down with Ghana’s number one podcast on Spotify for an intimate, deeply personal conversation centred on his memoir, How Depression Saved My Life. The conversation moved past safe talking points into a reflective dialogue on childhood, ambition, faith, and the quiet emotional costs of success.
In the conversation, Chude opened up about growing up as an only child, well provided for, yet deeply lonely, and how that loneliness shaped his inner life. He spoke about finding refuge in books, developing observation as a survival skill, and navigating a home where his mother’s sacrifice fuelled his drive while his father remained emotionally distant. With compassion rather than blame, he reflected, “If I were my father’s father, I would have allowed him to become himself on his own terms.” He also shared why he worked nearly 40 percent harder than he needed to, how poverty distorts our ability to trust, and why ambition often masks deeper emotional wounds.
The conversation moved into adulthood, success, and collapse. Chude revealed being diagnosed with high blood pressure at 19, confronting the limits of achievement, and realising that economic success does not heal the soul. In one of the interview’s most striking moments, he explained how depression, rather than ending him, became the experience that saved his life.
Watch Interview: https://youtu.be/zdjdHLPpk-4
You can get a copy of the book on: book.withchude.com.
