Have you ever felt stuck or lonely during winter months? This isn’t just a you problem; in fact, I can't remember a winter that didn't affect my mood in some way. Something about those gray skies and short days really gets to me—and while the onset of winter brings its own challenges, these last few weeks of the season can feel interminable.
With more than three million US cases per year, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a common affliction, though it’s often misunderstood or downplayed. While many report a downtick in mood when it’s cold and dark, SAD is much more acute than your average winter blues.
Whether you hope to learn more about SAD, lean into your feelings, or find a soothing escape in fiction, these listening recommendations can help. Of course, if you are struggling with depression or seasonal mood changes, there is no better solution than to seek professional help.
These nonfiction listens are full of tools to help you better understand, address, and positively impact your mood during this time of year.
This title gets straight to the point. Backed by clinical research, Gavin Schlieker’s SAD: Overcoming Seasonal Affective Disorder and Winter Depressions is a concise listen that details this condition in clear relief. In just 31 minutes, Schlieker and narrator Alinda Stanford will give you a better understanding of SAD and arm you with some tools to handle this yearly affliction.
While winter is dreaded by some, there are many people who find comfort within it. Born out of necessity, the Danish tradition of “hygge” seeks to create comfort, quality time, and joy inside one’s own home. Rather than treating the short months like something to just get through, The Little Book of Hygge details a practice that can rewrite your relationship with winter.
While this title isn’t overtly prescriptive, Ross Gay's The Book of Delights offers something just as valuable: gratitude for the little things. This collection of essays, some as short as a paragraph, celebrate the small, everyday moments that can bring joy. In his vignettes, Gay acknowledges the complex nature of daily life juxtaposed with the beauty that is all around us.
This award-winning podcast doesn’t just explain how sound can change lives—it lets you hear it for yourself. In Maejor Frequency, music producer and cancer survivor Maejor explores the positive relationship between sound and wellness. Backed by scientific insights, meditative music design, and surprising guest stars, each episode explores a different healing frequency to experience yourself. Listen with headphones on for full effect.
Rather than coax you into a sunny mindset, these thought-provoking titles encourage listeners to sit with their feelings and even embrace them.
Wintering is a memoir detailing a difficult period in author Katherine May’s life. In a short period of time, her husband fell ill, her son stopped attending school, and her own medical issues led her to leave a demanding job. During this time, May learned how to harness the healing power of rest. Her journey brings in lessons from literature, myth, and the natural world to tie together a compelling narrative of growth.
In the fall of 2012, Melissa Broder underwent a brutal period of panic attacks. This led her to begin the Twitter handle @sosadtoday, documenting the ins and outs of her life. Eventually Broder gathered her thoughts together in So Sad Today, a collection of essays diving deeper into themes than she ever could on Twitter. The honest, unfiltered vibe of Broder’s Twitter feed carries through to the audiobook, helping validate even the saddest feelings.
With Bittersweet, bestselling author Susan Cain addresses the power of sadness. While many people try to avoid this feeling at any cost, Cain argues that there are a number of benefits to harnessing this very powerful emotion. With a memorable reading by the author, Bittersweet reveals how even seasonally induced sadness can be transformed into inspiration, connection, and purpose. Listen to our interview with Susan Cain about Bittersweet.
Is this time of year getting to you? Create your own little paradise with these comforting listens.
What more can be said about The Little Prince? This timeless novel is about a stranded pilot who befriends a strange and insightful boy who goes only by the titular nickname. This Little Prince goes on an adventure with the pilot, and helps teach him how to enjoy life with a childlike joy once again. No matter your mental state, this one is sure to help your spirits soar.
Booker Prize-winning novel Life of Pi features a character stuck in a dire predicament. Our hero Pi has survived a boat wreck and is floating in a lifeboat alongside a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. What happens next blends the grounded with the fantastical, as Pi navigates a perilous situation and learns deep life lessons along the way, in an acclaimed performance by narrator Vikas Adam.
Both deeply insightful and optimistically buoyant, Shelby Van Pelt’s debut novel Remarkably Bright Creatures centers around Tova, a recently widowed woman who takes up a shift at the local aquarium. Tova's grief process is interrupted when news of her son's disappearance comes to light. It is up to the brilliant octopus Marcellus to get to the bottom of this caper! Marin Ireland’s narration feels as warm to listen to as being hugged by more than eight arms at once.
Fictional characters experiencing cabin fever, sadness, or never-ending winter can help you feel seen—or remind you it could always be worse.
Is there a more extreme example of winter isolation than this? Stephen King’s 1977 opus The Shining centers around Jack Torrance, a recovering alcoholic who has accepted a job as the winter caretaker of the extremely remote Overlook Hotel in Colorado. What follows is a disturbing account of a family slowly losing their marbles inside the increasingly hostile Overlook, read with chilling precision by actor Campbell Scott.
Staged in a post-apocalyptic wintery setting complete with vampires, the atmosphere of Impact Winter is as cold as it is oppressive. This white-knuckle survival thriller may be brutal at times, but its tenacious and resourceful characters (voiced by a full cast) make it more inspiring than upsetting. The result is an audio journey that melds several classic tropes—vampires, post-apocalyptic sci-fi—yet is eerily fresh and scarily close.
The Bell Jar, the only full-length novel from poet and literary icon Sylvia Plath, is often considered her masterwork. Inspired in part by Plath’s lifelong struggle with both mental illness and the limitations of womanhood in midcentury America, this listen is a raw and painful look at the inner workings of a mind affected with major depression. As Esther Greenwood, Maggie Gyllenhaal breathes fresh life into this haunting classic.
