Why is Generation Z facing record levels of anxiety, depression, and suicide—and why aren’t therapy and medication enough to turn the tide?
On this episode of Coup Save America, Sean St. Heart sits down with Aly Vredenburgh, youth mental health expert, author of Out of Focus, and founder of The Belonging Lab. Drawing from her groundbreaking research, upcoming documentary Crisis Generation, and her own personal journey surviving a suicide attempt at age 14, Aly reveals the deeper systemic causes driving today’s youth mental health crisis.
Together, they’ll explore how loneliness, economic pressure, disconnection from community, and digital overload are creating a perfect storm for young people. Aly explains why belonging is the most underrated protective factor for mental health, and why true prevention goes far beyond crisis hotlines—it’s about building communities of support, purpose-driven lives, and third spaces like her visionary Stay Café.
Listeners will hear bold solutions backed by research and global examples: peer-led prevention programs, radical kindness, youth-centered policy reform, and systemic changes that could redefine how we care for mental health. Aly also shares how young people themselves are pushing back—finding creative, collective ways to build a more hopeful and connected future.
This conversation is a call to action: to see the youth mental health crisis not just as an individual struggle, but as a societal failing we all have the power to fix.
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