President Lincoln suffered two breakdowns before his fortieth birthday. A recent book establishes that Lincoln in fact suffered from clinical depression (called “melancholy” in those days), and tried medical treatments for it, including drugs. However, the book’s author argues that the struggles the President went through to weather his own suffering gave him strength in the face of adversity, as well as several other qualities that served him as he led the nation though one of its greatest crises, the Civil War. In honor of President’s Day, Larry speaks with Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness.