There was a lot to take in on Monday night's Q&A - for starters it was the only ABC program in a week not to mention Neil Armstrong, which no doubt left many viewers wondering what had happened to Apollo 11.
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But there was much else to go on with: evocations of Hitler, accusations of racism, and incantations of what strategy might have won Labor the recent election - all of which you could take with how ever many grains of salt you were inclined to spare.
Beyond the political debate - and trying to work out if panellist Nick Cater was a collectable toy available now at your favoured supermarket - there was some heartfelt discussion that cleared the decks and left you reeling.
The best nights on Q&A belong to the audience, and Monday night was no exception. There were two prominent panellists who have publicly discussed their battles with depression - former WA premier Geoff Gallop and former Tony Blair adviser Alastair Campbell.
In the studio, with a question, was Krissi Grant, who shared her story through tears.
"I lost my precious brother to suicide in 2015, shattering and changing our lives forever," she said.
"I have taken it on myself with some others to start a mental health and suicide prevention action group because if not me, then who? I'm disgusted at the lack of support... I'm disgusted at the lack of facilities, of all the money going to other agendas except for saving our lives... My brother was a beautiful, kind soul who was lost in the system. My mother was his carer for 20 years until he devastatingly took his life in our family home. Since then we've had no support. I'm just sick of mental health being bottom of the barrel."
For close to two minutes, Grant rendered the panel and the studio completely silent. What followed was a powerful and essential discussion.
Host Tony Jones to Campbell: "Your key subject is politics and mental health. I'm not saying the solution lies with politics, but the decision to call it a crisis does."
Campbell: "This is the thing that gets me about this - you see not just the loss of life, you see the impact forever and the cost forever."
Jones: "What's going on?"
Campbell: "The honest answer is I don't know. I think the problem with our generation is that we really don't know what's going on with young people... the words are so easy. So Scott Morrison has come on and he says that his goal is zero suicide. That is a very big, bold goal. But don't just say it."
Grant: "Action."
Campbell: "Have the plan."
Grant: "Come to my house and I'll tell you the plan."
Geoff Gallop: "Young people at the moment are the miner's canaries of our society. They're picking up the real issues that we have deep down in the way we conduct our social relationships, the way we organise our society, the priorities we give. They can't see the hope. And I think we have a responsibility in politics to recognise that factor and to build a better society ... young people are telling us something and we should be listening."
Whether events in the wider world provided clues to an epidemic of fear and doubt was not debated, but the evidence of fear and doubt was abundant in other discussions.
There was Donald Trump, of whom Campbell noted the following: "Most people think he's despicable."
And also: "A populist virus."
And this: "That thing he did the other day with the four Congresswomen of colour. Hitler was doing that stuff.
"I'm not saying he's going to go out and kill six million people. I'm saying the seeds of fascism are being sown. If we're not careful we're in a dark and dangerous place."
Nick Cater, executive director of the Menzies Research Centre and a columnist with The Australian, wasn't having a bar of Campbell's contention on this, or on matters - such as the wisdom of Brexit.
Cater: "I think this is the rebirth of Great Britain."
This was a statement greeted with both laughter and applause, the latter possibly ironic though one can't be sure. Campbell stared at the desk in despair for as long as he could. Gallop stared at the ceiling.
Cater said likely British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, though far from perfect, was "a lot of fun".
Campbell gave his thoughts on Johnson: "Inside his head he is Winston Churchill, and in reality he's a hack. He's a funny - as you say - he's a funny hack. The idea of Britain recreating some glorious past..."
He left that idea hanging in the air. Then, when challenged on his own role in the catastrophe of the Iraq war as Blair's chief adviser, Campbell stumbled into Britain's less glorious recent past, managing to admit that he was both right and wrong and expert at both.
And then on to Australia's recent history.
A questioner wanted to know how Campbell would have "spun" the recent federal Labor campaign to end in victory.
Campbell: "There's a lot of bright people in this country..."
He provided no evidence for this very bold assertion, but went on: "The world's moving on so fast, these young people ... they don't think like we think in politics. There's got to be that sense of a big future vision."
Now there's a thought. Perhaps we could land a man on the moon? Stay tuned.
If you or someone you know needs help, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 , Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636 or the Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467.
- SMH/The Age
