Start with a real question
The work begins with a tension or pattern, not a dashboard in search of a purpose.
Follow the signal. Keep the uncertainty visible.
Mental Currents is an independent research and visual storytelling platform focused on how public attention, culture, behavior, and real-world signals change over time.
Purpose
Why it exists
The most visible signal is rarely the whole story.
Search behavior can reveal curiosity. Clinical data can reveal documented activity. Treatment data can reveal care patterns. Culture can change the language surrounding all three. Mental Currents brings these sources into the same frame while preserving what makes them different.
The first major research vertical is mental health because the public conversation has changed quickly, the underlying signals are consequential, and the gaps between them deserve careful examination. The publication is designed to expand beyond mental health when new evidence supports it.
Use more than one signal
No source becomes a stand-in for human experience, clinical reality, or causation.
Make the limits legible
Caveats belong inside the storytelling, where they can shape interpretation.
Build for understanding
Strong visual hierarchy should make complex evidence easier to enter, not merely more impressive to look at.
Mental Currents is an independent research project by Mike Fein.
Mike works in strategy, measurement, and analytics. Author information is included for transparency; the evidence, sources, and limitations remain the focus.
Contact →A reader’s guide
Three rules for reading the evidence.
Separate attention from prevalence. A topic can become more visible without becoming more common.
Check the population and year. National estimates often describe different ages, definitions, and periods.
Treat disagreement as information. When signals diverge, the gap is a question to investigate, not a conclusion to disguise.