Kate Bowler sits down with writer Jenny Lawson and entertaining YouTuber Rhett McLaughlin to talk about the strange, often dark roots of comedy. From childhood anxiety and taxidermy-filled homes to lifelong creative friendships and faith that evolves, they explore how silliness, honesty, and absurdity help us live with what hurts. This is a conversation about being “too much,” laughing at what’s not funny, and finding connection in the weirdest parts of being human.

SHOW NOTES

• Tour dates & tickets: katebowler.com/joyfulanyway

• Watch the live conversation on YouTube

• Let’s Pretend This Never Happened — Jenny Lawson

• Furiously Happy — Jenny Lawson

• Broken (in the Best Possible Way) — Jenny Lawson 

• How to Be Okay (When You’re Not Okay) — Jenny Lawson 

• Rhett & Link / Mythical Entertainment

• Good Mythical Morning 

• James and the Shame (Rhett McLaughlin’s music project)

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SHOW NOTES

• Joyful, Anyway by Kate Bowler — Available everywhere books are sold.

• Tour dates & tickets: katebowler.com/joyfulanyway

• Watch on YouTube

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SHOW NOTES

• George Herbert, “The Pulley”

• Nick Cave

• Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry

• Tour dates & tickets: katebowler.com/joyfulanyway

• Watch the live conversation on YouTube

• Join Kate Bowler on Substack for the season of Lent: katebowler.substack.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

But what if the invitation is something else?

Kate Bowler sits down with writer and speaker Suleika Jaouad (Between Two Kingdoms, The Book of Alchemy) for a conversation about living inside unresolved questions—especially the ones that ache. Together, they talk about ambition and exhaustion, chronic illness and uncertainty, and the quiet shifts that happen when nothing seems to change.

They explore the tension between momentum and meaning, the limits of self-improvement, and what it looks like to keep going without pretending everything is fixable.

SHOW NOTES

• Suleika Jaouad’s Isolation Journals (Substack)

• Between Two Kingdoms — Suleika Jaouad

• The Book of Alchemy — Suleika Jaouad

• Tour dates & tickets: katebowler.com/joyfulanyway

• Watch the live conversation on YouTube

• Join Kate Bowler on Substack for the season of Lent: katebowler.substack.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SHOW NOTES

• Sounding the Seasons by Malcolm Guite

• Lifting the Veil by Malcolm Guite

• Seamus Heaney, Station Island

• George Herbert, “Prayer”

• Gerard Manley Hopkins, the “terrible sonnets” (including “No worst, there is none”) and The Wreck of the Deutschland

• T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

• C.S. Lewis, “Blue Spells and Flowered Spheres”

• Tour dates & tickets: katebowler.com/joyfulanyway

• Watch the live conversation on YouTube

• Join Kate Bowler on Substack for the season of Lent: katebowler.substack.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SHOW NOTES:

• Mark Rank, The Random Factor: How Chance and Luck Profoundly Shape Our Lives and the World Around Us

• Mark Rank – Washington University in St. Louis

• Christian Tomasetti et al., research on random mutations and cancer risk (Johns Hopkins)

• Every Cure (founded by David Fajgenbaum)

• Tour dates & tickets: katebowler.com/joyfulanyway

• Watch the live conversation on YouTube

• Join Kate Bowler on Substack for the season of Lent: katebowler.substack.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SHOW NOTES

• Ross Douthat
  • Bad Religion
  • Believe
  • The Deep Places
• Molly Worthen
  • Apostles of Reason
  • Spellbound

• Pre-order Joyful Anyway by Kate Bowler

• Tour dates & tickets: katebowler.com/joyfulanyway

• Watch the live conversation on YouTube

• Join Kate Bowler on Substack for the season of Lent: katebowler.substack.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kate Bowler talks with theologian, pastor, and writer Patrik Hagman, whose life has been shaped by profound loss—including the death of his father, his young son, and later his wife. Raised in Finland and now living in Sweden, Patrik brings a distinctly Nordic perspective on happiness—not as constant joy or self-optimization, but as contentment, trust, and gratitude that survives close proximity to fragility.

This is a conversation about living with fewer explanations and more honesty. About faith that refuses easy answers. About the strange clarity that comes when life gets very small and very bright at the same time. And about learning to be less surprised by tragedy—and more surprised by goodness.

If you’re trying to hold grief and gratitude at once, this episode is for you.

SHOW NOTES

• Babettes Kulturhus (Linköping, Sweden) – community space for conversation, fika, and culture

• Stanley Hauerwas – theologian often referenced in the conversation

• Patrik Hagman – theologian, pastor, writer, and translator of Stanley Hauerwas’s work

• Pre-order Joyful Anyway by Kate Bowler

• Tour dates & tickets: katebowler.com/joyfulanyway

• Watch the live conversation on YouTube

• Join Kate Bowler on Substack for the season of Lent: katebowler.substack.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bishop Michael Curry is one of those people. A priest, pastor, and former Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, Bishop Curry has spent a lifetime reminding people that Christianity is not an argument to win or an identity to defend—it’s a practice of love.

Recorded in front of a room full of pastors, this conversation is a kind of holy pep talk for anyone who feels worn down by a fractured, exhausting world.

Show notes:

• Pre-order Joyful Anyway by Kate Bowler

• Tour dates & tickets: katebowler.com/joyfulanyway

• Watch the live conversation on YouTube

• Kate Bowler on Substack: katebowler.substack.com

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To kick off Season 16 of Everything Happens, Kate Bowler sits down live with beloved author and truth-teller Anne Lamott for a luminous, funny, and deeply honest conversation about shame, joy, faith, aging, love, and what it means to keep showing up anyway.

Recorded in front of a packed house at the historic Carolina Theatre in Durham, Kate and Anne talk about the shame that follows us from childhood, the relief of putting down our armor, and the small, ordinary acts of love that still matter. This is a conversation for anyone who feels tender, overwhelmed, skeptical of easy answers—and still hungry for hope.

Show notes:

• Anne Lamott on Substack

• Pre-order Joyful Anyway by Kate Bowler

• Tour dates & tickets: katebowler.com/joyfulanyway

• Watch the live conversation on YouTube

• Kate Bowler on Substack: katebowler.substack.com

• Anne Lamott

  • Bird by Bird

  • Operating Instructions

  • Traveling Mercies

  • Good Writing (with Neil Allen)

• Maggie Smith, "Good Bones"

• Naomi Shihab Nye, “Gate A-4”

• William Blake, “We are here to learn to endure the beams of love”

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

CW: Death of parents, tongue cancer

For show notes, the transcript, and discussion questions, click here.

Subscribe to Kate’s Substack for blessings, essays, and reflections that hold what’s hard and beautiful.

This episode originally aired December 2022.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Kathryn discuss:

• Why we want to keep a lid on the scary things of life 

• What even is palliative care

• How palliative care-type thinking can help us live better 

• What happens to hope when facing end of life

This is a masterclass in walking right up to the edge with people, in the most gentle, compassionate way. 

If you liked this episode, you’ll also love: 

• Sunita Puri on living in uncertainty

• Rev. Tom Long on the importance of the rituals for death and dying

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

This episode originally aired October 2024.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's episode, Oliver Burkeman (bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals) and Kate unravel some of the beautiful lies we cling to about time and control, the fantasy of hyper-efficiency, and what it might look like to embrace the limits that make us who we are. 

In this conversation, Kate and Oliver discuss: 

• Some of the most common self-help myths that stand in our way

• Why the relentless pursuit of self-improvement often leaves us feeling empty, anxious, and overwhelmed. 

• How embracing our limits can lead to more contentment

This is a conversation about limits—not as something to overcome, but as a doorway to something richer, deeper, and (dare I say) more human.

If you liked this episode, you’ll also love: 

• Katie Couric on The Courage to Try (and Wisdom to Know When to Let Go)

• Susan David on Toxic Positivity

• Samantha Irby on Doing My Best (Life Now)

• Elizabeth Gilbert on Why Your Creativity Matters

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Subscribe to Kate’s Substack for blessings, essays, and reflections that hold what’s hard and beautiful. 

This episode originally aired December 2024.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

But Advent tells another story. God did not arrive in a grand gesture—no skywriting, no fireworks, no leather interior with heated seats. Love slipped into a Bethlehem stable, swaddled in rags. 

This is not the love we usually want. We’d prefer it to be shiny and obvious. Instead, God gives us the kind of love that chooses vulnerability. A baby who cannot even hold up his huge noggin. A terrified teenage mom. And a dad who's trying to believe this is not all a terrible mistake.

And yet—this is the love that remakes the whole world. Not quick or efficient, but slow and human. Love that needs to be changed and snuggled. Love that grows up to sit with outcasts and weep at gravesides and promise that nothing—not even death—can separate us from God.

So here we are, a few days from Christmas, and maybe the invitation is to look for love in small ways. In a text that says, “Made it home safe.” In a neighbor shoveling your walkway. Love in the God who came close, unnoticed but never unneeded.

Subscribe to Kate’s Substack for blessings, essays, and reflections that hold what’s hard and beautiful. Join us for Advent over there, too!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Jenna discuss:

• How to model openness and empathy across difference (even when people really, really disagree)
• Why they want to raise their kids to be curious and independent
• How the love of others makes us brave—brave enough to make mistakes (and why that’s okay)

Kate visited Jenna in New York City for this conversation. And Jenna is just as lovely and generous of spirit as you’d imagine.

CW: fertility issues; Alzheimer’s 

Subscribe to Kate’s Substack for blessings, essays, and reflections that hold what’s hard and beautiful. Join us for Advent over there, too!

This episode originally aired September 2023.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

That’s why many churches will hold “Blue Christmas” services next week. It’s an American tradition that says out loud what so many feel quietly: the holidays can hurt. These services dim the lights, play gentler music, light blue candles, and make space for grief. They remind us that the story of Christmas itself is no stranger to darkness—Jesus was born into a world of oppression and fear. Joy didn’t arrive because the world was perfect; it arrived anyway.

I thought perhaps now, only halfway through the Advent season, it might be a good time to take a peek at the customs and traditions and plans that you’ve got on the calendar and see if you need to make any room for grief. Maybe the invitation of Advent is not to blast the cheeriest carol until we believe it, but to prepare room for joy by telling the truth. By letting sorrow breathe. By choosing practices that gently turn our hearts back toward joy without pretending the sadness is gone.

What might that look like for you? A quiet walk near some city Christmas lights. A playlist that mixes Bing Crosby with a hymn that actually makes you cry. A phone call to the person who understands the empty chair at your table.

Joy doesn’t demand we silence our grief. It asks us to make just enough room for God to slip in beside it. And sometimes, that tiny crack of space is all joy needs to return.

Subscribe to Kate’s Substack for blessings, essays, and reflections that hold what’s hard and beautiful. Join us for Advent over there, too!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

But not a sweet lullaby. Mary belts out a protest song:

“He has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty” (Luke 1:52–53).

This is not the peace of spa music and chamomile tea. It’s the kind of peace that rearranges the furniture of the universe. That scatters the arrogant and topples the unjust. God’s peace doesn’t politely avoid conflict; it writes the soundtrack for a revolution.

And somehow, Mary holds all of this—terror, disruption, and hope—in her own body. She sings peace into a world that did not ask for it, but desperately needs it. And here we are, centuries later, humming along too.

Subscribe to Kate’s Substack for blessings, essays, and reflections that hold what’s hard and beautiful. Join us for Advent over there, too!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s easy, this time of year, to let December carry us away. The shopping carts, the streaming playlists, the endless events. Advent, though, asks us to live by a different rhythm. The early church saw this season as one of watching and waiting—not just for Christmas morning, but for the whole story of God’s redemption. They began the year not by rushing, but by slowing down.

The prophet Isaiah describes this posture well: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15). The church fathers loved this verse because it sounded like Advent: strength found not in frantic activity, but in patient trust.

So maybe the invitation this December is not to do more, but to intend more. To decide, amid the cookie dough and to-do lists, that this month won’t only be measured in packages mailed or tables set, but in moments of return. Little pauses of prayer. A fat candle lit on the dining room table that makes you take a breath. A quiet reminder that God is coming, and we don’t have to hold the season—or our lives—together by ourselves.

So welcome to December, friends. Whether you’re ahead of the game or already behind, you are exactly where you need to be: at the beginning.

Subscribe to Kate’s Substack for blessings, essays, and reflections that hold what’s hard and beautiful. Join us for Advent over there, too!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• How conversations might engender the intimacy we need to get by
• Fostering the right interpersonal and listening skills it takes to approach a difficult topic (especially when you’re feeling nervous)
• Best practices for responding to someone’s hard news
• How learning to listen might bridge differences of all kinds

What do we lose when we don’t talk about hard things? And what might we gain if we do?

Subscribe to Kate’s Substack for blessings, essays, and reflections that hold what’s hard and beautiful.

Join us for Advent over on Substack!

This episode originally aired April 2022.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SHOW NOTES:

• Books by Nikki Grimes: Ordinary Hazards – A memoir in verse chronicling Nikki’s traumatic childhood; Glory in the Margins – A collection of Sunday poems exploring faith and resilience; A Cup of Quiet – A children’s book about the sweet bond between a grandmother and granddaughter; The Road to Paris – A semi-autobiographical novel inspired by Nikki’s experience in foster care.
• Poems read in this episode: Holy Architecture – from Glory in the Margins, Habitation – from Glory in the Margins
• Support guides: When You’ve Been Hurt as a Child, When Your Family is Complicated
• Subscribe to Kate’s Substack for blessings, essays, and reflections that hold what’s hard and beautiful.
• Join us for Advent over on Substack!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It’s easy to get swept up in a cycle of holidays that feels more like a relentless to-do list than a source of joy. In this Celebration Roundtable, we talk about how to embrace the holidays as opportunities for intentional connection and meaning.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SHOW NOTES:

• Special Olympics — The global movement founded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver and now led by Tim.
• Dignity Index — A practical tool for scoring how we speak across difference, helping us learn to disagree without contempt.
• Unite — A bridge-building initiative founded by Tim Shriver to foster common ground and shared dignity.
• CASEL — The pioneering framework for social and emotional learning Tim helped develop.
• Fully Alive: Discovering What Matters Most — Tim’s memoir on faith, family, and the pursuit of a life that really matters.
• Subscribe to Kate’s Substack for blessings, essays, and reflections that hold what’s hard and beautiful.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Show Notes:

• Sarah Wildman’s award-winning writing at The New York Times

• Leonard Cohen’s “Who By Fire”

• Jewish practices of grief (shiva) and care (bikur cholim)

• Blessing for Life After Loss

• Support Guides: Parenting a Medically-Complicated Child, When Your Child is in Pain, When You’ve Been Diagnosed

• Orli, in all her joy: @orli_halpern on TikTok

• For those of us who live on a different planet now: Small Talk Survivor Tee | Mug

• Kate’s Substack – blessings, reflections, and our tender corner of the internet

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SHOW NOTES:

• Gabor Maté – on trauma, addiction, and the pain beneath our coping mechanisms

• “Innocence is one’s ability to be found by the world.” – A reflection on David Whyte’s invitation to stay open
• Maslow, Indigenous wisdom, and the reminder that community is what makes us feel safe

• Support Guides: When Your Child is in Pain, When You've Been Hurt as a Child, Those Who Give and Need Support

• Come hang out in our new favorite corner of the internet: Kate's Substack.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Show notes:

• Catherine Newman’s Work: Wreck (Novel), We All Want Impossible Things (Novel), Waiting for Birdy (Memoir), Catastrophic Happiness (Memoir), Crone Sandwich (Substack)

• A Blessing for When Love Makes Us Afraid (as read on the episode)

• Come hang out in our new favorite corner of the internet: Kate's Substack.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Together, they talk about the long shadow of religious shame, the courage it takes to tell the truth, and what it means to stay present with people we can’t fix. This conversation is tender, fierce, and unflinchingly honest.

This episode includes discussion of suicide at the beginning and end of the episode. If you're struggling, you can call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

SHOW NOTES:

• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline — Call or text 988 if you or someone you love is struggling. You are not alone.

• A Truce That Is Not Peace by Miriam Toews — her newest memoir and the heart of this conversation

• All My Puny Sorrows, Fight Night, Women Talking — beloved novels by Miriam Toews

• Join Kate on Substack — katebowler.substack.com for blessings, essays, and kind conversation

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Kate and Parker discuss:

• finding agency in the midst of depression and despair (including his trick of redefining achievement)

• why it is important to recalibrate our sense of reality—especially in the face of 24-hour news cycles and social media algorithms

• how a broken heart can either shatter or break open into a larger, more compassionate way of being

So on a day like today when we all might be thinking about the state of our nation or the state of our world or the realities at stake for our families and friends (....or perhaps, more tempted to keep our head in the sand to just make it through Thanksgiving), might we pull up close and listen to what Parker has to teach us about how to keep our hearts soft and remain hopeful, still. 

If you liked this episode, you’ll also love: 

• Sharon McMahon on the small differences we can make

• Will Willimon on aging into a new vocation

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

This episode originally aired in November 2024.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After surviving a stage-four cancer diagnosis, Kate Bowler knew she was supposed to be grateful. Alive. Blessed. But she still ached—for more connection, more surprise, less resentment on an ordinary day.

So she went looking for joy. Not the toxic positivity kind. Not a 5-step plan. But the type that sneaks in unexpectedly, seemingly out of nowhere. A lemur sunbathing. A belly laugh at a funeral. A dive into the Atlantic with a shark wrangler.

In Joyful, Anyway, Bowler takes us on a hilarious and tender journey through big questions and small delights. With wry wit and deep honesty, she explores how joy can surprise us even in the middle of pain, boredom, and longing.

This is not a book about fixing your life. It is about how we can all find more—feel more—by making room for small extraordinary moments. For anyone who has ever felt stuck, who is achy for meaning, who feels undone by loss, who feels that joy is just out of reach, who wants, simply, to have more fun, Joyful Anyway is a delicious, insightful tour through the questions that sit in the deepest part of our souls. It proves that for every time we ask: Is this it? Joy will answer: there is more.

Joyful, Anyway releases on April 7, 2026, but you can pre-order now from all of your favorite retailers.

• Bookshop

• Amazon

• Apple Books

• Barnes & Noble

• Indigo

Check out that gorgeous cover!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Show Notes:

• The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body’s Fear Response by Ellen Vora, MD

• Join Kate on Substack for essays, blessings, and cultural commentary.

• Shake it out – Ellen recommends a 90-second shake (yes, really!) as one way to complete the stress cycle.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ai-jen Poo—award-winning organizer and executive director of the National Domestic Workers Alliance—joins Kate Bowler to talk about caregiving in America. Who provides it. Who’s left out. And why we need a system that treats care as the sacred, shared labor that it is.

Together they explore:

• Why more than 100 million Americans are caregiving right now
• What it costs to support a loved one—and why the math doesn’t add up
• The long shadow of slavery in how we treat domestic workers today
• Why dignity and agency are essential in every stage of life
• What it would look like to build a policy solution that works for everyone

If you’re carrying the care of someone else—or fearing the moment when you will—this conversation is for you.

Show Notes

• Caring Across Generations – A movement co-led by Ai-jen Poo to transform the way we care in America.

• National Domestic Workers Alliance – Advocating for the dignity and rights of the people who care for our homes and loved ones.

• The Age of Dignity by Ai-jen Poo – A powerful read on what the “elder boom” means for all of us.

• Find your elected officials – Contact Congress to protect Medicaid and support caregiving policies.

• State-by-state Medicaid info – Learn what Medicaid is called in your state and how it supports care.

• Congressional Budget Office – For context on recent Medicaid budget cuts and projections for coverage loss.

• Aspen Ideas Festival

• Share your caregiving story on Substack – Join the conversation with others who are navigating care.

• A Blessing for Care-Givers and Care-Receivers – A gentle word for those in the trenches of giving or needing care.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jen Hatmaker joins Kate Bowler for a conversation about faith, divorce, and the slow art of healing. After the collapse of her marriage and being pushed out of the evangelical world, Jen had to figure out how to live again—how to co-parent, pay bills, go to therapy, and mother herself after decades of being the “pastor’s wife.”

They talk about:

• What it means to lose a marriage, a career, and a community—at once

• The weight of being a “good” evangelical woman

• Codependency, caretaking, and letting your kids have their pain

• The deep joy of discovering you can rebuild from scratch

This is for the people who are learning how to live when the story changes. A conversation about grief, grace, and not doing it alone.

Show Notes:

• Awake by Jen Hatmaker – her latest book on rebuilding a life after loss

• Support Guides — for divorce, caregiving, and rebuilding from the Everything Happens Project

• Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day! by Kate Bowler – meditations for the ups, downs, and in-betweens

• The Preacher’s Wife by Kate Bowler 

• For the Love podcast with Jen Hatmaker

• Jen Hatmaker's book club – a delightfully honest reading community

• Come hang out in our favorite little corner of the internet, Kate's Substack.

• Check out the last time Jen joined Kate on the Everything Happens podcast!

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kate sits down with Dr. Becky Kennedy—a clinical psychologist and creator of Good Inside—to talk about the heartbreak and hope of parenting. What does it mean to raise (or re-raise) someone with compassion and boundaries, especially when you never learned how?

Whether you're parenting toddlers, teens, or the little one inside yourself, this conversation offers grace for anyone trying again.

Show Notes:

• Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy — parenting platform, book, and podcast

• A Blessing for When You're Not the Parent You Meant to Be 

• katebowler.substack.com — essays, blessings, and community reflections

• Support Guide: When Your Child is in Pain — for parents supporting kids through emotional struggle

• Support Guide: Those Who Care for Teens — compassionate care for older children

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kate sits down with best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love; Big Magic) to talk about the toll and the tenderness of caregiving. Liz’s new memoir, All the Way to the River, chronicles her years caring for someone she loved deeply through addiction and illness—and what it meant to finally let go.

Together, they explore:

1. What it means to walk someone you love to the edge of life

2. How codependence disguises itself as devotion

3. The permission we need to be more than someone’s lifeline

This conversation is for anyone who has ever loved to the point of exhaustion. Who wonders if love is meant to cost this much. Who needs a blessing for the moment when helping means losing yourself.

🧡 Listen with care. Leave with permission.

Find Kate on Substack.
Grab your Everything Happens Merch.

Books by Elizabeth Gilbert

• All the Way to the River – A raw memoir of caregiving, addiction, and release

• Big Magic – On creativity, inspiration, and the discipline of making

• Eat, Pray, Love – A bestselling memoir on desire, spirituality, and selfhood

• The Signature of All Things – A novel of science, wonder, and the search for understanding

Resources + Mentions

• TED Talk: Your Elusive Creative Genius – Liz’s viral TED talk on creative brilliance

• Alcoholics Anonymous – A spiritual practice of surrender discussed in the episode

• Sky Cave Retreats – Where Liz spent five days in total darkness

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Together, they talk about caregiving, end-of-life decisions, and how the most honest conversations in healthcare begin—not with answers—but with better questions.

For anyone living with chronic illness, caring for someone they love, or wondering what it means to live a good life with limits, this conversation won’t offer easy fixes. But it might offer something just as rare: clarity, compassion, and the courage to ask what really matters.

Watch the full episode on YouTube: Kate C. Bowler on YouTube

Subscribe to Kate’s Substack: katebowler.substack.com

Show notes: 

• The Aspen Ideas Festival

• Being Mortal by Dr. Atul Gawande

• The Green House Project

• Ari Johnson & Muso Health

• Organizations for further action: World Food Programme, UNICEF, American Red Cross

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

But here we are—still tired, still trying, still wondering if change is even possible. In this episode, I reflect on the seasons when we ache to become someone else. Someone better and explore the ancient idea of virtue—especially the least sexy one, prudence—as a compass for who we’re becoming and how.

Rooted in Christian theology, this episode is for the slow changers. The late bloomers. The people choosing one small, faithful step instead of a total overhaul.

Plus, it includes a blessing for anyone who’s trying to change... but not overnight.

📘 Want more blessings like this? Pick up Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day 
💌 Join the conversation on Substack: katebowler.substack.com.
🎧 Listen to more episodes at katebowler.com/podcasts.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Margaret discuss:

• What we miss when we imagine we have to drive somewhere else to experience nature, instead of noticing it around us
• What birds teach us about what it means to be a good mother
• How to learn to love even the mosquitoes and wasps
• Where Margaret experiences moments of holiness
• How we might all start to be besotted by beauty

Perhaps, we can borrow some of Margaret’s innate curiosity together and see how it might open us up to wonder and love and connectedness once again.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Instead, what if we embraced a gentler kind of ambition? Kate reflects on the sacred permission of Sabbath, the theology of rest, and how even our underachieving might be a form of holy resistance.

If you’re feeling overcooked, overwhelmed, or just plain over it—this one’s for you.

Relevant Links:
Sabbath as Resistance by Walter Brueggemann
Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day by Kate Bowler
A Blessing for the Burnt Out, Soul-Drenched, and Sun-Weary

Kate's now on Substack! Read her writing here.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This conversation is an invitation to live differently—to embrace rest, love, and the sacredness of simply being. For the overachievers, the caregivers, and the deeply tired (you know who you are): you are already enough.

In this conversation, Kate and Maria discuss:

• How to see one another (and ourselves) through a lens of love

• How to give yourself permission to rest and procrastinate

• The difference between meaningful work and the hustle that leaves us hollow

If you liked this episode, you’ll also love: 

• Oliver Burkeman: New Year, Same Me

• Liz Gilbert: Why Your Creativity Matters

• Emma Gannon: The Butterfly Era

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Suleika Jaouad knows this terrain well. She’s a writer, artist, and advocate, beloved for her memoir Between Two Kingdoms and her new offering The Book of Alchemy—a creative companion for those learning to live when life doesn’t go according to plan. Diagnosed with leukemia in her twenties and now navigating her third relapse, Suleika brings a voice shaped by experience, beauty, grief, and humor.

Together again on the Everything Happens podcast, Suleika and Kate talk about:

• how illness reshapes the rhythms of a life
• the grief and freedom of falling apart—and not rushing to fix it
• the idea of “creative injuries” and why so many of us stopped making
• how small rituals can anchor us in seasons of uncertainty
• why creating something, anything, can be a way to stay human in the in-between

If you liked this episode, you might also like: 

• Artist Lanecia Rouse Tinsley on “When Hope Seems Lost”
• Stacey Heale, “The Aftermath of the Aftermath”
• Suleika’s first and second Everything Happens episodes

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

They reflect on the surprising twists that led from political aspirations and magazine dreams to woodworking, parenting, and a television show that celebrates belonging. Along the way, they explore how creativity is born out of necessity, making a home, building a community, and loving the place where you are. 

In this episode, they discuss:

• The ache and joy of making a home in the place that raised you
• How small acts of community build a life
• The beauty of third places and why talking to strangers still matters

If you liked this episode, you may also like: 

• Angela Williams on The Caring Power of Community
• Sharon McMahon, Drops Make an Ocean
• Priya Parker on The Art of Gathering

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this tender and fiercely honest conversation, Stacey and Kate talk about what it means to love someone all the way to the end, and then somehow keep living. They explore the invisible labor of caregiving, the loneliness of anticipatory grief, and the weird sacredness of the small things that break you. There are no perfect endings here. Just the beauty and brutality of trying to live inside a love that doesn’t get to last.

Heads up: There’s some strong language in this episode—because sometimes life is just too much for tidy words.

In this conversation, Kate and Stacey discuss:

• Why we grieve the ordinary things like school plays and grocery store noodles
• What it means to love someone without believing in soulmates
• The quiet devastation of living in the “before and after”
• The strange glow of early grief and what happens when it fades

If you liked this episode, you’ll also like: 

• John Green: Chronic not Curable
• Clover Stroud: The Rituals of Grief
• Tembi Locke: Grief of the Almosts

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this tender and funny conversation, Kimberly reflects on the long goodbye of her mother’s illness, what she regrets, and what she’s still learning. She shares how her father’s openness to his own diagnosis reshaped the way she wants to live now—with more transparency, more humor, and more love. Together, Kate and Kimberly explore how love and loss keep unfolding, long after the moment you thought goodbye had already come.

In this conversation, Kate and Kimberly discuss:

• How secrecy during illness can isolate the people who need connection most
• The absurd moments that helped their family survive the hardest days
• What it means to keep finding someone, even after they’re gone
• Parenting teenagers with more curiosity and less control

If you liked this episode, you might also like: 

• Rabbi Steve Leder on showing up for people in grief
• John Swinton on the art of presence

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amanda Doyle has spent much of her life being that person. In this conversation, she joins Kate to talk about what happens when helping becomes a way to stay in control, when strength hides tenderness, and when receiving love might be the bravest thing we do. She shares her experience of parenting a neurodivergent child, walking through a breast cancer diagnosis, and learning to see herself as worthy of the care she so freely gives to others.

This episode is about the ache of being the strong one—and the grace of letting that go, just a little.

In this episode, Amanda and Kate discuss:

• How a lifelong habit of fixing became both a strength and a struggle
• The quiet, radical act of letting people show up for you
• What Amanda wishes more people knew about dense breast tissue and early cancer detection
• The power of being seen—even before you have it all figured out

If you liked this episode, you might also like: 

• Kate’s conversation with Amanda’s sister, Glennon Doyle, “The Love Bridge”
• Gary Haugen, “Joy is the Oxygen”
• Father Greg Boyle, “Unshakable Goodness”

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Lisa talk about:

• The difference between normal teenage emotions and when it’s time to worry
• Why “emotional does not equal fragile” (and why kids need us to believe that)
• How to talk to teenagers in a way that builds trust and connection
• The biggest factors that shape teen mental health (hint: sleep matters more than you think!)
• When social media becomes a problem—and how to set guardrails that actually work

If you liked this episode, you may enjoy:

• Lisa Damour Part 1, Understanding Today’s Teenagers
• Pamela Morris Perez on Suicide Prevention and Hope
• Our Talking to Kids Support Guide

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this tender and deeply wise conversation, Kate Bowler speaks with Father Ron Rolheiser—beloved Roman Catholic priest, theologian, and bestselling author—about the ache that lives in all of us... and why it might be the most holy part of who we are. This episode is for anyone who feels a little restless, a little disappointed, or just plain tired—and is looking for a spirituality big enough to hold the beautiful, unfinished life they’re living.

In this conversation, Kate and Ron discuss:

• Why we all have an ache inside of us (and why that’s okay)
• The convalescence you may need from church communities that have hurt you
• How living in six-month intervals can teach us what really matters

If you liked this episode, you’ll also love: 

• Nadia Bolz-Weber, “The Insight of Outsiders”

Richard Rohr, “Learning to Hold On, Learning to Let Go”

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Melinda French Gates has lived through some of life’s biggest transitions. In this conversation, she reflects on what it means to stay open when life is changing—quietly or all at once. To hold your own hand when everything feels uncertain. To lean on the people who tell you the truth. And to remember that good enough is more than just survival—it can be a way forward.

If you’re in the middle of something—grief, reinvention, or a season that feels like wandering—this conversation is a soft place to land.

In this conversation, Kate and Melinda discuss:

• Why transitions—chosen or not—ask us to be braver than we feel
• How to listen to the inner voice that won’t go quiet
• The beauty of being a “good enough” parent, partner, or person
• Why our friendships might be the most sacred thing we have
• What it means to be held—by community, by love, by something even bigger

If you liked this episode, you’ll also love: 

• Nicholas Kristof, "Hope is a Muscle"
• Sharon McMahon, "Drops Make an Ocean"
• Gregory Boyle, "The Case for Hope"

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• Why faith is meant to evolve–and why certainty was never the goal
• The grief of spiritual disillusionment and what comes after
• The beauty (and cost) of trying to be faithful together
• Why God is not just in the light, but in the dark, too.
  
  

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Kate and Simone talk about:

• What it means to build a life that constantly asks for more—more patience, more sacrifice, more resilience than you ever thought you had.
• When your partner’s job becomes an identity—and you’re expected to adapt.
• The loneliness of waiting, the friendships that save us, and the pressure to be “strong.”

If you liked this episode, you may also love:

• Cindy McCain
• Willie Jennings 
• Priya Parker
  
  

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this tender and funny conversation, Jeff and Kate talk about what it means to be changed—by grief, by love, by the kind of calling that makes zero practical sense. They talk about complicated families, appropriate smallness, and what it means to belong to one another in just-because texts, foreign potato chips, and a rice cooker packed in a suitcase. Sometimes resurrection doesn’t look like a clean slate. Sometimes it looks like compost. Hope grows slowly. But oh, it grows.

In this conversation, Kate and Jeff discuss:

• Why God’s call often doesn’t add up (and still won’t leave us alone)
• The theology of compost: how death, rot, and loss make way for new life
• How to live like we are beloved—even when life doesn’t feel that way
• Why small, ordinary graces are how we build the world we want
  
  

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Pádraig discuss:

• Why peace is exhausting, fragile, and still worth fighting for

• The surprising role of curiosity in transforming division

• How belonging can comfort us—and cost us

If you liked this episode, check out:

• Safiya Sinclair on Rewriting Roots

• Nadia Bolz Weber on the Insight of Outsiders

• Lanecia Rouse on When Hope Seems Lost

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Amy talk about: 

• The relentless churn of perfectionism—and what happens when we finally let some of it go
• How psychedelic-assisted therapy helped Amy unlock long-buried trauma 
• The surprising joy of telling the truth—even when it feels impossible
• Why healing isn’t about erasing the past—it’s about learning to carry it differently  

If you liked this episode, you may also enjoy: 

• Charles Spencer on Confronting the Past
• Rachel Denhollender on The Pursuit of Justice
• Our support guide for processing a painful childhood
• As well as our episodes with Minka Kelly, Beth Moore, Maggie Smith, and Wilma Derksen

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this humorous and heartfelt conversation, Coach K and Kate discuss:

• Why trust (not talent) is what makes a team great.

• The courage it takes to offer honest feedback—even when it’s uncomfortable.

• How to call out the best in others (and yourself).

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this special Ask Kate Anything episode, Kate answers your biggest, messiest questions: How do we stay soft in a brutal world? How do we practice Lent when life is already exhausting? What do we do when faith unravels? And because sometimes words aren’t enough, singer-songwriter Katelyn Tarver stops by to perform her song “Sh*t Happens,” an anthem for all of us who know that life doesn’t always make sense.

In this episode, Kate discusses:

• Why Lent is for the weary, the doubting, and the grieving.
• How to hold both grief and hope.
• A faith that doesn’t demand you have it all figured out.

You’re invited to join us for lent—ashes, doubts, imperfections, and all. Download The Hardest Part Lent Guide for free at katebowler.com/lent.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

As U.S. Surgeon General (twice!), Vivek confronted some of the biggest public health challenges of our time—addiction, youth mental health, the opioid crisis. But at the heart of it all was something deeply human: our need for each other. In this conversation, Kate and Vivek talk about what actually makes a life full—not perfect, not endlessly productive, but anchored in love and belonging. 

Together, they discuss:

• The quiet ache of loneliness and why so many of us feel it

• Why relationships, purpose, and service are the real building blocks of a fulfilled life

• Small, practical ways to reach out, even when it feels awkward

• How asking for help might bring us closer, not pull us apart.

If you liked this conversation, you might also enjoy: 

• Made to Belong - Vivek Murthy & Jon Scheyer

• Hope is a Muscle - Nikolas Kristof

• The Art of Gathering - Priya Parker

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NT Wright, a New Testament scholar, is a trusted expert to help us understand what truths resound across time and circumstance and which don’t. In this conversation, Kate and Tom dig in especially on Romans 8:28 which is the Pauline version of EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON. Is that what Paul intended to say? Is there maybe another, more life-giving way to interpret it instead? 

Kate and NT Wright also discuss:

• The importance of lament as a response to the human condition
• Why we have such a low tolerance for uncertainty
• Which scripture to turn to when life comes apart (and which to avoid) 
• What our response should be to others who are in pain or experiencing tragedy

This is a bit of a Bible-nerd out, but I would trust no one else to help us better make sense of where is God when we’re suffering than NT Wright. 

This clip originally aired in October 2023.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This conversation is an invitation to live differently—to embrace rest, love, and the sacredness of simply being. For the overachievers, the caregivers, and the deeply tired (you know who you are): you are already enough.

In this conversation, Kate and Maria discuss:

• How to see one another (and ourselves) through a lens of love

• How to give yourself permission to rest and procrastinate

• The difference between meaningful work and the hustle that leaves us hollow

If you liked this episode, you’ll also love: 

• Oliver Burkeman: New Year, Same Me

• Liz Gilbert: Why Your Creativity Matters

• Emma Gannon: The Butterfly Era

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On today's episode, Oliver Burkeman (bestselling author of Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals) and Kate unravel some of the beautiful lies we cling to about time and control, the fantasy of hyper-efficiency, and what it might look like to embrace the limits that make us who we are. 

In this conversation, Kate and Oliver discuss: 

• Some of the most common self-help myths that stand in our way

• Why the relentless pursuit of self-improvement often leaves us feeling empty, anxious, and overwhelmed. 

• How embracing our limits can lead to more contentment

This is a conversation about limits—not as something to overcome, but as a doorway to something richer, deeper, and (dare I say) more human.

Sign up for our “Try January” Newsletter today, weekly prompts for a gentler New Year: katebowler.com/newsletter

If you liked this episode, you’ll also love: 

• Katie Couric on The Courage to Try (and Wisdom to Know When to Let Go)

• Susan David on Toxic Positivity

• Samantha Irby on Doing My Best (Life Now)

• Elizabeth Gilbert on Why Your Creativity Matters

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Safiya discuss:

• The intertwining of personal and national history

• The power of poetry as a means of self-discovery and resistance

• How Safiya broke free from familial and societal expectations

If you liked this conversation, you’ll also love: 

• Tara Westover on navigating complicated families

• Minka Kelly on learning to love your parents for who they are

• Support Guide for When Families are Complicated

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Advent is a season that leads us up to Christmas. And it is all about living with eyes wide open—seeing the world as it is, with all its cracks and flaws, and still holding on to the hope that everything wrong will one day be made right.

And if that sounds like your sort of thing, we made a free daily Advent guide just for you. It's filled with:

• daily reflections

• questions to mull over

• response activities

• opportunities to dive deeper

So, for today’s episode, I’m excited to share with you an excerpt from this year’s Advent guide. We’ll be exploring one of the days to give you a taste of what’s inside. Whether you’re following along with the guide or just listening in today, I hope this reflection speaks to you and brings a little more light into your day. 

Download your free Advent guide at katebowler.com/advent.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Dolly discuss:

1. The great loves that make up a life

2. The push-pull of loving relationships with your body 

3. The power of witness

If you liked this conversation, you'll also like:

• Liz Gilbert on fostering creative lives

• Sarah Bessey on living inside our (actual) bodies

• Tim Omundson and Joel McHale on being a friend through hard times

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this beautifully honest conversation, Kate and Sam talk about:

• Why love can be so hard

• What it means to let go of the need to “help”

• The surprising beauty of just… showing up 

For everyone exhausted by easy answers, this episode is a hand to hold in the dark.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Wilma discuss: 

• How we live with the things we cannot change

• What does forgiveness look like in practice

• How to start forgiving yourself

If you liked this episode, you might also like: 

• Malcolm Gladwell on whether people can change

• Jerry Sittser on reflecting on tragedy decades later

CW: murder of a child

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

If you want to hear more conversations like this one, listen to A Slight Change of Plans wherever you get your podcasts. Plus, the show has new episodes coming on November 11.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Kate and Parker discuss:

• finding agency in the midst of depression and despair (including his trick of redefining achievement)

• why it is important to recalibrate our sense of reality—especially in the face of 24-hour news cycles and social media algorithms

• how a broken heart can either shatter or break open into a larger, more compassionate way of being

So on a day like today when we all might be thinking about the state of our nation or the state of our world or the realities at stake for our families and friends (....or perhaps, more tempted to keep our head in the sand to just make it through Thanksgiving), might we pull up close and listen to what Parker has to teach us about how to keep our hearts soft and remain hopeful, still. 

If you liked this episode, you’ll also love: 

• Sharon McMahon on the small differences we can make

• Will Willimon on aging into a new vocation

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Charles discuss:

• the challenge and catharsis of writing about personal trauma

• the casual cruelty Charles and his peers endured

• what happens when our innocence is stolen from us at a young age

• what healing looks like 50 years later

If you liked this conversation, might also like: 

• Rachel Denhollender on getting justice you deserve

• Tara Westover on how our parents’ best might still not be enough

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A rare illness upended it all. Tembi spent ten years as Saro’s caregiver before he died. In her grief, Tembi took their young daughter back to Sicily to see what of her husband she could find there—in his culture, in his food, and with his family.

In this conversation, Kate and Tembi discuss: 

• becoming the architect of your life 

• the effects of long-term caregiving (both the beauty and the cost)

• who grief makes us

If you liked this episode, you’ll also love: 

• Katherine and Jay Wolf on what caregiving costs us

• Thomas Lynch on how we become who we miss

• John Swinton on living at the speed of love

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Kathryn discuss:

• Why we want to keep a lid on the scary things of life 

• What even is palliative care

• How palliative care-type thinking can help us live better 

• What happens to hope when facing end of life

This is a masterclass in walking right up to the edge with people, in the most gentle, compassionate way. 

If you liked this episode, you’ll also love: 

• Sunita Puri on living in uncertainty

• Rev. Tom Long on the importance of the rituals for death and dying

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Greg discuss:

• what it means to see unshakable goodness in others

• what it would mean for our carceral system if we sought to heal instead of punish

• how can we have a greater capacity for joy

If you liked this episode, you’ll also love: 

• Bryan Stevenson on rethinking what “justice” means

• Francis Collins on treating people kindly and with love

• Nicholas Kristof on hope as a muscle

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Christie discuss:

• The intricate aspects of aging for women

• The significance of nurturing strong female friendships 

• Making room for the absurd in our life

If you liked this episode, you will also love: 

• Christie Watson on what nurses teach us about the language of kindness

• Emma Gannon on whether we are in shut-it-down seasons or creative seasons

• Elizabeth Gilbert on finding our "purpose" (and why that is a load of BS)

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

To hear more episodes, search for Soul Boom wherever you get your podcasts or follow the links below:

Sign up for our newsletter! https://soulboom.substack.com
SUBSCRIBE to Soul Boom!! https://bit.ly/Subscribe2SoulBoom
Watch our Clips: https://www.youtube.com/@SoulBoomClips
Watch WISDOM DUMP: https://bit.ly/WISDOMDUMP

Follow us!
Instagram: http://instagram.com/soulboom
TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@soulboom
Sponsor Soul Boom: partnerships@voicingchange.media
Work with Soul Boom: business@soulboom.com
Send Fan Creations, Questions, Comments: hello@soulboom.com
Produced by: Kartik Chainani
Executive Produced by: Ford Bowers, Samah Tokmachi
Spring Green Films
Production Supervisor: Mike O'Brien
Voicing Change Media
Theme Music by: Marcos Moscat

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Sharon discuss: 

• why it’s not our job to fix every problem 

• how ordinary people can have an extraordinary impact 

• how to engage with others who may think or act (or vote!) differently than you 

If you loved this episode, you’ll also like:

• Cindy McCain on what courage looks like in action

• Judy Woodruff on living in our beautiful, terrible days

• Abigail Marsh on altruistic kidney donors

• Anna Sale on talking across difference

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Francis Collins led the National Institutes of Health during 2020—our season of collective “WHAT EVEN HAPPENED!?” He is still picking up the pieces of heartbreak from how people responded to one another and to science at the time. Yet he hasn’t lost his faith in humanity. 

In this conversation, Kate and Francis discuss: 

• Why faith and science seem at odds (and why they shouldn’t be)

• The importance of doubt and asking questions

• What happens when institutions (or their leaders) let us down and you’ll hear quite the case on practicing interdependence.

• How we might all have enough foolishness to imagine we can be part of bridging the great divides we see. 

If you liked this episode, you might also love: 

• Angela Williams on the importance of community care

• Maggie Jackson on what staying open-minded offers us

• David Brooks on asking better questions

To hear more conversations on science and faith with top scientists and Christian leaders, check out BioLogos’s Language of God podcast.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Richard B. Hays is a world-renowned scholar of the New Testament. He is also a dear friend and colleague of Kate Bowler. Richard and Kate were both unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer at the same time, which meant they spent many hours discussing the heart of what it means to hope. Their hard won wisdom adds such depth and heart to today’s episode.

In this conversation, Richard and Kate discuss:  

• What it means to be hopeful
• A rich theological perspective of suffering in light of the resurrection
• How to pray when you are living in uncertainty 
• Why it's never too late to change your mind as you grow older

This is a soulful conversation that embodies the humility it takes to change anything. Your mind. How your time is spent. Your certainties. We can’t wait to hear what you think. 

If you liked this episode, you might also love: 

• Will Willimon on vocation (especially as we age)
• Tom Long on learning to number our days
• Stanley Hauerwas on needing fewer explanations
• Jeff Chu on discovering grace for people who think unlike you

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this live conversation, Kate and Nicholas discuss: 

• How to maintain hope in the year ahead
• Nicholas’ best argument as to why this is the best time to be alive
• His strategies to seeing pain and courage up close over and over again
• Why our small actions matter (even when it feels like a drop in the ocean) 

If you liked this episode, you’ll love: 

• Bryan Stevenson on justice in the face of unthinkable odds

• David Fajgenbaum on how hope pulls us forward

• Sarah Polley on why we should run toward what scares us

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Kate Bowler. I’m a Duke professor, bestselling author, and your friendly neighborhood Canadian.

This is a show for people who have learned that life is… well, complicated. And we need better language to tell the truth about all of our ups and downs and in-betweens. I’ve always been fascinated by how we, as humans, try to make sense of suffering and happiness. Spoiler alert: there’s no magic formula, but there are some pretty brilliant minds who’ve given it a go. And I’m bringing them straight to your earbuds.

So, if you’re tired of coffee mug platitudes and are looking for something…more, join us. New episodes drop every Tuesday. Subscribe now and, together, let’s find a bit more hope, in a world where, well, everything happens.

A new season of honest-to-God funny conversations starts on September 3rd. 

Mark your calendar. Make sure you’re subscribed. You won’t want to miss this. 

EVERYTHING HAPPENS is available everywhere you get your podcasts. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cue Rob Delaney. 

Rob is a comedian, actor, writer, and director. His memoir, A Heart That Works is an unsparing account of the death of his beautiful son, Henry. Rob lives in London with his family where Kate visited him for this honest and hilarious conversation. 

Kate and Rob discuss:

• The importance of finding people who really understand what you’re feeling

• What not to say to people whose kids have died

• How tragic loss exiles you to a planet where only those who understand grief live

• The ways we hope grief metabolizes in us and transforms us into empathetic, heart-open kinds of people

Rob wants us all to understand that if the unthinkable happens, our hearts still beat so strong in truth and love. 

CW: hard-earned explicit language of a bereaved parent, death of parent, Suicide, death of a child

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Life is so beautiful. And life is so hard. For everyone. Sometimes at the same time. That is the premise behind my latest book of meditations called Have a Beautiful, Terrible Day! Perhaps these reflections on hope and fear in the midst of our real lives resonate with whatever it is you’re facing today.

Pick up a copy (or listen on audio) wherever books are sold.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, we discuss:  

• The mysterious way beauty can be found the closer we inch to death (our own or someone else’s).
• The importance of just showing up. And being you. 
• Honoring someone’s memory at the same time being truthful about how human they were
• The peace that comes from acknowledging that life is full of dualities 
• “If you have to go through hell, don’t come out empty handed” (Steve Leder), but no, the lessons were never, ever worth the pain

CW: suicide, adult language

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and David Fajgenbaum discuss:

• how love can turn hope into action
• what limited agency means
• how small steps can lead to big change

This episode originally aired in 2020. Stay tuned to the end to hear an incredible update from David and the work he is up to now. He has expanded from finding the cure for his own incurable disease to developing an organization that does the same for others. Incredible.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Lisa Damour (New York Times bestselling author of The Emotional Lives of Teenagers) has dedicated her life to unraveling the intricacies of adolescence and offering practical, heartfelt advice.

In this conversation, Lisa and Kate:

• offer a more reassuring definition of mental health (hint: it’s about having the right-sized feelings that fit the situation at hand and managing those feelings effectively). 
• emphasize the importance of being a steady presence in kids’ lives, as well as offer scripts to try with your own teenager
• give language to what parents might be feeling if they missed this kind of parenting themselves

 CW: Mental Health awareness 

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter). 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Kate and Thomas discuss: 

• How the habits of love are hard to break, no matter how old the person died who you grieve
• How those we grieve know our hearts and our love more fully
• What elements make up a good funeral

This episode originally aired in 2022, but we’re revisiting it because I think it might be the best conversation I’ve ever had. I can’t wait to hear what you think.

CW: suicide, death

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kwame and Kate discuss: 

• How we can’t outrun our grief
• How our own parents love us in the ways they want to be loved, but maybe not in the ways we need—and how we find our ways back to each other
• The desire to share with our kids how we love, where we fail, where we tried, and who we were before we were their parent

CW: death of parent, divorce

***

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and bestselling writer Suleika Jaouad discuss:

• What it is like to be the one suffering—all the guilt and shame and rage and mercy and grace 
• How we can create better economies of love around those who need it
• The toll illness takes on those around us

This episode originally aired in 2021, but is one of our all-time favorites for an honest conversation on being a cancer patient and how to support people in your lives who are undergoing treatment. Kate ends with a blessing for those who feel like their problem is too much to handle—a blessing if you feel like "the bad thing."

If you liked this episode, you might also love: 

• Suleika Jaouad on living between the kingdom of the well and the kingdom of the sick
• Tig Notaro on being the luckiest unlucky person
• For When You’ve Been Diagnosed Support Guide
• You are Not the Bad Thing Printable + Phone Background
• A blessing for the lives we didn’t choose
• A blessing for keeping our hearts soft when everything is broken

Don’t miss an episode. Sign up here to be the first to know about upcoming events near you, podcast guests, and more.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Abigail discuss: 

• The usefulness of fear
• What it means to be “brave”
• How we can all learn to belong to one another
• The power of empathy (and why it actually feels good to give to others)

This conversation originally aired in 2020, but is one we return to again and again as we think about how empathy expands our capacity for others. Listen for an update from Abigail on what her recent research is exploring.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Heather discuss:

• When our kids are considered “bad” by the world’s standards
• The doctor who said two perfect words to Heather
• How the divine sees everyone as good (and how we should seek to see through those same eyes)
• The difference between capacity building and deficit building

This conversation originally aired in 2020, but it is one we return to again and again for its beauty, its honesty, its courage. 

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Sunita discuss: 

• How to walk with one another through life’s ups and downs—especially health ups and downs
• What “palliative care” means (and how it is distinct from hospice) 
• The difference between what medicine can do and what medicine should do 
• Sunita’s script for how to talk to patients facing difficult diagnoses 

This conversation originally aired in 2020 but it is one of our all-time favorites.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate, Justin, and Don discuss:

• The grief of imagined futures 
• The particular needs of parents with cancer and those of widowed parents
• How to talk to kids about cancer 
• How to parent while you have cancer

Together, they uncover the magic of we.

This summer, we are re-sharing our all-time favorite episodes. While this conversation originally aired in 2020, Kate caught up with Don and Justin to get an update on what they are working on lately. You won’t want to miss their important (and practical!) update.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Together, they discuss:

• The apology Kate wishes she would have gotten (and the moving story about when she did)
• How fragility unites us
• How can we be more empathetic towards people we disagree with

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Samantha discuss:

• Samantha's hand of God moment that changed the trajectory of her life
• How the people who love us shape us into who we become
• What siblings or friends or partners teach us about intimacy

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Pamela discuss:

• Poignant reflections on being a suicide loss survivor from a parent who is grieving the loss of her child—a topic so rarely discussed
• Why we say “died by suicide”
• How we can prevent teen suicide—including what signs to look for, what to ask, and next steps to take when you’re concerned

In a very important way, this episode won’t create nearly as much anxiety as you think. Talking about suicide is one of the most important ways of making it less likely. So let’s find better language together, shall we?

If you need to talk to someone, call or text 988. If you are worried about someone, you too can call or text 988 to get resources. Remember: you matter. Please listen with care.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Chantal discuss:

• Setting necessary boundaries in complicated families
• The ups and downs of a marriage and the unexpected gifts that only reveal themselves when you commit to staying in it for the long haul
• A trick to starting a hard day

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Rainn discuss:

• How self-care is often a form of toxic individualism
• The current mental health crisis and the need for spiritual tools that provide vision, mission, and purpose
• How making oneself useful can be an antidote to despair

A big thank you to our friends at The Fetzer Institute for making today’s conversation possible. 

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Nicky discuss:

• Nicky’s reluctant conversion to Christianity
• How to stay open to the things we didn’t expect to happen.
• How age isn’t necessarily the limiter we might assume—perhaps there are opportunities or new ventures that can open up in our later third of life
• Why the church should be more like a hospital than a museum

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Emma Gannon discuss:

• Why ambition isn’t necessarily a bad thing
• How Emma reacted to a season of severe burnout and what wisdom she has for all of us
• How bucket lists can inadvertently place us in a game we are never going to win (Psst… It’s okay to simmer down a bit) 

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

But, according to writer Maggie Jackson, perhaps there is deep wisdom to be uncovered too—surprising gifts of curiosity, creative thinking, open-mindedness, and ways forward through the (often) unpredictabilities of life. 

In this conversation, Kate and Maggie Discuss:

• How uncertainty might foster creativity, resilience, and mutual understanding
• Why we avoid ambiguity and a few small steps to help us become more comfortable with not knowing
• How the practices of imagination and perspective-taking can help us see the potential in others
• Why focusing on outcomes can close you off from picking up new information, nuance, or other peoples' perspectives
• Why experiences contrary to our beliefs take longer, sometimes even weeks, to process

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here or visiting katebowler.com/podcasts.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler. Links to social pages and more available at linktr.ee/katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Alan and Kate discuss: 

•  Tricks for staying curious as we age
• How to talk to someone you disagree with
• How Alan hopes to destigmatize Parkinson’s Disease
• The difference between empathy and compassion and how to practice these important skills

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Richard talk about: 

• the gritty side of caregiving
• how to support people in grief (even when it makes you uncomfortable)
• the importance of knowing and being known

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Savannah discuss:

• Savannah’s trick for handling difficult news every day
• How to adjust the dial on fear and hope when there is so much to be afraid of
• Making sense of the wisdom we can learn in the midst of difficult times—without saying ‘everything happens for a reason’ (because we would never do that to you)
• How we hope to be transformed by God’s love

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• How hard it can be to believe our own memories or pain
• When kids aren’t protected by the adults in their life and how they make sense of that as adults
• Managing invisible illnesses
• How we can better support those going through chronic illness with compassion

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Stephanie discuss:

• Loving someone with addiction
• Grieving a person in public
• Why it’s okay (and maybe necessary) to laugh in the midst of the worst moments
• The 6th stage of grief—the manic-investigative stage

CW: mention of suicide, drug overdose, death of a sibling

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This might be the start of a great joke OR the start of an episode of Everything Happens. 

In this conversation, Kate Bowler speaks with Duke Men’s Basketball Coach, Jon Scheyer and the current US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy. Together they discuss:

• What is ailing Americans (especially young people)—loneliness (and why it can be so embarrassing to admit)
• Practical tips to connecting with others
• The usefulness and pitfalls of social media use

This conversation was taped live at Duke University as part of the Surgeon General’s We Are Made to Connect Tour. A huge thank you to Chris Simmons, the Office of Student Affairs, and the Office of the US Surgeon General for making this possible.

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It is a book of daily meditations meant to ground whatever day you’re having—all of the ups and downs and inbetweens. And who better to talk about that with than my friend, Bob Crawford. Bob is the bass player for the wildly popular band The Avett Brothers, and someone who knows too well how terrible and beautiful life can be. 

In this conversation, Kate and Bob discuss:

• How there can be a strange comfort in our worst moments
• How they continued despite the ongoingness of their kinds of tragedies 
• Why they both long for more spiritual language around living like this

Everything Happens is brought to you by Cologuard®. Are you 45 or older? Start screening for colon cancer with Cologuard, an effective and noninvasive screening option for adults 45 and older at average risk for colon cancer. Rx only. Learn more at Cologuard.com/everything

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Beth Moore has been in the limelight for almost thirty years, but during that time, she revealed very little about her formative family history. Now, this world-famous Bible teacher is ready to tell her story for the first time. 

In this episode, Kate and Beth discuss: 

• How Beth’s faith offered stability during a very unpredictable and unstable childhood 
• The complicated grief that occurs when family members cause deep, unforgivable harm
• What it means to be fully known (and why that feels better than anything else) 
• Beth’s long-faithfulness despite experiencing rejection, pain, and hurt from her faith community

This was Beth’s first interview about her new memoir, and Kate felt so honored to get to ask this wise soul about the role of faith in lives that haven’t worked out like we thought they should. 

CW: sexual abuse, mental illness. 

Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.

Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or X. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Bryan Stevenson (founder of the Equal Justice Initiative) is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment, to challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable among us.

In this episode, Kate and Bryan discuss: 

• The hope that motivates Bryan in this slow, sometimes frustrating work of justice
• What it means to be a ‘stonecatcher’ (and why it serves both the one being condemned and the one doing the condemning)
• The power of forgiveness, maybe especially toward those who don’t deserve it 

CW: discussion of slavery, lynching, and other racist violence, death row

Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.

Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or X. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Katherine May has written gorgeous books like Wintering and Enchantment that help us better understand how to live wide-awake to the world around us. 

In this conversation, Kate and Katherine discuss: 

• How we move from languishing to enchantment
• Why we need community more now than maybe ever
• Why we both hate gratitude journals

Everything Happens is brought to you by Cologuard®. Are you 45 or older? Start screening for colon cancer with Cologuard, an effective and noninvasive screening option for adults 45 and older at average risk for colon cancer. Rx only. Learn more at Cologuard.com/everything

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Bozoma: 

• Give us permission to tell the whole truth (even when it isn’t a neat)
• Speak honestly about the complicated realities of caregiving 
• Discuss how our roles change within families from daughter to parent or spouse to caregiver
• Describe anticipatory grief 

CW: adult language, death of a child during pregnancy, death of a spouse

Everything Happens is brought to you by Cologuard®. Are you 45 or older? Start screening for colon cancer with Cologuard, an effective and noninvasive screening option for adults 45 and older at average risk for colon cancer. Rx only. Learn more at Cologuard.com/everything

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• How conversations might engender the intimacy we need to get by
• Fostering the right interpersonal and listening skills it takes to approach a difficult topic (especially when you’re feeling nervous)
• Best practices for responding to someone’s hard news
• How learning to listen might bridge differences of all kinds

What do we lose when we don’t talk about hard things? And what might we gain if we do?

Everything Happens is brought to you by Cologuard®. Are you 45 or older? Start screening for colon cancer with Cologuard, an effective and noninvasive screening option for adults 45 and older at average risk for colon cancer. Rx only. Learn more at Cologuard.com/everything

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Iliza address: 

• A plan to make laughter a national healthcare plan (just kidding)
• How comedy connects us with one another
• Redefining self-care into something a little more practical

This conversation is brought to you by Aspen Ideas: Health and was recorded on location in Aspen, CO.

CW: miscarriage

Everything Happens is brought to you by Cologuard®. Are you 45 or older? Start screening for colon cancer with Cologuard, an effective and noninvasive screening option for adults 45 and older at average risk for colon cancer. Rx only. Learn more at Cologuard.com/everything

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Steph and her husband, Rivs, have the kind of story you might see in a blockbuster movie. Rivs was a professional endurance athlete who was suddenly put on life support with a mysterious lung disease. But then a confluence of shocking events occurred to get him the care he needed to survive.

Steph grew up as part of the Church of Latter Day Saints, a faith that believed that if she prayed hard enough, miracles would happen. But then her dad died when she was 14. So how does she understand faith and hope and miracles after Rivs' survival? 

In this conversation, Kate and Steph discuss:

•     How do you talk to kids honestly about life and death and hope?
•     How pain is a conduit for empathy 
•     How to allow things to just suck and not feel pressure to find any brightsides
•     How to think about faith, hope, and miracles without idolizing certainty 

Steph is someone who knows intimately that life sometimes just happens and that we have to learn to live alongside all of that pain and that joy and that love that somehow coexists.

CW: cancer, death of a parent

Everything Happens is brought to you by Cologuard®. Are you 45 or older? Start screening for colon cancer with Cologuard, an effective and noninvasive screening option for adults 45 and older at average risk for colon cancer. Rx only. Learn more at Cologuard.com/everything

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Culture has a lot of prescriptions for how to live a good life. But what if we don’t know where to start? Writer and researcher Catherine Price started to notice how much time she was spending on her phone and how the habit was sucking joy from her life. Instead, she wanted to learn how to have fun again. What is fun? How do you have it? Can you become a more fun person? Catherine debunks the myths around what it means to have fun—especially when we think we’re too tired, too careworn, or too old—and gives us a little homework to start today. 

In this conversation, Kate and Catherine discuss: 

• How to break up with your phone (and why we turn to our phones in the first place)
• How to create more opportunities for fun in the midst of regular days and too-full lives
• The simple practice Catherine uses to bring more joy to her days

Everything Happens is brought to you by Cologuard®. Are you 45 or older? Start screening for colon cancer with Cologuard, an effective and noninvasive screening option for adults 45 and older at average risk for colon cancer. Rx only. Learn more at Cologuard.com/everything

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Margaret discuss:

•         What we miss when we imagine we have to drive somewhere else to experience nature, instead of noticing it around us
•         What birds teach us about what means to be a good mother
•         How to learn to love even the mosquitoes and wasps
•         Where Margaret experiences moments of holiness
•         How we might all start to be besotted by beauty

Perhaps, we can borrow some of Margaret’s innate curiosity together and see how it might open us up to wonder and love and connectedness once again. 

Everything Happens is brought to you by Cologuard®. Are you 45 or older? Start screening for colon cancer with Cologuard, an effective and noninvasive screening option for adults 45 and older at average risk for colon cancer. Rx only. Learn more at Cologuard.com/everything

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

New York Times columnist David Brooks’ family motto was “Think Yiddish, Act British.” He knew how to keep a tight lid on his emotions, which could be useful… until he realized that he would need to learn a lot more about the role of empathy to love the people around him. Now, he’s sharing the result of his curiosity on how we might get better at really knowing people. Perhaps that simple skill can help combat the loneliness, despair, and the divides in our social fabric.

In this conversation, Kate and David discuss: 

• How to love people with severe depression
• How to see people as beloved children of God
• Practicing intimacy and empathy
• The difference between illuminators and diminishers

CW: suicide

Everything Happens is brought to you by Cologuard®. Are you 45 or older? Start screening for colon cancer with Cologuard, an effective and noninvasive screening option for adults 45 and older at average risk for colon cancer. Rx only. Learn more at Cologuard.com/everything

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My friend, the lovely writer Clover Stroud, had her before and after at a young age. When she was 16, her mom was in a horse-riding accident and suffered a serious brain injury that left her severely disabled until she died… 22 years later. The suddenness of that accident layered with the ongoingness of that level of caregiving bonded Clover and her big sister, Nell in remarkable ways.  Then, Nell unexpectedly died. 

The grief of losing her sister is captured in Clover’s beautiful book, The Red of My Blood—a book that captures the visceral feelings of grief. The pain. The beauty. The staying wide awake to the life that’s in front of us despite it all. The “how do I go on parenting with all this grief?” The “give me a sign” feeling we crave when our loved ones are gone.

In this conversation, Kate and Clover discuss: 

• Kids who have to grow up too fast due to tragedy and who we become because of it
• How some people have to live in ongoing trauma or extended grief due to caregiving or chronic illness
• The unexpected glimmers of beauty that can sustain us amid the ache of loss
• Why we need rituals to hold us together during deep grief

Kate went to visit Clover at her farm outside of Oxford in England to talk about the things in our lives that almost destroy us but also form us in some remarkable ways too. 

CW: cancer, traumatic brain injury, horse accident, death of a sibling

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

NT Wright, a New Testament scholar, is a trusted expert to help us understand what truths resound across time and circumstance and which don’t. In this conversation, Kate and Tom dig in especially on Romans 8:28 which is the Pauline version of EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON. Is that what Paul intended to say? Is there maybe another, more life-giving way to interpret it instead? 

Kate and NT Wright also discuss:

• The importance of lament as a response to the human condition
• Why we have such a low tolerance for uncertainty
• Which scripture to turn to when life comes apart (and which to avoid) 
• What our response should be to others who are in pain or experiencing tragedy

This is a bit of a Bible-nerd out, but I would trust no one else to help us better make sense of where is God when we’re suffering than NT Wright. 

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

But what’s behind all this is a story about service. About what it takes to stay in the long, slow work of community. You will believe when she says that it’s hard…and it’s good. At the same time. 

In this conversation, Kate and Angela discuss: 

• Why we need community now more than ever
• The case for interdependence and why it's so important to give up on individualism 
• How to sustain a life of service (hint: it has something to do with joy)

CW: cancer, caregiving

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an incredible story about resilience—what it is, and what it isn’t. You’re going to love the way she talks about the power of her efforts. And the ways she learned to get back up, but should have never had to. 

In this conversation, Emi and Kate discuss: 

• the cost of resilience
• the downsides of relying on the individual therapeutic to solve every problem (and why we should be looking for ways to create systemic or family solutions too)
• how hope and ambition can pull you toward a future
• the complexities of navigating the value of success when weighed against the lasting impact of trauma

Emi carefully interrogates what it really means to “overcome” anything. It makes us all feel less alone when we can say, honestly, that some things can be conquered and some things conquer us. 

CW: brief mentions of suicidal ideation, eating disorders, self-harm, adverse childhood, hoarding, trans issues

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter)—@katecbowler.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dr. Lisa Damour (New York Times bestselling author of The Emotional Lives of Teenagers) has dedicated her life to unraveling the intricacies of adolescence and offering practical, heartfelt advice.

In this conversation, Lisa and Kate:

• offer a more reassuring definition of mental health (hint: it’s about having the right-sized feelings that fit the situation at hand and managing those feelings effectively). 
• emphasize the importance of being a steady presence in kids’ lives, as well as offer scripts to try with your own teenager
• give language to what parents might be feeling if they missed this kind of parenting themselves

 CW: Mental Health awareness 

***

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter). 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Cue Rob Delaney. 

Rob is a comedian, actor, writer, and director. His memoir, A Heart That Works is an unsparing account of the death of his beautiful son, Henry. Rob lives in London with his family where Kate visited him for this honest and hilarious conversation. 

Kate and Rob discuss:

• The importance of finding people who really understand what you’re feeling

• What not to say to people whose kids have died

• How tragic loss exiles you to a planet where only those who understand grief live

• The ways we hope grief metabolizes in us and transforms us into empathetic, heart-open kinds of people

Rob wants us all to understand that if the unthinkable happens, our hearts still beat so strong in truth and love. 

CW: hard-earned explicit language of a bereaved parent, death of parent, Suicide, death of a child

***

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter). 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this conversation, Kate and Jenna discuss:

• How to model openness and empathy across difference (even when people really, really disagree)
• Why they want to raise their kids to be curious and independent
• How the love of others makes us brave—brave enough to make mistakes (and why that’s okay)

Kate visited Jenna in New York City for this conversation. And Jenna is just as lovely and generous of spirit as you’d imagine.

CW: fertility issues; Alzheimer’s 

Watch clips from this conversation, read the full transcript, and access discussion questions by clicking here.

Follow Kate on Instagram, Facebook, or X (formerly known as Twitter). 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My name is Kate Bowler. I’m a professor, speaker, podcast host and New York Times bestselling author. Which makes it sound like I believe in living your “best life.” Don’t worry—I don’t. 

I study the stories we tell about success and failure, suffering and happiness. And hobbies are wasted on me because I’d rather be talking to funny and wise people about how to live with the knowledge that, well, everything happens. 

A new season of *fantastic* conversation starts on September 5th. 

Mark your calendar. Make sure you’re subscribed. You won’t want to miss this. 

EVERYTHING HAPPENS is available everywhere you get your podcasts. 

***
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or (what was formally known as) Twitter.

And be sure to subscribe to our email to receive behind-the-scenes updates.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jessica Richie, my executive producer and co-writer and co-dreamer of this podcast, started just SAYING THAT. GOOD ENOUGH. Which made us laugh. So we said it again. Good Enough became a little permission slip for us. A little shrug that takes us off the hook for perfection and reminds us that we are human. Again today. Inside fragile bodies and contingent relationships and a whole web of love. 

Good Enough: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection is available now wherever books are sold.

And as a little treat for you, here is an excerpt from the audiobook, read by yours truly. It’s a little something my grandpa taught me about what it means to be content… and how contentment might look different for all of us.

***

Find me on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.

Be sure to subscribe to my weekly email for bits of wisdom, prayers, free downloads, and more.

No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available wherever books are sold. Order your copy, today.

Join us for Lent. Receive a free lenten reflection guide, here.

Introducing, GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.

To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.