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Everything Happens with Kate Bowler

Everything Happens with Kate Bowler
Author: Duke University
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Life isn't always bright and shiny, as Kate Bowler knows. Kate is a young mother, writer and professor who, at age 35, was suddenly diagnosed with Stage IV cancer. In, warm, insightful, often funny conversations, Kate talks with people about what they've learned in difficult times. Kate teaches at Duke Divinity School and is author of Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I've Loved) and No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear). Find her online at @katecbowler.
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What makes a good life? How would you answer that question? Not just life in the abstract… but what makes YOUR life good? Professor Miroslav Volf teaches a popular class at Yale University which guides students through these kinds of questions and might help us all think a little more deeply about what our lives are adding up to be.
In this conversation, Kate and Miroslav discuss:
Why just practicing the habits of a good life doesn’t make a life meaningful (hint: we need to be thinking about the ends)
Importance of asking questions we don’t always have the answers to
How to define joy
What does flourishing look like when we feel like we’re “losing”
How joy and suffering can coexist
On a personal note, this is a special interview for Kate because Miroslav was also her professor at Yale and someone she looks up to with joy and admiration.
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days is out now. Learn more, here.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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Our most precious relationships are often our most complicated, aren’t they? Poet and bestselling author Kwame Alexander wrote an honest book of poems and essays that name the difficult and beautiful and heart-wrenching conversations we have (or should be having) with the people we love and with the ones who love us.
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
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days is out now. Learn more, here.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
How do we stay soft in a world that has taught us to be tough? Actress Minka Kelly is known for her roles as Lyla Garrity on Friday Night Lights or as Samantha in HBO’s Euphoria. Despite her fame on the big screen, one might not realize the chaos that surrounded her childhood. Being raised by a single mom who worked as a stripper and struggled with addiction, Minka had to learn how to take care of herself and the adults around her, and, eventually, to forgive her mom.
In this tender conversation, Kate and Minka discuss:
How we can be built from the outside in through our friendships and how our friends become our chosen family
How anger tells us that a boundary has been crossed
The unfinished ways people love us—reconciling our complicated childhoods with the love we feel for each another
How Minka has processed her difficult childhood through a lens of love and grace
The way Minka’s mom was changed by her cancer diagnosis, and how once they found their way to one another again, there could never, ever be enough time
CW: colon cancer, death of a parent, brief mentions of abuse and neglect
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days is out now. Learn more, here.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
Some people are the LEAN IN sort. They lean into your unsolvable problems, show up on your impossible days, and walk with you all the way to the end. How do we become them? How do we create belonging when the people we love experience such uncertainty? Practical theologian and mental health nurse John Swinton knows a thing or two about this kind of love.
In this conversation, Kate and John discuss:
The importance of learning to be present for people with intellectual disabilities, dementia, or in mental health crises
How two places that should be known as places of belonging—the church and the hospital—have become difficult for fragile people… and how we might begin to make these institutions better
A theology of hope we might all be able to sign up for (Spoiler: Hope is a long story.)
How love moves at a certain speed, so we all might need to slow down a bit
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days is out now. Learn more, here.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
Maggie Smith (poet and author of books like Keep Moving and You Could Make This Place Beautiful) chronicles the aftermath of a painful divorce she didn’t see coming. How do we raise our kids in the wake of such change? And how do we reconcile who we are and who we are becoming?
In this conversation, Maggie and Kate discuss:
How to support someone going through divorce
The metaphor of nesting dolls as how we contain who we were before (and how our befores and afters might not be as dramatic as we thought)
Speaking honestly with our children about the beauty and tragedy of the world
Why tragedies are not worth the “lessons” that we might learn from them
CW: divorce
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days is out now. Learn more, here.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
What happens when the people we built our lives around stop needing us? Or when we have to pick between our meaningful careers or our family? And what do we do with the ambiguous grief that comes with every expected and unexpected change? Today, Kate takes an honest look at juggling the demands on our time and on our heart with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly.
Kate and Mary Louise discuss:
Debunking the women can “have it all” paradigm and what happens when the things we love come into conflict
The limitations of gratitude
How our callings pull us into a wider sense of who we belong to
How to savor (and mourn) all the lasts as your children grow older
This may be a conversation about parenting, but I think there might be something in here for anyone who wonders: Who am I as my relationships change? Can I still find myself there?
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days is out now. Learn more, here.
We have free Lent guides for you to use by yourself, with a group, or with your church. Click here to get started.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
How should you show up for people in grief? What do you say? What should you do? Why is it that beauty can exist alongside deep suffering? What can be said at funerals when the person who died was complicated? These are just a few of the questions I wanted to ask Steve Leder—a bestselling author and a rabbi who has presided over a thousand funerals with wisdom and kindness.
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
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days is out now. Learn more, here.
We have free Lent guides for you to use by yourself, with a group, or with your church. Click here to get started.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
Historian and Canadian politician Michael Ignatieff explores the cracks in our seamless worldviews… or at least the worldviews we thought were seamless until we’re faced with tragedies of all kinds. In this wide-ranging exploration, Kate and Michael probe humanity's enduring attempt to console ourselves and construct meaning from our pain.
In this conversation, Kate and Michael discuss:
Why truth and trust are so important when it comes to finding meaning in our pain
The difference between comfort and consolation
The limits of stoicism and hyper-futurism
What it means to be hopeful
The importance of community through pain and suffering
Michael does not denigrate anyone’s attempt for comfort, but asks us to look carefully at the consolation that lasts. He asks: What is consolation? And why do we all crave that practice of meaning-making?
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days is out now. Learn more, here.
We have free Lent guides for you to use by yourself, with a group, or with your church. Click here to get started.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
Supermodel Paulina Porizkova has been in the public eye all her life. But it has been a rollercoaster of soaring successes and deep heartache. Grief and pain comes to us all, and in those moments, we need our shared humanity (and not our super-anythingness) to build a bridge back to others.
In this tender conversation, Kate and Paulina discuss:
How to show up to friends in unsolvable pain
Why “what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger” is just plain wrong
Why the assumptions we make about one another are untrue
CW: Spicy language
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days is out now. Learn more, here.
We have free Lent guides for you to use by yourself, with a group, or with your church. Click here to get started.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
The Reverend Tom Long wrote the book on funerals. No, really. When grief threatens to swallow us whole, Tom reminds us of our place in a bigger story of hope and faith, of interdependence and the importance of community. He describes the necessity of ritual to pull us into a wider, truer story than the trite version our culture likes to tell.
In this warm conversation (trust me! You will laugh!), Kate and Tom discuss:
What it means to be called into emotionally-expensive professions (jobs where you decide to really care!)
The importance of truth-telling at a funeral
Seeing people through the prism of God’s love for them (more specifically—through the lens of their baptism)
Why people die at all and what happens with all the love we have for one another (hint: it’s never, ever, ever lost)
The importance of the rituals we create to walk people through death and dying
No one likes to talk about funerals, but this one is a must-listen.
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days is out now. Learn more, here.
We have free Lent guides for you to use by yourself, with a group, or with your church. Click here to get started.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
Over thirty years ago, Elaine Pagels’ young son and husband died within the same year. In this tender conversation, Kate and Elaine discuss surviving the aftermath of such devastation, the painful explanations religion often offers, and how we love and keep loving even after so much tragedy.
Together, they discuss:
The need for connection to others during grief
Religion’s often painful and punitive explanations for suffering (and why they aren’t helpful or complete)
Why parents often feel like they’ve “failed” when a child dies
How suffering pulls us closer to mystery
This episode is for someone who has ever had the thought “haven’t I suffered enough?” Elaine and Kate are trusted companions in a life that hasn’t turned out like we thought it should.
CW: death of a child, death of a spouse
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days is out now. Learn more, here.
We have free Lent guides for you to use by yourself, with a group, or with your church. Click here to get started.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
A big thank you to Jed Meyers for contributing his beautiful poem to today's episode.
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
Every problem New York Times columnist Frank Bruni faced had a simple fix. Doctors offered reasonable solutions for reasonable problems. Preventative care guaranteed future health. That is, until he woke up one morning without vision in his eye. This experience forced him to rethink how much of life is in our control and how to live fully in the face of unfixable problems.
In this conversation, Kate and Frank discuss:
Letting go of the idea that life is a series of choices and learning that there are things we can’t fix
How the lacquered lives we see on social media deny us the fuller picture of each other’s problems
Importance of finding the things that light up our lives and taking the hard stuff bird by bird, vine by vine.
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days is out now. Learn more, here.
We have free Lent guides for you to use by yourself, with a group, or with your church. Click here to get started.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
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 Twitter.
THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days is out now. Learn more, here.
We have free Lent guides for you to use by yourself, with a group, or with your church. Click here to get started.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
Welcome to SEASON TEN of the Everything Happens Podcast!
I started this podcast as a way to create language and community around some of life's most painful moments. I was so overwhelmed by the question of how do we live in the after? After a diagnosis, after a death, after a divorce, after something that changes our lives or takes it apart.
I had just been diagnosed with stage four colon cancer and I was only 35. I had a two year old at home with this giant lovey Disney eyes, and I had the job that I loved, and then suddenly, I had a picture of a future that was just never going to be. So I wanted to know, like, how do we do this? How do you find joy and hope and love even after life comes undone? And after years of treatment and years of uncertainty, I guess I realized somewhere along the way that this wasn't really a one and done kind of question. This is the sort of work that evolves over time as life continues to contract and expand and break our hearts and then put us back together all over again. And so thank you for being the people that I've had along the way. These are not, of course, the conversations anybody really wants to have, but we do, you and me and this gorgeous community here.
We have so many great episodes coming to you for SEASON TEN. We're going to be talking to tender and wise and funny people about what they've discovered during their before and afters. People like Beth Moore on long faithfulness when life really doesn't work out the way you thought it did. Mary Louise Kelly on empty-nesting and rediscovering yourself after the kids leave. Rabbi Steve Leder on how tragedies teach us and how we can just see beauty somehow. Plus SO MANY MORE.
New episodes coming your way every Tuesday this Spring.
This episode also includes a conversation between Kate and her producer, Jessica Richie about their new book of blessings, The Lives We Actually Have.
***
THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days (releases TODAY). Learn more, here.
We have free Lent guides for you to use by yourself, with a group, or with your church. Click here to get started.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
As we approach the New Year, we might need a minute to look backward. What even happened this year? Who was I? What went well? What didn't? Before we start making those New Year’s Resolutions, maybe we could have a second of honesty together.
This week is about celebrating the fact that alongside some of our painful, horrifying moments, we did experience moments of levity and joy and pure delight. In our personal lives, in our inner circle, during our 9-5s, and one real Zinger bonus round that really takes the cake.
In this bonus crossover episode, Kate and Kelly Corrigan discuss:
Their own personal happies, including the joy of birthdays as a reset button
How being reabsorbed into other people’s stories and problems makes us feel less alone
The satisfaction that comes from totally immersing yourself in learning, what Kelly refers to as intellectual humility
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
Find Kelly Corrigan on Instagram or listen to her on Kelly Corrigan Wonders.
Subscribe to receive blessings in your inbox every week.
No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available in PAPERBACK. Order your copy, today.
Looking for some short spiritual reflections and blessings? Check out GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.
Introducing THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days (releasing February 14, 2023). Learn more, pre-order, and receive a free pennant, here.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
This time of year can be rough. Somehow we are supposed to wrap it up or feel complete, but, more often than not, we can look back at a year that, well, sucked.
Rather than just showing you the shiny parts of life, today is your permission to Cheers to The Crappies. Kelly Corrigan (of Kelly Corrigan Wonders and Tell Me More) and I are exchanging our crappiest moments: in our personal lives, in our inner circle, during our 9-5, and one real Zinger round that takes the cake.
In this bonus crossover episode, Kate and Kelly discuss:
Their own personal crappy lows of the year—like managing chronic pain, endless parental worries, and walking with a friend through divorce
Kate’s strong policy against gratitude as a shellac to suffering
Why talking about pain can be so tricky and sometimes it can’t be fixed by love alone
This episode is for if you aren’t feel warm and fuzzy about this past year and you want a minute to say: Wow. That really didn’t go well. This isn’t getting better. I’m really disappointed or heartbroken or hurt… still. So here’s to a moment of very crappy honesty, my dears. You, in all your problems and hopes and unmet expectations are worth listening to.
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
Find Kelly Corrigan on Instagram or listen to her on Kelly Corrigan Wonders.
Subscribe to receive blessings in your inbox every week.
No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available in PAPERBACK. Order your copy, today.
Looking for some short spiritual reflections and blessings? Check out GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.
Introducing THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days (releasing February 14, 2023). Learn more, pre-order, and receive a free pennant, here.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
The indomitable Liz Gilbert (of EAT, PRAY, LOVE fame) joins Kate for a live conversation on the courage to create. Listen as Liz helps us expose our exhausting American need to make everything useful and lets us embrace beauty as a way of really living.
In this episode, Kate and Liz discuss:
Why we stop ourselves from being creative
How we are all capable of making anything (badly! medium-well!)
But how our creativity is best if it is for no reason whatsoever (not for impact or legacy or money or acknowledgement)
How curiosity quiets fear and control
CW: some spicy adult language
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
Subscribe to receive blessings in your inbox every week.
No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available in PAPERBACK. Order your copy, today.
Looking for some short spiritual reflections and blessings? Check out GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.
Introducing THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days (releasing February 14, 2023). Learn more, pre-order, and receive a free pennant, here.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
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 Twitter.
Subscribe to receive blessings in your inbox every week.
No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available in PAPERBACK. Order your copy, today.
Looking for some short spiritual reflections and blessings? Check out GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.
Introducing THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days (releasing February 14, 2023). Learn more, pre-order, and receive a free pennant, here.
Leave us a voicemail and who knows? We might even be able to use your voice on the air: 919-322-8731
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
We are going to practice the season of Advent together. Download a free Advent guide, here.
At the end of today's episode, we asked you what your traditions were for remembering the people who we've lost. Share yours on my Instagram or Facebook account. Whether it is the 1st or 4th or 22nd year without someone you love, the holidays can be especially difficult. We need practical ways to bring their memory into our special days. Making family recipes. Playing their favorite song. Putting their ornaments on the tree. Traditions that keep their love alive year after year after year.
What traditions does your family practice to honor and remember your loved one each year? Share yours on Instagram or Facebook.
Thank you for sharing your heartbreak and hope with us all. Bless you as you navigate another year dear one. You aren't doing it alone.
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
Subscribe to receive blessings in your inbox every week.
No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available in PAPERBACK. Order your copy, today.
Looking for some short spiritual reflections and blessings? Check out GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.
Introducing THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days (releasing February 14, 2023). Learn more, pre-order, and receive a free pennant, here.
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
Fred Penner is a Canadian sensation whose television show and hit songs like “The Cat Came Back” was part of so many of our childhoods. But what few of us knew was how much he understood the pain of growing up. He lost his alcoholic father and his 12-year-old sister in the same year. He turned to music. And his gentle wisdom and songs have invited us—children and adults alike—to stay curious and kind in a hard world.
In this episode, Kate and Fred discuss:
Music as the language of the heart
How to speak to the heart of a kid
Plus, we get to hear Fred sing some of his favorite songs
I have so many memories singing along to Fred’s music as a kid and felt so lucky to get to speak to him today.
CW: alcoholism, death of sibling
***
Looking for the transcript or show notes? Click here.
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
Subscribe to receive blessings in your inbox every week.
No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available in PAPERBACK. Order your copy, today.
Looking for some short spiritual reflections and blessings? Check out GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.
We are going to practice the season of Advent together. Download a free Advent guide, here.
Introducing THE LIVES WE ACTUALLY HAVE: 100 Blessings for Imperfect Days (releasing February 14, 2023). Learn more, pre-order, and receive a free pennant, here.
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
wonderfully delightful!
Worth a second listen... hard-won wisdom.
love this! so delightful
What an excellent podcast on caring for others truly. Thank you for educating me.
I love your podcasts but for some reason I can't get any of them more recent than November 30th! Help!
the only extra thing I wish were discussed was how to deal with the sometimes hurtful comments that come from the world around when you start to let go.
Oh, I loved this episode.
Lovely conversation <3
The book is great--if you haven't read it you should. The show is wonderful.
you guys have cute rituals for when you are tired of your husband's. I usually just shout divorce and leave for a while. then, we don't ever talk about it again. you guys are so healthy.
I wish more of us did the "absurd" thing to do. Although I wonder if life in the western world is actually absurd and taking delight in an abstract interest is actually not absurd at all?
This is the first episode I've listened to. It won't be the last. Great show. Lots to think about. Thank you.
this was such a lovely episode. I think for me, it will help most with the guilt and shame I currently feel. im a stay at home mom and I know that at this point, this vocation has a shelf life. im 4 years away from sending my youngest off to kindergarten. I would love to go to school or find a new career but no desire is there yet to even steer toward a direction. I feel like I am not listening hard enough or im being punished or I am just not good enough. but I will console myself that maybe God has not revealed that direction yet. I will wait to respond. I will continue to have conversation in prayer.
loved this episode. the discussion on being carried versus self made has really resonated with me. I have tried not to depend on anyone my whole life and I have been taught to do so. I also constantly feel socially awkward so I avoid people as much as I can just to escape my own awkward feelings. With a cross country move, unemployment and a surprise baby, I find myself unable to rely on myself. I feel like a failure, I feel like I don't want anyone to do me a kindness because I could never pay it back, but this episode reminds me that maybe I am being carried. maybe I am just discovering community. thank you.
A month ago my best friend lost her brother to cancer, leaving behind his wife and 3 young children. And while I'm not her, nor can I even begin to relate, I grieve for her. I've appreciated this podcast and this episode particularly as someone who just wants to love on someone who is going thru something shitty. It's okay to not be okay but I'm grateful for where it brings a person and friendship to also. 💕
What a great conversation between two great thinkers who are great friends. As a flawed human with chronic depression I found what you had to say refreshing and a different view of manynideas that I have heard but not fully absorbed before. Thank you Kate and greetings from Brisbane, Australia 🌻😊
Just listened to your segment with Emily McDowell ... there's no good card for that. I think you don't want to hear any more free associations but I'll just say something terrible happened in our family and I could totally relate to your advice, just be there.
I'm not sure if this is useful to you, but I found your podcast after reading this article today: Hope Isn’t Just About the Future https://nyti.ms/2GHHfjG Strength to you!
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