I Mae Be Wrong, But...

Caroline kicks off a month on tradition with a trio of touchstones that somehow make perfect sense together: the grounded wisdom of Marcus Aurelius, the chaotic comfort of apocalyptic cartoons, and the heart-thumping emotional messiness of Sally Rooney’s novels. These become her compass points as she digs into why we crave routine, community and the tiny rituals that keep us steady—even when the world feels like it’s tilting. (A waitress shouting “I’m a hick, I’ll kill you” makes a cameo, but only to prove the point.)External Sources Highlighted:Meditations — Marcus AureliusCarol and the End of the WorldBeautiful World, Where are You? by Sally Rooney“In the Airplane Over the Sea” by Neutral Milk Hotel

At a unicorn pajama party in California, Caroline finds herself running games, managing cupcakes, and teaching seven-year-olds the power of a good thank-you note. From Peppy’s birthday to Dickens’ ghosts, this episode is about gratitude, presence, and remembering how much we already have—stuffed ravens and all.This week's episode finishes out our month focusing on gratitude and talks about the TV show "Beef", Ocean Vuong's "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous", and the song "Dissect the Bird".

What starts as a Facebook Marketplace rescue mission for a $30 pink chair turns into a reflection on how (and with what) we fill our lives — and our hearts. This week, Caroline traces a very college-theater-kid kind of furniture saga back to Piglet’s reminder that even a small heart can hold a large amount of gratitude. There’s a little Winnie-the-Pooh lore, a little Sally Rooney, a song, a movie, a poem about lactose, and a lot of talk about how friends, furniture, and feelings end up furnishing our lives.

So what do you do when there’s a mouse on a sticky trap? No, really, what do you do? If you’re an acting student, apparently you bring it to class.This week, Caroline unpacks a campus legend about one empathetic theater major, a live mouse, and the chaos that ensued, all to arrive at a surprisingly tender point: what it means to look at the world—and the people in it—with a good eye.From Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo to Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right,” to a new film about grief and gratitude (A Real Pain), Caroline traces a thread through stories of compassion, heartbreak, and human decency. Along the way, there are sentimental dads, careful moms, and the painful but necessary art of not hating your ex.Because sometimes, showing goodness starts with seeing it—even in the stickiest of situations.But I may be wrong.

In this November installment of I Mae Be Wrong, But…, Caroline Mae Woodson engages with the notion that grief is “love with nowhere to go,” using Thornton Wilder’s line “the highest tribute to the dead is not grief, but gratitude.” We talk about a grandmother’s engagement ring, a kitchen recipe card, and to broader themes of remembrance and living well, rather than simply mourning.Interweaving pop-culture examinations of the show “Long Story Short”, the series “WandaVision”, and the song “The Luckiest” —she explores how grief and gratitude can sift into our everyday lives, not by vanishing, but by transforming. This episode invites listeners to reconsider how gratitude can become a practice, a lens through which we honor past love and continue forward, carrying both memory and motion.

Happy Halloween!On this very spooky Thursday, Caroline has a trick-or-treat special episode of the podcast with famous quotes that we have been tricked into thinking are by someone else or mean something entirely different than their original intent. After recounting a chilling investor lunch about the real scariest creature on Earth (spoiler: it might be us), she takes us wandering door-to-door through a haunted neighborhood of famous quotes that have been totally, wildly, hilariously misattributed.Marie Antoinette? Sherlock Holmes? Einstein? And fun twist… “blood is thicker than water” originally meant the opposite of what you think.Together we peek behind the mask of cultural memory to see how stories morph, how language plays tricks, and how people make history whether they behave or not. It’s a light-hearted candy bag full of fact checking, nostalgia, and the occasional existential jump scare about humanity itself.Caroline leaves you with a watchlist of her favorite Halloween films, a plastic pumpkin full of curiosity, and one final reminder: humans may be the scariest species out there… but she may be wrong.

One day more, one episode on fear more. Caroline Mae Woodson unpacks fear — the kind that drives us, the kind that traps us, and the kind that’s just trying to keep us safe. From Les Mis to Severance, she dives into how fear shapes our art, our choices, and our lives.

It’s October, so of course we’re talking fear, guilt, and scary things—and how could we not include Stephen King himself? In this episode, Caroline Mae Woodson dives into one of King’s most iconic quotes: “If a fear cannot be articulated, it cannot be conquered.” From dumpster diving for a camper’s Invisalign (yes, really), to the unseen villains of horror films and White Lotus monologues about uncomfortable truths, this week is all about naming the weird so we can move through it.Also covered: the value of bad first drafts, Maya Angelou’s fear-fighting poem, Pinegrove lyrics, the dual POV structure of The Girlfriend, and Caroline’s own “janitor era.” We’re talking about what happens when we finally say the scary thing out loud—and what’s waiting on the other side. But... I may be wrong.

Caroline Mae Woodson dives into a dear friend of hers, William Shakespeare's, work, exploring the Hamlet quote: "Thus conscience does make cowards of us all." She kicks things off with the deepest guilt of her life—a childhood crime involving a Sharpie, a cheap party magazine, and a very expensive sectional couch. From that anxious spiral, Caroline connects her story to the self-sabotaging mindsets in Lorde's "Liability," the resilience of Shawshank Redemption, and the true nature of thought from I'm Thinking of Ending Things. Caroline may might be wrong, but she argues that the only way to silence your inner critic is to stop overthinking and just start doing.

Jo? Amy? Nope, you're a Meg. This week, we start the month of October by tackling the themes of fear, guilt, and being scared with a quote from Little Women. Then we pivot to fear-conquering tools, from the surprisingly deep wisdom of Ted Lasso to the emotional raw power of Pinegrove's "Aphasia." It's a journey from 19th-century literature to modern-day streaming.

Do beginnings and endings feel completely different to you? Host Caroline Mae Woodson chats through the T.S. Eliot quote, "what we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning."Giving you quite a few song recommendations, and even an audition song rec for lower musical theatre voices, and other pieces of media, Caroline discusses cyclical narratives (where beginnings feel like endings and vice versa). Join us for the final episode in this month's collection of quotes focusing on the theme of beginnings. Next month, onto something a bit more spooky.

Centered around Ernest Hemingway's quote, " every true story ends in death," this episode talks about the proper way to approach endings (from ooey gooey butter cakes to the legacy of a six-toed cat). Caroline talks about a TV show that changed her life (that you ought to watch), Everything, Everywhere, All at Once, and one of the best concerts she has ever been to. If you want to talk about how to feel you have earned the ending in your life and what that means for the way you live, this might be a good listen.

In this episode of I May Be Wrong, But…, join host Caroline Mae Woodson as she reflects on the ghosts of our past—both literal and literary. From the haunted halls of her college dorm to the timeless words of F. Scott Fitzgerald, Caroline explores how our history ceaselessly pulls us back, shaping who we are today. If you want to talk about the heart-wrenching film Past Lives, the dreadfully relatable Flea Bag, or the new Tyler Childers album, this episode is for you.

Other than telling the story of how she got a concussion from a cement wall, Caroline Mae Woodson talks about beginnings using the beloved quote "the beginning is always today," by Mary Shelley in this opening episode of "I Mae Be Wrong, But...". Join her as she connects this idea to modern life and media, from the hit novel Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow to the classic film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and explores the profound and messy ways we all start again.