Kelly Corrigan Wonders

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Society & Culture
**Kelly Corrigan Wonders**

Welcome to Kelly Corrigan Wonders, a place for people who like to laugh while they think and find it useful to look closely at ourselves and our weird ways in the hopes that knowing more and feeling more will help us do more and be better. Author of 4 New York Times bestsellers about family life, Kelly wonders about loads of stuff: is knowing more always good? Can we trust our gut? How does change actually happen? We only book nice people who have a sense of humor and know things worth knowing. Each episode ends with Kelly’s shortlist of takeaways, appropriate for refrigerator doors, bulletin boards and notes to your children.

Latest Episodes:

Go To on NYC Marathon Nov 06, 2026

Show notes

Reflections on what we saw and felt on the route of the 2024 NYC Marathon. (Previously aired)

As ever, we love to hear from you -- hello@kellycorrigan.com.

Deep Dive with Heather Gerken on Voting Nov 03, 2026

Show notes

In honor of the midterm elections, Kelly sits down with Heather Gerken, a longtime constitutional law professor and election law expert who went on to become dean of Yale Law School. Heather later stepped away from academia to lead the Ford Foundation, one of the largest philanthropic organizations in the country. She spent her career studying elections before giving up tenure to put her ideas into practice, and she pulls back the curtain on what actually threatens a free and fair vote. They talk about the quiet army of election administrators holding the whole system together with almost no support, why mail-in ballots matter to veterans and working parents alike, and the strange, specific ways officials have made it harder to simply register. There’s also a case for why the Electoral College might be the single worst idea still standing, and what one ordinary person can actually do, today especially, to help protect the process.

Special thanks to the Aspen Ideas Festival where this episode was recorded.

Thanks For Being Here - Kelly's Emails to her Dad Nov 01, 2026

Show notes

We all have things we do to help us manage grief. Today's episode is a look at one of the ways that Kelly handled the loss of her beloved dad, Greenie. In the year following his death, she wrote and sent emails out into the ether - to connect with him in a small but very meaningful way. (Previously aired)

Go To on Fear versus Fact Oct 30, 2026

Show notes

Journalist and author Amanda Ripley cuts through the noise with a startling fact: America is on track for its lowest murder rate since 1960, yet most Americans believe the opposite. Kelly shares insights from Amanda's Substack "Unraveled," examining how we've become so disconnected from reality, why conflict entrepreneurs profit from our fear, and what it would look like if media corrected our biases instead of amplifying them. Amanda points to researchers tracking the actual data on political violence, cancer mortality, and public perception, then asks three simple questions we should answer every time we share a story: How often is this happening? Is it getting better or worse? What can we do about it? The antidote to apocalyptic thinking, she argues, isn't denial—it's action, context, and a willingness to see what's actually there. (Previously aired)

Learn more about Amanda and her work at https://www.thegoodconflict.com/

Deep Dive with Jeff Flake on Thinking Twice Oct 27, 2026

Show notes

With the midterms approaching, Kelly wanted to sit down with someone who actually knows how government works — from the inside. Former US Senator Jeff Flake spent 18 years in Congress: twelve in the House and six in the Senate, and he’s no longer running for anything, which means he can say what he really thinks. Recorded at the Aspen Ideas Festival, this conversation goes places most political interviews don’t, into the real cost of principle and the quiet mechanics that actually move legislation. It’s an unfiltered look at what Washington is like when the cameras aren't rolling.

Special thanks to our friends at the Aspen Ideas Festival.

Thanks For Being Here - Susannah Meadows Honors her Dad Oct 25, 2026

Show notes

Kelly shares a moving piece by her friend Susannah Meadows about the complex relationship she had with her father. Originally published in The New York Times and titled "What My Dad Gave Me," Susannah writes with unflinching honesty about the gifts she received from her father—some welcome, others less so—and how their relationship transformed in his final years. From awkward silences and missed connections to a surprising moment of tenderness in an assisted living dining room, this is a story about how people can change, even stubborn fathers in their nineties. It's a gentle reminder that our most important relationships don't have to be perfect to hold beauty, and that it's never too late for two people who love each other imperfectly to find connection and understanding. (Previously aired)

Go To on the Mental Health AI Chatbot Made for Real Life Oct 23, 2026

Show notes

When someone admits they're struggling at 2 AM, should they have to wait until morning to talk to another human? Kelly shares her TED stage conversation with Dr. Allison Darcy, creator of Woebot, an AI therapy tool used by over 1.5 million people. From questions about who profits when we share our deepest fears to whether perfect AI responsiveness might make us reject messy human relationships, this conversation explores what happens when technology enters our most vulnerable moments. Through reflections on business models, red lines and the surprising ways people use AI as practice for real conversations, Kelly and Allison wrestle with whether these tools are helping us become more human or less—and how we might tell the difference before it's too late. (Previously aired)

Deep Dive with "Can Do Mom" Briana Oct 20, 2026

Show notes

She left an abusive relationship while pregnant, moved into a shelter system built for a hundred women she’d never met, and still found a way to finish her bachelor’s degree, texting an assignment to her professor from the delivery room. Kelly closes out the Can Do Moms series with Briana, a graduate student now working toward a career in public policy — trying to close the distance between the people making decisions and the people living with them. They talk about what it means to lose your voice and slowly build it back, the phrase Briana's mother used that she still leans on, and why policy tends to go wrong when no one at the table has actually lived it. This is a conversation about rent, bus transfers and juggling to pay high Con Edison bills, but also about something much bigger: who gets to tell their own story, and who has it told for them.

This is the 4th in our "Can Do Moms" series made possible by the Monarch Foundation.

To learn more about the Bridge Project visit:

https://www.bridgeproject.org/

Thanks For Being Here - Kelly's Cousin Kathy Honors "Birdie" Oct 18, 2026

Show notes

Kelly's cousin Kathy Corrigan Zentgraf honored her mother Lena Natale Corrigan in this incredible talk.

Go To on Joining Us Live Oct 16, 2026

Show notes

Kelly and her longtime friend Jennifer Wallace, the New York Times bestselling author known for her work on mattering, are taking their ongoing conversation on the road. Jenny makes the case for mattering, Kelly makes the case for making and creativity, and the two sit down together to find where those ideas actually meet. Thanks to the Walton Family Foundation, they’re bringing the whole thing to you live, with stops in Portland (ME), Bozeman, Washington D.C., New York City, and Bentonville. As Kelly puts it, "there’s a synchronicity that happens when people breathe and think together in the same room". Join us - details below.

Portland, ME — Tuesday, October 20, 2026 - SOLD OUT

Bozeman, MT — Monday, October 26, 2026

Washington, DC — Thursday, October 29, 2026

New York, NY — Monday, November 2, 2026

Bentonville, AR — Saturday, November 7, 2026

For tickets and more information: https://www.kellycorrigan.com/fall-tour-2026

(Click on the city you're interested in on the web page listed above to access ticketing.)