Stay ConnectedAre you living your best life now? Not always? This is a podcast for you. Duke Professor Kate Bowler is an expert in the stories we tell about success and failure, suffering and happiness. She had Stage IV cancer. Then she didn’t. And since then, all she wants to do is talk to funny and wise people about how to live with the knowledge that, well, everything happens. Find her online at @katecbowler.
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When a random weight-lifting accident left cardiologist Dr. Haider Warraich in chronic pain, he went from being a physician to being a patient in one moment. His experience of chronic pain gives him a hard won insight as he reexamines how we understand and treat pain.
In this conversation, Kate and Haider discuss:
If you are someone (or loves someone) who suffers from chronic pain, this episode is for you. Haider talks with such gentleness about when your pain isn’t believed and how doctors can do a better job at treating their patients in pain.
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No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) is now available wherever books are sold. Order your copy, today.
Introducing, GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.
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What do we do when our families are sources of pain, confusion, or harm? How do we (or can we) outgrow our complicated childhoods when we no longer need the defenses we created?
Today, I am speaking with Tara Westover. Tara earned her PhD in history from Cambridge, which is incredible on its own, but particularly when you remember that she had never stepped foot in a classroom until she was 17. She is the author of the bestselling memoir EDUCATED which describes growing up in a survivalist family and her costly pursuit of learning and unlearning.
In this conversation, Kate and Tara discuss:
CW: physical, emotional, and spiritual abuse
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Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
Be sure to subscribe to our 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.
Introducing, GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.
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Our culture seems convinced that going off-script is unbecoming. Instead, we are rewarded for being buttoned up, perfect (or at least appearing to be), and never ever no-matter-what admit weakness. But… don’t we need each other, especially when facing the most difficult moments?
Author and Death, Sex, and Money podcast host Anna Sale leans into every hard conversation no matter how difficult the topic. In this conversation, Kate and Anna discuss:
What do we lose when we don’t talk about hard things? And what might we gain if we do?
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Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
Be sure to subscribe to our 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.
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
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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
We often have very romantic expectations about parenthood. Parenthood is about a mythical child who will be perfect in a way we haven’t quite put our finger on, and the journey to love them will teach us something reasonably easy about ourselves. But what if we are not the parents we thought we’d be? Or our kids are not the kids we thought we’d have.
Writer Cammie McGovern’s oldest son, Ethan, was diagnosed with autism as a small child. Soon though, he was not just a toddler learning how to play or a child needing adjustments in the classroom. He is an adult who wants to participate in the world, and Cammie is still determined to learn what it means to be an advocate for him and others living with disabilities as they enter adulthood.
In this conversation, Kate and Cammie discuss:
This heartwarming conversation covers everything from love to policy and everything in between, as Cammie describes her son and his future.
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Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
Be sure to subscribe to our 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.
Introducing, GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.
Join us for Lent. Receive a free lenten reflection guide, here.
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Bestselling author Mitch Albom was at the height of his career when his favorite professor was dying. Mitch then spent his Tuesdays with Morrie—conversations that would change the trajectory of his life and career. Mitch continues to walk right up to the edge with the complicated questions around grief, loss, and hope in his books and charitable work.
In this conversation, Kate and Mitch discuss:
CW: ALS, death of a child with a brain tumor
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Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
Be sure to subscribe to our 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.
Introducing, GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.
Join us for Lent. Receive a free lenten reflection guide, here.
To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy
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See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Bestselling novelist Ann Patchett knows how to walk right up to the edge with people she loves. She is the friend who sits with you during chemo, or lets you spill your secrets in the car. She shares what powerful lessons she learned early on about how to approach suffering with humility, knowing you can rarely change a life, but you can be there to witness and be amazed.
In this episode, Kate and Ann discuss:
CW: addiction, death of friends, cancer
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Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
Be sure to subscribe to our 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.
Introducing, GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.
Join us for Lent. Receive a free lenten reflection guide, 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
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Everyone loves to get VERY BOSSY when it comes to our fears. “Don’t worry, be happy!” Just be brave! But maybe ‘being brave’ doesn’t mean ignoring our fears but living alongside them. After all, we live in a world that offers us few guarantees, don’t we?
Writer Taylor Harris has dealt with severe anxiety since she was a child. But when she became a mom, she had to learn to hold her fears alongside her love, especially when her son has an unsolvable illness.
In this conversation, Kate and Taylor discuss:
This conversation will give you courage to hold both your faith and fear, hope and disappointment, especially when we don’t have problems with simple solutions.
CW: a sick child without a diagnosis
***
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
Be sure to subscribe to our 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.
Introducing, GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.
Join us for Lent. Receive a free lenten reflection guide, 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
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Author and priest Liz Tichenor lost her mom and her baby in the same year. Brand new to leading a church and reeling from the grief, the pain was enough to break her. But it didn’t—because other people carried her through.
In this conversation, Kate and Liz discuss:
This episode will restore your hope for communities of faith that can show up for our most tender moments.
CW: suicide, death of a child
***
Find Kate on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter.
Be sure to subscribe to our 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.
Introducing, GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.
Join us for Lent. Receive a free lenten reflection guide, 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
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Poet Kate Baer found herself inundated with the demands of motherhood and little time to write. Nothing was easy and then, at a breaking point, it felt impossible. If she wanted a creative life, she was going to have to redefine “perfection” (perfect mom! perfect woman!) and learn to tolerate a lot more imperfection instead.
On this episode of Kate & Kate, they discuss:
CW: postpartum depression
***
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.
Introducing, GOOD ENOUGH: 40ish Devotionals for a Life of Imperfection. Available wherever books are sold.
Join us for Lent. Receive a free lenten reflection guide, 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
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
I do not imagine that I will settle centuries of debate about just how good we are, except that I believe that it is somewhere between two poles: everything and nothing. Perfection is impossible, but transformation isn’t. We can change a bit, if we really want to. This is the choice embedded in every day, the moment we wake up. We will have to find enough momentum to reach for a life that is never perfect, but good enough.
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.
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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.
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